How Pokemon 8-bit music was inspired by classical music

My chiptune track played in the outro of this video is available to download at or stream on Spotify: 🎼 Junichi Masuda’s soundtrack for the original Pokémon Red, Blue and Yellow games is iconic. Despite the limited hardware offered by the Gameboy, Masuda managed to create some highly effective music, and he did so with a little inspiration from his favourite classical composers. SOURCES: 8-bit guy, How Oldschool Sound/Music worked: 8-bit guy, Use your Gameboy as a MIDI instrument: Interview with Junichi Masuda (2014): Gameinformer (2014), Pokemon music master: ’ Dylan Tallchief, How Pokemon’s CREEPIEST song was made : Interview with Junichi Masuda: Korex, How the Pokemon music was made: Tuning the Koto: Nintendo Life, Interview with Junichi Masuda: How Music Was Made On Super Nintendo: Gameboy sound hardware: Retro Game Mechanics Explained, Generation I Pokémon Cries Explained: Masuda on musical influences: And, an extra special thanks goes to Douglas Lind, Vidad Flowers, Ivan Pang, Waylon Fairbanks, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel’s Patreon saints! 😇 SUPPORT ME ON PATREON: 🎹 0:00 Introduction 0:21 Gameboy’s limited soundchip 2:02 Counterpoint vs. Homophony 3:29 Celadon City 4:12 Pallet Town 5:45 J.S. Bach 7:45 Lavender Town 9:17 Viridian Forest 10:00 Stravinsky & Shostakovich 10:55 Mt. Moon 11:54 Pokémon Tower 12:20 Junichi Masuda 13:40 I wrote a chiptune piece