How Civilization 6 Uses Music to Play with History
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- Опубликовано: 9 июл 2024
- Civilization 6 lets you play with history, but have you considered how it shapes our understanding of the past? How music gives us ideas about cultures we've never encountered, as well as our own? Let's examine the musical ideology behind Civilization 6.
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CORRECTIONS: Mount Rushmore appeared in Civ IV, not II. And the American theme includes a fiddle as well as a banjo.
0:00 Intro
2:05 Politics
3:43 America
5:50 Zulu
Works referenced:
Johannes Fabian, Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes Its Object
Other music used:
Civ VI Kongo Industrial Theme
Civ VI Ottoman Atomic Theme
I hate twitter: / mirroredfog
Credit to Wikimedia commons for images
Credit to The Guardian for Trump rally video
All materials used under Free Use for educational and entertainment purposes. 
Игры
Not to be that guy, but as a big Civ fan... you’re totally right. You cannot really escape the Eurocentric Western influences on the game. Loved the video and am now a happy subscriber!
I was really interested in your observations of vocals in the Zulus. Looking back into the civ 6 musical playlist I found that while you mention four civilizations maintaining vocal elements by the Atomic Age, there’s an interesting categorization that appears.
The first is very much along the lines of what you talk about with the Zulu which includes the Maori and the Cree. I don’t think I can add anything more than what you have already said.
The second category are the civs that use religious chants in their main themes: Georgia and Byzantium. In this weird alternative history, this hits different than the moods of the previous category. Instead of seemingly locking them in a dated past (which depending on your views of organized religion could still be applied), it instead imparts a mood of spiritual unity against adversity and the survival of their faith and empire through the ages. Now, the fact that these are Christian civs of the Orthodox tradition does feed into the Western focus of the games, but it is interesting to note.
However, what really got my gears turning after watching this were the civs that GAINED a voice as they advanced into the later eras: Russia and the Ottomans. In both, their later themes begin with modernized renditions of their themes before the emotions swell for the finale. However, instead of ending with an orchestral fanfare... it sings. The music quiets as a chorus takes front and center, throwing you off before becoming awed by the wonder unfolding. It becomes all the more interesting when you remember that these civs are also on the edges of the “civilized” world of Imperial Europe. Russia was seen as a backwards kingdom trapped in feudal idiocy, the Ottomans as the debauched Sick Man of Europe. And yet despite their troubled history... they sing. What does that say about them?
Food for thought.
Wow, awesome insights! I totally missed Russia and the Ottomans gaining a voice. Like you said, it’s interesting that it happens to non-catholic civs on the fringes of Europe. Russia’s whole playstyle is learning from other more advanced civs, so I wonder if you could say that here the voice is representing a growing assertion of their power, and thereby a threat to the European order.
i love this take! however i'd like to add some insight that would further instigate curiosity.
the Ottomans gain a voice in the second half of their theme which is a military march telling the story of the conquest of istanbul.
now this is interesting because where once again the voices are present, it shows the eurocentric view that ottomans are just barbaric turks come to destroy their heritage that just glory in battle and know nothing but war, just like the Zulu.
however i also think that the "sick man of europe" interpretation is a little off, due to the fact that didn't happen until the 19th century. the Ottoman empire was at its peak in the time of Suleiman.
the argument here i think should be the fact that the west fears that the east may get on their "level". they depose them as barbaric or simply inferior to protect themselves. the thing with Civ VI is their inaccurate display of Suleiman to further insult turkish people. they do this by literally making him brown. now this doesn't activate a thought process because which general (american) public gamer would know the extensive history of the Ottoman empire and which of those would care to boycott those offences? they even see it as an improvement because today's turks look like that, don't they? the stereotypicalization is honestly sad. and i haven't even scratched the surface of the things i find irritating.
@@fleurconstantine5342 Suleiman looks cool asf idk why it makes you mad
@@justinh6651 sounds like (they think? idk fr) shoemaking was basically a different race (by modern standards).
One way I feel the game handles this horribly in this generation are the quotes when a World Wonder is created. They are almost always from the perspective of colonialists or Europeans hundreds of years after, and the pronunciation (see Huitzilopochtli with the Huey Teocalli) is often butchered. I feel like in previous generations of the game they better captured the era and location of the creation of these wonders.
