Can You Feel the Sunshine Tee Lopes Remix and Richard Jacques' reaciton

I have no stake in this, and picking sides seems stupid.

But my main question is, what the hell is it about the Sonic franchise that attracts so much toxic drama?

In fairness though, the appeal of the song was how stupidly bright, cheery and cheesy it was. Feels weird stripping it down, because it removes that level of cheese that made it appealing in the first place.

The original song wasn't exactly a masterpiece though.

 

Y'know, you'd think that after the clusterfuck of individual music tracks' ownership issues/who-did-what uncertainty/rights problems etcetera with Sonic 3 & Knuckles, SEGA would be a bit more willing these days to ensure properly crediting artists and documenting authors, but alas here we are...

... I'm trying to wrap my head around Richard Jacques' very harsh reaction. If what he's saying is true, it's not the first time he's done some music work in relation to SEGA, and not been partially or fully credited for it? Hmm.

I totally understand his frustration with SEGA/Tee Lopes lacking acknowledgement of his work, but I strongly disagree with his blatantly snotty general response to the remix's quality itself, constructive criticism would have made a world of difference.

This stings quite a bit for me, as Richard Jacques composed and arranged my favourite Sonic music track: Rusty Ruin Zone Act 1 (Saturn). It's particularly annoying and frankly disheartening to see one of your favourite music artists suddenly sling shit at another music artist who you also like a lot.

 

as I said in the other topic

I'm extremely curious to see if Jun Senoue has done some unfollowing or JP tweets about it. I am also extremely curious as to what this means for Jacques getting employed by Sega for more Sonic games in the future - sure Tee Lopes is new, but inadvertently insulting one of their most senior composers has to result in some pants-shitting internally.

EDIT: I just remembered - Super Sonic Racing was remixed by Cash Cash in Generations.......but Jacques is credited in the liner notes so I have no clue what he's talking about. The same is true for his remixes in that game. He is also credited in the TSR liner notes.

 

This remix was... okay. It certainly isn't my favorite rendition of the song, and I do prefer the original. I do think his frustration is valid, but I've definitely lost some respect for him after seeing those messages, it was unprofessional no matter how you spin it. A shame because I really do like his work a lot, just as I like Tee's work a lot. It would suck if these comments ended up killing his chances to collaborate with Sega again, but attacking other creators isn't okay, especially not ones actively working with Sega at this time.

 

He was specifically talking about Tee when he said it happened before.

 

Wow, they should start a band.

My guess, Richard Jacques is either lamenting the vicious circle of redoing old stuff or just very bored. What's the point of covering someone else's work? It raises expectations among some fans. Either way, it's not worth the hassle. I like the original a lot better. Not only for nostalgic reasons, but also because this sort of music is not my cup of tea.

 

Why is Jacques pissed that "his music" was stolen?

Sega didn't commission him for the soundtrack like they did Nakamura or Buxer

Sega can do whatever they damn well please with it. I assume Crediting him is likely just a courtesy of theirs.

 

I almost wonder if Jacques is bitter he didn't get called up to do the soundtrack for Mania? He might've felt entitled to being the one to do the music for a Saturn-styled Sonic game, and is thus upset that some young upstart got the job instead.

That's all openly just speculation, obviously. Regardless of the situation, it's pretty crummy on his part to pitch a fit like this.

 

So, out of curiosity, I searched "Richard Jacques" on YouTube to see if anyone had made videos about this matter yet.

I found 1 video, courtesy of user FlameHisWorld, which provides some screenshots of more Tweets from Richard Jacques and other people, as well as him apparently blocking people...



... Richard Jacques, please, this seriously isn't a good look. Fuck, man.. Why you gotta be like this?

Look, I understand that you feel wronged for not being credited (It appears that the YouTube video description also didn't include credit to Richard Jacques, and was edited later.), but there are more mature ways to go about this than rude remarks and blocking people's criticisms. Actions like yours historically have almost always never gone down well online. Grow up, dude!

 

Seems like Bentley Jones had some stuff to say in regards to this:
https://twitter.com/Bentley_Jones/status/1192877751654596609?s=19

 

https://twitter.com/Bentley_Jones/status/1193245156293648385

It seems he has a massive problem of jealousy over people taking "his" roles. Which IMO is just childish. Maybe I'm just being all cynical but for heck's sake it's a remix of a 22 year old song on a YouTube channel everyone's going to forget about in a month. And besides, it's not like the composer for Sonic R is exactly a secret either. I just don't understand what the big deal is.

