Skateboarding took a 180-degree turn in the 1990s.
By the early 1990s, the sport's popularity had reached an all-time low, particularly vert skating, in which contestants performed gravity-defying tricks by launching themselves down ramps and halfpipes. Within ten years, it was back in fashion and was beamed into homes via the X Games.
San Diego native Tony Hawk, one of the biggest stars in sports, found himself fielding pitches from companies wanting to use his name and likeness in a video game.
When Hawk finally agreed, he had a simple goal: to create a game that was fun for skaters like him.
“I just didn't think we were creating a revolution,” Hawk said.
“Tony Hawk's Pro Skater” was released on September 29, 1999, becoming an instant hit that not only introduced skateboarding to an audience of millions, but also exposed a new generation to punk music through the game's now-iconic soundtrack.
“I think it helped create our sport, skateboarding and action sports in general, as a genre of games. It definitely got a lot more people interested in skateboarding itself,” Hawk said. “It introduced a whole generation to a genre of music that they may have never experienced. And, I mean, it completely changed my life.”
The 1999 project
All year long, we'll be celebrating the 25th anniversary of pop culture milestones that transformed the world as we knew it and created the world we live in today. Welcome to The 1999 Project from the Los Angeles Times.
Unlike many previous games, “THPS” featured pre-released songs from well-known artists rather than synthesized music composed specifically for the game. Released when controllers were still tied to consoles, the game involved players skating down ramps and rails in locations including a warehouse, a mall and downtown Minneapolis, set to music by bands such as Goldfinger, the Vandals, Dead Kennedys and Suicidal Tendencies.
“I wouldn’t say that Tony Hawk game put us on the map, but it almost gave us a second life or a second wave of public attention,” said Suicide Machines’ J Navarro, whose upbeat, ska-inspired track “New Girl” appeared on “THPS.”
Catching air
Skateboarding was not only coming back into fashion, it was finally being represented by skaters themselves.
“Between 1995 and 1999, skating was largely misunderstood and misrepresented in the media,” Hawk said. “It was booming, but it was still like, ‘Who are these kids? They’re weird. They have crazy names, they have crazy music, they have crazy hairdos. ’ And people were like, ‘Why don’t they look past that? ’ And when they did show skating, it was always like the cameras would change angles and go crazy.”
When Hawk signed a contract to work with game publisher Activision and developer Neversoft for “THPS,” he wanted the game to be as authentic as possible. He wore a suit covered in motion-capture balls while cameras filmed him on his skateboard doing tricks. Regular game updates were sent to Hawk’s home so he could play and offer feedback to the developers.
Tony Hawk wanted “Tony Hawk's Pro Skater” to be an authentic representation not only of the sport but also of its culture.
(Getty Images)
The game was nearly finished when Hawk performed the famous first 900 (an aerial spin with two and a half rotations) at the 1999 X Games. The developers worked quickly to incorporate the feat into the game in time.
In addition to showcasing the latest tricks, Hawk also wanted the game to accurately represent skating culture.
Part of that was the soundtrack. The Vans Warped Tour, which began in 1995, was a music festival that featured a backdrop of skateboarders and BMX riders performing on ramps while punk bands played on various stages. Before that, skate and surf videos had a long history of including punk songs.
“That was the soundtrack of skate parks back then, so I was trying to bring that with us,” said Hawk, who personally suggested older punk songs for the game and its sequels.
The game exceeded expectations and garnered rave reviews, quickly surpassing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. The series now has more than a dozen titles.
In 2008, USA Today reported that the “THPS” series had sold 30 million units in the previous 10 years. In 2020, a combined remastered version of the first two games was released and sold more than 1 million copies in the first two weeks, according to Activision.
But it wasn't just the games that attracted new fans.
Suicide Machines' song “New Girl” was featured in “Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.”
(Niels Van Iperen/Getty Images)
Suicide Machines went from playing to 200-300 people a night to filling venues with over 1,000 seats.
“Our shows grew practically overnight,” Navarro said.
The single “New Girl,” which had been released three years earlier on the band’s 1996 album “Destruction by Definition,” “almost had to become an encore song because it became such a popular song,” Navarro said.
Members of Orange County punk band The Vandals also began noticing different faces in the crowd after their song “Euro-Barge” was featured on “THPS.”
“After he appeared in that game, kids started showing up at our shows,” said bassist Joe Escalante.
Vandals drummer Josh Freese hadn't touched a video game in nearly 20 years when he started playing “THPS” to beat boredom on the tour bus when the band performed in Europe.
“I'm playing it and I'm like, 'Oh, the Vandals, we have a song on this record, 'Euro-Barge.'”
He played for three hours, listening to music by Suicidal Tendencies, Primus, and others, but not his own (“Euro-Barge” was not included in the European release of the game).
European exclusion has not hindered the song's reach.
“If you go on Spotify and stuff like that, it's usually in the top three of our most popular songs, even if we haven't played it in 10 years, because of the video game,” Escalante said.
But the song most associated with the game, Goldfinger’s “Superman,” was included on copies around the world.
“That song has followed me throughout my life for the last 25 years,” Hawk said.
“Tony Hawk's Pro Skater” featured several songs on its soundtrack, but Goldfinger's “Superman” is the one most associated with the game.
(Jim Steinfeldt/Getty Images)
In “Pretending I'm a Superman,” a documentary about “THPS” that takes its name from the song’s lyrics, Goldfinger singer John Feldmann recalled that concertgoers were indifferent during the band’s first big European tour until they played “Superman.” Then the crowd went wild.
“It has something to do with that ska beat and the drums and that's the song that fans associate with the game,” Hawk said.
Undeniable nostalgia
Scroll through TikTok and Instagram and you'll come across “Superman” in videos of everything from skate park tricks to a semi-truck scraping a railing to a recent computer-generated clip of seniors doing tricks on motorized scooters in empty swimming pools.
You'll also find footage of Hawk performing the song live with Goldfinger or with a “Tony Hawk's Pro Skater” tribute band.
“I just embraced it and I'm proud of it. It's fun. It's not the easiest song to sing, but I have fun doing it,” he said.
Yes, there are bands playing the game series' music all over the world. Hawk first learned to sing the song to join a tribute band on stage in Australia. In addition to featuring all the subgenres of punk, “THPS” also incorporates groups like Rage Against the Machine and Motörhead and rappers like Del the Funky Homosapien and Xzibit.
While the game changed the sport itself — skaters have mastered trick combinations previously only possible in the game — part of the legacy of “THPS” is introducing music, punk and otherwise, to many young kids, Hawk said.
“The music was good, but they were also playing something they enjoyed, like those moments in time, they were really having fun with it,” Hawk said. “And then that became the soundtrack to this enjoyment. I feel like there’s a nostalgia that goes with that that’s undeniable.”
