Great explanation. I think the real difference between the soundtracks isn't in harmony or melody (and you did a great job pointing out the consistencies there), but in rhythm. Virtually every Banjo track uses an "oom-pah" style, where the bass *always* alternates between the root and the fifth of the chord on the strong beats, and a middle voice fills in the harmony with off-beat "pecks." This type of arrangement is rare in Yooka-Laylee (though you can find instances of it, such as a passage in the middle of Moodymaze Marsh). In addition, Banjo uses far more percussion than Yooka. Every Banjo level but one (Mad Monster Mansion) has a percussion track playing a consistent rhythmic pattern. By contrast, only two Yooka-Laylee levels use percusson in this way. One of them, Capital Cashino, evokes a mood that is deliberately different from Kirkhope's usual style. The other, Tribalstack Tropics, lacks the oom-pah pattern in the bass. This means that not a single track in Yooka uses the "oom-pah + percussion" arrangement we hear in practically every Banjo level. That's what people who call Yooka-Laylee's soundtrack "less energetic" are noticing.
What impresses me about Grant Kirkhope is how he can score games in radically different genres and still nail the soundtrack! I'm a particularly big fan of his work on the Perfect Dark soundtrack (don't worry Perfect Dark, we didn't forget you!)
Alex Mott one of the more underrated soundtracks out there. His style comes through, but he makes it work perfectly for an RPG. (That game is all around great IMO). Also some of his Civ. Beyond Earth work I really enjoy.
8-bit does a super in-depth, 18 minute long explaination of the musical intricacies between both games. My dumb brain: Heh Banjo-kazooie theme has a banjo and a kazoo...and Yooka-laylee theme has a Ukulele ...
even though I took piano for years as a kid, these videos still blow me away by the amount of knowledge it must take to be able to 1) understand and apply these concepts to analyze the music, 2) communicate the results to a lay audience in a narrated video, and 3) actually reproduce the original music complete with notation. Bravissimo, sir. You deserve all the patrons
Kirkhope's music in Mario Rabbits KB was truly a masterpiece setting the game really nicely and I now see why. The Yooka Laylee's soundtrack really reminded me of the game with those instruments and those progressions.
Right? It's like the Mario Rabbids thing just clicked for me, two completely different worlds smashed together into chaos, which Kirkhope perfectly encapsulates in his music
I grew up with Banjo-Kazooie, and I've found that these harmonic structures are kinda everywhere in my own work. It's a totally subconscious influence and I've only recently realised it.
The fact that you can deconstruct these crazy, wacky game scores and explain how and why they work is mind-boggling to me, as I don't know music theory past the brief bits I'm able to understand thanks to watching your videos. This was really entertaining.
I also noticed that both games look somewhat similar in style. Maybe Kirkhope composed the music with the style in mind and they just happen to be similar
Honestly listening to what he did back then versus now I feel like the main difference are the resources available to him part of me believes that had Banjo-Kazooie come out now he probably would have pulled out many more stops for his compositions not being said he definitely has grown over the years he is one of my very favorite composers ☺️
@Shaun G I would love that...... But real talk the music stuff in nuts and bolts was definitely my favorite part. And Mario + rabbids was the first time in years I felt the same joy from a game that I used to from rare🥰
The banjo series is such a timeless classic, one of these days I hope these games get a full on remake to fully immortalize them graphically. Even today, 20 years later, I still get the urge to download an emulator and play through both of them to re-experience the music and gameplay. I still have yet to play Yooka-Laylee but I do know the music is also pretty good. Another informative video!
This is my favorite channel on RU-vid, and the subject matter is about as perfect as it gets. Kirkhope had a profound impact on my childhood and his whimsical progressions and melodies absolutely influenced what my ears found interesting to listen to. Today is a great day.
I haven't analyzed it, but it feels like Yooka-Laylee's soundtrack is less playful and varied when it comes to instrumentization. I mean, who could forget the bee choir added to the music of Click Clock Wood, for example? In that regard, Yooka-Laylee sounds a bit less playful and unpredictable, but the melodies are still expertly crafted. There is no other composer quite like Grant Kirkhope.