 

Fuck me. This whole event appears to be outing Richard Jacques as a total dick, with a horrendous attitude to other musicians. He doesn't own jack shit in terms of music roles, unless and only unless a company/group/person/etcetera makes a deliberate exception on their own accord/choosing to revisit him specifically for games/projects.

Example scenario: If he's not commissioned by a company to compose a theme in a sequel (But he was commissioned by that same company for composing a different theme for the previous entry.) then guess what? The person(s) in charge of seeking a musician and in charge of the game/project ultimately have final say!

You're not going to win every opportunity for work in your life, he seriously needs to get over himself with that. You don't have a right or the keys to whatever franchise, nor its specific game series, because you worked on music in a previous game in a series. That's not how it works, Richard Jacques. For goodness' sake, you're an adult; why is it even necessary for anyone to explain this? Damn.

Also, he ought to take some kind of grasp of 2 important things: "fair use"/"fair dealing" and "being flattered". His stupidly arrogant reaction almost comes off as if people involved in the remix were deliberately trying to fuck him over or something, which I don't buy. Does he deserved to be credited, and should he have been credited from the get-go? Absolutely. Does this mistake warrant his piss-poor attitude? Hell no.

Honestly, I'm truly saddened to discover that one of my favourite Sonic music artists has revealed themselves to be just.. quite unpleasant to deal with. Such a genuine bummer, as I love his Sonic R and Sonic 3D (Saturn) music work, and always will, however I'm very bitter to learn that someone I thought well of for years seems to be insufferable to work with/around.

It makes me wonder if he ever rubbed some brain cells together to ponder the potential ramifications of his idiotic statements, which is very ironic if he wants to get commissioned as much as he makes out. Did it ever cross his mind that acting as he did/does might jeopardise such career opportunities? I guess he's too full of his own ego to see past it, which is depressing. He did delete his offending Tweets afterwards, but did he do that in an attempt to to save his ass, or due to a genuine reflection on his actions? Sadly, I believe it to be the former, especially considering he's blocking people criticising him.

 

It's very sad, I was starting to like his job more from Jet Set Radio / Future and Sonic & All-Stars Transformed, but then, he had to be like this...

 

I can not feel the sunshine to this. It does not brighten up my day. I'll just think about the good times, and hope they don't try to come back like this.

 

Everything said, I am actually willing to hear Richard Jacques out a bit, regarding his claim of recurring credits-lacking, if proof of such can be provided.

I'm still very sour about this whole scenario, though. Maybe I subconsciously got too attached to Richard Jacques as a person, despite my main interest being his music work itself. Sigh...

Do you have any specific examples of this? I've followed Tee Lopes on Twitter for some time, and (although I haven't seen him that much in interviews) I haven't noticed anything from him that strikes me as particularly off or arrogant, but I'm willing to be proven wrong, it's very possible I missed things. I want to look at this Tee Lopes versus Richard Jacques situation from as level a playing field as possible.

 

I totally feel you. I absolutely love his work on both JSRs, Sonic 3D PC/Saturn and Sonic R. That said, I feel like it's unfortunately necessary to separate the art from the asshole.

 

The remix was good, I enjoyed it. Hope more guest composers can come in and remix other songs off the Sonic R soundtrack, I think that'd be neat. Do not invite Richard Jacques.

 

The Tee Lopes remix was fine, imo. Nothing amazing, but serviceable. It's pretty chill to listen to.

Jacques really shot himself in the foot hard with this mess. If he had a problem, he should've contacted SEGA about it, instead he made an ass out of himself on social media then deleted his tweets to cover it up. I wanted to stay neutral on the situation, but if Bentley Jones is to be believed, then Jacques is an arrogant manchild. You know what they say: "Don't meet your heroes".

 

According to Bentley, Jacques does this all the time?! I wonder if maybe Cash Cash themselves can be asked about this, they're the other set of younger western producers I can think of who were involved with Sonic (and did the main theme for Colors).

What really baffles me is the...proportion of it, so to speak. 3D and R are not main-series Sonic titles - they're not even remembered that fondly as games. 3D in particular even got a ROMhack by the game's director fixing its problems. Where on earth does he get his gatekeeping garbage from, when the works he's known for are two mediocre-at-best Sonic titles?

(Sidenote, he did music for Jet Set? I thought that was Nakanuma.)

 

Jet Set Radio is a mix of Naganuma's tracks and third party tracks. (Jacques is second party, I guess?)

Richard Jacques made this track for the OST: