Music of the Command & Conquer series

The soundtracks and compilation albums for the *Command & Conquer* video game series make up its music. Early games in the franchise, mostly real-time strategy titles developed by Westwood Studios and later Electronic Arts, were largely scored by Frank Klepacki, Westwood’s former sound director. After Westwood Studios closed in 2003, other composers took over. Klepacki returned in 2007 with *Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars*, marking his comeback before later contributing to the *Red Alert 3* soundtrack.

**Command & Conquer**

*The Music of Command & Conquer*, a soundtrack album with tracks from the 1995 game, was composed by Frank Klepacki and produced by Westwood. Released in 1996, it is a single CD with 22 tracks, totaling about 72 minutes. Some collector’s editions of the game bundled this soundtrack, which included music from both the original game and its expansion. Westwood never sold it in stores but offered it by special order through their website and game catalogs. The album came in a brushed aluminum package with the official *Command & Conquer* logo. Many songs on this release include vocals that are separate recordings from those in the PlayStation or Sega Saturn versions; those ports added vocals not present in the original PC game, while the album versions are distinct recordings. Those voice samples were removed from the in-game soundtrack because they conflicted with the game’s own voices. Some song titles differ from the in-game versions, with the in-game title noted after the original. Other titles differ from those on Frank Klepacki’s website, with the website’s title noted after the in-game one. The first seven in-game tracks are present on the original game's CD audio. This soundtrack was Westwood’s first video game to use streaming music instead of MIDI. The 22k mono tracks were made with an ASR-10 sampler, a Roland S760 sampler, and a Roland JD-990 synth module. Klepacki cited influences from artists like Peter Gabriel, Pink Floyd, and Nine Inch Nails. He wrote the songs in batches, each in a different genre: "In The Line of Fire" is orchestral, "C&C Thang" is hip hop, and "Deception" is metal. Some songs, like "Hold On" (in the style of Laurie Anderson), were cut because they didn’t fit the overall style. For the *Covert Operations* expansion, Klepacki composed many ambient songs as requested by Westwood. The tracks "C&C Thang" q