Sonic the Hedgehog is a Japanese video game series and media franchise created and owned by Sega. The franchise began in 1991 with Sonic the Hedgehog, a side-scrolling platform game, and has expanded to include printed media, animations, feature films, and merchandise. The music of Sonic the Hedgehog has been provided by a number of composers, ranging from Sega sound staff to independent contractors and popular bands. It covers a wide array of genres, including pop, funk, rock, metal, ska, hip hop, R&B, jazz, house, dance, breakbeat, drum and bass, techno, ambient and orchestral.
The Sonic franchise is well known for its music; Tom's Guide wrote that it "has always had some of the best music in all of video gaming. From Sonic 2, to Secret Rings, to Zero Gravity, to Mania Plus, Sonic's always brought an S-Rank performance to his games' musical stylings." Almost all Sonic games have received soundtrack album releases.
History
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991)
Sega director Fujio Minegishi had connections to the music industry, and suggested his friend Yūzō Kayama write the Sonic score. However, Sonic Team did not think Kayama's music would fit, and so commissioned Masato Nakamura, bassist and songwriter of the J-pop band Dreams Come True. Nakamura admitted he was surprised at the offer, as he had just founded the band, but accepted due to the team's aspirations of outperforming their rival Nintendo. Nakamura also stated that he was limited by the Genesis' hardware, with only four sounds being able to play concurrently, and lacking an understanding on composing music on computers.
Due to only having access to the concept art, he opted to treat the game like a film and convey the atmosphere depicted in the concept art. After composing the tracks, all songs were digitized on an Atari ST using the program Notator. The game's sound engine was programmed by Hiroshi Kubota and Yukifumi Makino; due to company policies at the time, both were credited as Jimita and Macky, although their names were added onto a hidden screen. Makino is also credited for composing the drowning and Chaos Emerald jingles.
Sonic the Hedgehog also saw an 8-bit version released on the Master System and Game Gear, developed by Ancient; Yuzo Koshiro, the company's founder, initially ported Nakamura's compositions to the 8-bit programmable sound generator (PSG) and sought to maintain the feel of the 16-bit tracks. However, only three of the converted tracks would be used while he would compose the rest of the soundtrack; among these unused conversions was an 8-bit rendition of the Marble Zone theme.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992)
Sega of America had initially wanted to use an in-house soundtrack, but it was rejected by the development staff who considered it "awful". Nakamura would end up returning for the sequel, having increased his asking price due to the success of the first game. Nakamura began working on the soundtrack before he had access to the game, so he based the music off the concept art he was given, using the same techniques as the first game. Due to being more technically advanced than his predecessor, Nakamura "wanted to create music that showed progress... It was like the Indiana Jones sequels. Same concept, but with more fun and excitement."
Nakamura was given free rein on the soundtrack by STI, including allowing for unusual rhythm patterns. The soundtrack to the second game was created on a Roland MC-4 Microcomposer, and converted to the Genesis by a team of five or six people. Nakamura was working on the soundtrack alongside the Dreams Come True album The Swinging Star, and as a gift to the developers, produced an alternate version of the ending theme titled "Sweet Sweet Sweet"; it released the same day as Sonic 2's worldwide release. The game's sound engine was programmed by Tomoyuki Shimada. The 8-bit version uses a completely different soundtrack—composed by Masafumi Ogata, Naofumi Hataya, and Tomonori Sawada—likely due to both STI and Aspect having little interaction during both version's development.
Sonic CD (1993)