Grammys
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Austin Wintory's journey to the 2013 Grammys
On the day Grammy nominations were scheduled to be announced, Austin Wintory didn't get much work done. As the composer for Journey, Wintory had an inkling that he might be nominated in Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, and he was distracted all day, constantly refreshing the Grammy page, scanning for his name. By evening the list still wasn't posted and he gave up on trying to focus. He got in his car, determined to go home, make dinner and then check the page again."The instant I got in my car, my email started blinking. Of all people, it was from my friend Christopher Tin, emailing me to say 'CONGRATULATIONS' – in all caps."Tin won the first Grammy for a piece of video game music, Civilization 4's "Baba Yetu," in 2011. He and Wintory had been friends for years. When Wintory saw that email, he quickly called Tin and the subsequent conversation went something like this:"What are you – are you on the website?" Wintory asked Tin. "What's going on?""Yeah, I'm looking right at it! There you are!" Tin replied. And then, after a second, the situation dawned on him. "Wait a minute – you didn't know this already?""No! I'm in my car right now.""Oh, this is perfect."Just then Wintory's phone began buzzing, beeping and possibly sobbing under the barrage of emails, texts and calls from friends and well-wishers. Two weeks later, Wintory agrees with Tin's assessment of events."As fate had it, I heard from Chris himself," he says. "I had no foresight, I had absolutely no plan, and yet in hindsight, I wouldn't have it any other way."
Journey soundtrack receives Grammy nomination
Austin Wintory must be floating on air after learning his Journey soundtrack is nominated for a Grammy. Wintory's work for thatgamecompany's PSN adventure is going up against scores from the likes of John Williams, Howard Shore, and Hans Zimmer as it bids to take home only the second Grammy ever won for video game music.While Journey represents the first game to get a Grammy nod for its soundtrack, the accolade for the first game music ever nominated belongs to Civilization 4 and Christopher Tin's "Baba Yetu." Tin went one better after he took home the golden gramophone for "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists" back in 2011.As for the 2013 awards, the full list of nominees for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media are Journey, The Adventures of Tintin, The Artist, The Dark Knight Rises, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Hugo. Wintory learns if he's to follow in Tin's footsteps on February 10, 2013, when the 55th Annual Grammy Awards are held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Steve Jobs awarded posthumous Grammy for 'significant contributions to music'
It's pretty difficult to argue that both Apple's iPod and -- to an even greater extent -- its contentious iTunes software haven't had a massive impact on the music industry. The Recording Academy has decided to recognize this, naming the former CEO and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs for a Trustees Award for "outstanding contributions to the industry in a non-performing capacity." It will be the second Grammy to celebrate Apple's contributions to the music industry -- its work in recording netted it a Technical Grammy exactly ten years ago.
Four Grammy Awards renamed to include 'video games music,' underline its growing importance
Video games have never had a problem sitting alongside movie DVDs and music CDs (back when such things were distributed physically) in stores, so it's frankly overdue to see them pop up in a mainstream awards show like the Grammys. The US Recording Academy has finally deigned to address video games and their aural landscapes as a separate class of entertainment, and has now amended four of its awards to spell that out. What was formerly known as "Motion, Television, or Other Visual Media" is now reclassified as "Motion, Television, Video Games Music, or Other Visual Media," leading to there now being four awards that explicitly recognize excellence in video game music scores. Guess that was inevitable after Christopher Tin's Baba Yetu won a Grammy this February, ostensibly because of its inclusion as one of the marquee songs on Civilization 4, but in a category entirely unrelated to gaming. Skip past the break to hear it for yourself, along with a couple of other favorites of ours.
