Abstract
In the soundtrack for the Sega Genesis game Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (1994), the genres represented include calypso, funk, carnival, new wave, prog rock, and more. Soundtracks for video games frequently shift genres this way, to create aesthetic themes for different levels or characters. Turning toward an account of the game’s soundtrack as a unified and continuous work, I posit that the music of Sonic the Hedgehog 3 might be understood as analogous to a series of “samples” within a polystylistic whole, following Leydon (2010). Leydon notes that instrumentation “bears the bulk of the semiotic burden” in communicating genre, but stops short of detailing how different instrumental timbres themselves might signify these genres. In my close analysis of two specific levels from Sonic the Hedgehog 3, I detail how timbre, as a musical parameter separate from instrumentation, can evoke specific intertextual and extramusical associations. In doing this, I will show how study of timbre might inform and enhance analyses of genre, both within video game music and more broadly.
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- 1.
Mario is the main character of Nintendo’s flagship series, Super Mario Bros.
- 2.
Throughout this essay, I reference both “genres” as they exist as complex sociological phenomena and “styles” as they are deployed within the Sonic 3 soundtrack as a polystylistic musical text. While this might imply a strict separation between genre and style, my opinion is that the division between these two terms is not so clear-cut. Many scholars believe that styles are defined through musical characteristics (the “music itself”), while genres are sociological; I find the two concepts to be too intertwined to untangle them in any practical context. For a lengthy argument in this vein, see Johnson (2018): “Is it really possible, as [Allan] Moore suggests, that style ‘simply brackets out the social or at least regards this realm as minimally determining, where it is considered to operate with a negotiable degree of autonomy’ (2001, 441)? How autonomous are stylistic units? Surely style creates chains of signification as well that extend beyond the ‘music itself.’ The ambiguity and irreducibility inherent in these pseudo-definitions reveals and introduces analytical and conceptual adversities…” (27). I find the genre/style distinction to be quite slippery, although I’ve attempted to maintain clarity here.
- 3.
- 4.
Cateforis illustrates this through an analysis of the music video accompanying “Video Killed the Radio Star” (2011, 5–9).
- 5.
As an example of praise for Sonic music, see a discussion on Reddit’s video game subreddit about the series’ music: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/1rj0li/rgames_music_discussion_sonic_the_hedgehog.
- 6.
- 7.
From Van Luling (2016): “Sega maintains it never worked with Jackson on Sonic 3, and is ‘not in the position to respond’ to questions about allegations to the contrary. ‘We have nothing to comment on the case,’ the company said.”
- 8.
Van Luling (2016) provides further details: three of the game’s composers say that Jackson “was disappointed by how different the music sounded on Sega’s console when compressed from that ‘high profile’ sound to bleeps and bloops,” while the executive coordinator of Sonic 3 said it was due to molestation allegations.
- 9.
The console was released in 1988 under the name Mega Drive in Japan. In 1989, it was released in North America, but under the name Sega Genesis, due to an existing trademark on the term Mega Drive.
- 10.
For more discussion of the significance of the DX7 in 1980s music, see Lavengood (2019).
- 11.
This is succinctly discussed in Collins (2008, 40–42).
- 12.
This is why many of the resources in my bibliography are not scholarly sources, and frequently have no author, or an author going by a pseudonym—all of this work occurs online, via forums and chat rooms.
- 13.
By this, I simply mean that listeners have instantaneous judgments of and reactions to timbres. Consider how timbre lets you know whose voice is on the other end of your phone call, and allows you to separate familiar sounds from unfamiliar sounds (like discerning a normal whirring in your car’s air conditioning from a new screeching sound that suddenly starts sounding when you apply the brakes).
- 14.
Gjerdingen and Perrott state “[Timbral] information can be highly indicative of particular genres. … The results of this study suggest that a highly reduced combination of melodic, bass, harmonic, and rhythmic features can help to classify genre if these features are coupled with an accurate acoustic signal” (2008, 98). David Blake, speaking specifically about indie music, states “…timbre, more than any other musical parameter, expresses extramusical differentiation in independent music genres. Timbral choices …connect with discourses of differentiation on cultural, political, economic, and/or generic planes” (2012). Zachary Wallmark echoes these thoughts: “… musical ordering—based to a significant degree on rapid perceptual differences in timbre—is closely connected to social ordering. Understanding timbre’s role in this dynamic is thus crucial, I maintain, for future research in the sociology, ethics, and social psychology of music” (2014, 264). Gjerdingen and Perrott also provide the quarter-of-a-second measurement for timbre perception (2008, 97).
