Am I the only one that has to listen to like GNR on youtube while playing the classic fallouts?

Doing the opposite. Downloaded the mod that put Fo1-Fo2 musics into a radio station when i played Fo3. Those 2-3 musics from the vanilla radio gets old really fast. (like almost everything in that game)

 

When playing the originals I prefer listening to Mark Morgan's tracks, despite being re-used in 2 I don't mind them. I actually think GNR/RNV wouldn't fit whilst playing the originals.

 

While I quite enjoy some of the songs that FO3 and FNV use (and I liked them even before the games were made). For me you can't beat the originals music, they match perfectly with the kind of environment you see your character in while playing.

For example, going on Necropolis while listening to Johnny Guitar, I don't want to set the world on fire, Big gun, etc would not offer the same impact on the location at all.

 

Fallout was never about the 1950s, it was about the dystopic future that people envisioned in the 1950s. Mark Morgans grungy industrial ambience fits that future. "Bongo bongo bongo" does not.

 

Each game has its own fitting soundtrack. Fallout 1/2 have those Brian Eno-like industrial tracks that I love so much. "Desert Wind" is a favourite of mine.
Given the setting and design of Fallout 3 as a whole, I can't think of anything more fitting than GNR.
Same with New Vegas and Radio New Vegas.
One of the things I didn't like about Fallout 4 was that they rehashed old songs from Fallout 3 (just filler so they could beef up the radio setlist without paying for more song licenses, no doubt); songs that were made FO3 icons. FO4 didn't have much of a radio direction. But that's easily fixed with Nexus Mods.

To answer your question: I'm afraid so. I tried listening to GNR while playing FoNV and it just didn't fit.

 

Such a chilling track. City of the Dead is one of my favourites, along with Vault of the Future, Radiation Storm and Industrial Junk (although the last one makes me think of Vault 11 now instead of Junktown).

I didn't mind Diamond City Radio at first, but when you realize the number of songs referencing end of the world/nuclear stuff it's a little in your face in my opinion.

I agree though, GNR would not work in New Vegas, it wouldn't fit.

 

I always felt GNR was very out of place. Like Magnus said its never been about the 1950's. Personally I was always a fan of the original Fallout tracks because they were ambiance of the dead world around the player. Sometimes you would encounter some music but it was short and simple.

Bethesda failed to realize that the music is one of the main components of building the correct atmosphere to a setting. Plopping in something like GNR to a population that shouldn't have radios but some how does because *spoiler alert* all the old tech magically still works.

I strongly feel its lazy garbage like this that ruins a coherent atmosphere of a game by generating a rather severe disconnect with the overall theme and the setting of the game. Sure its nice to listen to the songs, but they are very out of place.

What I don't understand is why Bethesda didn't let the world of Fallout actually evolve and adapt. Its as if Fallout is permanently stuck in the uncanny valley inside the twilight zone.

 

I honestly prefer GNR/RNV/DCR to the ambient music of any of the games. No offense to Mark Morgan, but the ambience always bums me out and makes me not want to play.

 

Yeah, Fallout was designed to be the opposite of the 1950s. They only threw in 1950s stuff to emphasize how much humanity has fucked things up by starting World War 3 and destroying the world, turning it into a hellish wasteland. I still love Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas but they added way too much 1950s music and stuff in those games.

 

Metallic Monks is a great jam as well. To answer the OP I sometimes listen to CONALRAD while playing the older titles.

 

You havent lived until you have killed the deathclaw mother with a turbo plasma to the eyes for a massive crit whilst civilization is blasting in the background. But maybe its just because I genuinely enjoy music from the 30's 40's and 50's. On a side note, why is it that I can get a vinyl of marty robins gunfighter ballads for 15 dollars with free prime shipping on amazon, but its like 60 dollars for an inkspots record. Why are there no prints being made of inkspots stuff?

 

To be honest, if the first two games had in-game radio I'd imagine that they'd be much more mellow lounge music/jazz-y stuff like Dream A Little Dream of Me, Kiss to Build a Dream On etc. rather than the more bombastic energetic stuff in the 3D games.

Ultimately though you can't beat Mark Morgan for setting the post-nuclear atmosphere. The most atmospheric areas of New Vegas were the ones that utilized the OG tracks (Vault of the Future in Vault 22, Radiation Storm in the Lucky 38, and personally I always mod Hidden Valley to play Metallic Monks)

 

Why that was NOT the default really baffles me to this day. It was such an obvious choice.

 

Yeah. Hidden Valley never struck me as a millitary facility in a state of activity/action, it had that same vibe of Lost Hills of this serene but well-armed (metallic) monk sanctuary.Wasn't Lost Hills on lockdown too?

Another one which I thought was obvious which I also had to mod in, why wasn't Beyond The Canyon used at all in Honest Hearts?!?

 

No, because they're actively trading with the merchants of the Hub. And they wouldn't be on lockdown if one of their neophytes got captured by some random schmuck in the Hub.

I thought I heard it at one point while in Zion? Or maybe I heard it because of the mods.
But yeah, I can see them forgetting such obvious choice of OST after them forgetting Metallic Monks with Hidden Valley.

 

I just seem to remember the Vault Dweller commenting in one of the dialogue options that everyone in the bunker seemed on edge as if the Brotherhood was hiding from/preparing for something.

 

Lonesome Drifter performs three songs after being recruited for Ace Theater.

 

I don't know, I think the 50's songs can add mood in and of themselves at the right time. Maybe, A Kiss To Build A Dream On and Blue Moon were all perfectly used tone setters IMO. I think it is perhaps disingenuous to say that Fallout 3 actively utilizing 50's music was somehow uncharacteristic when the franchise begins with the Ink Spots playing on a 2077 television set.

Personally I think having the radio on the Pip-Boy was a mistake. Despite finding Inon Zur's tracks far too medieval fantasy and whimsical in 3, 4 and 76, I actually quite enjoyed his tracks in NV and they blended well with the inclusion of the Mark Morgan tracks. It was cool to walk the Mojave listening to this grim western ambient, only to dust my shoes off and arrive at somewhere like the I-88 and hear In The Shadow of the Valley playing on a tinny radio set at the bar.

With Fallout as a setting you have to keep in mind that to a degree, rule of cool is baked into the DNA. Now I would give everyone here the benefit of the doubt in knowing I am not talking about the Pete Hines level of "talking ghouls and mutants" excusing, but I think the 50's music as an aesthetic thing is something that I very easily slot into the suspension of disbelief.