10:00 I was not prepared to hear Zulu warriors say "Among Us"
sus
that's kinda suspect
that's slightly suspicious
So in general you raise some good points, but I think it's interesting looking at counterexamples to your idea that, to paraphrase, "primitive cultures keep singing into the Atomic era". Without looking at an exhaustive list of the soundtracks, I'm remembering that along with the Zulu, the Cree, Georgia, and Byzantium sing all the way through. While your point could apply to the Zulu and Cree, indigenous cultures that were colonized by European powers and were viewed as "barbaric" or "backwards", and then viewed as "noble savages", Georgia and Byzantium are very much European, even if they are Eastern European and thus perhaps considered on the more foreign side. I think it's not a coincidence that they both have religious choral music as their soundtrack. And speaking of Eastern Europeans, Russia *adds* a chorus in the Atomic era where there was none previously!
Cree, Georgia, Mongolia, Zulu, Maori and Byzantium are singing civs I've played with. It is actually wonderful to hear vocals.
One thing I thought you were going to talk about was how the music styles themselves also evolved parallel to Western musical progression through history, rather than each culture's musical progression through history. This was stated by the composers to be intentional in general: the Ancient Era theme is generally done purely in the style of that culture (but also with the stipulation that it has to be sort of slow and ambient, as you talk about with the banjo-plucking of the American theme), but the Medieval theme adds in European medieval strings to every arrangement, and the Industrial theme is arranged for full Western orchestra. The Atomic theme is interesting because the elements they add - autotune, electronic instruments, etc. - were developed at a time in history where it got spread around the world pretty quickly so although it was developed in many cases from Western invention, they are now a pretty integral part of the modern pop music of non-Western countries. (Then again, Western pop songs themselves are also usually part of modern pop music of non-Western countries. And I mean, at this point, I guess so are many of the orchestral instruments of the Industrial Era.) It's a bit of a mess when trying to separate out what is culturally accurate and what is not - but regardless, the composers make no claim on this statement either way, and instead just consider it to be a full Western orchestra.
It's always this push-and-pull between conveying the culture accurately, conveying them in a way that's relatable to your audience and consistent in style across different civs, and highlighting their differences and special aspects - not to mention avoiding stereotyping. Civ 6 leaned towards relatability and consistency rather than cultural accuracy, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's good to keep that in mind - the composers are transparent about it, but only if you look for their statements on the game's soundtrack; for an average player who doesn't, this idea might be lost and you might get to thinking that these full orchestrated versions are culturally accurate.
I love Sumeria's atomic theme, a civ that never made it past ancient, now portrayed as a futuristic superpower. It delves into alternative history and the track rightfully feels like I stepped into Beyond Earth if the great mistake never happened. It evokes a feeling of progress uninterrupted now having brought on a golden age of science.
A huge reason this happens is that civs are often as not defined at specific times. In civ the Byzantines can never become the Ottomans. Nor the Zulu South Africa. Civ by design fixes peoples and cultures at certain times into "civs", even having civs for the same regions and cultures at different periods.
I liked your analysis, but I'd say the point of Civ 6 is to reconstruct history in your own way. For example, China building the Pyramids. Or the Byzantines conquering the Ottomans. Or the Scythians building helicopters.
But you cannot ignore the fact that the fundamental structure of the game is very western-centric. For example, all naval units are based on western designs, with the only exceptions being unique units. Therefore, even the “sandbox” aspect of “reconstructing history in your own way” is rooted in western conceptions of history and progression. Mind you this isn’t a value judgement, just an observation of fact.
@@captainchaos1311 que?
@@captainchaos1311 I simply made an observation. Do you have reading comprehension problems?
@@Zarastro54 akcthually it was jhust an obshervation ☝️🤓
@@techzone1552 “Never enough?” What do you mean by that? Perhaps you should reread what I wrote _carefully_ instead of going into knee jerk defense mode against an attack that doesn’t exist.
