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TEAM Entertainment Inc.
Japan
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Instrumental
Instrumental is music created and performed without sung lyrics, placing the expressive weight on melody, rhythm, harmony, and timbre produced by instruments. As an umbrella practice it appears in many cultures, but its modern identity cohered in Baroque-era Europe when purely instrumental forms such as the sonata, concerto, and dance suites began to flourish. Since then, instrumental thinking—developing motives, structuring form without text, and showcasing timbral contrast—has informed everything from orchestral music and solo piano repertoire to post-rock, film scores, and beat-driven electronic styles. Instrumental works can be intimate (solo or chamber) or expansive (full orchestra), narrative (programmatic) or abstract (absolute music). The absence of lyrics invites listeners to project imagery and emotion, making the style a natural fit for cinema, games, and contemplative listening.
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Soundtrack
Soundtrack is music created to accompany and enhance visual media such as film, television, and video games. It includes original scores (instrumental or vocal music composed specifically for the picture) and, at times, curated compilations of pre-existing songs. Stylistically, soundtrack is a meta-genre that can encompass orchestral symphonic writing, jazz, electronic and synth-driven textures, choral forces, popular song, and experimental sound design. Its defining trait is functional storytelling: themes, motifs, harmony, rhythm, and timbre are shaped by narrative needs, character psychology, pacing, and editing. Common features include leitmotifs for characters or ideas, modular cues that can be edited to picture, dynamic orchestration for dramatic range, and production approaches that sit well under dialogue and sound effects. Because it must synchronize to picture, soundtrack often uses clear dramatic arcs, tempo maps, and hit points.
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Modern Classical
Modern classical is a contemporary strand of instrumental music that applies classical composition techniques to intimate, cinematic settings. It typically foregrounds piano and strings, is sparsely orchestrated, and embraces ambience, repetition, and timbral detail. Rather than the academic modernism of the early 20th century, modern classical as used today refers to accessible, mood-driven works that sit between classical, ambient, and film music. Felt pianos, close‑miked string quartets, tape hiss, drones, soft electronics, and minimal harmonic movement are common, producing a contemplative, emotionally direct sound that translates well to headphones, streaming playlists, and screen media.
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Theme
Theme is a screen-focused music style built around concise, highly memorable melodies (leitmotifs) designed to identify a film, television show, video game, or program within just a few seconds. It typically foregrounds a bold hook, clear harmonic grounding, and a distinctive timbral signature so that audiences can recognize the property instantly. While orchestral palettes are common—borrowing from classical and film score traditions—theme music also embraces jazz, pop, rock, and electronic idioms. Formats range from 10–30 second idents to full-length title sequences, and can be instrumental or song-based with lyrics that reflect the show’s narrative or brand.
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Score
Score refers to original music composed to synchronize with and shape the narrative of visual media—primarily film, television, and, later, video games. Unlike a “soundtrack,” which often compiles pre-existing songs, a score is written to picture, uses timing cues to support storytelling beat by beat, and develops recurring themes (leitmotifs) for characters, settings, or ideas. The palette ranges from late‑Romantic orchestration and modernist harmony to jazz idioms, electronic sound design, and global instrumentation. Hallmarks include thematic development, hit points, motif variation, orchestration color, and a close relationship with sound effects and dialogue in the final mix.
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Artists
Various Artists
Tanaka, Kohei
Shaw, Russell
Kageyama, Hironobu
Ohta, Takako
Kuwashima, Houko
Sakamoto, Hideki
Iwadare, Noriyuki
Rippy, Stephen
Mitsuda, Yasunori
Satō, Tenpei
GUST
Achiwa, Daisuke
Yanagawa, Kazuki
Shimomura, Yōko
Sakuraba, Motoi
Capcom Sound Team
O’Donnell, Martin
Chatwood, Stuart
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Melodding was created as a tribute to
Every Noise at Once
, which inspired us to help curious minds keep digging into music's ever-evolving genres.