If you’re in the United States and live in a forested area, chances are your neighborhood has been invaded by millions of these special cicadas that only come out every 17 years. Hearing about it a few weeks ago, I thought, “Oh, that can’t be so bad. Sure, the other cicadas that come out every summer make some annoying sounds, but it’s tolerable.” I spoke too soon. Apparently, a single one of those cicadas can have a shrill that reaches 90-decibels, a level that when exposed to for sustained lengths of time can result in damage to the human ear. Having millions of these things all around the suburbs doesn’t help the situation, either. Luckily, I’m not outside among the bugs.

Sitting inside the house obviously mutes the noise quite a bit, but even in here you can hear the insanely loud shrills from the outside. I can hear it over the TV, over someone playing the piano, even over the giant box fan behind me. The constant sound is just annoying after a while, so if you’re like me, you’re going to try and find a way to distract yourself from it.

I love music. I’ve been a Beatles fan as long as I can remember, I’m a music education major at school, and I’ve written and recorded some pop/rock songs in my spare time. I even wrote a feature article on Zelda music. Now, I could go and put on a CD or a movie musical to drown out the cicadas, but it only works if I focus on the music because lets face it – unless I blast the music to unhealthy levels, I’m still going to be able to hear the cicadas. I can only sit and listen to the music for so long before I start to get distracted by other things I could be doing, reducing the music to simply background sound after an hour or two. That’s where music video games come in.

If I pick up a game like Elite Beat Agents, I’ve got an extremely addictive game in front of me with great music that keeps my focus strictly on the game, especially on the higher difficulty settings. It’s as if I made the famous cry for help, and the Agents came to the rescue via my tapping little numbered circles and beach balls – because I did. Aside from my stopping to write this little post, I really haven’t been thinking about the noise outside. Thank you, Agents.