The lyrics of this song were written in Japanese then directly translated to English, if you pay attention you’ll notice there actually isn’t a rhyme scheme in the song AT ALL. Despite this, the amazing instrumentals and the sheer talent of the vocalist, Johnny Gioeli, carries this track into being a banger.
Yeah it's for that reason that Johnny doesn't care too much for it on comparison to their other Sonic tracks. Open Your Heart REALLY feels like a cheesy English anime intro song for that reason.
Woah, I can't believe how obvious it was, except I thought the "every step we take every move we make" part was a reference to The Police, now I really doubt it
It's so weird that this is your first time hearing Crush 40. Open Your Heart is definitely one of the best Sonic vocal songs out there. btw, mostly all Main Themes for Modern Sonic games have vocals. Happy 500th Episode!
@@nachot6592 "Modern" within the sonic community doesn't exactly refer to present-day. It's just a term that's used to separate the original sonic of the genesis games with the taller, green-eyed sonic of the 3D games and games after that.
FINALLY JESSE HAS A TASTE OF FUCKING CRUSH 40!!! Someone needs to request WHAT I MADE OF, LIVE AND LEARN and I AM ALL OF ME!! Also, i think the guitarist and composer of the song is Jun Senuoe.
Opening the Sonic Adventure pandora's box, eh? Crush 40 is just fun. Loud, metal, cheesy, wearing its heart on its sleeve. The lyrics are bonkers and silly and I love every minute of them. Some people obviously might consider themselves above it, but I can't tell you the number of people who will get hyped and rock out to their music. Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 are in my opinion their absolute peak. Live and Learn from SA2 is worth the listen of course. In general breaking into these games, even the non-Crush 40 tracks, is gonna give you a lot of incredible buttrock. Get hype.
So, yes, Open Your Heart and Live and Learn (Sonic Adventure 2 theme) are definitely anthems in the the community. We call the genre buttrock, and it's a genre that revels in being unabashedly cheesy and singable and just doesn't give a fuck how cringe it might be. The song is the main theme, and also the final boss theme. Imagine you're nine years old, you've just finished all the character stories in Sonic Adventure, and you unlocked SUPER SONIC as a character. Suddenly everything goes wrong. Robotnik has been defeated, but his 'monster' Chaos has not only betrayed him, but has collected all the Chaos Emeralds and evolved into its final form, "Perfect Chaos." It's a giant dragon made out of water, explodes out of a side of a building in full CG (this was part of the intro video you mentioned, yes the game did have one) and floods an entire city destroying everything and threatening the world. But, it only sucks up the negative energy of the Chaos Emeralds and spits them out. Sonic's friends gather up the now-grey emeralds and give them to him, and he, with the power of friendship, absorbs the positive energy and becomes Super Sonic with the guitar riffs of this theme playing in the background. And then you 1v1 Perfect Chaos as Super Sonic while the lyrical version of this plays. For nine year old me, I lost my mind and sang along as I fought. And yes, as an adult in my 30s, I still sang along and played the air guitar along with the theme while watching.
Sonic Adventure was my first video game, and Super Sonic made me lose my little 5-6 year old mind. I attribute it to the moment my love for video games was solidified.
I will forever remember that moment as a kid. Was so darn cool. I will forever love crush 40 for making my childhood along with sonic. Don’t care if this is cringe.
This song really is peak Sonic. All the 90s rock energy, cheesy and corny, but also absolutely sick riffs from a classic Sonic composer and timeless with the catchiest lyrics. Gotta love that this sound carried Sonic right into the 21st century without missing a beat and still stands iconic. Adventure and Adventure 2 are straight business musically. Getting to see Jun play a bunch of the songs live is def a highlight of my concert going career. Happy 500!
Also trivia time: Crush 40 is an established band, but they are specifically Composer Jun Senoue’s band (similar to Nobuo and the Black Mages in a way). Crush 40 worked on so much of Sonic they’ve become the iconic sound, but they actually have a ton of independent music that carries all the same energy and fun they bring to the games.
