WSC 2025 - No Backup, But Restore

Ragtime

• A musical first launched in 1998

• Originally a novel by E. L. Doctorow in 1975

• Set as three castes in New York

• Produced by Garth Drabinsky in 1998

• Restaged in 2009 in Broadway’s Neil Simon Theatre directed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge

• Rewritten by Terrence McNelly

• Involved several historical figures in the plot: Evelyn Nesbit, Emma Goldman, Booker T. Washington, J.P. Morgan, Henry Ford, and Harry Houdini

• The costumes have been reinvented to be intricate for many characters

• The set has been simplified as a series of exposed beams, tiers, and steps

• The tiers signify class

• The revival is rated significantly better than the original, with more “edge" from its better directing and writing

Garth Drabinsky

• A producer of Ragtime in 1998

• Received a seven-year prison sentence for an accounting scandal

E. L. Doctorow

• An American novelist

• Wrote “Ragtime” in 1975

Terrence McNally

• An American playwright

• Created a new libretto for a second production of “Ragtime”

• Masterfully cut down the numerous plotlines of the novel into a musical that would be easier to follow yet still powerful in its storytelling

Marcia Milgrom Dodge

• An American director

• Directed “Ragtime” in 2009

• Acclaimed for keeping the actors in the play moving

Wheels of a Dream

• A song by Brian Stokes Mitchell and Audra McDonald in 1998

• Recreated in 2009 in the Kennedy Centre independently of the play

• Part of the musical “Ragtime”

• The characters Coalhouse Walker Jr. and Sarah sing about the dreams they have for their newborn boy in a more just America

Brian Stokes Mitchell

• An American actor and singer

• Performed “Wheels of a Dream” in 1998 and 2009

• Played the character Coalhouse Walker Jr. in “Ragtime”

Audra McDonald

• An American actress and singer

• Performed “Wheels of a Dream” in 1998 and 2009

• Played the character Sarah in “Ragtime”

Martin Guerre

• A musical and book by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boubill in 1996

• Loosely based off the real life historical story of a soldier going missing and an imposter—Arnaud du Thil—assuming his role

• Deviates toward the end as Arnaud was executed in real life, but was spared at trial and only after was killed by an angry mob

Claude-Michel Schönberg

• A French playwright

• Wrote “Martin Guerre” in 1996

• Also produced the music for the play

Alain Boubill

• A French playwright

• Wrote “Martin Guerre” in 1996

• Also wrote the lyrics for the play

I Will Make You Proud

• A song by Jérôme Pradon in 1996

• Part of the musical “Martin Guerre”

• Sang by Guillame, a Catholic who discovers the beliefs of Arnaud and Bertrande and riles up a mob to kill them

Jérôme Pradon

• A French actor

• Sang “I Will Make You Proud” in 1996

Justice Will Be Done

• A song by Jérôme Pradon in 1999

• Part of the musical “Martin Guerre”

• Performed first during the UK and US tour

• Same instrumental and overall purpose as “I Will Make You Proud”

• Adds some background vocals and some lyrical changes

Mulan

• A movie directed by Barry Cook and Tony Bancroft in 1998

• An animated musical coming-of-age action-adventure Disney film

• Based on the Chinese legend, with the change that she was revealed as a woman during her service in the army

Barry Cook

• An American film director

• Directed “Mulan” in 1998 with Tony Bancroft

Tony Bancroft

• An American film director

• Directed “Mulan” in 1998 with Barry Cook

Reflection

• A song by Lea Salonga in 1998

• Part of the film “Mulan”

• Sees Mulan contemplate her purpose and identity after being shamed in a matchmaking process

• Conflicting identity with family appeasement

Lea Salonga

• A Filipina singer and actress

• Sang “Reflection” in 1998

• Sang “Written in Stone” in 1998

Written in Stone

• A song by Lea Salonga in 1998

• A cut song originally for the film “Mulan”

• Deleted when writer Stephen Schwartz was removed from the project after refusing to leave his duties in “The Prince of Egypt”

• Performed by Mulan as she announces her fateː transforming into a soldier going against the traditions that have held for centuries

Ironic

• A song by Alanis Morissette in 1995

• Outlines a series of dramatically ironic situations (heavily criticized for not being situationally ironic)

