Does Metal music exist in the Fallout universe?

Sn1p3r187

Sn1p3r187

Carolinian Shaolin Monk
Please don't tell me Metal music doesn't exist before or past 2077. Because it'd be fucking bomb as hell to go through the Core Region or the Carolina wastes in a revived pickup truck blasting Judas Priest on the radio or maybe Sepultura. But seriously does metal music exist before or after the great war?
 
Dr Fallout said:
Doubt it. From what I know, pre-war society was pretty conservative and 'safe'.
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Nah, IIRC the older population was conservative while the younger generation acted more rebellious, punks were a thing, so I wouldn't be surprised if these music types existed.
 
Doubtfully, at least the metal music as we know it. However, the alternative timeline of Fallout might have its own cultural movement with its own "extreme" music. Judging by the looks of the first two games, there's plenty of nods to punk subculture (though one might say that's because some of that stuff is originally present in Mad Max) as well as general rock 'n' roll music scene. Given that metal is closely related to those two it wouldn't be impossible that there is something that people of alternative timeline might describe as "metal".

But then again, I'm talking in purely pre-Bethesda Fallout terms here. FO3 basically established a fact that music doesn't seem to have much evolved beyond the 50s' definition of popular music and genre division, or that only vinyls of 50s' music survived the War and are magically still in working condition, a notion which I find as illogical as unlikely. In fact, both ideas, that of music not evolving in pre and post-War world from the retro hits of the mid 20th century are absolutely ridiculous.
Unfortunately, as we can see so far, both F3 and FNV have only pushed these ideas forward, and I think the trend continues with FO4 (I haven't played it, don't know). Simply, post-Beth Fallout is just too retro-futuristic, stagnant and illogical in cultural terms for its own good.


As for those particular bands you mention...no, I don't think those would exist in alternative timeline. Maybe Judas Priest, but I don't think Sepultura would. In any case, as much as I personally (dis)like those bands and (some of) their output, they are far from being my first pick for the post-apocalyptic setting. Or metal music in general, for that matter, despite the genre's infatuation with all things apocalyptic. Few exceptions here and there, of course.
 
Well there is a song on Fallout New Vegas that was released in 1997 so maybe music did evolve. At least in Obsidian's eyes.
 
Sn1p3r187 said:
Well there is a song on Fallout New Vegas that was released in 1997 so maybe music did evolve. At least in Obsidian's eyes.
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Which one?

It's most likely just a 1997 recording of some 30s tune or so, or is a song done in that style. At least, that's where my bet is. Doesn't prove anything. Bethesda also did some recording for GNR, but those were jazzy tunes - again, fitting the perceived notion of retro-futuristic music which I personally find ludicrous.

Obsidian did make several new in-universe songs for the guitarist character, but those are country tunes, nothing radical. Pretty good ones, though, but aside from that, Obsidian hadn't showed any initiative in expanding or detailing the musical oeuvre of the wastes - not that I blame them for it - when you're making a post-apocalyptic RPG theorizing about how music could have evolved 200 years after almost all modern tunes have gone to dust is certainly not high on the priority list. They played it safe there.

Sadly, I think that all this discussion is without much point. As much as we speculate about it, it is a fact that music hasn't had a very proper treatment in the Fallout universe, as well as "outside", by the developers - a state of things which will hardly ever change.
 
Atomkilla said:
Sn1p3r187 said:
Well there is a song on Fallout New Vegas that was released in 1997 so maybe music did evolve. At least in Obsidian's eyes.
Click to expand...

Which one?

It's most likely just a 1997 recording of some 30s tune or so, or is a song done in that style. At least, that's where my bet is. Doesn't prove anything. Bethesda also did some recording for GNR, but those were jazzy tunes - again, fitting the perceived notion of retro-futuristic music which I personally find ludicrous.

