Russian Music and Music with Russian Elements in Video Games

	A
1	Russian Music and Music with Russian Elements in Video Games A prototype of this spreadsheet was created for my paper on the usage of Russian music and music with Russian elements in video games in the context of a seminar titled "Musik in Videospielen" (music in video games). There I looked at a few examples in more detail (Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3's "Soviet March", Punch Out!!'s "Soda Popinski Intro", Katana Zero's "V Limo" and Resident Evil: Revelations 2's "Vot mčitsa trojka počtovaja"). Said paper is only available in German but feel free to contact me if you'd like to receive a copy. This document is a good starting point if you'd like to research the usage of Russian music in video games. To be able to get through a lot of material quickly and without having to use up a lot of financial ressources, soundtracks on YouTube were examined. The research process was more superficial to be able to cover a lot of ground, which means that 1. it's possible that some games mentioned on the 2. and 3. pages had tracks that weren't easily publically available and couldn't be taken into account. 2. some tracks missing on the 2. page or tracks from games present on the 3. page may have featured Russian elements or citations from Russian music that the author of this document overlooked or wasn't able to identify as such. 3. it couldn't always be verified what releases the soundtrack uploads that were examined were from. Version differences, region differences, platform differences etc. could therefore not be taken into account. 4. the music names used are the ones found on the examined YouTube uploads. They might not be the official names. This document has 4 pages which you can switch between at the bottom: 1. Starting Page This is the page you're currently on. Here you can find general information about this document. 2. Games with Russian Music/Elements This page lists games and their music that is either Russian (Russian folk music or music by a Russian composers that wasn't specifically composed for the game) or features elements that are associated with Russian music. 3. Games assumingly without Russian Music/Elements This page lists games that were examined because they were under suspicion of having Russian music or music with Russian elements, but didn't have any in the end. 4. Unchecked Games This page lists games that are under suspicion of having Russian music or music with Russian elements but haven't been examined yet. For my paper I split the usage of the found tracks into five categories: - Immersion into a Russian location. This category was applied when the game was set in Russia, though games with a fictional setting inspired by Russia fit this category as well. - Representation of a Russian character. This category was applied to themes of characters of Russian descent. - Representation of Russia as an entity. This category was applied to games where Russia itself was an entity or party, not a location or a single character. Said entity was oftentimes symbolized by Russia's military. The reason for that was assumably that games with military themes, like first-person-shooters and real-time-strategy games, feature multiple countries that war against each other. Using music that's associated with these countries reinforces their separate identity and helps form associations. - The game's creation in Russia or the music's creation by a commissioned Russian composer. This category was applied to games where the choice to include Russian elements didn't seem to stem from a connection to the game's content to Russia but seemed to stem from the convenience of the studio or the composer being Russian. All of the cases where this category was applied were songs that had Russian lyrics. It can be assumed that it was easier to commission Russian singers or that it helped market the game in Russia. - No connections to Russia. This category was applied to music where the usage of Russian music didn't have any meaning that connected it to the country. It was usually applied to music by well known Russian art composers. Additional info: - Tetris and Korobeiniki are a special case. Originally the main reason for the usage of "Korobeiniki" was the game's marketing as a game from Russia (Tetris didn't feature the piece "Korobeiniki" prior to its release outside of Russia). Some installments of the Tetris series feature Russian imagery but due to the story-less and simple nature of the game it can't be counted as "Immersion into a Russian location" or "Representation of Russia as an entity". The piece was kept in later installments mainly due to its popularity as the piece most associated with Tetris. As such the Tetris games are assigned to the category "No connections to Russia", though technically marketing and the game's initial origin in Russia could perhaps be named as reasons for the inclusion of Russian pieces in these games. - Many named elements don't have to necessarily incinuate that the tracks by themselves are inspired by Russian music. A male choir, for example, could in some cases be more likely linked to the military themes in a game, a profession that is stereotypically linked to men. Red Orchestra 2's songs "The Unstoppable Wehrmacht" und "So Far from Home" are prime examples: They feature a male choir singing in German. Same is true for an oom-pah rhythm or the usage of an accordion, which could also be linked to other countries. But if the music accompanies a Russian character, location etc. and/or has Russian lyrics, then the aforementioned choices can be more likely attributed to a conscious effort to make the music sound more Russian. - I've added further sources that I stumbled upon to some of the games into the very right column. They could possibly help if you'd like to research the games' soundtracks. Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or if you think that anything should be added or changed! This spreadsheet was created by Tim Reichert contact[at]tim-reichert.com Twitter: @FulminisIctus Huge special thanks to Patrick for proofreading page 2 and making me aware of some of the examples listed on page 2. Last updated: 03.01.2021

Russian Music and Music with Russian Elements in Video Games

A prototype of this spreadsheet was created for my paper on the usage of Russian music and music with Russian elements in video games in the context of a seminar titled "Musik in Videospielen" (music in video games). There I looked at a few examples in more detail (Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3's "Soviet March", Punch Out!!'s "Soda Popinski Intro", Katana Zero's "V Limo" and Resident Evil: Revelations 2's "Vot mčitsa trojka počtovaja"). Said paper is only available in German but feel free to contact me if you'd like to receive a copy.

