The Oxford Handbook of Video Game Music and Sound

The music and sounds of video games have become an inescapable part of our world. Not only do these sonic elements profoundly shape the experiences of billions of players every day, but also the soundscapes of games have stretched out from our living rooms to encompass spaces as diverse as pinball arcades, concert halls, museums, and classrooms across the globe. Research on game music and sound is equally diverse-a vibrant, innovative, and multifaceted field that incorporates approaches from media studies, musicology, sound studies, music theory, psychology, and more.

Drawing on the expertise of leading scholars and practitioners from around the globe, The Oxford Handbook of Video Game Music and Sound features nearly 50 chapters on topics ranging from the earliest pinball machines to the latest in virtual reality technology. The resulting volume provides both a comprehensive introduction to the study of game audio and an indispensable resource for experts.

William Gibbons is Dean of the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, where he also holds the rank of Professor of Music History. Prior to joining SUNY Potsdam, he was Associate Professor of Musicology and Associate Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Texas Christian University. He earned a BA in Music from Emory & Henry College, and MA and PhD degrees in Musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mark Grimshaw-Aagaard is the Obel Professor of Music at Aalborg University, Denmark. He has published widely across subjects as diverse as sound, biofeedback in computer games, virtuality, the Uncanny Valley, presence/immersion, ultrasound, and IT systems. Mark is series editor for the series Palgrave Studies in Sound, and his books include the anthologies Game Sound Technology & Player Interaction (2011), The Oxford Handbook of Virtuality (2014), The Oxford Handbook of Sound & Imagination (2019), and the co-authored monographs Sonic Virtuality (2015) and The Recording, Mixing, & Mastering Reference Handbook (2019).