Steven Universeis undoubtedlyCartoon Network’s most musical series. While other shows of its kind certainly featured music and songs, theRebecca Sugarseries used its songs in the traditionally musical sense of communicating the characters’ emotions and progressing the story. The songs themselves are as integral to the show’s identity as the animation, characters and the dialogue itself.
Here are fifteen of the greatestSteven Universesongs and how they contributed to the show’s overall themes.
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15. “Strong in the Real Way”
Inspired to bulk up after seeing Garnet (Estelle) and Amethyst’s (Michaela Dietz) powerful fusion in action, Steven (Zach Callison) takes to the beach to coach his friends into working out, so they can be strong “in the real way”. Pearl (Deedee Magno), worried over Steven’s eschewed perception of strength, laments through song how she wishes to instill in Steven the true value of being strong. What works best here is that while the chorus’ lyrics are the same, the intention behind them changes depending on who is singing. This sequence readily demonstrates the show’s classically musical sensibility of using songs to express what straight-forward dialogue could not.
14. “Full Disclosure”
“Full Disclosure” effectively serves as a tonal reset for the series at the start of its second season. After the explosive Season 1 finale, Steven realizes that the adventures he has been so eager to join the gems on have more dire consequences and higher stakes than he had anticipated. Steven struggles with how his responsibilities as a Crystal Gem could cost him his human friends and how further interstellar threats could put those he loves most, namely Connie (Grace Rolek) in jeopardy. Set to the backbeat of his ringtone as Connie tries to call him, Steven sings about how from this moment forward, he cannot afford to put Connie at risk and that he must dedicate himself fully to the threats at hand in order to protect her, even at the expense of their friendship.
13. “Do It for Her”
Connie wants to learn how to sword fight so that she may fight along Steven whenever the next invasion comes. In a musical montage, Connie begins to train under the tutelage of Pearl. This song not only shows Connie’s progress in her combat studies, but also reveals more of Pearl’s own psychology. Over the course of the song, Pearl instills in Connie that the way to victory is to not live for yourself, but for someone else. Pearl’s training gradually devolves into mental conditioning as Connie learns to ready herself to die in order to serve her liege, Steven. Pearl’s folly throughout the series is that she was obsessed with Rose Quartz (Susan Egan) and put everything on the line to protect her, even herself. Pearl’s song posits to Connie that she should not fight alongside Steven, but for him.
12. “Peace and Love (On the Planet Earth)”
Along with spending a bulk of the second season reluctantly working with the Crystal Gems to stop the Cluster, the Diamond-loyal Peridot (Shelby Rabara) grows to befriend Steven and the gems by coming to understand why they fight and who they are. Through this song, Steven helps Peridot learn the last lesson she needs before fully joining the team: the value and beauty of life on Earth. Peridot pieces together the mathematics of music and what make it enjoyable before writing her own song, realizing how good it, and living on Earth in general, makes her feel. Steven wins Peridot over by letting her have fun through the power of music and friendship.
11. “It’s Over, Isn’t It?”
After one of Greg’s (Tom Scharpling) old songs nets him a big check, he brings Steven and Pearl along for a weekend vacation in Empire City. The episode “Mr. Greg” sought to explore the strained relationship between Greg and Pearl, who were once romantic rivals each after the hand of the late Rose, which culminates to this powerful solo number. In a showstopping emotional ballad, Pearl pains over having lost the love of her life who she spent centuries with to Greg and is left behind to carry the torch of her unrequited passion. One of the series’ most musically complex compositions, “It’s Over, Isn’t It?” is a powerfully iconic sequence and brings Pearl to her most vulnerable.
10. “Other Friends”
For as many songs asSteven Universehas, there were hardly any traditional villain songs throughout the series. The fully musicalSteven Universe: The Movie, however, not only delivered a compelling villain with her own set of songs, but one of the best villain songs of the best decade. Looking for revenge after being abandoned on a floating rock for centuries, Spinel, voiced bySarah Stiles, invades Beach City to rob Steven of his happily ever after. An upbeat electro-swing jig with stellar rubber-hose animation, “Other Friends” demonstrates Spinel’s unique abilities and her spiteful grudge against Pink Diamond for robbing her of her only friend and living a life without her.
9. “Familiar”
The greatest thing “Familiar” has to offer as a storytelling device is hindsight. Reunited with the Diamonds on Homeworld after learning of his true heritage, Steven reflects on what his mother must have been like growing up in a family of elites. In melancholic song, Steven pieces together that his early childhood of being the runt of the Crystal Gems as they went on adventures without him was the exact same as Pink Diamond’s lower rung status among her fellow Diamonds. This song illustrates how far Steven has come from the helpless little brother bargaining for attention he was in the first season and that he and his mother were not so different in just wanting a stable and supportive family unit.
8. “Still Not Giving Up”
“Still Not Giving Up” is not a musical number in the show’s typical sense. Steven plays a song he wrote himself to help process the complicated feelings he’s felt during the latter run of the series. The song exists purely for its own sake, not to progress any plot or convey abstract story beats, but as a look into the window of how Steven as a person feels about his situation. It is an affirmation of what Steven has done and will continue to do on his “magical destiny”, despite its twists and turns.
7. “Being Human”
In the finale’s closing moments, “Being Human” helps bring the entire franchise to a gratifying conclusion. While the finale ofSteven Universebrought to an end to the interstellar war that spanned the original series, the limited epilogue seriesSteven Universe Futuresought to resolve what Steven as a character needed to cope with and where it must take him.Futureexplores how being a Crystal Gem and hybrid son of a Diamond have put a strain on Steven’s youth and that to grow past his traumatic childhood, he must move on from the environment and the people he spent his life protecting. Sung byEmily King, “Being Human” suggests that after spending a lifetime of questioning what his existence means and the responsibility it brings, Steven is finally able to mark his own path and allow himself to just exist as a human.
6. “Happily Ever After”
“Happily Ever After” is a song that feels earned in every way possible. The stage-setting showstopper that opensSteven Universe: The Movie, the song reveals how much has changed in the two years after the events of the original series’ finale and how each of the characters has been changed by it. As the sequence explores the new Beach City and its newly neighboring gem community of Little Homeworld, Steven and the gems sing about how much they’ve grown from their past adventures and how bright their future looks having won the war. For fans that have followed the series since the beginning, this song feels vindicating for how it celebrates the vast world of the show and how each of the characters has matured along with its audiences after their wartime trials. After an entire series of dealing with heartache and struggle, this song illustrates how joyous their victory really is.
