Soundtracks of the Apocalypse
However absurd or low-brow some video games are, there is one positive trend - in-game soundtracks, especially for games set in the real world. Even the weakest of the bunch (I would probably rate Saint's Row 3 as such) still exposes you to familiar and new music; but the most fascinating are the games set in the past. Both GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas manage to encapsulate all the different genres of music in the 80s and 90s; the Bioshock and Mafia games tend more to the mid 20th century.
As do the Fallout games - with a twist. In general, they try to not only have songs from the 30s to the 50s, but those that are thematically appropriate. This usually means songs that - directly or indirectly - have to do with nuclear war (such as the theme for Fallout 4, the Inkspots' "I Don't Want To Set the World On Fire") or with the specific games (Frank Sinatra's "Blue Moon" for Fallout: New Vegas). More importantly, they are usually presented in the form of in-game radio stations, playing pre-war music in the post-apocalypse.
The latest Fallout game, the multiplayer Fallout 76, has continued this tradition; however, neither of the two stations have a DJ, a break from prior games, and have not updated their rotation since the game first came out over a year ago. So naturally, I decided to take it upon myself to engage in the time-wasting activity of creating my own radio station - Civil Defense Radio - with a DJ voice (poorly acted - that is to say, me) identifying songs, making station identifications, reciting commercials, and making the ubiquitous nerd references. By rerouting the mike input, I could play the station in-game, hopefully not to the point of greatly irritating other players.
The premise is that the station exists as a 'temporary' post-nuclear war music station with prerecorded messages, to play during the (presumed) extremely brief period between the proliferation of mushroom clouds and the reestablishment of the United States. (Of course, in the setting of the game, West Virginia 25 years after the nuclear war, civilization has stayed broken) The songs are mostly from the proper era and all have specific reasons to be chosen as shown below - but I admit that I've 'cheated' with a few, which I feel vindicated because "Country Roads", the theme song for Fallout 76, definitely doesn't come from the traditional era of songs. Here's my list:
1. "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn, 1939. Made famous by Dr. Strangelove, this was an obvious choice for a 'nuclear war' theme.
2. "Beyond The Sea" by Bobby Darin, 1959. Used in the thematically-appropriate underwater city of Bioshock, set in a world similarly with a mix of 50s culture and advanced technology.
3. "One More Kiss, Dear" by Don Percival, 1982. From the movie Blade Runner, this is one of my 'cheat' songs - technically from the 1980s, but with a definite feel of the mid century. The movie was an inspiration for the Fallout series, especially Fallout 4, with its synthetic humans.
4. "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears" by Elvis Presley, 1960. A pretty obscure Elvis song; he is the idol of a Las Vegas gang in Fallout: New Vegas, although referred to only as "The King" with his actual name long forgotten (probably because they couldn't afford licensing any Elvis songs). Thematically, a cover of the song by Julee Cruise was made for the movie Until the End of the World, which dealt with the threat not of nuclear war, but an atmospheric nuclear explosion wiping out the world's electronics.
5. "God Only Knows" by Beach Boys, 1966. While a little outside the 'comfort zone' of the appropriate period of music, Fallout 76 did use another Beach Boys song from this time, so I don't consider it a cheat. A reference to the game Bioshock Infinite, which includes a nifty barbershop quartet version of the song.
6. "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1969. That's a bit of a 'cheat', but it's hard not to include such an apocalyptic song. Inspired by the appearance of "Blue Moon" in Fallout: New Vegas; both referring to the 80s horror classic, An American Werewolf in London.
7. "Since I Don't Have You" by the Skyliners, 1958. A reference to yet another classic 80s movie (and one of my favorites), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, where the eponymous character plays a cover of the tune.
8. "Science Fiction Double Feature" by Richard O'Brien, 1973. A pretty massive 'cheat' indeed - the opening song from the Rocky Horror Show. It so beautifully encapsulates the 50s drive-in sci-fi movie background of the Fallout series.
9. "Crazy" by Patsy Cline, 1962. I wanted to include some classic country. This appeared in GTA: San Andreas, but it seems to fit with the concept of surviving in the post-nuclear world.
