It’s difficult to think of games whose soundtrack had a bigger impact on an entire generation than the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. Popular music had been a part of games for decades: Journey Escape for the Atari 2600 was a particularly weird example, and the use of Song 2 by Blur in FIFA: Road to World Cup 98 was iconic. But the Tony Hawk series was the first to use punk music in this way, and for many kids from the suburbs and the country, it was the first time they interacted with punk.
The structure of bite-sized two-minute levels was perfect for putting the music at the heart of the game as much as the skating was. The punk—or maybe hip hop or thrash—charging over each run became inextricably linked to skating, even for kids who had never touched a board or been to a park.
At the recent THPS Fest in Los Angeles, celebrating both the impending release of the new Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 remake and the legacy of the soundtracks in general, I spoke to some of the people involved with the music of the Tony Hawk games. Here’s what legends of skating and music had to say about their enduring legacy.
For Hawk himself, all of his aims for the game came back to one thing. “I thought it was important to represent the culture of skating, and the culture of skating in my early days was early punk rock music. Then Activision’s music department wanted to keep it balanced with newer music as well, so they leaned in towards newer punk at the time, and it’s crazy to think that Goldfinger was ever new,” Hawk says, sitting in his trailer before the THPS Fest concert. “Also, just other sounds that represent skating, like hip hop. So the music was important to me, but I didn’t think it was going to be something that would be a standalone hit, in terms of people saying ‘Oh, we can’t wait to hear about the soundtrack to the game’.”
It’s coming full circle now
Steve Caballero
Those lofty expectations mean updating the soundtrack for Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 + 4 had added pressure—you’re updating something people view through almost 25 years of nostalgia goggles. This time Hawk was more involved in the soundtrack of his namesake. “I guess it’s a lot to live up to, but I am proud of all the soundtracks, including this new one. I had more input this time too, so I hope it lives up to the expectations.”
Steve Caballero was a pro skater featured as a playable character in the games and now, at the age of 60, his latest punk band Urethane has a song featured on the 3 + 4 soundtrack. When the original games were coming out he was in the privileged position of getting to pick songs for the soundtrack that would also feature in his skating video at the end of the game.
“Skateboarding is gnarly,” he says, “and so when you have a punk song driving a part, it flows really well. I just picked music that I felt would go with my video part. For number two I asked for Millencolin, and for 3 I brought Bodyjar from Australia. It’s coming full circle now because Bodyjar is back in Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 + 4 and we’re touring with Bodyjar this summer.”
Lupe Fiasco is the artist behind the most famous skateboarding hip hop track of all time: Kick, Push. It was first included on Tony Hawk’s Downhill Jam, a departure from the Pro Skater and Underground titles. Now it’s being featured in a main Pro Skater soundtrack for the first time.
“It feels good,” Fiasco says. “Licensing companies are gonna license. You’ve got to let them do that when they want to do it,” he laughs. “No, Tony’s a homie. When Kick, Push first came out, he was one of the first skaters of note to invite me out to L. A. to perform it at one of the events, so this is kind of a full circle situation.”
Watch On
One of the striking things about these conversations are how down to earth all the skaters and musicians in the culture are. The godfather of freestyle skateboarding, Rodney Mullen invented a shocking number of tricks, including the kickflip—he also has a surprising air of humility given all his achievements. According to him, the soundtrack is one of the main reasons why the game was so successful.
People tend to find their music between the ages of, like, 9 or 10, up till 13 years old, and a lot of people found it at that time.
Tony Hawk
“They created something so enduring and special that it stood above everything else,” Mullen says. “I think the way that Tony included all of those bands and the music, the way that he reached outside culture—even if you didn’t skate, you appreciated the vibe. It conveyed the texture of what the culture is. Street art, everything else. All of it worked together to make it something distinct and different from anything that’s ever been done before. That’s why it’s lasted so long.”
Of course, as with all things that have significant impacts on culture, it’s not just the thing itself. It has to find the right people at the right time to have an effect, and Mullen posits that while having all the ingredients for success was important, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater was definitely in the right place at the right time. “There’s a magic era in all things, right? So much was happening in terms of music, everything.”
Watch On
For what it’s worth, Hawk agrees that timing is why the soundtrack had the impact it did. “I think it introduced a generation that was impressionable. People tend to find their music between the ages of, like, 9 or 10, up till 13 years old, and a lot of people found it at that time. But they truly liked it, it wasn’t like it was just being forced upon them. But it was the same for me. I started skating when I was 10. The soundtrack to skate parks was punk rock music. It was Devo, Dead Kennedys, Buzzcocks, Black Flag, Agent Orange, and that’s what I heard while I was skating, and that’s what I associated with skating.”
While you can never go back and experience the things that changed you for the first time again, this golden age of remasters and remakes means the millennials who fell in love with this music and culture at the right place and the right time can revisit it. The expanded Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 + 4 soundtrack also means those now-middle-aged millennials can discover even more new music, while artists such as Caballero prove that we don’t ever have to stop finding and making new music.
With everything Y2K coming back in fashion again, perhaps a whole new generation of kids are about to fall in love with punk music through videogames.