This document is a good starting point if you'd like to research the usage of Russian music in video games. To be able to get through a lot of material quickly and without having to use up a lot of financial ressources, soundtracks on YouTube were examined. The research process was more superficial to be able to cover a lot of ground, which means that
1. it's possible that some games mentioned on the 2. and 3. pages had tracks that weren't easily publically available and couldn't be taken into account.
2. some tracks missing on the 2. page or tracks from games present on the 3. page may have featured Russian elements or citations from Russian music that the author of this document overlooked or wasn't able to identify as such.
3. it couldn't always be verified what releases the soundtrack uploads that were examined were from. Version differences, region differences, platform differences etc. could therefore not be taken into account.
4. the music names used are the ones found on the examined YouTube uploads. They might not be the official names.

This document has 4 pages which you can switch between at the bottom:
1. Starting Page
This is the page you're currently on. Here you can find general information about this document.
2. Games with Russian Music/Elements
This page lists games and their music that is either Russian (Russian folk music or music by a Russian composers that wasn't specifically composed for the game) or features elements that are associated with Russian music.
3. Games assumingly without Russian Music/Elements
This page lists games that were examined because they were under suspicion of having Russian music or music with Russian elements, but didn't have any in the end.
4. Unchecked Games
This page lists games that are under suspicion of having Russian music or music with Russian elements but haven't been examined yet.

For my paper I split the usage of the found tracks into five categories:
- Immersion into a Russian location.
This category was applied when the game was set in Russia, though games with a fictional setting inspired by Russia fit this category as well.
- Representation of a Russian character.
This category was applied to themes of characters of Russian descent.
- Representation of Russia as an entity.
This category was applied to games where Russia itself was an entity or party, not a location or a single character. Said entity was oftentimes symbolized by Russia's military. The reason for that was assumably that games with military themes, like first-person-shooters and real-time-strategy games, feature multiple countries that war against each other. Using music that's associated with these countries reinforces their separate identity and helps form associations.
- The game's creation in Russia or the music's creation by a commissioned Russian composer.
This category was applied to games where the choice to include Russian elements didn't seem to stem from a connection to the game's content to Russia but seemed to stem from the convenience of the studio or the composer being Russian. All of the cases where this category was applied were songs that had Russian lyrics. It can be assumed that it was easier to commission Russian singers or that it helped market the game in Russia.
- No connections to Russia.
This category was applied to music where the usage of Russian music didn't have any meaning that connected it to the country. It was usually applied to music by well known Russian art composers.

Additional info:
- Tetris and Korobeiniki are a special case. Originally the main reason for the usage of "Korobeiniki" was the game's marketing as a game from Russia (Tetris didn't feature the piece "Korobeiniki" prior to its release outside of Russia). Some installments of the Tetris series feature Russian imagery but due to the story-less and simple nature of the game it can't be counted as "Immersion into a Russian location" or "Representation of Russia as an entity". The piece was kept in later installments mainly due to its popularity as the piece most associated with Tetris. As such the Tetris games are assigned to the category "No connections to Russia", though technically marketing and the game's initial origin in Russia could perhaps be named as reasons for the inclusion of Russian pieces in these games.
- Many named elements don't have to necessarily incinuate that the tracks by themselves are inspired by Russian music. A male choir, for example, could in some cases be more likely linked to the military themes in a game, a profession that is stereotypically linked to men. Red Orchestra 2's songs "The Unstoppable Wehrmacht" und "So Far from Home" are prime examples: They feature a male choir singing in German. Same is true for an oom-pah rhythm or the usage of an accordion, which could also be linked to other countries. But if the music accompanies a Russian character, location etc. and/or has Russian lyrics, then the aforementioned choices can be more likely attributed to a conscious effort to make the music sound more Russian.
- I've added further sources that I stumbled upon to some of the games into the very right column. They could possibly help if you'd like to research the games' soundtracks.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or if you think that anything should be added or changed!

This spreadsheet was created by Tim Reichert
contact[at]tim-reichert.com
Twitter: @FulminisIctus

Huge special thanks to Patrick for proofreading page 2 and making me aware of some of the examples listed on page 2.

Last updated: 03.01.2021