I agree. I think the instrument samples themselves also give a different mood too. (Or, if the Yooka-Laylee soundtrack was performed live, the acoustics of the recording location). There's a reverb in the YL music that softens the articulation all-around, especially of the sharper/percussive sounds like the xylophone we hear a lot. This takes away a lot of the punchiness that contributed to the zany atmosphere of Banjo-Kazooie; where BK feels "wacky," YL feels more "playful"... still in the same tonal _direction,_ but with a lesser magnitude. YK's acoustic vibe feels like we're sitting in a concert hall: sophisticated and well-honed, yet still fun. BK's "directness" feels like... well, it kinda feels like its intro sequence: it's an informal, on-the-spot performance out it someone's back yard, with some concert instruments that have no business getting hauled all the way out here, but are here nonetheless. The explanation for why all these instruments are so close on-hand is as wild as the music is. It's amazing what kind of impression you can get from just some unexpected reverb ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
2:45 "Tomfoolery" from the SpongeBob OST has a similar melody. The difference is that it goes up by a 4th instead of a major 3rd before going down by a tritone.
The crazy thing about all those tritones is that... they don't sound like tritones to me? Sure they sound weird, but not anymore than any other out of key chord or direct modulation. They dont have the jarring dissonance of a tritone in classical music or the sweet and sour bite of a dominant #9 chord in jazz or blues. They just sound... well, zany, like you put it Edit: God, Bubble Gloop Swamp is /BRILLIANT/, christ! I shouted out loud when I first heard it, it was only three measures long but it gave me fucking shivers.
I hope that the longer I spend in my classes trying to fill in the holes in my harmony knowledge, as a drummer, the more I can understand of these videos. It's really helpful to know how to apply theory to stuff that you enjoy and all the editing and writing work you put into these are always appreciated! I also wanted to follow up on a light suggestion for coverage of Mickey's Speedway USA on the n64, if you happen to be inspired to. I definitely think the game and the music goes overlooked all the time, and it would be interesting to point out how apt each of the songs fit the location that the track is based off of (or maybe how it could have been done better). Using some historic examples / folkloric music as a comparison point for something composed relatively recently can be such a deep well to dig into, if you get me. Like...what makes the Everglades track music feel like the Everglades, or the Hawaii track theme for Hawaii, etc. There's certainly stereotypes of instruments and melodies that go along with the idea I don't have the know how to pin down harmonically. Just an idea in case you wanted to follow up on it. I know you have a limitless supply of ideas and a limited amount of time in each day, but the stuff you make is great to see in my subscription feed. And the better I get at music theory, the more I can get out of them in the future, so thank you for all your enthusiasm with what you do. It means a lot.
I played both Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie back in the 90s, and I never noticed the complex chord progressions until you pointed them out. To me, it was always "Well, these are simple, catchy, mostly major-key melodies with similar 'bouncy' oom-pa-pa bass rhythms, so...probably nothing all that musically interesting going on." Now that you've pointed it out, I'm thinking back to other songs in both games' soundtracks and I'm like "hey, yeah, there was a lot more to this than I realized." Still sounds very "kiddie," but I'm never going to call the soundtracks of these games simplistic AGAIN. (Especially since this is *on top of* the instrument changes and little variations between different sections of every level, AND the change of Spiral Mountain's BGM from a quick, happy, bouncy tune in game 1 to a minor-key dirge version of the same melody in Tooie.)
I doubt he did it intentionally, but it's kind of cool how Kirkhope's use of major-leaning tritone melodies to reference birds is reminiscent of Olivier Messiaen's approach in pieces like Quartet for the End of Time.
You have to remember though, that a lot of Yooka-Laylee's variety also comes from the fact that David Wise scored a LOT of it. Along with Steve Burke. In fact, I would say that while Kirkhope did successfully capture the zany charm of BK in Yooka, it were David Wise's contributions that were the true highlight for me. The music in the Kartos and boss sequences was just... So damn good!
Dissonance Paradiddle it’s very Elfman with definite influences from Zimmer and Williams. You could arguably toss Randy Newman as an influence in there too as he had already scored a few major projects by the time BK was finished.