Grammy Awards to formally recognize 'video game music' for several awards
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has altered four of its annual awards, making it clearer that video games can be nominated for the category. As IndustryGamers notes, although it's a minor alteration, it's a big deal that video games are getting equal recognition with film and television. The four awards amended by the Academy are: The Music for Visual Media (Motion, Television, Video Game Music, or Other Visual Media) Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media (Motion, Television, Video Game Music, or Other Visual Media) Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media (Motion, Television, Video Game Music, or Other Visual Media) Best Song Written for Visual Media (Motion, Television, Video Game Music, or Other Visual Media) Previously, video games fell under "other visual media." Bill Freimuth, VP of the awards for the academy, recognizes this as a first step for video games receiving its own category. "Many people from the game community have been asking us to create a special category for games over the years, but the main reason we haven't is because we have received very few entries from game publishers," he said. This year, Christopher Tin's "Baba Yetu" was the first piece of "video game music" to win a Grammy, though it was in a category that had nothing to do with visual arts and was given years after the work was originally composed for Civilization 4.
Christopher Tin wins Grammy for Civ 4's 'Baba Yetu'
Christopher Tin's "Baba Yetu," otherwise known as "that Civilization IV song that won't get out of your head," won a Grammy for "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists" at the 53rd annual music awards. The track, which is the first piece of video game music nominated for a little gramophone, was recognized so many years later because it was the opening track on composer Christopher Tin's debut album, Calling All Dawns, which also won a Grammy for "Best Classical Crossover Album." Tin's "Baby Yetu" has been a mainstay of Video Games Live for several years and can be seen performed live on the show's DVD/Blu-ray (and on the YouTubes). "We're so proud of Christopher's Grammy Award victory and what he has accomplished," said Video Games Live CEO Tommy Tallarico in a statement this morning. "This historic moment will continue to bridge the gap between mainstream music and video games. It is an honor to perform his music in our show." The award-winning song and the entire Calling All Dawns album are both available through iTunes.
HP's 'Everybody On' ad goes to the Grammys, causes nationwide cringing
HP told us to watch for a special new campaign during the Grammys, so watch we did -- only to find this commercial and occasional on-stage pimping of the HP TouchPad. The latter is standard business practice, to be sure, but the former? Well, words (nearly) escape us. You really have to watch it for yourself, but just imagine a butchering of Lou Reed's classic (though far, far overused) "Walk On The Wild Side," where tales of doping and cross dressing have been replaced with tales of... Tweeting. And Digging. And other really trite stuff. The cinematography and general message of the commercial is actually spot on, but it all gets crushed under the weight of this bad musical decision. HP played this same video at the event on Wednesday, but little did we know it would be the kick-off of the company's marketing onslaught. We're honestly taken aback by how off key (no pun intended) this ad is. You would think after all the bad press Palm got on its previous big ad campaign (and even after some not-so-gentle advice) the folks in charge would think twice about something this potentially polarizing. We won't lie -- we're disappointed. Both by HP / Palm, and Lou Reed. All of you guys... back to the drawing board. Look on the bright side, though -- at least you've got about six months to wash this out of people's brains.
Harman AKG teams up with Quincy Jones on Signature Line of headphones
Gone is the day when headphones could be respectable without some kind of corporate tie-in or Lady Gaga endorsement. Alas, even Harman's revered AKG division has roped in the venerable Quincy Jones for its new (wait for it) Quincy Jones Signature Line. We're talking three models here, ready for launch in October and ranging from the Q 701 "reference class" over-the-ear cans (pictured), the Q 460 lightweight headphones, and Q 350 buds. The Q 701 features ergonomically-shaped cushions of velvet, an "unbeatable" linear frequency response covering 10Hz to 39.8kHz, a 45-mm high excursion driver, and detachable 99-percent oxygen-free cables. The portable $229.99 Q 460 on-ear headphones feature a 3D-axis folding system and an iPhone compatible in-line remote with microphone and play, pause, and skip functions. The in-ear Q 350 also bring iPhone compatible and target the "audiophile on the go" with $149.99 to burn. Seems fitting for a man with 79 Grammy nominations (and 27 awards) to benefit from his name. And you can feel better about him selling out knowing that an undisclosed sum from every pair of headphones sold goes towards the Quincy Jones Musiq Consortium -- a foundation dediqated to eduqating Ameriqan kids about musiq. Ironic, because the Grammys might actually be relevant if American music corporations knew anything about good music.%Gallery-101028%
Grammy-winning Up composer got his break in video games
You may have heard of mild-mannered Michael Giacchino, who ended up winning two Grammys this past weekend for his work as the composer for Pixar's tear-jerking animated romp, Up. However, you might not know that he found his humble beginnings in video games -- according to his recent interview with Variety, he was hand-picked by Steven Spielberg to do the soundtrack for the Jurassic Park: The Lost World game. J.J. Abrams played said dino-platformer, and ended up contacting Giacchino to do the music for Alias -- it was all uphill from there. It's a really cool story, if only because it finally proves that The Lost World actually had a soundtrack behind all those raptor squeals and Wilhelm screams.
