In the Super Smash Bros. series, each stage has at least one music track assigned to it. Depending on the game, stages may only have one or two songs, or several different songs to choose between. Most of this music consists of remixes and direct ports of music from other games, though some are original songs composed specifically for the series.
Alternate music pieces are music tracks that sometimes play in particular stages in Super Smash Bros. Melee and in all stages in Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS. These tunes can be triggered by unlocking a certain stage or extra or holding down a certain button combination; they also can be triggered randomly.
In Melee, alternate music can be forced to play by holding L or R while selecting a stage; otherwise, it has a 12.5% chance of regularly playing. In 3DS, alternate music can only be forced to play by holding R, and has a 15% chance of regularly playing.
The My Music feature introduced in Super Smash Bros. Brawl gives each stage a pool of songs and allows players to manually adjust each song's probability. This feature returns in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. In Ultimate, stages from the same series share the same pool of music; when starting a match, the player can also predetermine which song will play.
Melee was the first Smash Bros. game to introduce more than one song for each stage, in the form of alternate music. Unlike future iterations, only a set amount of stages have alternate music, and it must be unlocked. Temple and Great Bay gain their alternate music when Marth and Young Link are respectively unlocked; all others are only available upon unlocking every character.
In Adventure Mode, each stage also has music assigned to it; some VS. Mode stages play unique music exclusive to Adventure Mode. Like the main stages, alternate music can play on Adventure Mode stages, as well. On the intro screen to each stage, if Player 1 holds down L or R then presses Start, the alternate music will play. However, it only works for the first stage in each area: for example, on the F-Zero Grand Prix, only the first level will have the special music, not the fight with Captain Falcon. Like the normal stages, there is also a 12.5% chance of the alternate music playing automatically.
In All-Star Mode, the first character in each round will determine the stage and the music. In several cases, alternate music will be used, including songs that aren't accessible regularly.
The music can also be changed for any character's Target Test, but only by Player 1. By holding either L or R while the stage is loaded (even when restarting via the Pause menu), the character's Credits music will play instead of the Targets! theme. This excludes the Ice Climbers, where the Icicle Mountain theme will automatically play while the alternate music function is unavailable.
With My Music, each stage (except Hanenbow) has a pool of two to twelve songs to choose from. Bolded tracks must be unlocked. The default values in My Music for each track are shown from top to bottom.
In Adventure Mode: The Subspace Emissary, each stage has predetermined music tracks assigned to it, usually relating to the stage's characters or setting. Additionally, some original tracks were created specifically for these stages.
Additionally, if the player holds R while on the title screen (as if they were selecting the alternate music for a stage), the menu music will always be Menu 2 (Melee). The song normally has a 50% chance of playing, unlike other alternate tracks.
My Music returns from Brawl, and each stage has a greater variety of music to choose from. Unlike Brawl, certain stages also share songs between them. Bolded tracks must be unlocked. The default values in My Music for each track are shown from top to bottom.
The My Music feature returns in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. It has been adjusted so that stages from the same series share the same pool of music; additionally, the default settings for each stage have one song set to the highest frequency and another song set slightly lower, in effect giving them default and alternate music. Starting in update version 8.1.0, all stages that played Super Smash Bros. series music can now play any available music track in the game.
