Editing Space Invaders (section)

===Music===
{{Listen
 |filename     = Space Invaders Music.ogg
 |title        = Space Invaders music
 |description  = The game's signature looping four-note bassline, as heard during gameplay
}}
Despite its simplicity, the music to ''Space Invaders'' was revolutionary for the gaming industry of the time. Video game scholar Andrew Schartmann identifies three aspects of the music that had a significant impact on the development of game music:
# Whereas video game music prior to ''Space Invaders'' was restricted to the extremities (i.e., a short introductory theme with game-over counterpart), the alien-inspired hit featured ''continuous music''{{tsp}}{{mdash}}{{tsp}}the well-known four-note loop, consisting of the first four notes of the descending D [[Natural minor scale|minor natural scale]]{{tsp}}{{mdash}}{{tsp}}throughout, uninterrupted by sound effects: "It was thus the first time that sound effects and music were superimposed to form a rich sonic landscape. Not only do players receive feedback related directly to their actions through sound effects; they also receive stimulus in a more subtle, non-interactive fashion through music."<ref name="MaestroMario">Schartmann, Andrew. [http://thoughtcatalog.com/book/maestro-mario-how-nintendo-transformed-videogame-music-into-an-art/ Maestro Mario: How Nintendo Transformed Videogame Music into an Art.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130823064005/http://thoughtcatalog.com/book/maestro-mario-how-nintendo-transformed-videogame-music-into-an-art/ |date=August 23, 2013 }} New York: Thought Catalog, 2013.</ref>
# The music interacts with on-screen animation to influence the emotions of the player: "That seemingly pedestrian four-note loop might stir us in the most primitive of ways, but that it stirs us at all is worthy of note. By demonstrating that game sound could be more than a simple tune to fill the silence, ''Space Invaders'' moved video game music closer to the realm of art."<ref name="MaestroMario" />
# The music for ''Space Invaders'' popularized the notion of variability—the idea that music can change in accordance with the ongoing on-screen narrative. The variable in ''Space Invaders'', the [[tempo]], is admittedly simple, but its implications are not to be underestimated. "Over the years, analogous strategies of variation would be applied to pitch, rhythm, dynamics, form, and a host of other parameters, all with the goal of accommodating the nonlinear aspect of video games."<ref name="MaestroMario" />
{{Quotation|At the deepest of conceptual levels, one would be hard-pressed to find an arcade game as influential to the early history of video game music as ''Space Invaders''. Its role as a harbinger of the fundamental techniques that would come to shape the industry remains more or less unchallenged. And its blockbuster success ensured the adoption of those innovations by the industry at large.|Andrew Schartmann, ''Thought Catalog'' (2013)}}

''[[Next Generation (magazine)|Next Generation]]'' editor Neil West also cited the ''Space Invaders'' music as an example of great video game art, commenting on how the simple melody's increasing tempo and synchronization with the enemies' movement chills and excites the player.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=West|first=Neil|date=November 1997|title=The Way Games Ought to Be...: Great Videogame Art (with No Pictures)|url=https://archive.org/details/NEXT_Generation_35/page/n157/mode/2up|magazine=[[Next Generation (magazine)|Next Generation]]|issue=35|page=157}}</ref>