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Music of the Command & Conquer series

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Music of the Command & Conquer series

The music of the Command & Conquer series consists of the soundtracks of the Command & Conquer (C&C or CNC) video games, published in various soundtrack and compilation albums. C&C is a video game franchise, mostly of the real-time strategy style, developed primarily by Westwood Studios and Electronic Arts. Much of the music for the series was composed and produced by Westwood Studios' former sound director and video game music composer Frank Klepacki for the early games, with composition duties being taken on by several others following the liquidation of Westwood Studios in 2003. Klepacki returned to the series in 2008 to assist with the soundtrack for Red Alert 3.

The Music of Command & Conquer is a soundtrack album containing musical tracks from the video game Command & Conquer, composed by Frank Klepacki and produced by Westwood. It was originally released in 1995. The soundtrack spans two discs and 22 tracks with combined duration of approximately 72 minutes. The soundtrack was bundled with some of the game's collector's editions, which feature tracks from both the original Command & Conquer and the expansion. Though it was never released through retail, Westwood Studios sold this official soundtrack by special order through its website and in game catalogues. The album was packaged with a brushed aluminium design and featuring the official Command & Conquer logo. Many songs included in the release of the album include vocals which could previously only be heard on the PlayStation or Sega Saturn versions of the game; these were actually the original versions of the songs. The voice samples in the songs conflicted with the voices in the game, factoring in their removal from the in-game soundtrack.

Some song names differ from the in-game versions. In these cases, the in-game track title is mentioned behind the original title. Also, some track titles differ from the versions on Frank Klepacki's website. In these cases, the website's track titles are mentioned behind the original in-game track title. The first seven in-game tracks are only available with the Covert Operations expansion pack.

The Command & Conquer soundtrack is the first video game produced by Westwood to feature streaming music as opposed to MIDI. The 22k mono tracks were produced using an ASR-10 sampler, a Roland S760 sampler and a Roland JD-990 synth module. Klepacki has credited influences from dozens of artists including Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd and Nine Inch Nails in the production of the soundtrack. Klepacki wrote the songs in batches, each in different musical genres. "In The Line of Fire" was written in an orchestral style while "C&C Thang" was influenced by Hip hop and metal in "Deception". Certain songs such as Hold On, in the style of Laurie Anderson, were cut from the game because they did not fit the style Klepacki was aiming for in the overall soundtrack. With the release of the Covert Operations expansion pack Klepacki composed many of the ambient songs of which he was requested by Westwood for the game.

The track "No Mercy" as well as "Deception" feature quotes of the character Chuck De Nomolos from the film Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey. "In Trouble" contains quotes of Maverick from Top Gun and the track "I Remember Now" from the Queensrÿche album Operation: Mindcrime. None of these are actual voice samples from the original sources; they were all re-recorded in their own audio studio.

All tracks are written by Frank Klepacki.

The game's original score was composed by Frank Klepacki and was voted the best video game soundtrack of 1996 by PC Gamer and Gameslice magazines. Among his most famous songs from the series is the theme of Red Alert, titled "Hell March", which accents the style of the game with adrenalized riffs of electric guitar, the sounds of marching feet, and synthesizers to a sampled drill command. Originally intended to be the theme for the Brotherhood of Nod faction in the Covert Operations expansion to the 1995 Command & Conquer, the track eventually ended up becoming a staple in the Red Alert series instead.

After C&C came out we wasted no time kicking out Covert Ops. I wrote some more ambient style themes they asked me for, and then I began tinkering with this heavy metal song that I was trying to gear towards Nod for the next big C&C game. Brett Sperry came in my office and said "You got anything I can hear for the new C&C?" I played it for him. He said "What's the name of this one?" I said "Hell March". He said "That's the signature song for our next game".

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