10. "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by the Four Lads, 1953. Popularized, of course, by the cover by contemporary musicians They Might Be Giants.
11. "Blue Velvet" by Bobby Vinton, 1963. Featured in the David Lynch of the same name. Seems appropriate for the small towns of West Virginia hiding terrible secrets.
12. "Worried Man Blues" by the Stanley Brothers, 1940. A bluegrass version of a traditional blues song. The band Devo did a New Wave cover of the song for Neil Young's movie Human Highway where they played glowing nuclear power workers, and the movie ends with... nuclear armageddon.
13. "Working in a Coal Mine" by Leo Dorsey, 1966. Very appropriate for a game set in West Virginia; also, another cover by Devo in the 1980s.
14. "New Frontier" by Donald Fagen, 1982. Another 'cheat', but the subject matter - young love during the height of the Cold War, and fallout shelters - is too much on the nose, plus the tune doesn't seem to far out of character.
15. "If I Didn't Care" by The Inkjets, 1939. Using songs by the Inkjets is a tradition for Fallout games. In this case, the song made its appearance in Bioshock.
16. "Twentieth Century Blues" by Noel Coward, 1959. A mournful tune, with a bit of irony appearing in a game set in the 22nd century. Also appeared in Bioshock.
17. "Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers, 1966. Very much the embodiment of the 50s/60s spy fiction, it was covered in Devo's The Truth About De-evolution.
18. "The House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals, 1964. The most famous version of a traditional blues song. It made an appearance in alternate 60s history game Wolfenstein: The New Order.
19. "Blue Skies" by Doris Day, ?. An overly cheery song for a station designed to play after a nuclear apocalypse. Known for association with the final classic Star Trek movie, and with the TV series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
20. "Ballad of High Noon" by Tex Ritter, 1952. The classic theme of the western High Noon. Its alternate title "Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darling" because the title of an episode of The Prisoner.
21. "Deep Red Bells" by Neko Case, 2002. A 'cheat' for which I have no justification other than I like Neko Case, and it's a 'country noir' song that doesn't sound too out of place in post-apocalyptic West Virginia.
As do the Fallout games - with a twist. In general, they try to not only have songs from the 30s to the 50s, but those that are thematically appropriate. This usually means songs that - directly or indirectly - have to do with nuclear war (such as the theme for Fallout 4, the Inkspots' "I Don't Want To Set the World On Fire") or with the specific games (Frank Sinatra's "Blue Moon" for Fallout: New Vegas). More importantly, they are usually presented in the form of in-game radio stations, playing pre-war music in the post-apocalypse.
The latest Fallout game, the multiplayer Fallout 76, has continued this tradition; however, neither of the two stations have a DJ, a break from prior games, and have not updated their rotation since the game first came out over a year ago. So naturally, I decided to take it upon myself to engage in the time-wasting activity of creating my own radio station - Civil Defense Radio - with a DJ voice (poorly acted - that is to say, me) identifying songs, making station identifications, reciting commercials, and making the ubiquitous nerd references. By rerouting the mike input, I could play the station in-game, hopefully not to the point of greatly irritating other players.
The premise is that the station exists as a 'temporary' post-nuclear war music station with prerecorded messages, to play during the (presumed) extremely brief period between the proliferation of mushroom clouds and the reestablishment of the United States. (Of course, in the setting of the game, West Virginia 25 years after the nuclear war, civilization has stayed broken) The songs are mostly from the proper era and all have specific reasons to be chosen as shown below - but I admit that I've 'cheated' with a few, which I feel vindicated because "Country Roads", the theme song for Fallout 76, definitely doesn't come from the traditional era of songs. Here's my list:
1. "We'll Meet Again" by Vera Lynn, 1939. Made famous by Dr. Strangelove, this was an obvious choice for a 'nuclear war' theme.
2. "Beyond The Sea" by Bobby Darin, 1959. Used in the thematically-appropriate underwater city of Bioshock, set in a world similarly with a mix of 50s culture and advanced technology.
