I think one of the greatest qualities of early game music (and music that follows it that tradition) was blithe irreverence for musical convention. Is this interval ok? Doesn't matter. Is this run playable? Doesn't matter. All that matters is the music itself.

Was the music written by a master orchestrator? Doesn't matter. The combination of a venue free of judgment (i.e. games) and primitive technology really put the *music* rather than the musical mediums and fashion of particular conventions first.

I've never been anywhere close musical academia, so I can't comment, but a good friend of mine who started of his musical career very near to what one might call purists, says he always felt/feels a crushing need to prove himself to academics

by writing in strict sonata form, writing orthodox fugues, avoiding cross relations, etc. I hope the world of VGM never crosses paths with any school of musical thought that asks anything other than "does it sound good and does it excite the imagination?"

I want to remain blissfully ignorant of whether or not a trained oboist thinks I'm an idiot for writing an unplayable oboe line. If the time comes where an orchestra wants to play my stuff live, concessions will be made, but until then I just don't believe it should matter

and just to clarify, I don't mean to say that convention is pointless. There's a strong case for things like general counterpoint making music absolutely better. I just mean that the lack of fear of disapproval by deviating from certain conventions is what made/makes VGM great

and that that lack of fear gave rise to some extraordinarily unique music and musical traditions. As that same friend of mine pointed out, in the FF7 boss theme: rock organ with an irish jig???

so to wrap the thought up, I guess I'd be better off specifying that "stylistic" convention is what I'm referring to. I think things like certain rules of counterpoint, voice leading, appropriate use of register etc. qualify not just as stylistic conventions, but are almost as

important as volume in terms of making the music intelligible/audible