Here’s my take on America’s theme. The ancient version is supposed to be nostalgic, it reminds you of a time long past in your childhood, it reminds you of home. It reflects the simplicity life used to be. It reflects how America is a country born of small humble beginnings, much like a new child on the world stage. When the Industrial theme kicks in its been noted to suddenly be much more triumphant, but this is also by design, it reminds you of when you really began to get out in the world and represents the era which America began to rapidly evolve into a global superpower. The atomic era theme has a futuristic undertone, and it makes you think about what lies ahead of you, and the great potential America still has.
America could have easily remained a backwater collection of farms on the eastern seaboard, but instead it went out to become much much more, while never forgetting its humble roots. The progression of America’s theme truly represents American history and what America is as a culture.
That’s my take at least.
A bit funny but entirely biased take: America's theme doesn't feel any more 'ancient' than my own childhood because I grew up listening to A LOT of folk music, so it's just another nostalgic oldie with all the other music my parents would put on, haha. Personal anecdotes aside, this is a very interesting analysis, and now I've got to go listen to all the theme songs for the civs I haven't had a chance to play yet.
as someone who's thoroughly studied contemporary music history in school, i feel this as well! To me, the ancient era America theme conjures the image of 60s protest songs, where they sang and played folksy tunes as they were protesting the vietnam war. So hearing it in the ancient era did seem a little off to me as well, but to each their own i guess ^^
I struggle with what to think of this video. The argument implies that the composers had an artistic motivation to imply a false history where in reality what truly mattered to them was presenting the variety of distinct cultures in a way that meshed together for a single, entertaining feel. However, this absurd thesis is explained so well that I feel like others should see it. I want this take to be influential in how we talk about gaming music.
i don't think he's implying active malevolence on the part of the creators, but i do think that it is an interesting perspective as a way to think about not only video game music but different cultures as well :)
@@soopyboi4 I agree, this wasn't him being like "And this is why everything is racist"; it was him acknowledging that civ games are still rooted in a very eurocentric tradition, even if said eurocentrism is done in good faith.
Just because something is “explained” well with nice words doesn’t make it any less ridiculous. Considering that, why would you want such a “take” to more mainstream if you if it’s so absurd?
Great video however one thing to note about the late game Zulu theme is that south African music uses a lot of autotune as part of their sound, whilst it at first feels out of place in a western game of high orchestral arrangements. I feel it's actually a tribute to the modern southern African people and their modern music culture.
great and interesting video! honestly I'd love to hear you analyse the themes of many other civs too hahah. I'm interested in more essay form analysis of civ vi over all the strategy guides, these videos are few and far between
Excellent video echoing some thoughts I've had myself but not put into words. It's becoming quite popular to speak about the philosophy of games like this or Hearts of Iron, but music often gets left out. Glad to see a good video on it!
A Civ player's first day at college...
Nice video, but you're missing one critical point. The compositions and arrangements for every track is fine tuned to fit in a 3-4 minute time slot and meant to be just long enough to portray and exemplify a civilization's identity, while also be enjoyable for a video game. No one would play the Maori if their Haka, which their theme in 6 is based off of, was as long as they are in the real world, anywhere from 9 minutes to half an hour. Not to mention the Zulu having their unique unit being a replacement for the Pikeman is a game play mechanic, not some secret smarmy jab against the Zulu culture. I can see where you would think that, but as technology evolves, so do military tactics. And this a permeable trait seen in every single culture ever, even the North Sentinels, who use throwing spears. The civilization list alone can be seen as a Eurocentric bias, but Firaxis is very transparent, and try their best to be as unbiased as possible; however, there is no one on this Earth who is without bias. They communicate with the community frequently, and try their best to be as respectful as possible (Knorr, the game's composer, personally reached out to the Cree tribe for insight on how to craft their music) ; I really think you're looking too much into it.
Considering you’re playing in each era for an hour or more, no, I think that “they need to be 3 minutes long” isn’t a great excuse tbh
Also the argument that “this is clearly not intentional” is… the point of looking at this work critically. These things AREN’T intentional. They aren’t “smarmy jabs,” they’re tropes we use without thinking about how they may reflect the culture the music is representing.
This was awesome!
I find the Zulu have one of the most beautiful sound tracks in the game. You've still blown my mind tho so kudos
I thoroughly enjoyed your video!
Civilization 4 has a mod called Rhye's and Fall O' Civilization. which literally replicates history at its finest.
