Some of the music that defined Sonic the Hedgehog may be older than Sonic himself.
Original Sonic composer Masato Nakamura of DREAMS COME TRUE has revealed that he brought melodies he had written before his professional debut into the soundtrack of the first Sonic the Hedgehog, developing older rejected and unreleased musical ideas into music for SEGA’s new mascot.
Nakamura discussed the creation of Sonic’s music in a new long-form interview published in CONTINUE Vol.90, which Sonic City previously covered ahead of its September 28 release.
Looking back at where those melodies came from, Nakamura explained:
“I had written a lot of songs before my debut. I brought melodies I had written around that time into Sonic.”
It was not simply a case of pulling completed songs off the shelf either. Nakamura says some of the material consisted of ideas that had never found a home elsewhere.
“There were motifs that had been rejected and never realized, and unreleased melodies that I wanted to keep developing. I kept putting my own musical ideas into it.”
That adds another layer to a soundtrack that has already spent 35 years escaping the boundaries of the Mega Drive. Green Hill Zone alone has been rearranged, sampled and reused countless times, most recently receiving a new remix from Madeon for the ongoing Sonic x Fortnite collaboration.
Nakamura also returned to the competitive atmosphere surrounding Sonic’s creation. He says he could feel SEGA’s determination to challenge Mario and wanted his music to live up to that ambition.
“I felt that Sonic carried SEGA’s desire to beat Mario, so I wanted to respond to that feeling too.”
That part of Nakamura’s story goes back much further than this interview. In an older official Sonic Channel interview, he similarly said SEGA’s determination to “beat Mario” was what made him genuinely want to take on the project.
What CONTINUE’s new interview adds is a much clearer picture of the musical environment Nakamura was working against.
Video game music did not have anything close to its present-day status in the wider Japanese music industry. Nakamura recalls it being dismissed outright.
“At the time, game music was mocked as ‘beep-boop music’ and wasn’t treated as music.”
His answer was to write music that players would actually remember after putting down the controller.
“I wanted to make game music with melodies that everyone could hum.”
That philosophy lines up with Nakamura’s earlier recollections of approaching Sonic almost like a film score, with memorable melodies for regular play, dramatic music for major moments and a proper musical progression through the game.
The CONTINUE interview also shows just how differently Sonic’s popularity looked from Nakamura’s perspective in Japan.
He recalls travelling to London while recording with DREAMS COME TRUE and being surprised by how enormous Sonic already was overseas. When he told people at the studio that he had composed the music for Sonic the Hedgehog, Nakamura says he was met with an extraordinary level of respect.
That international response would only grow. Sonic’s music eventually reached concerts, films, remixes, Olympic ceremonies and generations of later composers, while Nakamura’s Green Hill Zone melody became one of the most recognizable pieces of game music in the world.
Thirty-five years later, some of those melodies can now be traced even further back, to musical ideas Nakamura was writing before DREAMS COME TRUE had even made its debut.
Stay tuned to Sonic City for more Sonic Music News and Updates!
Discover more from Sonic City ⋆★ Sonic the Hedgehog News, Media, & Community ★⋆
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
