Re: Who's on the forefront of loopmuse?

[Paolo Valladolid <pvallado@waynesworld.ucsd.edu>]

I don't know if this is directly related to the question, but one
interesting application of looping might be in video games.

One of my roommates likes to play a Playstation game called 
"Parappa The Rappa".  Parappa is the character you play in this game
(looks like a young relative of Snoopy with a hat on).  You help him
rap with the people he encounters (a turnip karate sensei, a cow meter
maid, etc.) by following a visual cue at the top of the screen and 
hitting the appropriate buttons in time with the cue and the music.
There is an element of improvisation in that you can introduce a 
stuttering effect depending on how quickly you repeatedly hit the buttons
(e.g. Parappa says "Pu-Pu-Punch!" instead of just "Punch!").  At the
right of the screen there's a meter that runs from "You Be Rappin Ill!"
to "You Be Rappin Excellent" or something like that.

What I find interesting about this game is that it lets people with
no musical training at all get a taste of musical improvisation and
work on their rhythm through a non-standard interface or "instrument".

Cheers,

Paolo Valladolid
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