Alanis Morissette

• A Canadian singer

• Made “Ironic” in 1995

• Covered the song “Ironic” in 2015 on the Late Late Show with James Corden

Ironic (2015 cover)

• A song performed by Alanis Morissette and James Corden in 2015

• Performed on the Late Late Show

• Alters the lyrics to include more modern cultural references

• Self aware of its lack of “actual irony”

James Corden

• A host of the Late Late show

• Performed the 2015 cover of Alana Morissette’s ironic

Surrender (End Title)

• A song by k.d. lang in 1997

• Part of the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies”

• Relegated to the end credits after Sheryl Crow’s “Tomorrow Never Dies” won the spot of theme song

• Acts as a power run, appropriate for a spy movie

k.d. lang

• A Canadian singer

• Sang “Surrender (End Title)” in 1997

Tomorrow Never Dies (film)

• A spy film in 1997

• The 18th in the James Bond series

Tomorrow Never Dies (song)

• A song by Sheryl Crow in 1997

• Part of the James Bond film of the same name

• Acts as the film’s theme song

• Contains the same melody as “Surrender (End Title)” by k.d. lang

• More seductive than “Surrender (End Title)”

We Didn’t Start The Fire

• A list song by Billy Joel in 1989

• Contains 119 brief references to significant events between 1949 and 1989, mainly in chronological order

• Chorus notes the “fire” as the idea of conflict and strife among people of the time

Billy Joel

• An American musician

• Made “We Didn’t Start The Fire” in 1989

We Didn’t Start the Fire (cover)

• A list song by Fall Out Boy in 2023

• Contains references from 1989 to 2023

• Very negative critical reception, due to missing many events like COVID-19, abandoning the approximate chronology, and the overall tone and content (George Floyd, Metroid)

Fall Out Boy

• An American rock band

• Made a cover of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start The Fire” in 2023

Heather Fenoughty

• An English composer

• Offers a “recipe” for creating sci-fi music

• Uses major, minor, and lydian modes

• Uses the tritone in suspended chords

• Create major chord melodies

• Use notes outside of the typical scale

• Use brass, particularly french horns

• Use a large variance of dynamics

• Use acousmetre and electroacoustic sound design

• Use mechanical and repetitive counterpoints (melodic “answers”)

A TV Show Called Earth

• A song by Philip Labes in 2021

• Posits what aliens might enjoy most if they were to watch our society

• Falls under a very acoustic/indie genre, with an unnerving panning vocal chop outro

Philip Labes

• An American musician

• Made “A TV Show Called Earth” in 2021

Tetris theme

• A song by Hirokazu Tanaka in 1989

• Made in the chiptune genre; was a pioneer in this genre

• Created for the 1989 Nintendo Game Boy video game based on Alexey Pajitnov’s original

• Melody based off of the Russian folk song Korobeiniki

Hirokazu Tanaka

• A Japanese composer

• Made “Tetris theme” in 1989 for the Nintendo Game Boy video game Tetris

• Pioneered chiptune music

Korobeiniki (song)

• A Russian folk song

• Widely known as the Tetris theme melody

• Tells of a peddler (drummer) meeting a girl, with seductive themes

• Based off the poem of the same name

Korobeiniki (poem)

• A poem by Nikolay Nekrasov in 1861

• Follows Ivan, a peddler, seducing Katerina, and his brother Tikhonych feeling remorseful for his lies and deceit he has made to his customers

• They both are killed by a murderer in the end

Tetris

• A game originally by Alexey Pajitnov in 1985

• Adapted to the Nintendo Game Boy in 1989

• Added music by Hirokazu Tanaka

Alexey Pajitnov

• A Russian video game designer

• Created the video game Tetris in 1985

Chiptune

• A genre of electronic music

• Characterized by the use of sounds that old computers, consoles, or arcade machines would make

• Usually have limited polyphony, simple waveforms for sounds, and techniques like arpeggios

• Created out of the restraint of early gaming consoles like the NES, Game Boy, and early home computers like the Commodore 64

• Artists today include Anamanaguchi, Chipzel, Sabrepulse, Bit Shifter, and Trash80