You know, I know it's become the thing to call Sonic Adventure anthems "buttrock" and I always concede to people who say this, because it's just treated as a given; but really I don't get it. I'm not offended or anything, but I'm not the biggest rock fan... can someone tell me why these songs are considered so cheesy? Is it: 1) because of the sound of the instrumental? And/or is it because the lyrics are coherent and not shrill or screechy? So many people, including Jesse call it metal, but really the genre is more like hard rock. It sounds similar to many rock and hard rock anthems and these go far and wide beyond Power Rangers and Transformers. Are we gonna wrote off ALL songs of the hard rock genre as cheesy, because it doesn't sound metal enough? Do we say "Don't Stop Believing" from Journey is cheesy because it shares these traits? OR 2) is it because the lyrics are hype, hopeful and positive? Or because the title of the songs are repeated throughout? Does rock have to be dark or about demons and bloodshed to not be considered buttrock? And again for both these traits (including the repeating title in the chorus) I point to "Don't Stop Believing". Do we consider that legendary hit buttrock or just rock? Or is it 3) something else entirely that I'm not getting here..
Crush 40 is mostly related to sonic and the band is separated from sega but when are hired by them it's practically impossible they don't accept because the guitarrist Jun Senoue is one composer of sega since the 16 bit era. He formed the band with the vocalist Johnny Gioeli (also vocalist of Hardline). They first works were songs for a racing arcade nascar game by the name of Son of Angels but because another band had already that name they changed it to crush 40 being open your heart they first song by that name. Also yeah, Jun Senoue is an amazing guitarrist and his sound marked an era in sonic games
@@bluecubegaming1535 As far as i know, crush 40 was originally a 3 person band being jun, johnny and bassist takeshi taneda but their drummer has changed over the years. Currently their drummer is "Akht" and it looks like he will be a permanent member at least for the time being.
And here it is, Crush 40. Bit of coincidence you heard Open Your Heart first, the first Sonic song they made. There are many more Crush 40 songs in the request list that you can look forward to, and the band is still around if you were curious.
I remember asking Johnny gioeli over facebook if that very last "yeah" was something he added or something, he told me he wrote the lyrics, it was all him.
Growing up as a kid in an environment and community where all I would hear was hip hop or reggaetón, this song came as complete and total shellshock to me when I loaded up Sonic Adventure DX on my GameCube. The very moment in the intro when the song kicks into full gear and the vocals come on I felt every hair on my body stand straight up and goosebumps from head to toe! It shot a spear straight through my heart and opened me up to wanting MORE of whatever this was that I was listening to. It was my gateway into so many more genres of music and will always hold a special place in my heart for in some odd way helping me discover more about myself.
Don't forget the different version of I am all of me not by Crush 40 (different band couldn't remember it's name) and also another lost shadow the hedgehog song called Who I Am (great song was supposed to be in the game as one of the ending themes but was left unused but is still a badass song basically shadow saying This is who he is no longer a shadow of who he was before or wanted to be and asking you to try to understand that this is what you made him and you're not ever gonna change him)
Crush 40 is basically SEGA's in house band, they are the most well known musicians behind the Blue Blur and are responsible for so many powerful songs. Live and Learn, What I'm Made Of, Knight of the Wind, It Doesn't Matter, Face to Faith With Me, and many many more 100% want more Crush 40 reactions.
The time has finally come! I'm glad this song gets the honor of being episode 500. Crush 40 is one of my favorite video game bands. It's comprised of longtime Sonic composer and guitarist Jun Senoue, with vocalist Johnny Gioeli who was best known prior for his vocals for the band Hardline. They've done some songs for other SEGA games as well as some of their own discography, but they are most well known for their several Sonic tracks. Pretty much any game Jun Senoue was involved on the soundtrack with, Crush 40 would accompany it, usually for the main theme or final boss.This track plays during the game's intro, there's an instrumental version for the title screen, and it does also play during phase 1 of this game's final boss, where you're rushing down what's essentially a giant water kaiju as Super Sonic. We in the Sonic community affectionately refer to this genre as "Butt Rock," but we all have a giant soft spot for Crush 40 all the same. My personal favorite Crush 40 track is Live and Learn, which you've no doubt also gotten many requests for. I'm glad you finally got to experience this track and I'm definitely looking forward to more Sonic and Crush 40 in the future! Here's to the next 500, cheers 🍻
I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear a musician compliment and say such good things about one of my favorite Sonic songs of all time. Normally people laugh it off and brush it off, but you didn’t. I was smiling so big through this whole video. Crush 40 is so cool. Thanks for thinking it’s cool. I’m going to save this video to send to people. “Hey look! A real musician and guitar dude thinks it’s good! If a pro says it’s good, it’s good.” I’m giddy.
