While the organizers of the Grammys might have eliminated well over 30 categories to streamline its awards this year, one category that remains is video games. Speaking to IndustryGamers, Bill Freimuth of The Recording Academy said that this is a first step in getting video games their own special category.
"I think this could be viewed as a first step in the direction of video games getting their own category," said Bill Freimuth of The Recording Academy to IndustryGamers. "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."
While video games have not had the pleasure of having their own awards category, they have been eligible for inclusion under other categories, the as "other visual media." Now under the "Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media" video game music is listed alongside "motion, television, or other visual Media." The Music for Visual Media, Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, and Best Song Written for Visual Media are also described in the same way.
"This acknowledges that film, TV and games can stand side by side and be independently recognized," said Steve Schnur, worldwide executive for music at Electronic Arts. "Hopefully, this will create an even playing field when people vote next year. I expect there to be a tidal wave of submissions from the game industry."
Crysis and Fallout: New Vegas composer Inon Zur has been pushing from within the games industry to encourage The Recording Academy to recognize games as an equal to cinema and television.
"Games today are a huge part of the entertainment industry and the music scores being created for them are very unique sounding in many cases compared to film," said Zur. "I believe that music for games has to take its own place from other genres to gain respect by the mainstream audience and the Grammy category will help achieve this."
Source: GI.biz