Rhye's is ok. Realism Invictus is even better, but neither will give you as authentic an experience as a Paradox game.
@@rpgmusik2172I mean… those are two completely different subgenres of 4x, civ is not trying to replicate the authentic rise and fall of nations
I'm sorry but that is not just a single banjo strumming that tune - love the vid tho!
Well, there IS a single banjo strumming the tune… there’s just also a fiddle in there 😂 definitely just a mistake in scripting
This take is very interesting.
I don't agree fully with your message however.
I don't think that civ 6 using eurocentric music history and science to every civ is a bad thing. they are trying to be clear and have a somewhat unique theme (even for civilisations that didn't exist for all of history like america or the zulu). They do that by pasting the european (and east asian for that matter since they had a very similar technology advancment) because it's clear, linear and was present for the whole recorded history.
They're literally getting annoyed by theoretical music pieces because it wasn't "interpreted" in the way they wanted. Insanity.
@@techzone1552 why were they interpreted that way? Is that not interesting to you? Have you never considered the context that the music you listen to is created in? It’s fun to think critically about the media you consume rather than consuming mindlessly
@@harrylane4 You're implying I consume media mindlessly because I don't agree with this bullish video? Nah man. Look, the music in Civ 6 is some of the most amazing and authentic cultural pieces of video game music out there. It has its flaws even still. I imagine the reason you hear things like European instruments in other culture's music is because that comes with the idea of "Medieval", which is a purely European concept. I think they could have done better, sure, in exploring the music from other cultures at the time period. And I think there's a lot of stereotyping in Civ 6 especially, good Lord. But to whine about "muh eurocentrism" because of it is pedantic and ridiculous.
The game sucks compared to past installments anyway lol.
And that’s why tech and civic shuffle exists
10:01 *HE SAID AMONGUS*
consequenses of atomic era
Are you familiar with the Rhyse mod for Civ4? It actually adds mechanics for civs to split apart and has a TSL map where civs do spawn in mid-game. It's older now, but brilliant.
Sounds awesome, I’d love to see something like that for V or VI!
This video was so great! I wish you covered even more civilizations.
TS is weirdly underrated and I have to agree with you for the same reasons as to why it’s good
Glad to hear that, just a few people pay attention for it. Civ spent a lot for soundtrack such as songo di volare. Music is what made civ better than any game, series reminds me about great things human ever did
10:01 AYO THAT BACKGROUND MUSIC WHAT
This convinced me to play Civ to listen for that, but now I'm addicted to Civ.
Happens to the best of us
Wow, this is some really great analysis. greetings from /r/civ.
Nice job, very well done, enjoyed your analysis of the music behind the game.
I never noticed that the different civilizations have their own music. That's a neat detail! And, perhaps unsurprisingly, a detail that reinforces our culture's dominant narratives about civilization so it can tap them to convey something to the player.
I wonder what a Civ-like game built to challenge those dominant narratives would be like...the first thing that comes to mind would be making production and whatnot focused on potentially-mobile populations instead of cities or geographic regions, followed by tying what options the player has more closely to the resources they have access to. And, of course, making "civilizations" less temporally-hegemonic would be good, though frig if I can think of a way to implement that in-game!
All great observations! To your last point, I think Crusader Kings does a great job of showing just how historically arbitrary cultures and states have always been. Of course, not every game can command that level of detail, and I'm not sure how to transfer that system to a turn-based 4X like Civ.
@@SeaofFog And like every Paradox grand strategy game, its mechanics are _very_ focused on a specific time and place. It's great at simulating medieval Europe...but imperial Rome, colonial empires, or anything non-European, less so. That's part of why I specified "Civ-like" rather than just "strategy game"-Crusader Kings isn't trying to be anything like the same sort of strategy game Civ is.
10:25 is that G.K. Chesterton?
Back to back civilization champs.
Great video! It was very well made and has a lot of good points, however some ideas and points you make are a bit... iffy imo.