• Softwares commonly used include LSDJ, Famitracker, DefleMask, and Nanoloop

Demoscene

• An international computer art subculture

• Focused on producing smaller computer programs that produce audiovisual presentations

• One of the earliest platforms for the creation of the chiptune genre

Little Sound DJ

• A sequencer software

• Created for the Nintendo Game Boy

• Enabled artists to produce more complex digitized music for video game consoles

• Helped push the boundaries as to what the chiptune genre could hold

8-bit music

• A subgenre of chiptune

• Uses specifically 8-bit sound chips often found in video game consoles

Blip Festival

• A music festival in New York City

• Notable for playing chiptune songs

• Concluded in 2012

Square Sounds Festival

• A music festival

• Currently reflects the international appeal of chiptune music

Space Invaders

• An arcade game in 1978

• First game to feature a continuous “soundtrack” (a collection of noises that would play throughout the game)

Ti SN76477

• A complex sound generator

• Made by Texas Instruments

• Consisted of a noise generator, VCO, SLF oscillator, mixer, noise filter, A/D circuitry, audio amplifier, and control circuitry

• Used in early video games to produce music

Rally-X

• An arcade game in 1980

• First game to feature a continuous melodic soundtrack

• First game to use a digital-to-analog converter to produce sampled tones

Super Mario Bros

• A video game in 1985

• Created by Nintendo for the NES

• Used a Ricoh 2A03 to create music

Ricoh 2A03

• A sound generator

• Used on the NES to produce music

• Consisted of five mono channels: two pulse waves, one triangle wave, one noise generator, and one DPCM channel

• Explains the similarity between soundtracks in games using that console

MOS 6581

• A sound interface device chip

• Used on the Commodore 64 to produce sound and music

• Featured three mono audio channels, with each being able to produce a triangle, pulse, sawtooth, or noise waveform

• Programmers were able to hack the chips to reassign waveforms on a channel at any time

Sony Sound and Music Processor

• A sound processor

• Used on the Super Nintendo

• One of the first of the 16-bit era

• Consisted of the SPC-700 and 64KB of SRAM

• The SRAM limited music programmers to a small selection of a soundtrack and sound effects (less than half a second of CD-quality audio)

David Wise

• A British video game composer

• Composed music for games on the Super Nintendo

• Used a technique known as wave sequencing to cut down on the SRAM that the audio files would take up

• Used the Korg Wavestation

Wave sequencing

• A technique in music composition

• Constitutes crossfading a wavelength type from one to another within the same note

• Used by David Wise to compose music for the Super Nintendo and reduce the storage the audio files took up

• Used on the Korg Wavestation

Korg Wavestation

• A synthesizer

• Used by David Wise to produce music for the Super Nintendo

• Used a technique known as wave sequencing

YM2151

• A single-chip FM synth

• Made by Yamaha

• Used in games such as Marble Madness

FM synth

• A sound producer that can modulate the frequency of its wavelengths with other wavelengths

• Spearheaded in popularity by Yamaha in the 1980s

Yamaha DX7

• A synthesizer

• Used in the Sega Genesis sound system

Nintendo 64

• A game console

• Made by Nintendo

• Notable for using a 64-bit processor and no sound chip for its games, despite its contemporaries having music from their CDs

FL Studio

• A digital audio workspace

• Made by Sony

• Originally known as Music 2000

AdLib

• A music synthesizer

• Revolutionized PC game audio quality

• Used a Yamaha YM 3812—an FM sound chip with 11 channels

Roland MT-32

• A MIDI module

• More expensive and bulky than the AdLib

• Smoother and higher quality sound

Sound Blaster

• An audio card

• Made by Creative Labs

• Used for PC gaming

• Utilized a Digital Sound Processor

Inon Zur

• An Israeli composer

• Renowned for pioneering music programming

• Worked with live orchestras for games like Syberia and Starfield

Synchronization

• A term in neurology referring to the ability of one to keep a beat

• Individuals who stutter have worse beat tracking

• Basal ganglia and cerebellum display activity when performing this task

Rhythm game

• A game that focuses on beat tracking and synchronization, with measures of temporal accuracy