Obsidian did make several new in-universe songs for the guitarist character, but those are country tunes, nothing radical. Pretty good ones, though, but aside from that, Obsidian hadn't showed any initiative in expanding or detailing the musical oeuvre of the wastes - not that I blame them for it - when you're making a post-apocalyptic RPG theorizing about how music could have evolved 200 years after almost all modern tunes have gone to dust is certainly not high on the priority list. They played it safe there.

Sadly, I think that all this discussion is without much point. As much as we speculate about it, it is a fact that music hasn't had a very proper treatment in the Fallout universe, as well as "outside", by the developers - a state of things which will hardly ever change.
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http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Goin'_Under There you go
 
I really cannot see an argument to support the claim Metal would not exist in the Fallout series, unless we follow Bethesda's vision on what the pre-war world was like.
 
Half serious though, how about Kraftwerk type music (krautrock). Though to be honest rockabilly and psychobilly could have been a thing. I am curious about post war musical styles maybe some proto form of industrial?
 
I don't believe Metal wouldn't have existed, personally. Maybe not the same bands, maybe not the same albums by existing ones, but it would have been there. Even if the Fallout world culturally slowed down, I just don't believe that the evolution of music would have stagnated that much.

I like to think certain major Metal influences would have been possible. Black Sabbath being one.
 
I think a potential explanation for the old-timeyness of the music on the various Fallout radio stations is simply because modern storage formats would likely be destroyed in the electromagnetic pulse following a nuclear detonation, or would at least would degrade over the intervening 200 years, whereas vinyl will pretty much never disintegrate if stored properly. So 200 years after the war the only real music recordings anybody can find when digging around various ruins are the stuff that was old when the war happened.
 
What about all the punk-styled people?

Also, the musical soundtracks for FO1 and 2 have plenty modernness in them. They belong to the games, there's nothing saying those styles of music cannot exist in the world of Fallout. Maybe not exact replications, but similar styles at least.

The soundtrack of the Den certainly has a grungy/rocky/badass-bluesey sound to it, or whatever it is, and again - lots of punks in the city.

In the end, Atomkilla says it simplest - not as we know it.
Cultural trends are very specific, and in music we see the appearance of specific bands - that all by themselves change the next decade of music.
We'd need all of those bands happening one after the other, for todays recognizeable "metal" to happen.

But I find it just as unlikely to imagine a persistence of 50s music (it only appears in the intro, the games themselves have various ambience tracks of different styles), or nothing but country or classical. They would probably experiment with instruments, like anybody else, and I'm sure post-apocalyptic civilizations got plenty of anger in them, fit for expression

There's lively jazz tunes in New Vegas, add some angrier percussions, and electric guitar, and you got a metal band
 
New Vegas actually used music from as recently as the '90s if I remember correctly Atomkilla. A lot of that country music was kinda intentionally neo-vintage I think which makes sense in the Fallout world.

I think the idea is that the Fallout world's 1960's didn't happen the same way due to differences in technological developments and they never really had an analogue to that to drastically change the definition of American culture before certain elements could be cemented.

By this I mean that it seems like culture did evolve but in the Fallout world America actually managed to solidify an American identity in a way that we never did. Japan might be a good example of this as a country that existed in isolation of outside influence for so long, since while it's definitely modernized in a visible way they're still really rooted in the imagery and culture of their past. Our America never developed in that way and as it currently stands it's pretty hard to define what American culture even is, Fallout's world didn't turn out that way.
 
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Sn1p3r187 said:
But seriously does metal music exist before or after the great war?
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There isn't any in the games... That's for sure... but there were underground cultures in Fallout 1 & 2 that did not seem to be particularly 50's inclined.

If you've never played Fallout, or Fallout 2, know that the game mostly used music as atmosphere ~not as a tune actually playing in the area, but as an indication of cultural environments.

Have a listen to the sound track: (It's some of the best ambient music I've ever heard.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JErclsgwXg&index=16&list=PLY1wqSFzzm4T3lO9hXGfmtq6aVlemNBLK
 
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