What Does America Sound Like?

Video games allow American gamers to see depictions of America that don't always line up with how they might see themselves. But how do VGM composers shorthand the U.S.A.? I listened to some of the more notable examples of themes for American characters in games around the Street Fighter II era to see what version of America they're trying to communicate to us. Track listing: 0:09: Charlie's Theme / Street Fighter Alpha 2 / Setsuo Yamamoto, Syun Nishigaki and Tatsuro Suzuki 2:04: Jazzy NYC '99 / Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike / Hideki Okugawa 5:01: Plight (Guile's Theme) / Street Fighter Alpha 3 / Takayuki Iwai, Yuki Iwai, Isao Abe, Hideki Okugawa and Tetsuya Shibata 6:08: Violent Emotion (Guile's Theme) / Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition / Composed by Yoko Shimomura, arranged by Isao Abe and Syun Nishigaki 8:31: Travelers / T-Square 9:24: Q's Theme / Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike / Hideki Okugawa 11:28: Battle Harbor (Ken's Theme) / Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition / Composed by Yoko Shimomura, arranged by Isao Abe and Syun Nishigaki 15:02: Mighty Wings / Cheap Trick 15:28: Stripes (Cody's Theme) / Street Fighter Alpha 2 / Setsuo Yamamoto, Syun Nishigaki and Tatsuro Suzuki 16:45: Balrog's Theme / Hyper Street Fighter II: The Anniversary Edition / Composed by Yoko Shimomura, arranged by Isao Abe and Syun Nishigaki 19:29: Kiss Me (Blue Mary's Theme) / Fatal Fury 3 / SNK Sound Team 20:40: Slum No. 5 / King of Fighters '94 / Masahiko Hataya 22:48: Kurikinton (Terry's Theme) / Fatal Fury 2 / Masahiko Hataya, Toshio Shimizu and Yoshihiko Kitamura 25:53: Long Horned Beetle / King of Fighters '96 / Masahiko Hataya 27:52: Hurry Up! (Ray's Theme) / Fighter's History / Gamedelic 31:32: Sarah's Theme / Virtua Fighter / Takayuki Nakamura 33:44: Haggar's Theme / Saturday Night Slam Masters / Masaki Izutani and Setsuo Yamamoto 35:52: Gunloc's Theme / Saturday Night Slam Masters / Masaki Izutani and Setsuo Yamamoto 39:29: Wilderness Policeman (Kevin's Theme) / Garou: Mark of the Wolves / SNK Sound Team 41:14: Poison's Theme / Ultra Street Fighter IV / Hideyuki Fukasawa 42:14: Joe's Theme / Fighting Street / Yoshihiro Sakaguchi If you like this episode, you might like a series I'm doing on the connections between VGM and pop music: https://singingmountainpod.com/episodes/playlist-vgm-pop-music-singing-mountain Drew on Twittxer: https://twitter.com/drewgmackie Singing Mountain on Twitter: https://twitter.com/singmopod On Facebook: https://facebook.com/singingmountainpod/ On iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/singing-mountain/id1252832457 On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2ISyNLUc1ALxzvjBqw4ru3 On Google Play: https://play.google.com/music/m/Ifofiaeephbs27wb6cqr24dlgl4 On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/singingmountainpod/ On SoundCloud: @singingmountain On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9f9iAcO1ZMTYVH91c2Jsyw Official website: https://singingmountainpod.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/tablecakes TableCakes Productions: https://www.tablecakes.com Subscribe to the newsletter: https://tablecakesproductions.substack.com/subscribe