Ludomusicology and the New Drastic

Abstract

In a rereading of Carolyn Abbate's seminal article “Music—Drastic or Gnostic?” this article proposes that the study of game music not only presents us with new research themes but, moreover, has the potential to inspire a major disciplinary reform. Game music studies and ludomusicology can lead to a New Drastic Musicology: an intellectual engagement with video game music that is just as rooted in immediacy, interactivity, and playfulness as the object with which it concerns itself. The New Drastic, I shall argue, can engender significant critical, epistemological, thematic, and analytical innovations in the discipline of musicology. Fundamentally, my argument is that playing with music invites “playing” with critical music theory.