What inspires you?

Dear ladies and gentle people,

to become a better person (or even company), you need to look inside of you and explore yourself. Besides, you can sometimes look outside yourself. I'm not only relating to the physical perspective of this world, but also the industry or function you're working in, the interests you're following every day, and the art you're experiencing. The question of this article is rather rhetorical and explorative than literal and explicit: What inspires you?

Early on, I've been exposed to music as a listener. Of course, the majority of the music I listened to was heavily influenced by the taste of my parents. Die Prinzen, Chris De Burgh, Münchner Freiheit, Pur, and whatever was popular in Germany in the '90s (except for Chris De Burgh, the mentioned bands are German and still active). Many years later, I got exposed to a different genre of music, that I wasn't aware of its existence and I want to use the facets of this style as an anchor point for my take on inspiration: chiptunes, chip music, 8-bit, or video game music (as a broader terminology). What do I find so fascinating about it and how do I see it apply to our professional work?

The limiting factors

There are many reasons to appreciate and hate this kind of music, mostly related to its sound. Yes, it's not always pleasant and it comes with a very distinct feature, that some modern productions are not aware of anymore: limitations in available sounds and instrument tracks.

Imagine an orchestra consisting of just a violin, a bass, a piano, and a drumkit. Okay, it's not really an orchestra, more like a quartet. Also, it's not a violin and piano, but fancy sound waves like a pulse wave, a square wave or a triangle wave. Each of them represents an instrument track and can only play one note at a time. In addition to that, each has its limitations in terms of volume, pitch, and tonal variance based on how you play it. The goal for the musicians is to get attention, to get heard, and eventually to receive money for it. It needs to get structured with the little resources you have available to make it sound like pleasant music.

Take this to our current work environment. How many tools are we using to get things done? Wouldn't we come up with more effective methods if we didn't have specific tools? Certainly, some tools mimic the original most efficient method of delivering results (mail became e-mail, notification board became intranet, etc.). Other tools may not have a physical origin (like ticketing systems) and it shows based on how some of these tools are used. Consider to ignore using one tool and instead use another method (either by using another existing tool or no tool at all), and see how it works in a time frame of a month or two. Limiting yourself to reaching the same effectiveness leads to increased efficiency. Once you have identified optimized methods to achieve similar results you can try to re-introduce that tool again and see how it works in conjunction with your new methods. You may realize another gain in efficiency because the more effective methods you had to invent through your limitations have shaped the utilization of the tool.

For great composers, those limitations meant to be creating unique lead melodies with one or two accompanying melodic instruments for enriching the soundscape and the drumkit to provide a rhythmic element. Nowadays, you might be aware of some iconic melodies from the Zelda or Super Mario series, which sound even greater with a full orchestra. However, I doubt that Koji Kondo (the composer of the original soundtracks of these games) would have come up with these compositions, if he had a full orchestra at hand with all its "features".

Minor changes, big differences

I like to listen to rough drafts of original music because it shows the initial core idea of this piece of art and the progress made up to the final product. Changes don't have to be big to have a big impact. Let me present this to you via my favorite chiptune duo Xyce (Xylo and Cerror) and the track "Dans la rue" if you dare to listen till 1:40. (Yes, the second version of the song is much quieter, so remember to turn the volume down again after you've finished listening!):

This is how chiptune can sound and some of the limitations I mentioned earlier may not apply to this piece of music. You may have also noticed in the second version, that besides the lower volume (shame on you, Xyce ??) some musical notes were removed as well. In fact, I prefer the second version of the song, because the additional notes created some kind of dissonance, some unpleasant friction to my ears.

Looking at our work environment: How often do we go the extra mile but nobody recognizes the additional effort? May the additional information, that we find interesting, harm our audience more than it does good? Specifically, with presentations, it becomes clear that too much information on a slide can overload our audience and distract from the core of our intention, the focus on the key message(s) on that slide. The same applies to webpage designers who may have a focus on the overall visual experience of the webpage but may not think of how people need to navigate through the menu to get to the information they need. It all comes down to reducing the optional elements down to what is functionally necessary and feels naturally good. There's no need to introduce distracting animations or parallax effects, just because you have the opportunity to integrate these features into your (web) presentations.

Back to the roots

The early PC and console games back in the '80s, which used music for the first time, were actually using classical music pieces. This happened for three obvious reasons: it was free for all to reproduce and perform, it was often known by the audience, and it made composing pretty easy for programmers, who could look up the sheet music and transliterate musical notes to pitches programmed into the sound chips. Later on, video game music composers used their own musical experiences and transported them partially into their own ideas, mixing and intertwining them into a completely new and compelling musical piece. Nobuo Uematsu (best known as original composer of the Final Fantasy series) showed this off in one track for Final Fantasy, which is considered a hallmark of excellence on the first Sony Playstation for its use of instruments and its vocals: One-Winged Angel

Listening to the first one and a half minutes is sufficient to get the idea of the upcoming comparisons. Let's start with the beginning. Is anyone of my readers a Jimi Hendrix fan? Then the beginning might have reminded you of "Purple Haze". I'm pretty sure, I have some avid listeners of classical music as well. How about Carl Orff's "O Fortuna"? The similarities can be found in the use of rhythmic vocals and the instrumentation, and the use of the Latin language.

As you can see: different inspirations form a completely new experience. We should make use of them for our work environment as well. For example we might look at success stories and identify what made the people and companies succeed in the first place. Very often it's not the result itself, but the processes and methods that have been performed underneath. Trying to mindlessly duplicate other people's or companies' ideas is not working out, if your mindset or your company's culture doesn't fit to the methods at all. Instead, take inspirations from different ideas, and identify the best fitting parts you can add to your existing machinery, add a little bit of your own oil and take it for a test ride. You may fail with it, which is an opportunity to learn and adjust your application of these ideas (or scrap them completely, if every fiber of your body is rebelling). Sometimes it's better to take some rather old principles and processes (maybe even before capitalism was a thing), and apply them appropriately to our current processes. Not everything, that seems old is automatically outdated. We may even rediscover something from the past, that got lost in the modern era.