@@devinblackwood5885 that's really neat I said that because I heard him talk about where he got inspired in an interview.... Wish I remembered which one 😤
Dissonance Paradiddle I believe his early influences were people like Glenn Miller and Frank Sinatra, but that style hasn’t really carried over into his work. Maybe because synth saxophones usually sound pretty bad lol. He definitely has a Danny Elfman/Randy Newman style going on
The clips at 6:41 and 8:42 are so similar to tracks in Mario + Rabbids in their style, arrangement, and orchestration that they could be swapped between games and most players wouldn't even notice. They may be uniquely Kirkhope but they are certainly not unique to their respective games.
I was a music major for one year before I knew I didn't have what it took, but your videos let me get back into music in such a great way. I love the videos and what you do with them.
Grant's music was one of the defining aesthetics of my childhood. As someone who only generally retains unpleasant or embarrassing memories, it's a relief to be able to hear a soundtrack and go back to memories of happy feelings, even if I can't recall a specific occasion to go with the nostalgia.
5:23 You mention later on that he appeared to have taken inspiration from cinematic composers. On first listening of this section, my thoughts were, "This is what we would have got if Chopin had been watching Harry Potter just before composing his funeral march."
Tribalstack Tropics is my favorite song from the Yooka-Laylee score and it's probably because it's both harmonically and melodically similar to a lot of the Banjo-Kazooie soundtrack (lots of major tritones and bVI changes, melody emphasizes chord tones). Much as I would've loved to see that song analyzed I get that it's not the best example to show the differences between the soundtracks
Interesting note about the word "Zany" and how and why we use it. "Zany" comes from from an old term from Italian Theater term, "Zanni". In Commedia (this form of theater) actors were type-cast into roles. Masks and costumes were used to denote character from character. Do a little digging into "Commedia dell'arte" and you'll find lots of ties to modern storytelling - from Spongebob to Fawlty Towers, the imprint of this form of theater is all over the world of entertainment.
You’re currently my favourite youtube channel and I’m so glad I found you! I’d love a video on the musical compositions in the Rayman series (specifically Rayman 3), and how the music is both cartoony and animated but also perfectly captures how dark the game is!
In the Yooka-Laylee wintery song I also somehow get a massive Gex 3 flashback of that wintery stage but I'm not sure if that served of any inspiration or if it's just a similar pace with similar instruments.
Im trying to write music for my indie project and this goes straight over my head Haha. Still love the content so entertaining! I go by the philosophy "Oh this sounds good"
Amazing video!! I’ve been waiting ages for someone to make an in-depth video about Grant Kirkhopes music. Grant is a great guy and an amazing composer.
I think one of the most underrated soundtracks Grant Kirkhope worked on is Sid Meier’s Civilization Beyond Earth. You can see his overall style in the tracks he worked on for the title.
I have a suggestion: Lyn, Ellwood's and Hector's themes from fire emblem 7. I find them quite interesting how the music sounds so similar yet so different.
Great channel ! 02:53 I heard "Take the A train" intro :) Didn't know about Yooka-Laylee, i loved so much B-K and B-T i HAVE to try it ! Shadow Dancer's OST is the one i prefer, it's so awesome you might want to review it ;)
I didn’t realize how awesome the swamp music was in Yooka. That level was hard for me. I didn’t have Banjo as a kid but I’ve studied the music as a musician. Yooka is tight. I don’t understand all of the criticism it has. My only problem in the entire game was that I didn’t like how the cloud characters looked. They didn’t look soft at all.
I really appreciate the time you put into videos like these. Banjo and kazoo is a childhood classic for me, though I didn't have as easy a time with it as with Tooie. Might a tanuki ask an 8bit to do a shenmue video?
new sub here, I dont know anything about musical education but this video really catch my attention, I love B&K so here is why I clicked on the video jaja nice!
I haven't played Yooka-Laylee (I hope to at some point) so I'm only basing this off of the clips that you played here. But the main difference I feel (which is probably related to the rhythmic distinctions you talk about at the end of the video) is the sense of joy in BK. It's hard to describe but there's always this sunny, up-beat energy that sounds super pleasant and playful, shining through the wacky and often dissonant harmony. YL feels more somber and serious in the clips you played; definitely reminds me of Batman Returns. Don't think either feel is better than the other, that's just what I'm noticing!