I'm so happy to hear your reaction to this one, as a kid this was actually my first ever Sonic game and the opening sucked me in. I spent so much time in this game not even playing the game, just in the Sound Test screen playing the music in the game. Back in primary school I played this song so often I learned how to sing it and I can still do it entirely. The game itself, as the first 3D style game that they'd continue like this? I may be nostalgia blind but it's pretty good. There's flaws, there's bugs, we don't talk about Big the Cat but it was a good start and it laid the foundation for Sonic Adventure 2, which is one of my favourite games of all time. Edit: I've been called out. I was indeed singing along. Dang it, Jesse.
Same I got DX in 2011 for my gamecube!! I was 10!!! I remember playing this game nonstop and loving this song!! I replayed the game and beat it again!! This game will always have a special place in my heart!!!
Open your Heart would 100% be THE sonic anthem if it wasn't for the main theme of Sonic Adventure 2, Live and Learn, which is arguably the most iconic rock theme from a video game ever Open Your Heart absolutely rocks though, its just that what they did right after this is as close to perfect as you could get
11:35 Jesse, Its the theme playing when you're fighting the final boss which has you running through a ruined city, there is indeed a shorter version for the title intro of the game too. Also plays at the end credits.
Crush 40 makes absolute bangers. Love these songs. And yes, the band is still around. Jun Senoue is the lead Guitarist of Crush 40, and he still works on Sonic to this day. Johnny Gioeli is the vocalist, and he's ALSO still singing, and his voice hasn't faded at all, which you can heard in their most recent work, like the "Sonic Symphony" last year, which was a performance of a bunch of old Sonic Music like the classics, some more modern songs, Open Your Heart, etc. Open Your Heart is the final boss theme/main theme of Sonic Adventure, playing in the intro and the final boss fight against a Water God. I'd HIGHLY suggest Sonic Adventure 2's "Live and Learn". It's, like Open Your Heart, the Final Boss/Main theme of the game. It is, to this day, still upheld by much of the fandom as the best theme ever put into a Sonic Game.
Sonic Adventure was the first game I got as a kid, and the music in it was instrumental in my upbringing. I remember having Music Appreciation classes in middle school where we shared music and whenever the teacher asked who my favorite band was I always answered Crush 40 and always had to give a bit of an explanation as to who they were (often times getting the condescension of "we talk about 'real music' in this class not stuff from video games with their beeps and bloops" from the instructor). I had the honor of seeing them in concert in 2018 and even though they're no longer my favorite band like I would say back then (still up there though), seeing them in concert was one of my favorite memories of my life. Just being able to belt out all the words to childhood me's favorite song with a crowd of fans who all felt similarly was just magical.
I'm impressed again and again how good you are on telling where the songs are played. Not only this one (wich was right btw. After starting the game, this song and the intro movie came) but on other songs as well. Congratz on Ep 500; keep up your good reactions. You should react to more Crush 40 Songs, and I will sing embarresly to all of them
Jesse finally getting into the greatness that is Crush 40, I couldn’t imagine the series music without their vocal tracks. The guitarist of Crush 40 Jun Senoue is actually a longtime composer for the series, he worked on the Sonic Adventures, Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Generations and many more.
You’re definitely right about Open Your Heart being one of Sonic’s main anthems. Some of his others are It Doesn’t Matter (both from Sonic Adventure 1 AND 2), Live and Learn, and His World by Zebrahead. Some of my favorites are Live Life, Knight of The Wind, Endless Possibility, and Solaris Phase 2. I know for certain people are going to request Live and Learn, so I’ll make it my duty to requests His World and Live Life. Just like Live and Learn, I know you’ll love it. The Sonic franchise is filled with amazing music I like their music more than their games even though the games still hold a special place in my heart.
Absolutely loved this, thanks for picking it!! Some other awesome Crush 40 Sonic songs you should check out are Live and Learn I Am.. All Of Me All Hail Shadow (Shadow The Hedgeog version) His World Knight Of The Wind
Legitimately a huge injection of nostalgia for me. Sonic Adventure was the first game I ever played from the first console we ever owned. Videogames were incredibly hard for us to get a hold of back in the day, so despite Sonic being older than that, our family couldn't afford to actually get into the scene until much later, and thus Sonic Adventure was the beginning of my love for videogames as a whole. When I hear this theme, I think back to those times and how grateful I am that I could stumble upon something so legendary.
