Someone else said it best: these tracks suffer from the YouTube metal remix syndrome, where nothing is important to them other than the lead guitar, and they have no idea how to mix drums.
There’s no backing instruments or melodies and no bass.
Arguing about music is like arguing with religious fundamentalists. When it gets down to it, there’s no progress to be had because each side has a fundamentally different viewpoint of the world and until that is reconciled, both sides can do no more than just yell at each other.
I’ve been working in music for a very long time (15 years or so now) and I think the SF4 soundtrack is better-produced than these SF5 samples. The compositions in the SF5 stuff are fine, especially the Ken theme, but the mixing sounds almost amateur.
You guys hate on the SF4 soundtrack too much. The composition is far more than competent and the mixing is really excellent. The guys who worked on SF4 really knew their shit. There’s a lot of music in there and I like some of it more than others (and some of it is pretty underwhelming, as can be expected from any large body of work) but calling SF4’s music “bad” just shows a fundamental lack of musical understanding. Straight up, USF4’s music is unarguably not “bad.” Whether or not you like dance music, think it suited the game or the series, or just don’t like any of the songs… that stuff a completely different debate to be having and comes almost entirely down to taste. I love music of all kinds and though the dance tunes were a refreshing take on some classic melodies. I would prefer to see them branch away from the dance stuff now, but it was cool that they tried it for SF4. Is it valid to have not liked SF4’s music or style? 100% yes. Is it valid to say the music was bad? Not really.
There’s this obnoxious tendency in gamer circles to discount music that isn’t chip, rock family stuff (metal, alternative), orchestra, or funk/jazz. Try to be open-minded; there is a wide world of music out there beyond In Flames and the Megaman 2 soundtrack.
W/e I’ve said my piece about this a few times already. The SF4 soundtrack was fine, and you aren’t going to like the music in every game you play. Turn it down and put on some SF3 stuff, or mod it.
You’re right, the SFIV ost is compositionally sound, but it’s the piss poor instrumentation(or lack thereof?) that makes it suffer. It suffers from teh too many cooks syndrome, where there’s guitar, piano, violin, synth, brass, etc etc just slapped in every freaking track which makes the compositions sounds more like a cacophony than what they could’ve otherwise been. That’s the way I see it. As for V, the china and UK stages had appealing themes to me…but these examples are, as PSYC0J0SH says, some amateur youtube metal remix material.
That being said, and after listening to the new zealand snippet a few times, I think it’s actually quite decent. Nothing too special, but it sounds fitting and at least doesn’t suffer from the aformentioned poor choice in instrumentation. It’s more conservative and to the point, ALA ST or SA2.
Ken = 9/10
Ryu = 7/10
Bison = 3/10 (unfitting theme for him imo)
Nash = 6/10
Forgotten Waterfall = 8/10 (good mood theme, I like it)
HAHAHA all the people bitching and overacting over the music yet the still turned out to be good. Oh boy what kick 
I don’t think Bison is ever going to have an other good theme. It’s always going to be this electric crap. You think Bison wanna hear that shit?
I’m no expert on music, I just like what I like. I had a love and hate with SF4’s music as I posted earlier, but I really am fine with what we’ve gotten so far. The only sample I wasn’t sold on was Bison’s. I really like Charlie’s new theme and Waterfall sounds good. My main issues with SF4 haven’t shown up yet and that’s the crazy and messy use of dubstep and other electronics .
Surprised to see no one mentioned the music in the Ken reveal trailer that seems like the best theme by far and I so hope it is included in the game.
I liked Ryu’s SF3 theme. It could be on Music For The Jilted Generation by Prodigy
Yogaflame24 has compiled the recent themes clips into 1 video for easy sharing and dislike (if you do, I personally like the renditions).
I think the arranged/remixed character themes are really missing the mark. I’ve heard a bajillion arranges of ryu’s theme and they all seem to think that just pushing the fuck out of that main melody line with a guitar does it, while it’s all about the subtle bass and strings in the background that set that serious and melancholic tone. The reason why it’s easy to get ken’s theme right is because it’s fast paced and dynamic. A couple of shreddy guitars will do that pretty decently. With nash, they’re also just pushing the one line and not getting in the brass cues when the main line goes into rest. Bison’s theme…is shit. Capcom always makes great original compositions but doesn’t ever seem to get remixes right, I don’t know why. The original themes for the game so far sound decent so here’s hoping that the new characters and stages get good themes.
Just getting around to listening to these, and I copletely agree. These character themes (minus Forgotten Waterfall since it’s a stage song, but still) are WAY better than the themes done on SF4. I do agree with @PSYCHOJ0SH a bit in saying some of the tracks do come across overproduced, but still, these are fantastic. When I say overproduced, I mean there are still more instruments and certain arrangements in some of the songs that just don’t need to be there. But while I still kinda look at Hideyuki Fukusawa with the side eye, these first 6 songs make me give him at least one or 2 head nods. Definitely wanna hear more – give us Cammy, and Birdie!
I will add though, I’m not a fan of metal/power guitar stuff all over the place. Ken’s theme, still kinda makes me wince a bit, but that’s my bias as while I do like rock, metal is not my forte.
Ok Capcpom… You listened for the most part.
You shit the bed on Bison, though.
Way better than the forgettable shit that was heard earlier, but dial the guitars back and remember that there are other instruments in these themes.
I give you a 6.5 out of 10 for actually listening, but still being your usual lazy selves.
I disagree with everything you said here and it’s not valid to say SF4’s soundtrack was good by any stretch of the imagination.
Is it just me or does Nash’s give off the weirdest MGS vibe? In the beginning it felt like it could’ve broke away to the MGS1 alert theme at any point. Really liked it though
Progressive rock soundtrack for this game?? Best Street Fighter OST confirmed.
I’m the only one who likes Bison’s theme? It sounds like something that would be on Mega Man X.