The magic of music? Ludomusical narrativity, transmedia, and the musical geographies of Hogwarts legacy

Abstract This article offers a close reading of the soundtrack of the open world videogame, Hogwarts Legacy (2023). It addresses the soundtrack at three scales. First, it shows how the game’s music orients the player relative to the world of Western music and to what might be called a Western soundscape. Second, it analyses how the game’s music positions the player in relation to the Harry Potter franchise, including by reference to music from the Harry Potter films. Third, it explores how the game’s music situates the player within the gameworld itself, including via musical topics and leitmotifs. Through this analysis, this article explores opportunities beyond dominant approaches to music in geography, especially recent non-representational approaches, which have generally avoided engaging with the actual content of music and/or have considered only a selection of musical types. Further aims of this article, following recent calls in human geography, are to contribute to the development of phonographic methods and to expanding research on new digital media.