Is there anything better than cruising down the highway listening to Skynyrd’s “Freebird” or driving through the bustling city on a sunny day to a soundtrack of James Brown and Bobby Byrd? Well, how about fleeing a fleet of police cars and a helicopter while blasting out Jane’s Addiction’s “Been Caught Stealing” as you dodge the long arm of the law after another failed bank heist?
When Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was released in 2004, it allowed players to experience all this and more thanks to a trailblazing soundtrack that incorporated music from numerous eras and genres, allowing gamers to tune their in-game radio station to artists as diverse as A Guy Called Gerald and Patsy Cline. The forthcoming Grand Theft Auto VI will continue this tradition, with adverts already revealing the use of songs by Tom Petty (“Love Is A Long Road”) and Prefab Sprout (“Cars And Girls”). For many fans, the best thing about the new game will be the chance to spool through these in-house radio stations while driving through one of the game’s immaculately realised landscapes. What treats will they discover?
It is kind of ironic that a contemporary video game should so lovingly capture the golden age of radio, when DJs would curate exquisite playlists that opened minds and ears even if American drivers are now more likely to listen to Spotify playlists than FM radio. GTA’s radio/soundtrack concept was loosely introduced in the very first Grand Theft Auto game in 1997, a basic-looking affair that featured radio stations devoted to funk, rap, rock, techno and country. The difference is that all the songs, which included classics like “Just Do It” by Bleeding Stump and “This Life” by Slumpussy, were written specially for the game by staff at Rockstar Games.
By 2001, gaming technology had improved and Rockstar had a lot more money, allowing them to expand the concept for the New York-set GTAIII. Now there were more radio stations and the genres were more distinctly segregated, with nine different radio stations each playing around half-a-dozen songs on loop, from the classical music of Double Clef FM to K-Jah’s heavy dub. Other than the classical excerpts, the music was still largely written for the game.
The massive success of that game allowed the makers to raise the bar considerably for their next release, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, when they began to license genuine hits. This one was set in mid-80s Miami and the soundtrack featured that decade’s biggest artists from the worlds of pop, metal, rap and dance including Grandmaster Flash, Michael Jackson, Kate Bush, Anthrax, Roxy Music and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. The soundtrack was so popular it was later released as a seven-CD box set.
After that, the makers only got more adventurous. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas included a delightful alternative-rock station that allowed you to careen recklessly up and down the hills of San Francisco while listening to Primal Scream, Stone Roses, L7 and Rage Against The Machine, while GTAIV, set in a version of New York, had a particularly eclectic, lovingly made selection, including deep cuts by Liquid Liquid, Killing Joke, Gong, Fela Kuti, Miles Davis, Terry Riley, Aphex Twin, Stooges, Bad Brains and Deicide. With the GTA games selling hundreds of millions of copies, it is, after all, one of the most successful and lucrative entertainment franchises ever developed, this will have given many young gamers their first introduction to most of these artists, as well as provided the bands themselves with a helpful and unexpected payday.
The combination of popular music and action found in the GTA franchise is inspired by film directors like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, who are masters of using rock and pop music to score their most memorable scenes. It’s an approach that has since become commonplace through TV shows like Stranger Things and The Bear. But the genius of the GTA world is that it allows gamers to become their own music supervisors, as they switch between the different stations depending on their mood, vehicle, situation and location. Driving a fancy sports car through neon-lit nighttime Las Vegas? Listen to some techno or ambient dance music. Stolen a yellow cab to explore rainy New York? Try some metal or hard rock. Sunny day in the desert? Let’s jump in a truck and spin some good old country.
Because while the game does involve a fair degree of extreme violence, a significant amount of time is spent simply driving. Driving round cities but also between cities which are located in different parts of a map, and a map that would get progressively larger with each new generation of console. By letting gamers immerse themselves in music, whether it be Playback FM’s diet of classic East Coast hip-hop such as Public Enemy and Slick Rick from GTA: San Andreas or the outlaw country of Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings on GTAV’s Rebel Radio, a potentially very boring part of the game suddenly becomes a pleasure. And as the budget increased, so did the quality: soon the game was hiring genuine legends as DJs, such as Bootsy Collins (spinning Rick James and Stevie Wonder on Space 103.2) or Lee Perry (playing dub and reggae on Blue Ark FM).
It helped that music forms part of some of GTA’s best plotlines. The 1992-set San Andreas is focused on the rivalry between rappers Madd Dogg and OG Loc, but one of the most memorable threads concerns a mythical Madchester band called The Gurning Chimps, whose chaotic frontman, Maccer, seems too ridiculous to be true until you realise he’s voiced by none other than Sean Ryder. The plot of GTAVI, which will be set in a fictional version of Miami, is also expected to revolve around the industry, ensuring music will form an essential part of what is likely to be the most anticipated pop-culture moment of 2026.