One of these days you really need to see Sonic's 30th anniversary symphony. An amazing tribute to the series and picks some of the best music from the series to play for the show.
Congrats on episode 500! Yeah Jesse called it, I might've found myself singing along for this one. I seriously hope he hears Live and Learn. Sonic Adventure 1 and 2 really knew how to make their final bosses feel incredible using their main themes. While I can recognize the games themselves aren't without some problems, I love them to death. The soundtracks, especially SA2's, are a huge part of that.
This is one of my favorite songs in the entire series. It just has so much energy, I love it. If you want another amazing vocal theme from the series then I highly highly recommend This Machine from Sonic Heroes too. It's not by Crush 40 but it's still amazing.
First, let me just say: congrats on your 500th reaction! That's awesome, dude! Been checking you out every so often ever since I saw your reaction to Into The Wilderness from Wild Arms (one of my all time favorite video game tracks, btw). Now, on the topic of Sonic songs: check out It Doesn't Matter. Also from Sonic Adventure 1, also by Crush 40. It's Sonic's character theme (all 6 playable characters get their own theme), and it SLAPS. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Hi there Uncle Jesse, long time no see. As a Big Sonic Fan of course I knew the song, but couldn´t sing along. Why? Because I, a grown 37 old man, was in tears reliving the good old days of booting my Dreamcast and this game and you guess it, as I was watching the movie intro with that amazing song in the background, I was in Awe. Became a fan of Crush 40 from that moment. And listening that song for the final Boss of the game was just the iceing in the cake, the cherry on top. To this day, I am still amazed by how much music as this unique power of making you feel things you didn´t even now, a sense of nostalgia, a sense of hype and of couse to trigger memories of days of old that somehow slipped by and imediately come rushing down like a waterfall just by listening to a familiar Guitat Riff or a vocalized verse. I feel it even more in videogames, just because of the emotion atached by the fact it was "your experience". Long live videogames and VGMs. Stay safe, stay well, keep on keeping on and all the best my online friend
Crush 40 are awesome. This and Live and Learn are probably two of the most well known and popular modern Sonic songs but they've made music for the Sonic series for quite some time now. Even though I didn't enjoy the game that much, I Am... All of Me from the Shadow The Hedgehog game is easily one of the best songs they've made. Hope you get to hear some more of them in the future.
Jun Senoue is the GOAT when it comes to his soundtracks. Please listen to Live & Learn, What I’m Made Of, I Am All of Me, and His World!!! And even the zone tracks of each games that these songs are attached to 💙💙💙 this Franchise is evergreen with its music
The guitarist is Jun Senue and he is absolutely still kicking around,in fact Sonic had a live symphony concert to celebrate his 30 year anniversary and Crush 40 made a return to sing their songs. Also the reason Open Your Heart is so good is because it ties in perfectly to the themes of the game. The big bad Chaos, isn't actually bad but was attacked by creatures called Echdinas. This in turn caused Chaos to go on a rampage, destroying everything and killing everyone. He had closed off his heart to humanity (see where I'm going with this?). Sonic on the other hand, embraces love and embraces life. He chooses to let his friends help him and this let's him achieve the greater power of Super Sonic. Then using this power, Sonic doesn't kill Chaos but instead manages to neutralise the anger inside of him and hence, open his heart. Yes its just as cheesy as it sounds but guess what, I like me some cheese
Man it's cool to see you do this one, I have actually been thinking about it recently weirdly enough. I feel like you can tell that this was a time when Sonic Team put everything they had into Sonic, when it was full of character and quality. Sonic Adventure may have been a janky ass game but the concept and variation and scale in level design for a 1998 3d platformer...honestly still amazing to me.
Sonic CD stuff with it's New Jack's Swing is awesome. Sonic Boom, Metalic Madness (Japan), Stardust Speedway Bad Future (both US and Japan), are my favorites
I'm 21 and this song was a soft gateway into extreme metal lol. I remember finally listening to Metallica and I was like "damn, Crush 40 was trying to sound like THIS". Sonic music is just awesome man
Congrats on 500 episodes! This song is one of my favorites from games. The game's intro and the final boss playing this song is insanely hype. Hopefully you do more Crush 40 songs in the future. Live & Learn, What I'm Made Of, and Knight of the Wind are also great.
The godliness of Johnny Gioelis voice, even in Axel Rudi Pell, gone in the wind and surive shows just how amazing his voice is! So if you liked crush40 youll LOVE Axel Rudi Pell, same lead vocalist.
