The Streets of Rage series is famous for its incredible music, which was supplied by Yuzo Koshiro on the 1991 original and Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima on the second and third Mega Drive / Genesis games (both would also contribute to Streets of Rage 4's music, alongside Olivier Deriviere and Tee Lopes).
As one of Koshiro's most enduring contributions to the world of video game music, Streets of Rage is something the composer and game designer clearly gets asked about a lot.
He's taken to social media to try and explain what music influenced him while working on the series. He has previously made no secret of being heavily inspired by the dance music of the era, but he reveals that there were so many influences at the time that he honestly struggles to focus on any particular tracks.
"People often ask me what kind of music influenced me when I was making Streets of Rage," says Yoshiro. "Honestly, there are just too many to name. But more than listing specific tracks, what I really want you to understand is that the music itself was a message. I poured my heart into the tracks so Western gamers could feel how much I was inspired by the popular music of that time. Many of those songs featured distinctive brass and string phrases, and a lot of DJs were sampling beats and bass licks from old jazzy vinyl records. Around that time, club genres like house and techno were emerging, shaping a whole new era of sound. I was deeply influenced by all of that and tried to recreate the style as authentically as I could."
Koshiro adds that, when working on Streets of Rage's music, he was keen to pay tribute to the various artists who had contributed to its sound. "For me, it wasn’t just about making cool tracks. It was about honoring the music and culture that had inspired me so deeply," he adds. "I’m also grateful to SEGA for giving me the opportunity to share that sound with the world through the Mega Drive and Genesis, especially in the West."
Sega is currently working on a new Streets of Rage game, while Koshiro is putting the finishing touches to Earthion, a shmup created using Mega Drive hardware which is also coming to current-gen systems.