One thing I noticed about this specific inspiration is that we assume we have to include certain ideas into our processes because others have success with it and hence after applying these ideas we must become automatically more successful as well. However, little truth is to be found in this behaviour. I'll go into detail in another article, asking the question "How do you feel as a number?" where I want to explore how we might need to reconsider some of our current norms in the modern workplace environment.

Evolution needs some time, revolution needs a shift

One great fact about the early video game composers is how they have been in business for decades and how their music reflects on this progress. I want to present to you now the main theme of my favorite game series of all times: Monkey Island, composed by Michael Z. Land.

Below you find the main theme of the first four games of the series. The question is, whether the follow-up title was an evolutionary or revolutionary step for the Main Theme's music. (You can stop the second video halfway or keep it running till the end if you like the music.)

Ready for the answers?

1 -> 2 was an evolution. While more instruments were added and the underlying system has been improved, it wasn't a big game-changer for the musical representation of the main theme.

2 -> 3 was a revolution. For the first time, recorded instruments were put into combined tracks, while trying to make the necessary adjustments in the underlying system to support the new audio file format. It sounds much richer and allows for a near-endless amount of instruments. (Remember: Just because you can use a ton of instruments, doesn't mean you should to deliver great quality.)

3 -> 4 was an evolution again. The Caribbean sound was pretty much defined in the third installment and hasn't changed much. Only minor adjustments on the underlying system were necessary, as the music and sounds haven't been much influenced by the three-dimensional visuals.

Which of these jumps were the most exciting to you? Where would you feel the most discomfort if you were responsible to make those changes? My bet would go to the revolutionary jump, because it feels like a complete shift. And that's absolutely fine, because our brain has only limited ability to adjust to sudden changes. Just remember how Microsoft has changed the Windows user interface with each version and how often the revolutionary changes have backfired in the acceptance of certain versions (I look at you, Windows Vista and Windows 8), whereas the evolutionary versions have gained a strong fellowship and people resisted to update or upgrade from those versions. Changing to a new version means changing our processes, and anything, that's disrupting our old behavior too much, will lead to resistance. Not only, because we might not like the result, but also because we don't like the process to get there.

I have another great example that specifically managers might be familiar with: Remember those Bluetooth headsets back in the early 2000s? They looked awkward, didn't they? And sound-wise, they weren't that great either (although not many consumer headphones or headsets were at that time). Very often, managers wearing such devices were ridiculed, and some took it even personally and avoided wearing those in public because they were afraid of other people's opinions. Now, a lot of those same people crave Apple's Airpods and somehow it seems to look okay to have white plastic knobs hang out of your ears. It seemed too revolutionary at the beginning and people had a low acceptance rate towards such devices and designs. Just over a decade later, this rate has gone up and more people use those Bluetooth earplugs. It just needed time to become an accepted evolutionary step.

A sense of community

Back to the actual chiptune music scene, I've come across something very valuable that I didn't find often in the digital spheres: a sense of a great, supportive community. Just looking at those old music files of the early 2000s, you will find descriptions inside of them, where creators thank and refer to other creators.

I was recently watching a little chiptune Twitch stream, where Cerror was the DJ and even took requests from Xylo and the chat. I loved it, because a few other chiptune artists joined the chat over the course of the evening as well as family members and friends of Xylo and Cerror (either on-screen or in chat). I've also been to a chiptunes party once in my life (and I hope to do more later, after all the pandemic is over), where I got to know new artists that I supported by buying tracks, EPs or albums created by them. There's a collection called "Chiptunes = win" on Bandcamp, which asks for chiptune artists to collectively create 50+ tracks for an album every year, which is then released with a "pay what you want" model. The chiptune community is fun and it's great to see the different styles and devices being used. Click here if you want to hear Genesis on a Genesis or here if you want to experience some Latin music on two gameboys. As far as I can tell, nothing is done for profit, but for the experience, the fun, the challenge (creating with limitations), and the community.

Condensing it all could lead to our ideal workplace. We're not all the same, we all have different flavors that we appreciate and we're sharing the same space. We give back to our community and we expect nothing in return. When somebody's in need of help, we support where we can. We don't need competition to be successful. What competition should spark is inspiration, not the race for the best economic results. Someone has a great idea? Good, let's use that idea and enhance it with our own ideas. That is how I imagine we can become better over time - personally and in companies.

How to continue from here?

I've chosen music as my inspirational domain, because it's my passion. It doesn't have to be yours and it doesn't need to be yours. Do you love insects? Then you may know about their social structures that help them thrive and survive, and you get so inspired by them, that you apply similar ideas and techniques when collaborating with others. Have a knack for woodwork? Imagine every type of wood is a different type of human being and each wood type has its ideal use case, and your inspiration allows beauty to be carved out, if care is properly taken. Take a look at your own interests and hobbies, identify the best features of it and figure out why it works so well for you and whether it may work for/with others as well. You may discover something, that you could use in the future. Just take a look around and I'm pretty sure you will find something.

Share this article with someone who has interesting hobbies and you're curious whether it has applications for his profession as well. Share it inside your company if you think the article might have some inspirational impact. I'm just doing the same here on LinkedIn, since I just give it to the community without expecting anything in return.

Cheers,

Andreas

PS: This time I included no philosophical quotes at all. I hope the music was a nice diversion this time.