Soundtrack for the next Fallout game

L

Larry the Ghoul

First time out of the vault
One of my favorite things about Fallout is the soundtracks. The developers always choose great, catchy, usually obscure tunes. The soundtrack really helps set the feel for the game, whether it be the WWII Era Americana swing from Fallout 3, to the Rat-Pack and Country of New Vegas.

So as we know, the soundtrack really helps with the games setting. Now if the next Fallout where to be set in a certain place, what do you think the soundtrack would be like?
 
No offense, but the question's a bit too open to answer. It would really depend on where the game was to be set. Were you wanting us to pick a spot and then come up with a sample soundtrack for if the game were set there?
 
And here I thought we were talking about the actual music that matters, the ambient/background music... :|
 
Surf Solar said:
And here I thought we were talking about the actual music that matters, the ambient/background music... :|
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Something like that. Like if it was set in a certain area, what sort of style/genre would be used? And you could give some examples if you want

For example, if the next Fallout was set around the Mississippi, I'd love the soundtrack to be comprised of Delta Blues and Bluegrass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyoVDGAC6_c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APl9fRFmdC0
 
Ugh. Mark Morgan was seriously missed in Fallout 3 and I doubt Bethesda is going to let him do the next one too. Fallout is too associated with the epic fantasy soundtrack that FO3 puked continuously at me. Sorry, but it looks like a downhill situation with the music.

The swing music was sorta fun. It could of been a nice dichotomy against the dark serious undertone of the game. Except that I don't really see Fallout 3 as being all that dark.

You can bet your butts your going to hearing more of the same.
 
I'm not very knowledgeable about music, but here are few of my thoughts regarding Fallout music.

Taken into account the last few Gamebryo games, and in which way it has progressed, we can obviously divide music into two distinct parts:
1) radio music;
2) background/ambient music

About radio music...

First I'd have to say adding radio music was a bit of a dubious decision. Whereas having radio stations and listening via your Pip-Boy is not something I mind (I actually like it), there are a few problems about it, problems regarding the overall contradictory nature of the music that is played in the game, considering the world and the setting.
We've heard 'Maybe' and 'A Kiss to Build a Dream on' which are two great songs, and in my opinion, 'I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire' is probably the most fitting for the setting - but we've heard those songs in the games' intros. It is fine of course, but in the first two games we haven't ever been given a clear notion of what was the popular pre-War music. Few references here and there, but nothing big. We could only assume for ourselves.
Now, with Fallout 3, developers went in that way to add 30's - 60's music - the choice of the songs is great in my opinion, but they've missed the genre, and the point.
It seems that for over 100 years, no new music genres and styles appeared whatsoever. This was additionally supported when NV came out - same thing, yet again. Some different music styles, but it's the same time period.
I'm not saying that things like dubstep would evolve in Fallout's world music, but adding 50's songs was a bit illogical. As if the whole world went on, but the music evolution is stopped right in its tracks. Either that, or only 50's vinyls survived the War...

Ambient and background stuff...

I'm not going to write how awe-inspiring Mark Morgan's tunes were, or what an outrageous plagiarism they were, but we can all agree on one thing - music he made was well-fitting the setting, and defined the Fallout world in many aspects.
Again, in Fallout 3, developers went wrong with this one.
I'm not going to simply bash Fallout 3 for everything, as, in reality, it had many things faithful to earlier Fallout games, but music was not one of them. Not that it was bad.
On a contrary, I find Fallout 3 to have an amazing soundtrack - it was, in my humble knowledge, a well produced piece, with some quality tracks which had a nice, catchy tune to them. Problem was, they weren't really fitting to the setting.
I personally find some of the things Inon Zur did to be very fitting for a post-apocalyptic setting - just not a Fallout one. Generally, yes, that soundtrack would probably go better with an epic fantasy game, but like I've said, I could easily imagine it in some other work of post-apocalyptic fiction.
All that taken into account, the little experiment Obsidian did with NV was certainly an interesting one. Whether it had 'best of the both worlds', or was an utter failure, it was a generally fitting soundtrack for the game. Some parts were annoying (Dam theme), but overall it had some appeal to it. My only criticism stems from the fact that some older Morgan's songs had been used poorly.
I can't really put a finger on it right now, but I think that eg. BoS theme from Fallout was badly used in NV, as in a wrong area. Though I may be talking nonsense right now, as I'm not really sure about the specifics.
 
FNV disappointed me by having The King, an army of Kings, the King's school of impersonation, several quests named after Elvis Songs but not a single Elvis tune on the radio
 
Atomkilla said:
I'm not very knowledgeable about music, but here are few of my thoughts regarding Fallout music.

Taken into account the last few Gamebryo games, and in which way it has progressed, we can obviously divide music into two distinct parts:
1) radio music;
2) background/ambient music

About radio music...

First I'd have to say adding radio music was a bit of a dubious decision. Whereas having radio stations and listening via your Pip-Boy is not something I mind (I actually like it), there are a few problems about it, problems regarding the overall contradictory nature of the music that is played in the game, considering the world and the setting.
We've heard 'Maybe' and 'A Kiss to Build a Dream on' which are two great songs, and in my opinion, 'I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire' is probably the most fitting for the setting - but we've heard those songs in the games' intros. It is fine of course, but in the first two games we haven't ever been given a clear notion of what was the popular pre-War music. Few references here and there, but nothing big. We could only assume for ourselves.
Now, with Fallout 3, developers went in that way to add 30's - 60's music - the choice of the songs is great in my opinion, but they've missed the genre, and the point.
It seems that for over 100 years, no new music genres and styles appeared whatsoever. This was additionally supported when NV came out - same thing, yet again. Some different music styles, but it's the same time period.
I'm not saying that things like dubstep would evolve in Fallout's world music, but adding 50's songs was a bit illogical. As if the whole world went on, but the music evolution is stopped right in its tracks. Either that, or only 50's vinyls survived the War...
Click to expand...

