Michael Jackson worked on Sonic 3?
 

http://gonintendo.com/?p=1667

All I can say is, "Wow."

For those that can't or don't want to watch this movie. It's believed that such tracks as "Ice Cap Zone", "Carnival Night Zone", "Launch Base Zone", and the credits theme were all composed by Michael Jackson, and there's some compelling evidence to back this up.

Intriguing, but entirely circumstancial. Perhaps it's true, but to me, it's just an amusing theory.

That was just a tad bit surreal. Thanks for inability to never again being able to disassociate.

Well, the timing of the compositions and melodies are comparable to his involvement with Sega and Moonwalker. I don't have anything against Jacko personally, as he's never caused me anguish, so it wouldn't bother me if he had actually contributed.

Just the same, I do feel as though some people are grasping at straws when they superimpose these tracks and compare them note-for-note. Even if Jackson had written them, what would it effectively change?

Oh wait, Jackson would be a bona fide VGM composer!

For my next SotW nomination, I choose:

Track: Billie Jean
Artist: Michael Jackson
Album: Thriller
Year: 1982
Track #: 6
Catalog Number: QE-38112 (vinyl)/EK-38112 (compact disc)

DO I SMELL GOLD MEDAL, HMM?

Licenced from Grand Theft Auto, sorry, ineligible.

Actually, one would have to look no further than rule #2 to prove its ineligibility. ;)

Double Post:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:So...les_Collection

After reading the part about the composers who are credited for Sonic 3's music (see the post by 71.71.241.224 and below), I would have to say this whole thing is very believable.

This is all very interesting, but not surprising, since Jackson had close involvement with Sega until his 1993 scandal broke loose. It's no secret that music stars from Japan have worked on Sonic music in the past, so why not have the "King of Pop" on Sonic 3? After all, Sonic sold much better in the US than Japan; up until 1993, Jackson was still a very desired commodity.

Sonic 3 just actually became cooler for me.

Yeah, I'd believe he had some involvement. There's a lot of evidence that points to this now. However, is all of the music in the game his or a derivative of his work, or just a few tracks?

This explains, in a stroke, my irrational dislike for this and most Sonic music.

Seriously though, who *is* credited with the Sonic 3 music?

Launch Base is too good for Michael Jackson :(

Hoo boy, this is surprising. I was looking up Sonic 3 composer info on GameFAQs just two days ago and never saw his name on there...

Out of those four, Ice Cap Zone is the best. Carnival Night is the worst, IMO.

Bring back the glory days of Sonic Team. Bring back Michael. Revive it with the King of Pop.

I wonder why he wasn't credited originally if that was his music. Maybe some Japanese composer was a big fan of Jackson's and ripped off the chord progressions.

Brad Buxer, Bobby Brooks, Darryl Ross, Geoff Grace, Doug Grigsby III, Cirocco (credited as "Scirocco")

All of which have worked with Micheal Jackson on his music at one point or another.

It's quite likely that Jackson never physically worked on the Sonic 3 music himself, but Jackson's "people" did, which is why the similarity exists. However, it would take Jackson to bring all of these people to Sega, so he is somewhat responsible for the music, at the very least.

I swear, Michael Jackson has a hand in everything.
Everything. >_>
He just owns little bits of so many things, like those Beatles songs (which I don't know if he has anymore or not...I think he might have sold them). And now, even video games. I'm going to have to go back and play my old Genesis now....

Quite intriguing! The evidences are all pointing into that direction, but it reminds me of some surreal theories like the Bigfoot & such; the way things are presented, it can trick some people's mind. But still, there's no proof Michael didn't do that music.

Have anyone tried to contact Jackson's representants and ask about this? Maybe they'd deny it though, if indeed Sega cut the deal when his scandal came up.

I dunno. It would hardly have been negative publicity for Jackson to have been associated with Sonic 3 back in the day, when he was still the King of Pop. It's unimaginable to me that, had Jackson really had a hand in composing for Sonic 3, he would go completely uncredited and Sega wouldn't have used his name in any capacity. They certainly weren't shy about touting Dreams Come True as the composers for Sonic 1, so why wouldn't they have Michael Jackson plastered all over the Sonic 3 ads?

aHeeHee, Boing!
 

I agree with Watts & Arkhangelsk, i.e. the bits about the japanese composer just re-hashing the chords in his own way for the game, and about having a hankering to play sonic 3 again! but my hats off to Qjimbo and Kaleb G. for making/finding this...I had my brother and sisters around when watching this not only were we laughing in awe...but man that mix of Ice cap + MJ's Who is it...simply uncanny!

As a musician, I find it awfully difficult to buy into this.

For the similarities between Carnival Night Zone and whatever Jackson's version was, the creator of the video has a point. The little fragmented melody at the end of the loop for CNZ is the same as the fragment in Jackson's song. Of course, it's also a two-note pattern going upwards in a scale.

The chord progression between Ice Cap Zone and whatever the other one is by far the most ... strange evidence to me. I'm not quite sure what the writer is saying that G Minor is the relative minor of EFlat Major. That's just ...outright...wrong. While he's right, there is only one note different (EFlat Major is Eflat, G, Bflat, G minor is G, Bflat, D), the relative minor of EFlat Major should be C Minor. And the chord progression between "Ice Cap Zone" and "Who Is It" holds no similarities aside form starting on the same chord. There are reasons that chord progression fits with Ice Cap, but, that's not really worth explaining. I'll attest it off to us being very used to hearing things in a jazz style, things like Dominant 9th, Dominant 11th, and even Dominant 13ths, along with minor versions... there's a whole plethora of a mess that I can get into describing these chords. And there are a lot of chords that are similar, which makes sense: in a certain key (especially in pop music) you're going to use a lot of the same chords over and over. But it's the *order* of these chords which matters. Not the sheer usage of them.

Also, I believe the composer(s) for the sonic games has always been written as "Sonic Team" - never one composer, or composers. Correct me if I'm wrong on this one.

Bling.Bling.Bling.BlingityBling! Sha-moan-A!
 

tetre , I see what you're trying to say , however there are other references thats leading us to believe this whole MJ/sonic 3 ...er..scandal? primarily:

1) The wikipedia discussion detailing who the people in the credits were
(especially the fact that "Michael Jackson brought the team to Sega, not
vice-versa")

2) Other songs especially `Stranger in Moscow' and the final credits tune go
pretty well together (why Jackson/his music people would decide to steal
back a song they decided for a video game years ago is anyone's guess)
Give this mix a listen though: http://cinos.gunsha.com/s3_credits_mj.mp3

3) Last I read the original lot who made the documentary have actually gotten
hold of one of the musicians and are aiming to clear this up...all the
theories evidence etc seem positive (the original authors forum is: http://www.sws2b.com/forums/index.ph...opic=6683&st=0

I'll tell you this though...this is definitely a strange form of VG Drama!

That, and if you go to Cirocco's homepage, it even says:
Obviously they mean "Sonic the Hedgehog 3", but you get the idea.

From what one of the former game devs wrote to us, Michael Jackson was SUPPOSED to do the music for Sonic 3 - but this got public, and they canned the whole thing and rewrote all of the music. That's pretty much all we know about the issue so far, although its true that many of the people in the Sonic 3 music credits did formerly work with Jackson.

Perhaps we may find out more about the deal soon though.

(and I can't believe that that video made it to youtube)

Boy, I feel as if my copy of sonic three was just molested.

Innocent, until convicted. :biggrin:

*edit* Uhh I mean't as far as Jackson is concerned... not me!

Aw c'mon, 90s Michael Jackson was cool, before he had that fatal accident and had to be replaced with a child-molesting soundalike.