• Have been thought to improve neural connections and activity in these areas

• Idea of being helpful inspired by movement based games on the Wii or Kinect (“Exergaming”)

• Full body movements (e.g. Just Dance) cannot be used to train specific rhythmic skills, but have interesting applications in physiotherapy

• Rhythmic Tablet Finger Tapping (e.g. Beat Sneak Bandit, Rhythm Cat) should add feedback on the rhythmic performance of the player, and add accuracy to its timing software

• Rhythmic Key Finger Tapping (e.g. Guitar Hero, Osu) low temporal precision if on a tablet, but on computers, promising

• Singing (e.g. Everyone Sing) AKA karaoke; combines a bit of rhythmic training but mainly on verbal and vocal training

• None fit the purpose completing, either due to adding visual stimulations, not changing the rhythmic characteristics to increase difficulty, and/or the player’s response not targetting the rhythmic aspects of the stimuli

• Could still help train timing rather than rhythm, or spatial or pitch accuracy

Dance Aerobics

• A rhythm game in 1987

• Made by Nintendo for the Power Pad

• First rhythm game

Beatmania

• An arcade rhythm game in 1996

• Developed by Konami

• Gameplay involved a DJ booth-style control system and matching the inputs of a chosen song for a score

PaRappa the Rapper

• A rhythm game in 1996

• Developed independently by NanaOn-Sha for the PlayStation

• Similar to Dance Aerobics, except added the ability for players to improvise

NanaOn-Sha

• A video game developer

• Developed PaRappa the Rapper in 1996

Bemani

• A division of Komani

• Specifically for music game development

• Made Guitarfreaks, Pop N’ Music, and Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution

• A rhythm video game in 1997

• Developed by Konami (Bemani)

• Uses pads on the floor to have the player dance inputs matching the beat of the song of choice

Drummania

• An arcade rhythm game

• Focused on drumming

• First game to introduce co-op performing

Harmonix

• An American video game company

• Released FreQuency in 2001 and Amplitude in 2003

• Approached by Konami to create Karaoke Revolution in 2004

• Released Guitar Hero in 2005 and Rock Band in 2007

Konami

• A Japanese video game company

• Developed Beatmania in 1996

• Approached Harmonix to create Karaoke Revolution in 2004

Guitar Hero

• A rhythm game in 2005

• Made by Harmonix

• Involves using a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing a guitar to a selected track

Rock Band

• A rhythm game in 2007

• Made by Harmonix

• Extends upon the Guitar Hero gameplay with drums and vocals

osu!

• A rhythm game in 2007

• Created by Dean Herbert for PC

• Involves clicking notes over a song’s runtime

• Allows levels to be created by users

• Tends to be played with a key to click and a drawing tablet to move the cursor

Dean Herbert

• An Australian video game developer

• Developed osu! in 2007

Beat Saber

• A VR rhythm game in 2019

• Developed by Beat Games

• Involves using two sabers to hit specific blocks in a specific way on beat

Beat Games

• A video game developer

• Developed Beat Saber in 2019

maimai

• An arcade rhythm game in 2012

• Developed by Sega

• Mainly available in Japan

• Supports single and multiplayer

• Involves the player tapping, holding, or sliding on the touchscreen or surrounding buttons in time with the music

Sega

• A video game developer

• Developed maimai in 2012

Deemo

• A rhythm game in 2013

• Developed by Rayark for both PlayStation and mobile platforms

• A tapping game that uses perspective falling blocks over a black line

Rayark

• A video game developer

• Developed Deemo in 2013

Just Dance

• A rhythm game series beginning in 2009

• Developed by Ubisoft for console and PC

• A motion-based dance game for multiple players

• Involves following the models’ dances as a song progresses, with the score based on the accuracy of the player to the model

• Could also be considered a fitness game

Ubisoft

• A video game developer

• Developed Just Dance in 2009

Tap Tap Revenge

• A rhythm game in 2008

• Developed by Nate True for iOS

• Contains 4 installments, the original is removed from the App Store

• Involves tapping coloured balls when the reach the bottom of the screen

• Originally called Tap Tap Revolution (required jailbreaking to play)

Nate True

• A video game developer

• Developed Tap Tap Revenge in 2008