Sonic the Hedgehog

About

Ok, Sonic the Hedgehog is not a musician. What I want to talk about is the music of the Sonic the Hedgehog games. Composers like Masato Nakamura, Naofumi Hataya, Tee Lopes, Michael Jackson (yes, that Michael Jackson), and many others contributed to the music of Sonic over the years.

What they mean to me

My family had a Sega Genesis when I was young as well as a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog. Some of my very earliest musical memories are of the Sonic games. I suspect this is why I like funky synth tracks so much. I know Sonic is considered a bit of a meme in modern day but no one contests how good the music was.

Examples

Metallic Madness is one of those classic video game tracks and appears on the Japanese version of the Sonic CD soundtrack. Yes, the American version of the game shipped with a different (and much worse) soundtrack.

Tee Lopes' work on Sonic Mania has some of my favorite video game tracks of all time. Although this track doesn't appear in gameplay I love its wild modulations.

I love the latin feel of this track. Though I wasn't good enough at video games as a child to make it to Aquatic Ruin zone very often.