Patsy Gallant and Video Games

Canadian artist Patsy Gallant (born 1948), who achieved worldwide commercial success as a disco queen, released Take Another Look in 1984. The album tells the story of the “High Tech Girl,” a female cyborg character that serves as a metaphor for Patsy herself to address the imminent end of her marriage to musician Dwayne Ford through the album. For the first time in the singer’s discography, synthesizers and MIDI sequencers took a predominant role. Those new digital technologies inspired the construction of a futuristic piece where distinct elements such as the sleeve photos, the lyrics, the musical arrangements, and the final sound interacted with each other according to an unevenly organized concept. Sound effects and repeating short musical loops were created with the synthesizers to represent narrative elements through the tracks. This article combines interpretative studies, musical analysis, semiotics, and studies related to Patsy Gallant’s biography (as well as her accounts of the making of the album during interviews and conversations with the author) to investigate the intersections between Take Another Look and the background music presented in early home console games, as well as the overall influences of early video game music on the album. It takes into consideration some concepts featured in video game design and game audio literature, notably studies of game narrative, the function of audio elements on gameplay, and game semiotics. In the article, Take Another Look is highlighted as an innovative album where video games are important narrative and sonic references. The language of video games impacts the artistic concept of the record and the metaphors related to both the construction of Patsy Gallant’s musical persona and the music for the project.