VGM

VGM may stand for:

Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy (ファイナルファンタジー, Fainaru Fantajī) is a science fiction and fantasy media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi, and developed and owned by Square Enix (formerly Square). The franchise centers on a series of fantasy and science fantasy role-playing video games (RPGs). The eponymous first game in the series, published in 1987, was conceived by Sakaguchi as his last-ditch effort in the game industry; the title was a success and spawned sequels. The video game series has since branched into other genres such as tactical role-playing, action role-playing, massively multiplayer online role-playing, racing, third-person shooter, fighting, rhythm and anime.

Although most Final Fantasy installments are stand-alone stories with different settings and main characters, they feature identical elements that define the franchise. Recurring elements include plot themes, character names, and game mechanics. Plots center on a group of heroes battling a great evil while exploring the characters' internal struggles and relationships. Character names are frequently derived from the history, languages, pop culture, and mythologies of cultures worldwide.

Nobuo Uematsu

Nobuo Uematsu (植松 伸夫, Uematsu Nobuo, born March 21, 1959) is a Japanese video game composer, best known for scoring the majority of titles in the Final Fantasy series. He is considered one of the most famous and respected composers in the video game community. Uematsu, a self-taught musician, began playing the piano at the age of eleven or twelve, with Elton John as his biggest influence.

Uematsu joined Square in 1986, where he met Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. They have worked together on many video game titles, most notably the games in the Final Fantasy series. After 18 years with Square, he left in 2004 to found his own company called Smile Please, and the music label Dog Ear Records. He has since composed music as a freelancer for many other video games, including ones developed by Square Enix and Sakaguchi's development studio Mistwalker.

Many soundtracks and arranged albums of Uematsu's game scores have been released. Pieces from his video game works have been performed in Final Fantasy concerts, where he has worked with Grammy Award-winning conductor Arnie Roth on several of these performances. From 2002 to 2010, he was in a hard rock band with Square Enix colleagues Kenichiro Fukui and Tsuyoshi Sekito called The Black Mages, in which he played electronic organ and other keyboards. The band played arranged rock versions of Uematsu's Final Fantasy compositions. He has since performed with his band Earthbound Papas, which he formed in 2011.

Maersk Line

Maersk Line is the global container division and the largest operating unit of the A.P. Moller – Maersk Group, a Danish business conglomerate. It is the world's largest container shipping company having customers through 374 offices in 116 countries. It employs approximately 7,000 sea farers and approximately 25,000 land-based people. Maersk Line operates over 600 vessels and has a capacity of 2.6 million TEU. The company was founded in 1928.

History

At the beginning of the 1920s, A.P. Moller considered possibilities of going into liner trade business. The tramp trade, where vessels sailed from port to port depending on the demand, was expected to lose ground to liners in time. On 12 July 1928, the vessel LEISE MÆRSK left Baltimore on its first voyage from the American East Coast via the Panama Canal to the Far East and back. The cargo consisted of Ford car parts and other general cargo. This heralded the start of Maersk's shipping services. Maersk Line began to grow in 1946 after the Second World War by transporting goods between America and Europe before expanding services in 1950. On 26 April 1956, ocean-borne container transport was introduced with the shipment of a Sea-Land container aboard the IDEAL X from Port Newark, New Jersey, to Houston, Texas. In 1967, Anglo carrier P&O was part of the first European initiative, a pooling of liner services from four companies, into the new company Overseas Containers Limited (OCL). Both Sea-land and P&O would later be taken over by Maersk Line as it expanded operations between 1999 and 2005.

Yasunori Mitsuda

Yasunori Mitsuda (光田 康典, Mitsuda Yasunori, born January 21, 1972) is a Japanese composer, musician, and sound producer noted for his score work for video games. He has composed music for or worked on over 40 games, and has contributed to many other projects. He is best known for his compositions for the video games Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, Mario Party, Chrono Cross, Xenosaga Episode I, Soma Bringer, Shadow Hearts, Inazuma Eleven, and Soul Sacrifice.

Mitsuda began composing video game music for his own games in high school, and after graduation attended Junior College of Music in Tokyo. As part of his college course, he was granted an intern position at Wolf Team, studying under composer and musician Motoi Sakuraba, and was subsequently given special thanks in the credits of Span of Dream in 1990. Upon graduation in 1992, he joined Square as a composer after seeing a magazine advertisement in an office he was visiting with his professor.

Despite his job title as a composer, Mitsuda worked as a sound effects designer for two years. In 1994, after threatening to quit to Square's vice president, Hironobu Sakaguchi, he was assigned to compose the soundtrack to Chrono Trigger. After the game's success and the music's acclaim, he went on to compose several other games for Square, including Xenogears. In 1998, Mitsuda left Square to work as a freelance composer, founding his own music production studio, Procyon Studio, in 2001 as well as his own record label, Sleigh Bells. The company has since expanded to six employees, and Mitsuda continues to compose for video games, as well as for anime series and his own independent albums.