Grand Theft Auto's creators take a look at one of the key elements to this franchise's success: The soundtrack.
Courtesy of Rockstar Games
Grand Theft Auto III
(PlayStation 2 - October 2001)
Head Radio - Soft Rock, Adult Contemporary
Double Clef FM - Classical, Opera
K-Jah - Reggae & Dub
Rise FM - Trance
Lips 106 - Pop
Game Radio FM - Hip Hop
MSX FM - Drum & Bass
Flashback 95.6 - 80s Pop
Chatterbox FM - Talk radio
As Grand Theft Auto III moved from a 2D top-down perspective to the living, breathing 3D world, Rockstar tried to ensure all aspects of the game would evolve and develop as far, including the radio. For the first time, the radio would feature proper stations with fully developed station IDs, DJs and, it being America, commercials for fake brands that interrupted the music. Also, for the first time, there would be a talk station for people who would rather listen to morons complain about society than listen to top quality music.
Grand Theft Auto III featured 8 music stations as varied as the gameplay, from K-Jah FM, where the sounds of The Scientists 1981 dub masterpiece "The Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Vampire Curse" lifted over the airwaves, to Double Cleff FM, that played opera to Game Radio hosted by DJ Stretch Armstrong and Lord Sear - the first real-life deejays to appear as themselves in a GTA game (Stretch and Sear were co-hosts of the legendary hip hop radio show, "The Stretch and Bobbito Show" on WKCR 89.9FM in New York City during the 1990s) - a feature that has been repeated on all subsequent games in which the Hip Hop station has always been hosted by an actual DJ.
Seminal Moment: Driving to do a mob hit while a fat woman sang "O Mio Babbino Caro" from Puccini's opera.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
(PlayStation 2 - October 2002)
V-Rock - Heavy Metal and Rock
Wave 103 - New Wave
Emotion 98.3 - Ballads
Flash FM - Pop
Wildstyle Pirate Radio - Hip Hop and Electro
Fever 105 - Disco, Soul and R&B
Espantoso - Latin Jazz
K-Chat - Talk Radio
VCPR - Talk Radio
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, the follow up to Grand Theft Auto III, possessed an incredible style and atmosphere that captured the historical epicenter of decadence and pastels, 1980s Miami. To a large extent, that tone was set by an incredible soundtrack that covered pop music, electro, rock, and Latin jazz, each song chosen with the utmost love and care.
From the stabbing synth pop in Corey Hart's "I Wear My Sunglasses at Night" to the breathless pleading in Laura Branigan's "Self Control", the airwaves of Vice City pulsed with the sounds of the era. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City also featured Mr. Magic, who in 1983 was the host of "Rap Attack" on WBLS FM in New York City, the first ever exclusive Hip Hop show on a major radio station.
To mark its release, Rockstar Games teamed up with Epic Records to deliver the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Official Soundtrack Box Set, a 7 CD compilation that at the time set the benchmark for videogame soundtracks...that is, until the next Grand Theft Auto came out.
Seminal Moment: Riding a convertible to Starfish Island while the sun set and Hall and Oates's "Out of Touch" blared from your stereo.
Posted: 14 Dec 2007
