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Masato Nakamura

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Masato Nakamura was born in 1958 and is a Japanese bassist and producer. He began as a session musician and, with the singer Miwa Yoshida, formed a project that in 1988 grew into the J-pop band Dreams Come True, together with the keyboardist Takahiro Nishikawa. The band has sold more than fifty million CDs. In 2002 Nakamura and Yoshida founded their own record label, DCT Records. Nakamura writes a large share of the band's songs and does almost all the arrangements.

Music and breakthrough

Outside Japan he is best known for his work for computer games. The company Sega chose him in early 1990 to make the music for the first Sonic the Hedgehog, which came out in 1991. Later that year the game was shown for the first time by being painted on the tour bus of Dreams Come True. He also made the music for the sequel, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 from 1992, while at the same time working on albums by his band. In 2006 he made a new version of the ending theme of the second game for a later Sonic game.

Influence

The music of Sonic belongs to the first generation of game music that also became popular outside the gaming world. Nakamura brought the melodic, smooth side of Japanese pop to the small sound chip of a game console. In this way he contributed to the sound that would later come to be called chiptune.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Green Hill Zone and notice the cheerful melody that keeps returning and the fast bass line beneath it. Can you hear that the piece could just as well have been a pop song?

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

See also

Categories: Artists8-bit and chiptune