Fallout: Music of 2077

PaxVenire

PaxVenire

Vault Dweller
I made a speculative playlist on YouTube of the kind of flavor of music that I think would be played in Fallout's pre-war era. Here's the description of the playlist for more clarity:

This playlist is my speculative take on what music in the final years of the Old World of the Fallout universe might’ve sounded like. Fallout nowadays is musically (and aesthetically) synonymous with the 1930s-1960s), but the classic games aimed for a more unique and nuanced version of the retrofuture of the series that this playlist aims to tackle. The truth of reality is that culture doesn't freeze and music alongside cultures evolve over time. I took into account the many issues that would’ve plagued society such as the Resource Wars, the New Plague virus, the Red Scare, government and corporate ascendancy, automation replacing laborers, and fear of the bombs dropping.This is a curated a playlist of songs that might’ve been heard not just on the mainstream radio, but in underground counterculture movements, traditional regional sounds, and lost or bygone genres by 2077. Shuffle is recommended.
Please note that the song choices here aren’t meant to be taken literal. Think of this playlist as an analog to music that would be played, using songs across mutiple genres and decades from our real world. If a song is in instrumental format or is a cover or remix, the addition of that specific version to this playlist was deliberate.

If anyone would like to contribute to this speculative playlist, please add to the comment chain with links to the song and I'll add them to the playlist. And if you have any criticisms or feedback, let me know!

 
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I think 80s synth would fit Fallout very well because when looking at the tech, pip boy, and interface in the classic fallouts I get a heavy 80s retro vibe to it. I imagine the pop music of the late pre war era would include 80s synths in them like some of the music in the playlist. These three particular track is something I think people would listen to in 2070s.


 
I appreciate the effort you’ve put into this but to be honest it mostly sounds a little too 80s to me. The country/folk/jazz stuff is good though. I like that cover of She Watch Channel Zero but I just can’t see the Fallout world developing those kind of metal riffs. Social Distortion’s Ring of Fire is closer to how I imagine rock music would develop in Fallout. More punk than metal.

May I suggest a couple songs:

This guy could’ve been their Jimi Hendrix

And this guy could’ve been their Kurt Cobain
 
ZooBis said:
I think 80s synth would fit Fallout very well because when looking at the tech, pip boy, and interface in the classic fallouts I get a heavy 80s retro vibe to it. I imagine the pop music of the late pre war era would include 80s synths in them like some of the music in the playlist. These three particular track is something I think people would listen to in 2070s.
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I agree with this, the 80s analog technology of Fallout often goes under the radar when people talk about the retrofuture. Synth makes sense for the prewar.

Iprovidelittlepianos said:
I appreciate the effort you’ve put into this but to be honest it mostly sounds a little too 80s to me. The country/folk/jazz stuff is good though. I like that cover of She Watch Channel Zero but I just can’t see the Fallout world developing those kind of metal riffs.
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I was thinking about what kind of music would be popular on the radio in 2077 and came to the conclusion that it would most likely a lot of 80s electronic or synth-heavy music with little to no lyrics due to the government and corporate censorship of mass media during the later years of the Resource Wars and rampant Red Scare, thus I added tracks to the playlist like the Cars remix, Blue Monday instrumental, Rock It instrumental, Born in the USA synth cover. Synth electronic seems like a logical evolution of music for Fallout's 80s analog technology and would be considered "safe music" to play in between Vault-Tec and Nuka-Cola ads (My Chrysalis Highwayman in particular sounds like a song that would be made by the Chrysalis Motors Corporation to play in the background of their commercials but also on the radio as a song of it's own). The metal tracks such as She Watch Channel Zero, 16 Tons, and industrial NIN is meant to represent very suppressed underground music made as a reactionary response to what people fed up with the downward spiral of the world would see as corporate slop on the radio. Expressive, heavy, raw-sounding instruments accompanies by lyrics rebelling against norms or slaving for corporations. I could see this underground metal music being remembered by early Raider gangs.

Iprovidelittlepianos said:
May I suggest a couple songs:
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These are great! I'll add them to the list.
 
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PaxVenire said:
I agree with this, the 80s analog technology of Fallout often goes under the radar when people talk about the retrofuture. Synth makes sense for the prewar.


I was thinking about what kind of music would be popular on the radio in 2077 and came to the conclusion that it would most likely a lot of 80s electronic or synth-heavy music with little to no lyrics due to the government and corporate censorship of mass media during the later years of the Resource Wars and rampant Red Scare, thus I added tracks to the playlist like the Cars remix, Blue Monday instrumental, Rock It instrumental, Born in the USA synth cover. Synth electronic seems like a logical evolution of music for Fallout's 80s analog technology and would be considered "safe music" to play in between Vault-Tec and Nuka-Cola ads (My Chrysalis Highwayman in particular sounds like a song that would be made by the Chrysalis Motors Corporation to play in the background of their commercials but also on the radio as a song of it's own). The metal tracks such as She Watch Channel Zero, 16 Tons, and industrial NIN is meant to represent very suppressed underground music made as a reactionary response to what people fed up with the downward spiral of the world would see as corporate slop on the radio. Expressive, heavy, raw-sounding instruments accompanies by lyrics rebelling against norms or slaving for corporations. I could see this underground metal music being remembered by early Raider gangs.