It is very unfortunate how a decent bit of the game is very euro-centric. I get how they divided the eras in that way, i think that's fine. But some areas its definitely more noticeable and unfortunate. Like you said, having some civs go into more European-centric ideals is very disappointing. They could have easily renamed the tech and added in new flavor text, but thats just one thought. (Expecting them to have fully different trees is very silly however) the music in some civs is very sadly westernized, which is something I very much dislike about Civ 6.
One of the points you made however really rubbed me the wrong way. I felt your point about how an ancient era US sort of justifies manifest destiny in game. Thats a bit of a reach, especially since the game itself has a hard anti-war message, especially in the more modern eras. It doesn't show colonialism or war in a good light, the quotes attached to them are often grim.
We know that pushing a pro-colonialsm ideal was never the intent, so I feel like that suggesting they indirectly have that undermines the main point civ 6 has.
You are definitely correct to an extent, but having a playable fascist Germany taking over Poland with the help of Russia doesn't mean Civ 6 is pro that stuff either. Its very important to realise this game is more so a historical sandbox, and some overlap with horrible stuff in history is going to happen.
One last thing, your Zulu comment on how they are still in the past was definitely a weird one. I think the devs put more effort into the Zulu then most DLC civs, and the vocals are a large part on what makes them unique and worth the extra cash. (Similar to the Maori)
Besides a few iffy points, the video was very well made, great job on it!
The amongus band is the best
@idislikewhites No you because, this comment is so old why bother commenting on it anyway? I forgot it's existence
This concept for a soundtrack is brilliant, I need to listen to it fully! Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to play the game yet because of the lack of UI scaling. I can't see anything on the UI, it is insanely tiny! xD Great video! =)
Thanks for the kind words! Also, there might be some mods out there that change the UI, so hopefully you’ll find some way to play it.
Great video
Absolutely fantastic video! I love the music in Civ. I hope you get plenty of subscribers, I expected you to have thousands with how high quality your video was.
Thanks so much, that means a lot!
Immediate subscription. The video was insightful, well argued, and detailed but brief. I’m really looking forward to what you cover next.
Glad to hear it!
I know this video is old, but at 2:14 That's Civ IV, not Civ 2. You need to research Fascism, not adopt it's civics, to build Mt. Rushmore.
When you play Civ, do you like to use true start locations, or forge your own path through history? And what do you think about colonial empires starting on the same footing as everyone else?
And yes I know there’s also a fiddle in the America theme lol
@@l0remipsum991 1. Your choices are irrelevant to literally everything mentioned in the video. Whether you never declare war or are at a brief interlude between wars, your peacetime music will remain the same.
2. But you are discouraged from doing so. In Civilization 6, playing peacefully means your keshig (unit) us useless, your ordu (building) provides no more benefit than a stable, and your unique ability is less useful.
3. This is literally a game about forging culture and civilization. Whether it wants to be or not, that topic is *inherently* political. All that trying to be apolitical about it does is replicate the common biases of the culture around it.
Anyways. I don't like TSL much, mostly because Civ isn't a very history-ey game. No game which sets up the Roman Empire, German Empire, and American Technically-not-an-empire in 4000 BCE can be, and the loose way Civ treats...everything while trying to mush every kind of society and time in history into one simple set of mechanics ruins immersion further. It just works better if you envision it as either a grand strategic challenge or a wild "what-if-" scenario (like _For Honor_ writ large).
Also, all the European civilizations are crowded into one small region of the map. I prefer when civilizations have roughly equivalent elbow room...though a game with one Native American civ casually expanding throughout the Americans while a dozen European/Mediterranean ones struggle for dominance in their backyard could be amusing.
love your vid!!
great video!
10:19 ඞ
Your premise is Eurocentric. The rest of the world wasn't stuck in medieval stasis until the Europeans arrived. Most of the world went through a similar progression of "ages."
Albeit a much slower one.
Press Y to actually know what your doing
Fantastic analysis! You just earned a subscription!
2:15 🤣 WHAT?! I would've assumed Democracy or even Capitalism to build Mt. Rushmore but FASCISM?! 🤣 -I CAN'T EVEN-
Scratch that, it kinda makes sense. Fascism is a lot about national pride, and what is a bigger sign of pride than engraving the faces of leaders into mountains? I still think it's funny, but it does make a little sense.