I know that this is a really specific memory, but the usage of the dissonant tritones reminds me of when I was trying to learn piano, and when my hands would have difficulty making chord shifts. The sudden sound of something out of my expectations is jarring but also kind of comedic, I love it!
Your videos are so interesting. I accidentally found the soundtrack of the 2008 not so succesful game Nuts and bolts, I only know the music is great. I instantly fell in love with the LOG 720 themes, they have that musical feeling with the cinematic epic feel and how it sounds they also reminds me monkey Island games a bit.
When you played Shipwreck Creek, I heard Peach's Castle from Mario + Rabbids. SOMEHOW. Grant, you just sound so persistent from game to game that I simply don't know which of your songs is playing unless I am told before it sounds.
Love the musical analysis between a game we're all nostalgic about and its spiritual successor! I'm not an expert, but I've been really enjoying Bug Fable's music lately, it could be interesting to take a look at their music as well (though I don't know how comparable its music would be to paper mario)
You should make a video on using instruments to symbolize different characters in the same song, like how the sumo bros theme from Paper Mario: The Origami King has guitar for the main sumo bro and synth sounds for the smaller sumo bros.
Could you talk about Paper mario: the origami king soundtrack? I like how it uses it’s main motif in the final dungeon and boss and how it’s battle themes sound like the Dooplis theme from thousand year door
I had an idea for a video topic; I picked up Sid Meier's Pirates recently because I'm supremely bored, and I had forgotten how the music in towns changed based on context. The basic melody depended on what kind of town it was, with different melodies for different nations, but it also changed in different circumstances. The instrumentation changed depending on which part of town you were in: the governor's mansion had high class harpsichord, while the tavern had upbeat concertina, etc. Not only that, but the key and tempo of the piece changed depending on the state of the town. Towns could prosper or fall on hard times depending on whether they got new settlers, deliveries of commodities, and troop support, or corrupt government, pirate attacks, or native raids. A rich town would be upbeat and happy, while the music in a poor town is slower and in a minor key. I think it was an interesting choice to highlight the dynamic system of prosperity in the game.
Kirkhope also uses the chromatic mediant and sustained sharp 4th in Mad Monster Mansion, which he has said is his favorite piece from Banjo-Kazooie. As for those harmonic transitions, pick a boss theme from Banjo-Tooie or DK64. Any of them. DK64's Crystal Caves boss theme is probably my favorite. So yeah, he's been doing these tricks for a while now.
I find Yooka-Laylee's score interesting, because not all the songs are done by Grant, some of them are also done by fellow former Rare composers David Wise and Steve Burke, and when it comes to Grant and Dave in particular, the contrast between their two styles of composing is jarring to say the least.
I wish you had touched more on the composition style in Banjo-Tooie, considering that it wasn't mentioned at all when it's the game directly prior to Yooka-Layle in the Banjo-Kazooie series is Banjo-Tooie. (Grunty's revenge didn't have music by Grant Kirkhope, and there are no other games. None.)
Banjo was a pretty good collectathon, but I'm a bit more of a Spyro or Jak and Daxter guy. I really wish I knew more about how Stewart Copeland wrote the Spyro soundtrack. I've seen the Playstation Underground interview, I've heard people say it's mixolydian pentatonic and I even have the soundfont, but I still don't know what kind of magic he did! Maybe requesting that would be a reason for me to consider joining Patreon...
I love this channel a lot. I know requests are not a thing here, but I wonder if he has anything to say about the work of Austin Wintory or Jeremy Soule. I know Soule has been unfairly struck out of existence in the composing world now but Wintory's work on the Journey soundtrack was just so moving. It's probably the most evocative soundtrack I've ever heard (along with the more famous tracks from Soule's work on Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars). I would be interested in hearing if 8-Bit has anything in particular to analyze in Journey's soundtrack.
I would love to see a video on the music of Rocket: Robot on Wheels for the N64. One of the greatest video game soundtracks I've ever heard, and the composer is uncredited, though it is likely Amit Sharif as he worked on the studio's next title Sly Cooper
Man I wish I knew how to do all of this I never knew that like music was really made with such ever like I thought the main point was just to make sure it sounds like the scene and it's good I didn't know you had to do all this other stuff I wish I was a master at it
