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# Stop what you’re doing and watch this documentary on Japanese videogame music
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/stop-what-youre-doing-and-watch-documentary-japanese-videogame-music/
- Published: 2014-09-05T13:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2015-11-17T17:02:20.000Z
- Description: Nobuo Uematsu, meet FlyLo.
- Author: Clayton Purdom
- Tags: News, electronic music, JRPG, music, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-26 09:39

The first installment of [*Diggin’ in the Carts*](http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/diggin-in-the-carts?ref=killscreen.com), a six-part series chronicling the history and influence of Japanese videogame music, comes out today, and it is *so good*. In it we hear the imagined melodies of *Space Invaders*; we watch J-Rocc punch out a beat on an MPC from the *Pac-Man* soundtrack; we gain an understanding of the remarkably analog manner in which early composers translated their work to cartridges; we see Oh No geek out about their rhythms and Flying Lotus on their loops; and we hear Hirokazu Tanaka explain the influence of reggae superstar Sly Dunbar on the soundtracks for *Balloon Fight* and *Wrecking Crew*.

If all this sounds a little like inside baseball, don’t let it. At least for this installment, the focus isn’t on nostalgia or novelty but universalization. With great grace, it places this fascinating cross-pollination in a broad cultural context. As future installments dive into the grandiose work of Nobuo Uematsu and how it was translated into grime, dub, hip-hop, techno, and punk, I hope this open-mindedness continues.

[I’ve written about this stuff before](http://killscreendaily.com/articles/cloud-rap-and-cloud-strife/?ref=killscreen.com), as exemplified by the uber-JRPG cloud rap of Friendzone, Julian Wass, and LWH, and I’ll say that parsing these connections is easier said than done. These influences happen at a subconscious level, and work like *Diggin’ in the Carts* is essential to creating a vocabulary for discussing it. You can watch the documentary [here](http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/diggin-in-the-carts?ref=killscreen.com).