3. "One More Kiss, Dear" by Don Percival, 1982. From the movie Blade Runner, this is one of my 'cheat' songs - technically from the 1980s, but with a definite feel of the mid century. The movie was an inspiration for the Fallout series, especially Fallout 4, with its synthetic humans.
4. "Summer Kisses, Winter Tears" by Elvis Presley, 1960. A pretty obscure Elvis song; he is the idol of a Las Vegas gang in Fallout: New Vegas, although referred to only as "The King" with his actual name long forgotten (probably because they couldn't afford licensing any Elvis songs). Thematically, a cover of the song by Julee Cruise was made for the movie Until the End of the World, which dealt with the threat not of nuclear war, but an atmospheric nuclear explosion wiping out the world's electronics.
5. "God Only Knows" by Beach Boys, 1966. While a little outside the 'comfort zone' of the appropriate period of music, Fallout 76 did use another Beach Boys song from this time, so I don't consider it a cheat. A reference to the game Bioshock Infinite, which includes a nifty barbershop quartet version of the song.
6. "Bad Moon Rising" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, 1969. That's a bit of a 'cheat', but it's hard not to include such an apocalyptic song. Inspired by the appearance of "Blue Moon" in Fallout: New Vegas; both referring to the 80s horror classic, An American Werewolf in London.
7. "Since I Don't Have You" by the Skyliners, 1958. A reference to yet another classic 80s movie (and one of my favorites), The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, where the eponymous character plays a cover of the tune.
8. "Science Fiction Double Feature" by Richard O'Brien, 1973. A pretty massive 'cheat' indeed - the opening song from the Rocky Horror Show. It so beautifully encapsulates the 50s drive-in sci-fi movie background of the Fallout series.
9. "Crazy" by Patsy Cline, 1962. I wanted to include some classic country. This appeared in GTA: San Andreas, but it seems to fit with the concept of surviving in the post-nuclear world.
10. "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)" by the Four Lads, 1953. Popularized, of course, by the cover by contemporary musicians They Might Be Giants.
11. "Blue Velvet" by Bobby Vinton, 1963. Featured in the David Lynch of the same name. Seems appropriate for the small towns of West Virginia hiding terrible secrets.
12. "Worried Man Blues" by the Stanley Brothers, 1940. A bluegrass version of a traditional blues song. The band Devo did a New Wave cover of the song for Neil Young's movie Human Highway where they played glowing nuclear power workers, and the movie ends with... nuclear armageddon.
13. "Working in a Coal Mine" by Leo Dorsey, 1966. Very appropriate for a game set in West Virginia; also, another cover by Devo in the 1980s.
14. "New Frontier" by Donald Fagen, 1982. Another 'cheat', but the subject matter - young love during the height of the Cold War, and fallout shelters - is too much on the nose, plus the tune doesn't seem to far out of character.
15. "If I Didn't Care" by The Inkjets, 1939. Using songs by the Inkjets is a tradition for Fallout games. In this case, the song made its appearance in Bioshock.
16. "Twentieth Century Blues" by Noel Coward, 1959. A mournful tune, with a bit of irony appearing in a game set in the 22nd century. Also appeared in Bioshock.
17. "Secret Agent Man" by Johnny Rivers, 1966. Very much the embodiment of the 50s/60s spy fiction, it was covered in Devo's The Truth About De-evolution.
18. "The House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals, 1964. The most famous version of a traditional blues song. It made an appearance in alternate 60s history game Wolfenstein: The New Order.
19. "Blue Skies" by Doris Day, ?. An overly cheery song for a station designed to play after a nuclear apocalypse. Known for association with the final classic Star Trek movie, and with the TV series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
20. "Ballad of High Noon" by Tex Ritter, 1952. The classic theme of the western High Noon. Its alternate title "Do Not Forsake Me, O My Darling" because the title of an episode of The Prisoner.
21. "Deep Red Bells" by Neko Case, 2002. A 'cheat' for which I have no justification other than I like Neko Case, and it's a 'country noir' song that doesn't sound too out of place in post-apocalyptic West Virginia.
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