Andra Ivănescu's Popular Music in the Nostalgia Video Game: The Way It Never Sounded presents unique insights into the various dynamics of nostalgia in video game music, an area of interest to both ludomusicologists and game fans. The challenge of working with fan cultures and personal passions in an academic context is managed well by Ivănescu through her clear enthusiasm for the subject and accessible writing style. She defines a conception of nostalgia that is useful for musicological study as a whole through her adoption of William Gibson's phrase “semiotic ghosts” to describe “the ghosts of cultures past” (6). These ghosts are first outlined in the case study of Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas and are traced to explore the game's appropriation of musical cultures of the past. Ivănescu's theoretical framework draws on nostalgia's prevalence across music and screen media, which contextualizes nostalgia beyond video games.
Nevertheless, the volume is primarily...
University of California Press