A great point you make there. I'd like to add to that, that while I too liked the radiomusic, I still found it very annoying and unfitting in the game. Sure, we had such music in the intros of the first two games, but that's it. That's why it made such a crass contrast and made a big impact and we still know it very well. It was made very subtle, a thing Bethesda knows nothing about. In Fallout 3 instead, we get bombed by it everywhere through the game, "lol 50ies!" it was. They simply did not understand what effect it achieved in the original games and made yet another element from amazing to dull and boring. That's why my first inital comment was negative, I'd rather to have none of such music at all then another trivialized thing like that.
 
While I like the music, I admit that they need to diversify it, though without breaking the Retro Feel. One genre I'd like seeing in any future game would be Garage Punk/Psychobilly. The genre is very retro, but it's also unique and a little more modern.
 
Garage Punk in my Fallout? no thank you.....

Maybe they should make completely new songs in the style of old Swing and Jazz, but that would be extra effort in something not everyone will listen.
 
I am a fan of Fallout not having such a radio feature at all. New Vegas had a great enough ambient soundtrack that you don't need to distract yourself from it with other music (unlike Fallout 3, imo).
 
Y'all know you can turn off the pipboy radio in FO3, right?
I personally found the infernal thing annoying >.<

You know, the Fallout series shouldn't really have a soundtrack.
It's meant to be bleak and isolated, and it is difficult to experience that if there is a constant drum beat in the background.
If it were to have one, the tracks in the original games would be fine.
 
Lexx said:
I am a fan of Fallout not having such a radio feature at all. New Vegas had a great enough ambient soundtrack that you don't need to distract yourself from it with other music (unlike Fallout 3, imo).
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Agree, while playing New Vegas I found myself listening to the ambient music more often than the radio.
 
I'm not a fan of Ambient, though. I'm sure I'm not the only person here who doesn't like ambient. I think the Ambient is boring imo, and I feel the Radio adds a nice touch to the game. I know I'm going to get flooded with tonnes of "U BETHEZDA FANBOY" comments, but I like the Radio.
 
Larry the Ghoul said:
So as we know, the soundtrack really helps with the games setting. Now if the next Fallout where to be set in a certain place, what do you think the soundtrack would be like?
Click to expand...

Something like

waaaawwwwbawbawpawwwww....... nnnnnyyeeaaaaaa......... kadoomshhhh.......tic...tic.....klangwuawuawuawuaaaaaa............... eeeeeeeeeeeeee.........
 
Can the Circle be Unbroken by the Carter Family (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjHjm5sRqSA) Is quite fitting. It's a song about a Woman who Looses her mother....Quite a common situation in the Wastelands, I'd say.

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition by Kay Kyser (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJfJPxLntZU) Is another good choice. It's about guns, shooting, ammo, and it has the fun Oldies Style :D

And lastly, Minnie the Moocher by Cab Calloway (Couldn't find a decent version, though you can buy it on iTunes.) It's jazzy, fun, and goofy.
 
I found myself listening to Conelrad, a music mod that really hits the Atomic Age right on the noggin, rather than the 30s and 40s music of Fallout 3. It's also a pretty good go-to for New Vegas if "Johnny Guitar" fails to help.

The song list is what I would think about if wandering about a nuclear-devastated wasteland.

I would also love some blues. For instance, I like the imagery associated with Elmore James's The Sky Is Crying.
 
DevilTakeMe said:
I found myself listening to Conelrad, a music mod that really hits the Atomic Age right on the noggin, rather than the 30s and 40s music of Fallout 3. It's also a pretty good go-to for New Vegas if "Johnny Guitar" fails to help.

The song list is what I would think about if wandering about a nuclear-devastated wasteland.

I would also love some blues. For instance, I like the imagery associated with Elmore James's The Sky Is Crying.
Click to expand...

Conelrad should have been in the vanilla game it was so good. I didn't care for the announcer, but the music was great. The ambient music in FNV was so much better than Fallout 3. I found myself listening to the FNV ambient music a lot, but in Fallout 3 it was so bad I had to turn it off. Fallout 3 sounded almost exactly like Oblivion, and that irked me pretty bad.

A lot of people said they didn't like the ambient music in FNV either, which is a bit strange-The music fit the setting 100%. I like the radio personally. I found myself switching from the radio to the ambient, which is something I could not do in Fallout 3; I had to play the radio the whole time, or nothing at all. Of course you can always add your own ambient music, but I would rather not have to.
 
shihonage said:
Larry the Ghoul said:
So as we know, the soundtrack really helps with the games setting. Now if the next Fallout where to be set in a certain place, what do you think the soundtrack would be like?
Click to expand...

Something like

waaaawwwwbawbawpawwwww....... nnnnnyyeeaaaaaa......... kadoomshhhh.......tic...tic.....klangwuawuawuawuaaaaaa............... eeeeeeeeeeeeee.........
Click to expand...

shamona hee hee
 
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