Videogame music has come an awfully long way since the bleeps and bloops of its equivalent stone age.
These days, it’s an industry that’s big enough to rival music and movies, which means blockbuster videogame franchises can regularly afford to enlist big name musicians; just as the Call Of Duty series has, employing Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor last year and debuting new music from Eminem recently, while Jay Z got to combine his twin passions of hip hop and basketball as the executive producer for the latest popular NBA2K title.
But there are few franchises bigger than Grand Theft Auto (or simply GTA) the hugely successful videogame series that puts players into the eyes, ears, feet, and trigger-happy fingers of a criminal in an open-world virtual environment.
As the series, developed by Rockstar Games, has evolved into a more cinematic experience, so too has its enormous million dollar budgets, regularly spending a lot of those production costs on its real-world soundtrack and the latest entry in the series is no exception, with perhaps the biggest and best compilation of music the series has enjoyed yet.
Due for release on 17th September, the anticipation for GTA V has already sent the videogame community into a tailspin, with many of the game’s details still a closely guarded secret, that was until parts of the game were accidentally leaked early on Sony’s PlayStation network in select regions, as Kotaku Australia reports. [GTA]’s production costs [go to] its real-world soundtrack and the latest entry in the series is no exception, with perhaps the biggest and best compilation of music the series has enjoyed yet.
The collective hands of the Internet then began digging through the coding of the leaked GTA V files and managed to extract a bunch of data from the 18GB download, including identifying large parts of the game’s licensed soundtrack.
A reddit thread that is compiling the music featured in the game claims it has the (near)complete list of songs, “No BS”, filtered from the “20-30 hours of audio” that was extracted from the GTA V leak. Rockstar Games are, of course, downplaying the leak, saying that they do not respond to rumours and speculation, but the quality and range of tracks is legitimate enough for the reddit community who’s pored through the data to find them.
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The complete tracklisting contains over 200 songs and runs the gamut from rock to pop, punk, funk, electronica, punk, Latin and a healthy dose of classic West Coast rap, including N.W.A., Snoop Dogg, and 2Pac; fitting given the game’s setting: a fictionalised version of Los Angeles.
The selections are also grouped into particular ‘stations’ as the videogame follows the tradition of previous entries in delivering a sense of realism by having the music play through radio stations and in-game stereos. Chiefly blasting out the windows of virtual cars as players spend hours at a time driving around in jacked vehicles (hint’s in the title), complete with on-air DJs, commercials, and cheesy radio IDs.
As anyone who’s poured hours into Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, set in an 80s Miami, will tell you, the broadcasting presentation and real-world soundtrack not only brilliantly satirise actual radio, but are hugely impressive in their scale and presentation. With such a huge list of tunes, cost, and effort put into providing GTA V players with a rich soundtrack to their experience, the question arises: is this the best videogame soundtrack of all-time?
Does it best the uber-important influence of the Tony Hawk’s skateboarding series and its licensed punk, rock, and rap compilations? Or able to hold a candle to the likes of music mimicry games like Guitar Hero (R.I.P.) and Rocksmith, or karaoke systems like Sing Star? Each with their own long list of licensed music classics.
Maybe. Maybe Not. But if the leaked GTA V soundtrack is anything to go by, it’s certainly one of the most comprehensive ever seen.
Leaked GTA V Soundtrack
via reddit.
