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Does Yooka-Laylee's Music Stay Faithful to the Banjo-Kazooie Style?

8-bit Music Theory

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Yooka-Laylee is a really interesting game in a lot of ways, but most interesting to me is its music (surprise, surprise). Since the game invites so many comparisons to Banjo-Kazooie I couldn't resist seeing how the soundtracks stacked up against each other, and I was surprised to find A LOT in common on a technical level between the two scores. Enjoy my breakdown of what gives both of these games their distinct, goofy sound!

Kirkhope Interview: Grant Kirkhope (Banjo Kazooie) Composer In...
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20 Comments

@Override9636 6 years ago

8-bit does a super in-depth, 18 minute long explaination of the musical intricacies between both games.
My dumb brain: Heh Banjo-kazooie theme has a banjo and a kazoo...and Yooka-laylee theme has a Ukulele ...

@Diricos 6 years ago

What impresses me about Grant Kirkhope is how he can score games in radically different genres and still nail the soundtrack! I'm a particularly big fan of his work on the Perfect Dark soundtrack (don't worry Perfect Dark, we didn't forget you!)

@alexconstantelos5392 6 years ago (edited)

Great explanation. I think the real difference between the soundtracks isn't in harmony or melody (and you did a great job pointing out the consistencies there), but in rhythm. Virtually every Banjo track uses an "oom-pah" style, where the bass always alternates between the root and the fifth of the chord on the strong beats, and a middle voice fills in the harmony with off-beat "pecks." This type of arrangement is rare in Yooka-Laylee (though you can find instances of it, such as a passage in the middle of Moodymaze Marsh).

In addition, Banjo uses far more percussion than Yooka. Every Banjo level but one (Mad Monster Mansion) has a percussion track playing a consistent rhythmic pattern. By contrast, only two Yooka-Laylee levels use percusson in this way. One of them, Capital Cashino, evokes a mood that is deliberately different from Kirkhope's usual style. The other, Tribalstack Tropics, lacks the oom-pah pattern in the bass.

This means that not a single track in Yooka uses the "oom-pah + percussion" arrangement we hear in practically every Banjo level. That's what people who call Yooka-Laylee's soundtrack "less energetic" are noticing.

@AubriGryphon 6 years ago

"Tritone jank" is my new favorite music term.

@Trestrope 6 years ago

4:45, wow I wasn't prepared for that Z-bomb

@Viviantoga 6 years ago (edited)

If you really want Yooka-Laylee's soundtrack to sound more like Banjo-Kazooie's, just add bari sax. Everywhere.

@prototypeinheritance515 6 years ago

When 8bit uploads, it's gonna be a good day

@javierquinterosurzua2767 6 years ago

BK's soundtrack sounds more like a cartoon
YL's soundtrack sounds more like a movie

@andrewdrost6786 6 years ago

Grant Kirkhope could be considered it's own genre of music.

@dion_spyro 6 years ago

I grew up with Banjo-Kazooie, and I've found that these harmonic structures are kinda everywhere in my own work. It's a totally subconscious influence and I've only recently realised it.

@Redhollow 6 years ago

17:19 Hey I know that guy.

@Kekoapono 6 years ago

12:22 Papa Haydn would be proud!

@rohiogerv22 2 years ago

I doubt he did it intentionally, but it's kind of cool how Kirkhope's use of major-leaning tritone melodies to reference birds is reminiscent of Olivier Messiaen's approach in pieces like Quartet for the End of Time.

@jasperzanjani 6 years ago

even though I took piano for years as a kid, these videos still blow me away by the amount of knowledge it must take to be able to 1) understand and apply these concepts to analyze the music, 2) communicate the results to a lay audience in a narrated video, and 3) actually reproduce the original music complete with notation. Bravissimo, sir. You deserve all the patrons

@kaptenteo 6 years ago

I haven't analyzed it, but it feels like Yooka-Laylee's soundtrack is less playful and varied when it comes to instrumentization. I mean, who could forget the bee choir added to the music of Click Clock Wood, for example? In that regard, Yooka-Laylee sounds a bit less playful and unpredictable, but the melodies are still expertly crafted. There is no other composer quite like Grant Kirkhope.

@a52productions 6 years ago (edited)

The crazy thing about all those tritones is that... they don't sound like tritones to me? Sure they sound weird, but not anymore than any other out of key chord or direct modulation. They dont have the jarring dissonance of a tritone in classical music or the sweet and sour bite of a dominant #9 chord in jazz or blues. They just sound... well, zany, like you put it

Edit: God, Bubble Gloop Swamp is /BRILLIANT/, christ! I shouted out loud when I first heard it, it was only three measures long but it gave me fucking shivers.

@Cheefoo124 6 years ago

"I don't use this word lightly"
Uh oh, is he about to drop a Z-bomb?

@ssholum 6 years ago

That Banjo-Kazooie main theme. Instant energy.

@moctawolf 6 years ago (edited)

Kirkhope's music in Mario Rabbits KB was truly a masterpiece setting the game really nicely and I now see why. The Yooka Laylee's soundtrack really reminded me of the game with those instruments and those progressions.