Stephen Colbert and his iPad at the Grammys
It must be nice to be the host of your own popular Comedy Central show and a host on the Grammy Awards. Why? You get to play with an iPad. No, it's not one of Tim Meehan's faux iPads - this was a working unit that flipped from portrait to landscape mode when Stephen Colbert pulled it out of his jacket... or pants. Enjoy this short piece of video from tonight's Grammy Award ceremonies.
Stephen Colbert has an iPad... (video)
...and he took it to the 52nd Annual Grammys. Nice product placement, Apple. Video of the whole thing after the break. Say, what kind of pocket did that come out of?
Hey, Grammys, where's the video game love?
The music world is all in a tizzy at today's announcement of the 49th annual Grammy award nominations, and all the the nominated artists should be very proud. Unfortunately, music artists, producers and engineers who work in the video game industry have nothing to be excited about. Aside from an obscure video game reference in Arctic Monkey's Best-Rock-Performance-nominated-song "Chun Li's Flying Bird Kick," [thanks, avtiger27] video game music has no representation in the expansive Grammy nominees list.It would be ridiculously easy for the Recording Academy to shoehorn video game music into the Film/TV/Visual Media category -- surely the Gears of War soundtrack can hold its own against the likes of the soundtrack for Grey's Anatomy, Season 2. Better yet, the Recording Academy could create a whole new category for video game music, much like the MTV Video Music Awards did last year.It seems a shame that great soundtracks for games like Xenosaga: Episode III, Zelda: Twilight Princess and Tomb Raider: Legend don't even have a chance to be honored during the recording industry's biggest night of the year. So how about it, Recording Academy? Why not respect video games as the culturally important force that they are with a few nominations next time around?
HDTV Listings for February 8, 2006
What we're watching: With so many awards shows not in HD, we have to take advantage of 'em when we can. Tonight at 8 p.m., we'll be watching the 1080i feed of "The 48th Annual Grammy Awards" on CBS. There's apparently no single host of the show, which should make it entertaining in between the many live performances at the Staples Center in L.A. Awards shows in high def? Yeah, we've got that. Our traditional HD listings are below.
Tune in to Grammys to check out 18 $50k projectors
Do you suffer from a common gadget or technology epidemic? No, not spending to much money on them, but rather watching a movie, or TV show, and knowing what phone/HDTV/camera/PDA/flat panel monitor the actors are using. We know we sure do. Well, let us add another product to your knowledge base and tell you when it's going to be use.Christie's Roadster S 16K projector is going to be used tonight at the Grammys. This is a 3-chip DLP beast that is capable of projecting a 16,000 ANSI lumen picture at 1400x1050. It has 10-bit video processing with a user selectable contrast ratio of 1600-2000:1 and sells for more then $50,000.CBS is going to use a total of 18 of these projectors tonight; ten alone will be used under the stage so people can literally walk on the picture. The last eight are going to be used to form a 180-degree circular screen. The images will be spliced together using ChristieTWIST Pro image warping and edge-blending solution.CBS has the Grammys tonight in HD so if you want to see what 18 $50,000 projectors look like, tune it in. Plus, you will be able to annoy inform fellow watchers about what kind of projector is making the backgrounds.
