Wired.com interviews Tsunku about Rhythm Heaven

Here's a part from the interview.

Wired.com: There have been live performances of the "Fan Club" song from Rhythm Heaven in Japan. How did this come to be? The fans seem to really know the music and enjoy it -- do you see this sort of crossover, of videogame music becoming popular outside the game, as something that will become more common in the future?

Tsunku♂: I've had one of the up-and-coming groups I'm producing perform the song live. Since the game's release, when these girls perform the song at one of their concerts in Japan, the audience starts cheering and really gets into it, just like in the game. Things like this just happen naturally in Japan. Occasionally, a song or score from a game will become a hit, but there hasn't been a truly nationwide hit from a game yet. Still, this song has been used in TV commercials, and it's really gotten popular in Japan.

I think there will be increased potential for game music to cross over into the mainstream in the future, but avid fans usually don't respond to gimmicks they feel are too contrived. The key is to start with as pure a game concept as possible, and give it the type of music that suits it best. If the fans respond well as a result, performing the song live in concert would be a natural next step. That sort of pattern seems ideal to me.

Interview here [wired.com].


"Since the game's release, when these girls perform the song at one of their concerts in Japan, the audience starts cheering and really gets into it, just like in the game"

They want to get into something else i bet. XD