West Coast Classics
N.W.A. – Appetite For Destruction
N.W.A. – Gangsta Gangsta
2pac – ambitionz az a ridah
DJ Quik – Dollars and Sense
C Walk – Kurupt
Snoop Dogg – Gin N Juice
Snoop Dogg Dr. Dre – Still D.R.E
Snoop Dogg Dr. Dre – The Next Episode
King T – Played Like A Piano
Geto Boys – Mind Playin’ Tricks
Tha Dogg Pound Ft. Mack 10 – Nothin’ But The Cavi Hit
Too $hort – So You Want To Be A Gangster
Kausion – What You Wanna Do (Ft. Ice Cube)
Ice Cube – You Know How We Do It
Classic Rock Stations
Foreigner – Dirty White Boy
The Cult – Rain
Steve Miller Band – Rock ‘N Me
Elton John – Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting
Julian Lennon – Too Late for Goodbyes
Greg Kihn Band – The Breakup Song (They Don’t Write ‘Em)
The Doobie Brothers – What a Fool Believes
Kano – Can’t Hold Back (Your Loving)
Rick James – Give It to Me Baby
Queen – Radio Ga Ga
One Way – Cutie Pie
Evelyn “Champagne” King – I’m in Love
Eddie Murphy – Party All the Time
Stevie Wonder – Skeletons
Kleer – Tonight
D Train – You’re the One for Me
Punk Station
The Weirdos – Life of Crime
The Germs – Lexicon Devil
Youth Brigade – Blown Away
Black Flag – My War
Descendents – Pervert
Circle Jerks – Rock House
T.S.O.L. – Abolish Government/Silent Majority
Suicidal Tendencies – Subliminal
Fear – The Mouth Don’t Stop (The Trouble with Women IS)
Radio Los Santos
Gucci Mane Ft. Ciara – Too Hood
Freddie Gibbs – Still Livin
[The Alchemist + Oh No (Gangrene)](?????)
Clyde Carson, The Team – Slow Down
PROBLEM ft. Glasses Malone – Say That Then
Ab-Soul – Illuminate
Mc Enit – straight up menace
Kendrick Lamar – A.D.H.D
YG – I’m A Real 1
Kelly Rowland – Work (Freemasons Remix)
Game – Ali Bomaye (Explicit) ft. 2 Chainz, Rick Ross
Soulwax FM
Mim Suleiman – Mingi
FKCLUB – The Strange Art (ID Remix)
Matias Aguayo – El Sucu Tucu
Joe Goddard feat. Valentina – Gabriel (Soulwax Remix)
Daniel Maloso – Body Music
Green Velvet & Harvard Bass – Lazer Beams
Zombie Nation – Tryouts Goose – Synrise (Soulwax Remix)
Tiga – Plush (Jacques Lu Cont Remix)
Pulp – After You (Soulwax Remix)
The Hacker – Shockwave (Gesaffelstein Remix)
Non-stop Pop FM
Corona – The Rhythm of the Night.
Modjo – Lady (Hear Me Tonight)
Britney Spears – Gimme More
Rihanna – Only Girl Stardust – Music Sounds Better With You
Aphex Twins – Windowlicker Robyn – Every Heartbeat
The Blackout ALlstars – I Like It
Kelly Rowland – Work
Pet Shop Boys – West End Girls
All Saints – Pure Shores
Mystique – Scandalous
Moloko – Time Is Now
Amerie – 1 Thing
Fergie – Glamorous ft. Ludacris
Hall And Oates – Adult Education
Unknown
Waylon Jennings – Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way
Jay Rock Feat. Kendrick Lamar – Hood Gone Love It
Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake – Small Faces
Hackman – Forgotten Notes
The Dogg Pound – What Would You Do
The Game – Ali Bomaye ft. 2 Chainz, Rick Ross
Bernard Wright – Haboglabotribin’
Taana Gardner – Heartbeat (Club Version)
Zapp – Heartbreaker. Pt. 1, Pt. 2
Chief Keef – Love Sosa (Not 100% on this song.)
Aaron Neville – Hercules
Muse – Madness
Mis-Teeq – Scandalous
Inner Circle – Bad Boys (hahaha, perfect song.)
Marlena Shaw – California Soul
Outkast – Elevators (Me & You)
Regulate – Warren G and Nate Dogg
Jane Child – Don’t Wanna Fall In Love (Thanks Xl2onald)
Def Leppard – Photograph