Some sonic songs i would like to recommend 1)work it out(Sonic R) 2)metallic madness act 2(Sonic Mania) 3)meteor herd(Sonic Adventure 2) 4)press garden act 2(Sonic Mania) 5)Catch me if you can(Sonic Riders Zero Gravity) 6)Dr. Eggman Showdown(Sonic Lost world) 7)Dreams of an absolution(Sonic The Hedgehog-06) 8)It has come to this(Sonic And The Secret Rings) 9)Dragon Dance(Sonic Lost World)
Fun fact: that's none other than Naoto Shibata of Anthem on bass. He also produced some amazing albums covering Konami game music back in the 90s, such as Perfect Selection Dracula Battle I & II featuring some incredible arrangements of classic Castlevania tunes.
I swear this song is timeless or something. First heard it over 20 years ago and these days when I hear it, I don't feel nostalgia. It just feels as fresh as it did when I first heard it. Like it was never gone.
So yeah the opening instrumental/noises is connected to the opening video/visuals of the video game, the eerie techno sounds that something is about to go down and be unleashed, and then the sewers in the city explode! It's about the story of the main antagonist, Chaos, 'the god of destruction' and Eggman of course.
lol crush 40 is a fun cheesy vibe funniest thing about the name is the dude was turning 40 and he was like yea im gonna crush 40 and thats why theyre called that 😂
6:47 insert the bro is flabbergasted meme 😂. Honestly very fun reaction to watch, as someone who's been a fan my whole life I can definitely take these songs for granted since I've heard them so many times, but glad to see they still impress to this day
So nobody seems to have mentioned this but it's named Crush 40 because all the members were in their 40s when they started it, and they decided they were gonna, well, crush 40. I just think that's neat.
Here's some songs I would recommend Metallic Madness Bad Future JP (Sonic CD) Final Fever US (Sonic CD) Door Into Summer (Knuckles Chaotix) Seascape (Knuckles Chaotix) Green Grove Zone Act 1 (Sonic 3D Blast Saturn) Staff Roll (Sonic 3D Blast Genesis) The Chosen One (Shadow the Hedgehog) Metal Scratchin' (Sonic Rush) Wrapped in Black (Sonic Rush)
When I'm 8 years old and I hear rock music for the first time by playing this game on Xmas Eve 1999, about my favourite character at the time, then yes. This is iconic, powerful, memorable, inspiring and VERY nostalgic seeing sonic in full 3D & voice for first time!! I used to play the songs in the options menu with a tape recorder next to my TV and record all the songs for my own time lol had to keep a distance away from TV tho or I'd get that magnetic dan da da dun sound.
im sure someone else has said this but crush40 is sega's in-house band, so they pretty much only work on sonic. The guitarist/composer is jun senoue, he's fantastic! he did some work on the new sonic game that's coming out in november, and i think he still plays bc crush40 sometimes performs at sonic fan conventions like summer of sonic back when that was still running.
The Dreamcast/GameCube/Wii sonic games went on to define my taste in music. The main reason I listen to a lot of hard/alt rock and metal are because of these games LMAO.
The past few videos you've been on point guessing where solo's or certain parts kick in. Its always fun to see your face light up after calling it. Keep it up, happy 500 Jesse!
Adventure was phenomenal back in the day and even today with all the mods. The soundtrack is top notch, diverse, and always banging. Nice song to cover.
This song actually does play during gameplay. For a while, 3D Sonic games used the main menu theme for the final battle. So you fight a giant water monster in a flooded city as Super Sonic, and the fight was even included in Sonic Generations, alongside battles against the Death Egg Robot, Metal Sonic, and the Egg Dragoon, and levels like Escape from the City and Chemical Plant Zone.
Don't mind me just here to feed the algorithm gods! Happy 500th episode! Would love to see you react to the opening of Sonic Satam "The fastest thing alive" and also I'm sure everybody else is recommending "live and learn" from sonic adventure 2, I'll add my voice to that one as well~
I vividly remember having to turn on the TV and turn down the volume to zero the MOMENT the TV turned on every saturday morning at 6 am other the house would explode with sound.
Sick way to celebrate 500 videos! I also recommend to listen to "what I'm made of" from sonic heroes, which is Johnny Gioeli's favourite song he sang for a sonic game if I recall correctly (he's the singer for crush 40). It's great stuff!
