Home Gaming Michael Jackson’s work on Sonic 3’s soundtrack detailed

Michael Jackson’s work on Sonic 3’s soundtrack detailed

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sonic3

For a long time, it was claimed that now-deceased musical genius and bad Diana Ross cosplayer Michael Jackson had a hand in the creation of the music for Sonic the Hedgehog 3. It’s a bit of an industry open secret; everybody knows that it happened, but nobody’s opening up and admitting it.

In a long feature, The Huffington Post now claims it has concrete evidence proving one of the video game industry’s worst-kept secrets; that Michal Jackson did indeed compose the music for Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles.

According to three of the game’s six credited music producers, Jackson worked pretty damned closely with the team to compose Sonic 3’s soundtrack?

So why then is it all so hush-hush, and why is it all so secretive? Why would SEGA not want Michael Jackson’s name tied to the game? According to the report, the reasons are two-fold.

The first reason, they say, is that once the music was compressed and digitised to fit on the 16-bit cartridges, it sounded a world removed from the original vision, and Jackson was apparently unhappy with the results, not wanting his name attached to the bloops and bleeps that made their way to the final game.

The other reason is the more infamous and obvious one; at the time that Jackson was supposedly busy composing tracks for the game, he was embroiled in accusation of child molestation. This led SEGA to scrap all of the music and redo it – or at least that was the plan. According to some of the producers, tracks were given just minor edits, or left completely alone – leaving Jackson’s music still in the game.

It’s something we’ve known about (or at least, suspected) for decades, so it’s nice to have something bordering on official confirmation. Read the full report.

Last Updated: January 26, 2016

No Comments

  1. The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

    January 26, 2016 at 13:40

    S3 and S&K (as well as the S3&K and S2&K) were responsible for utter majestic times as a kid

    Reply

    • Deceased

      January 27, 2016 at 10:35

      First game that I ACTUALLY remember playing – and I still don’t think I have a game in my Steam Library with as many hours clocked :O

      It’s the spark that ignited the passion – and the music is still motherfucking epic!!!

      Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    January 26, 2016 at 14:03

    I see that sneakily inserted MJ arcade game reference.

    Reply

    • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

      January 26, 2016 at 14:09

      Mehnwalka

      Reply

    • GooseZA

      January 26, 2016 at 14:12

      Had that game on my Megadrive. Was MJ mad at the time.

      Reply

  3. Original Heretic

    January 26, 2016 at 14:13

    If people start boycotting music artists because of the shit they get up to in their personal lives, well, then I guess there wouldn’t be much to listen to.

    Reply

  4. David

    January 26, 2016 at 14:16

    I can still hum the Ice Cap Act 1 song in my head.

    Such amazing songs – can understand why they’re so melodic now.

    Reply

    • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

      January 26, 2016 at 14:17

      You ass, now that song is in my head!

      Actually…..thanks, hehehe, good memories!

      (also a damn fun level!!!)

      Reply

      • David

        January 26, 2016 at 14:36

        Let me try to undo that with another rad track.

        Reply

        • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

          January 26, 2016 at 14:48

          BEST

          Reply

        • Hammersteyn

          January 26, 2016 at 15:16

          Right in my nostalgia!

          Reply

    • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

      January 26, 2016 at 14:17

      • Hammersteyn

        January 26, 2016 at 15:16

        Good times. Played this game over and over and over. Especially after collecting all the chaos emeralds so that you can use Super Sonic from the start

        Reply

        • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

          January 26, 2016 at 15:26

          Hehehe, love it

          Reply

        • CypherGate

          January 26, 2016 at 17:03

          Where can we get the original songs composed by mr MJ? Would be so interesting to hear the original compared to the Sega downsampled ones.

          Reply

          • Hammersteyn

            January 26, 2016 at 17:43

            No idea what so ever 🙁

    • The Grand Admiral Chief Prime

      January 26, 2016 at 14:19

      HATED the HYDROCITY music

      Reply

      • David

        January 26, 2016 at 14:36

        My God! That level was a toughy, and it was like the second one if I remember correctly.

        Reply

      • Deceased

        January 27, 2016 at 10:40

        Downvote!!!

        This blasphemy cannot be allowed!!!
        The worst was Carnival Night
        – not because the sound was bad in any way, but because at some random point during your day that shit would just pop up in your head and stick like an orphan not wanting to go back to the orphanage … 😐

        Reply

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