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Michael Jackson and Sonic the Hedgehog
Chances are, Michael Jackson's vault of music will be laid bare over the next decade, possibly with enough "new" material to shame Tupac off his secret island. Turns out some of his work has been hiding beneath our noses for over 15 years—in an old Sonic the Hedgehog video game. This week, a French magazine obsessed with Jacko, Black & White
, confirmed the official, long-rumored info: The King of Pop, in fact, "composed music for the game" Sonic 3
. Huh.
Talk about an interesting footnote to MJ's early-90s fall from grace. Turns out the gloved one loved Sonic games so much, he approached the developers with a full-length, allegedly unsolicited soundtrack—who would turn that down?—only to back away midway. Rumormongers had blamed the fallout on legal issues, while Jackson's Sonic 3 co-composer Brad Buxer now blames the lack of "optimal sound reproduction" on the Sega Genesis. (As if. That Moonwalker video game nailed it.)
Either way, the story makes sense, as Jackson loved video games. LOVED THEM. You ever see the massive game room in his estate sale? It was the white, windowless van of the 21st century. Jacko hand-picked each of those arcade machines, and he never went without his fix :
If the Jackson-Sonic soundtrack had come to full fruition, who knows how that would've turned out? The game was huge, so MJ could've won over a new set of young fans. And a slew of original, game-specific songs, unlike the cheesy Moonwalker game, might've blazed a trail for other pop stars to start their own serious projects (to wit, 1996's Quake was scored nicely by Nine Inch Nails, though probably not thanks to MJ's inspiration). Instead, Jackson had a few problems with those young fans, while geeks got stuck with the Aerosmith video game, waiting over a dozen years for Guitar Hero to legitimize the music-game genre.
One last virtual salvo starring the King of Pop appears to be in production, though there's no telling if it'll ever see release. Hopefully it won't revolve around freeing tied-up children.
Talk about an interesting footnote to MJ's early-90s fall from grace. Turns out the gloved one loved Sonic games so much, he approached the developers with a full-length, allegedly unsolicited soundtrack—who would turn that down?—only to back away midway. Rumormongers had blamed the fallout on legal issues, while Jackson's Sonic 3 co-composer Brad Buxer now blames the lack of "optimal sound reproduction" on the Sega Genesis. (As if. That Moonwalker video game nailed it.)
Either way, the story makes sense, as Jackson loved video games. LOVED THEM. You ever see the massive game room in his estate sale? It was the white, windowless van of the 21st century. Jacko hand-picked each of those arcade machines, and he never went without his fix :
Jackson: "I usually take some with me on tour.''
Telegraph: "How do you manage that? The video game machines are pretty big, aren't they?''
Jackson: "Oh, we travel with two cargo planes.''
If the Jackson-Sonic soundtrack had come to full fruition, who knows how that would've turned out? The game was huge, so MJ could've won over a new set of young fans. And a slew of original, game-specific songs, unlike the cheesy Moonwalker game, might've blazed a trail for other pop stars to start their own serious projects (to wit, 1996's Quake was scored nicely by Nine Inch Nails, though probably not thanks to MJ's inspiration). Instead, Jackson had a few problems with those young fans, while geeks got stuck with the Aerosmith video game, waiting over a dozen years for Guitar Hero to legitimize the music-game genre.
One last virtual salvo starring the King of Pop appears to be in production, though there's no telling if it'll ever see release. Hopefully it won't revolve around freeing tied-up children.
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