- 15.
Brackett describes this “genre is dead” stereotype thusly: “…musicians and consumers often resist requests to categorize themselves, insisting that their tastes are unclassifiable. It is common to hear discussions that have invoked the idea of genre end with the declaration that musical genres do not really exist, that they are mere fabrications of the music industry” (2016, 1).
- 16.
Brackett’s entire book (2016) deals with this concept: how genres seem quite difficult to pin down, precisely because they seem to network in many different ways, and are resistant to neat divisions or branching structures. He summarizes: “Put another way, genres are not static groupings of empirically verifiable musical characteristics, but rather associations of texts whose criteria of similarity may vary according to the uses to which the genre labels are put. ‘Similar’ elements include more than musical-style features, and groupings often hinge on elements of nation, class, race, gender, sexuality, and so on” (3–4).
- 17.
- 18.
- 19.
See Johnson (2018) for a thorough demonstration of this principle, i.e., the semiotic code.
- 20.
This association between cold/harsh/clean and the Yamaha DX7 is discussed further in Lavengood (2019).
- 21.
This is part of a larger trend in new wave to eschew not just bass guitars, but all guitars, from the group, in favor of synthesizers, which seem more “modern” (Cateforis 2011, 151–54).
- 22.
To view transcriptions, navigate to the author’s personal website: www.meganlavengood.com/sonic.
- 23.
Again, transcriptions may be viewed on the author’s personal website: www.meganlavengood.com/sonic.
- 24.
Tagg agrees that the accordion is frequently used to signify otherness in music, citing specifically the French accordion: “The timbre of a musical instrument is often used as part of a genre synecdoche (p. 524 ff.) to connote an ‘elsewhere’ heard from a musical ‘home’ perspective, i.e. through the ears of the culture into which it’s imported. … Other well-known examples of ethnic timbre stereotypes are the French accordion spelling FRANCE (usually PARIS) to the non-French … countless other examples of ethnic instrument stereotyping will only work if listeners are unaware of the range of moods and functions with which the relevant instrumental sound is associated inside the ‘foreign’ music culture” (2012, 306).
- 25.
Manuel describes modal music in many Mediterranean cultures. He traces a few continuities among each culture’s music, one of which is the frequent use of modes based on the Turkish makam Hicaz (also sometimes spelled Hitzas or Hitzaz). The Greek dromos Hicaz beginning on B would contain the notes B, C, D-sharp, E, F-sharp, G, and A. Pennanen (2008) notes that dromos Hicaz is frequently harmonized with a major tonic chord and a minor subdominant chord (1989, 102). Furthermore, Manuel describes characteristic rebetika ornamentation as relying heavily on “hammered-on” upper neighbors (1988, 133).
- 26.
To my ear, this resembles the electric guitar I mentioned previously, but the resemblance is likely too subtle to responsibly and definitively say this synthesized sound is meant to sound like a guitar.
- 27.
Note that while reverb and delay are separate effects, Owsinski conflates them here because they are both related to timing.
- 28.
Recording engineers and producers are well aware of this fact. See, for example, Owsinski (2013, 77): “The fourth element of a mix is dimension, which is the ambient field where the track or tracks sit. Dimension can be captured while recording but usually has to be created or enhanced when mixing by adding effects such as reverb, delay, or any of the modulated delays such as chorusing or flanging.”
- 29.
By “noticeable,” I mean delay that is noticed as such by a casual, untrained listener. A recording engineer or a musician well-versed in production techniques would likely notice even subtle reverb/delay that is meant for “fattening up” a sound; however, the reverb/delay in this case is probably not intended to be heard by a casual listener.
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Lavengood, M. (2019). Timbre, Genre, and Polystylism in Sonic the Hedgehog 3. In: Braae, N., Hansen, K. (eds) On Popular Music and Its Unruly Entanglements. Pop Music, Culture and Identity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18099-7_11
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