I think that especially for the America section of the video this analysis is unfair you start out the video by saying that true start location at the ancient era is your favorite way to play and in that very specific play style the music does seem to be supporting American expansion
but in the actual intended way to play with a random world the music is simply trying to evoke American folk heritage. Only in the very specific true start ancient era does this political view shine through and it is clearly not the intended message of the creators of the game.
Brilliant video, it's a shame that you're such a small channel.
Hope to see you grow soon.
I think your argument here is a very interesting one, but I must say I always got a different feeling when I heard some of these songs. Take for instance, the Cree theme. I remember listening to the Atomic Theme for the Cree on a walk to school one morning and I couldn't help but start crying. This powerful theme led on by the passionate singing of native Cree speakers who live today tugged harshly on my soul. To me, the vocals symbolize the Cree's ancient culture that still lives on today in their people, even after thousands of years, and the powerful instrumentals, and especially, Cree drums, symbolize the fact that these people *are* still here. They fought for their existence and the West, specifically Canada in this case, attempted to extinguish the Cree culture. But they persevered. They lived, and still do live. The Cree's theme to me is a powerful symbol of all Native and First Nations peoples of not only the Americas, but the globe. Even after Canada tried to destroy the Cree, the US tried to destroy the Sioux, the British and South Africans the Zulu, or New Zealand the Maori, these people live on. They never lost their cultures that the colonizers wanted to destroy, and in this track they bombastically announce that their culture and peoples are not dead. They are still alive and will continue to be for all time.
Never was a fan of the music in the game but to be real after watching this I might have to blast that music
This reeks of critical theory wank about "endorsing colonialism", but I'll respectfully raise some counter arguments
To apply occums razor, it's more likely the Zulu got a unique vocal soundtrack as they were a DLC civ that had to be purchased separately, so giving them a unique theme likely aided that. Just because the Zulu theme uses vocals does not denote them as "primitive" but unique. The European civs use instrumentals because much of European and even Asian musical history involves iconic instruments which were not present in Zulu civilization.
Civ unqiue tech trees WOULD be cool but a headache to design and balance. As such, giving all the civs the same tree makes it easier to understand how the civs compete with one another. I can admit it's euro centric, but that's in part that Civ is a game made by an english speaker. European history also has the luxury of being extensively studied and recorded (and having those historical records survive history), and seeing parallels between European technological development and non-european technological development (i.e. agriculture, guilds, currency/trade, monarchies in both meso america and europe) helps justify this uni-tree.
Lastly on America. True start locations do make Manifest destiny less unethical in the sense that America has a land claim, but that doesn't make conquering your neighbors morally right (other civs will hate you for it) and it's important to remember that civ is a history sandbox, not a documentary.
td;dr, you made a fun analysis but there's a clear political narrative you're trying to build here, even if I can't point it out with a smoking gun quote. Civ is a video game, and as such suffers limitations of the format that otherwise break realism. It was not made to endorse colonialism.
I appreciate this criticism; it’s quite well thought-out. However, it misses the point of what the video is trying to accomplish slightly. I am not making an argument about intent. Rather, I’m taking the rhetoric of the game, in the sense of what it presents to the player, and extrapolating out what it means in its context. In short, this is a video about taking Civ seriously, but you shouldn’t take the video too seriously.
While I do think you make a couple of great counterpoints, I also think its very silly to think he has an "agenda" to push. A couple of ideas and interesting points to think about? Sure, but an entire agenda about seems quite ridiculous.
cap
I played as Zulu recently and got sniped on the Statue of Zeus because Mansa Musa surprise warred me and delayed it.
The problem with this kind of Frankfurt school analysis of popular culture is that it still reads a Marxist view of colonisation into everything. It makes such monolithic assumptions about power relations that no culture, people or work of art can be seen outside of their power struggle w/ the oppressor. It also has to disengage the work itself from its own process of creation to make room for an assumed nefarious culture of subjugation. The musicians who created these tracks are just stand-ins to represent the cultural hegemony of the west and their intent, motives or backgrounds are pushed aside in the service of finding ‘the critique’. It’s a tedious game of intellectual gotcha where you write the rules and honestly wish it had faded w the Soviet Union.
This is probably one of the best critiques I’ve gotten; thank you for engaging in such a forthright manner.