Who composed the music for Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow?

Junichi Masuda composed the music for Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow.

Masuda wrote the melodies, sound effects, and Pokémon cries for the early Game Boy games. The hardware had only four sound channels, so he designed music within strict technical limits. The result included memorable town themes, route music, battle tracks, and the opening title sequence that helped define the original games’ identity.

Masuda composed the music on a Commodore Amiga and converted it for the Game Boy. He also used white noise to imitate percussion in the opening theme, showing how the soundtrack created variety from a very small sound palette. His work helped distinguish peaceful exploration from Gym battles, wild encounters, and the Pokémon League.

Masuda was also a programmer and later became a director, producer, and composer on other Pokémon projects. Satoshi Tajiri directed the original games and Ken Sugimori led their artwork, but neither is credited as the composer of this soundtrack.