These are great! I'll add them to the list.
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We’re just gonna have to agree to disagree on some of this I guess.

I understand what you’re going for with featuring music that sounds more electronic. What do you think of something like this?:


It’s not synth-heavy but it still has some “spacey” noises.
 
Iprovidelittlepianos said:
We’re just gonna have to agree to disagree on some of this I guess.

I understand what you’re going for with featuring music that sounds more electronic. What do you think of something like this?:


It’s not synth-heavy but it still has some “spacey” noises.
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This is a perfectly acceptable track as well. I'd like to hear your input on what you think the pre-war music scene would look like so we can perhaps fine tune the playlist a bit more to accommodate the Fallout universe. I can see the genres I added being a bit jarring for Fallout for sure, and the playlist IS meant to be a work in progress.

Here’s a more retrosynth example:



 
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Iprovidelittlepianos said:
I appreciate the effort you’ve put into this but to be honest it mostly sounds a little too 80s to me. The country/folk/jazz stuff is good though. I like that cover of She Watch Channel Zero but I just can’t see the Fallout world developing those kind of metal riffs. Social Distortion’s Ring of Fire is closer to how I imagine rock music would develop in Fallout. More punk than metal.
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yeah i agree, they feel out of place to the culture before the war
 
PaxVenire said:
I'll remove the more overt 80s synth and 90s metal insert the more retro ones, thanks for the feedback guys, we're making something good here.
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did you delete the "My Chrysalis Highwayman"? it really fit
ZooBis said:
I think 80s synth would fit Fallout very well because when looking at the tech, pip boy, and interface in the classic fallouts I get a heavy 80s retro vibe to it.
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i think it gives cassette futurism vibes more, especially the original pip boy and holodisks, and securitron, i think these represent it better




but they have the problem of being to 80s'ish
 
Now that I think about it, synths between the 50s and 70s would be commonly used for electronic music in the pre-war world. I imagine 80s synths still existing, but not until the 2070s or late pre-war era, since technology naturally changes and progresses for world-building sake, so they wouldn't be popular and common by the time 80s style synths get introduced. I also think about how there are guns like the P90, G11, and Marksmen Carbine that exist in Fallout along with the Riot Armor which are modern looking. This makes me wonder as to why 80s synths couldn't exist as well.
 
ZooBis said:
Now that I think about it, synths between the 50s and 70s would be commonly used for electronic music in the pre-war world. I imagine 80s synths still existing, but not until the 2070s or late pre-war era, since technology naturally changes and progresses for world-building sake, so they wouldn't be popular and common by the time 80s style synths get introduced. I also think about how there are guns like the P90, G11, and Marksmen Carbine that exist in Fallout along with the Riot Armor which are modern looking. This makes me wonder as to why 80s synths couldn't exist as well.
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take my advice about modern gun in fallout 2
they shouldn't exist, it was just fallout 2 poor management and Leonard boyarsky not being around watching
and also about riot gear was inspired by kerberos saga protect gear, i suspect they are riot gear and not bunch of armors put together with riot helmet, putting duster on riot force is just a disaster
also fallout and fallout 2 are full of 90s and 80s elements in its armors and guns so this is a point
the classic tight vault jumpsuit and T-51b are the only 50s inspired clothing their
 
PaxVenire said:
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Update to the playlist: You might notice a lot of the original, more "out there" tracks are gone. I've replaced the 80s synth tracks with more retrosynth tracks of the Space Age. I've also replaced the more heavy metal grungy music with @Iprovidelittlepianos suggestion of artists like Rev Horton Heat. I've also added music from Fallout's own lore such as Begin Again. You might also notice a lot of iconic oldies and Fallout tracks from the games are more modern artists. I was careful to select covers that sound modern but stay true to the retro feel of the originals and aesthetic of "maybe this could've been what modern music sounded like in Fallout". This way there can be oldies music while not just using long-dead artists. Besides, as I've explained, this playlist is more analogous than literal. The playlist now follows a progression of genres that flow as such:
Retrosynth/Electronic > Lounge Music > Folk Music > Country Music > Crooner Revival > Retro Punk and Garage > Ambient

This playlist is a work in progress so expect it to have additions/removals over time as I tweak it, but enjoy the update nonetheless. And as always, if you have recommendations, I'll gladly evaluate them and add them if it fits. Also feedback is always welcomed.
 
Why would a society who imagines a great future to come, imagine that their music and cultural tastes would remain stagnant. When they imagined a future car, they did not expect it to be a 57' Chevy, they expected it to be a design of the future ~with 50's aesthetics. The same goes for housing, and architecture. Look at Chicago in FO:Tactics; it's not 50's high rises and bungalows, it's silver spires. It's closer to The Jetsons.

So why would their future descendants want the musical equivalent of a 57' Chevy (songs they've replayed for decades) instead of futuristic new music ~with a 50's aesthetic.

The (in world) music that Fallout ~should~ have had should not be pre-60's music; which was used in the game intros as a remembrance of the world as it existed deep in the past.

The music of 2075 should have been from new artists with their own ideas; not archaic cover songs from the 1950's, not 150 year old relic tunes from the past. Their music would still be in a noticeably 50's style, but noticeably NOT from the actual 1950's.

Alternate-Earth.jpg
 
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