IV vs V's soundtrack - which did it better?

[Patrizio]

Many of us were hooked on the GTA series from our first play through on Vice City or San Andreas. Both had incredible soundtracks that really helped bring their locations alive and set the scene and tone of their games. Both of course relied on licensed music with many classics present. This was a little "easier" as both were set in the past - where nostalgia can shape an attachment to the soundtrack. When IV came around it was set in the modern period. Rockstar decided to go via the "GTA III route" of underground music not that familiar to most of the listeners. V again was modern, but this time it (in my opinion) tried to straddle the middle - a mixture of underground music with pop hits. 

 

Both IV and V had/have faced much criticism. The question I wonder is - which did a better job in its soundtrack?

 

I think there a few ways of looking at this:

 

• Which one had more songs that would fill you with nostalgia upon hearing it years into the future?
• Which one reflected the tone of the game better and its story?
• Which one had the stronger soundtrack in terms of variety of genres and songs featured?

 

A lot of this is of course subjective, but I'm curious what people think. Which game had the better soundtrack, and why?

[GTA-Biker]

While GTA 5 does have some great songs on LSRR, WCC and some other stations,its soundtrack also has a lot of flaws (LSRR plays the hard rock stuff like Def Leppard and ZZ Top alongside soft rock/pop rock stuff like If You Leave Me Now by Chicago which doesn't fit together well,NSP plays a mix of at the time modern late 2000s/early 2010s pop along with 80s, 90s and early 2000s pop which is also kinda weird,there's like five different modern rap stations for some reason,etc.),so I prefer GTA 4 soundtrack.LRR is a better classic rock station than LSRR in my opinion,Vice City FM is full of some good 80s pop songs,and even late 2000s songs that were modern at the time now feel nostalgic.

Edited July 9, 2020 by GTA-Biker

[Guest]

Tbh I only listen to a few select stations in every game so idk if I can offer the best perspective but from what I know-

 

- Liberty Rock Radio and Radio Broker > Los Santos Rock Radio and Vinewood Boulevard Radio. So IV has better Rock stations imo

 

- Blaine County Radio alone > All 3 of IV's talk stations (that judge show was good though). So V wins in the talk station part

 

- IV didn't have a proper pop station while V had Non stop Pop and Radio Mirror Park(this is pop right?) so V wins here too

- West Coast Classics >The Classics but The Beat > Radio Los Santos so in hip hop I guess for me it's a tie

 

That being said though I think IV's soundtrack fit the vibe of the game more, dont know how to explain it precisely but the soundtrack feels more part of the game's identity in IV than in V where it feels like you could hear quite a few of the songs in real life stations too. Not really a drawback for V as such but the soundtrack for IV will probably feel more memorable/nostalgic as the years go by since like I said they feel more personalized in IV

 

Finally as to what I prefer, I think V actually since I mostly listen to Rock and pop(and talk stations) and while IV does the Rock better the absence of a proper pop station in IV kind of hurts it's standing for me. If Vladivostok is considered pop it'll be much closer but I still would go with V, even though IV soundtrack better meshed with the game and had more stations, of the genres I do listen to I guess V did slightly better for me. Though my opinion on these isn't fixed as such, on another day I might say IV but then no real pop station apart from maybe Vladivostok kind of gives V the advantage in my eyes. 

 

[Jeansowaty]

As much as I like GTA IV, I think it lacked some things. For example, you had only ONE electronic dance music radio station, yet you had some pretty niche genres here and there. We're talking about NEW YORK here. Also, no pop station was an oddball. SA didn't have that either so that was weird how they didn't fix that mistake. 

 

V's soundtrack is chaotic just like the game itself and that's what makes it fit, even if on first sight you wouldn't listen to acid house/techno while playing as Trevor or experimental hip-hop/glitch while playing as Franklin. It has more tracks that don't fit the era and are just thrown for the heck of it, but since there are more stations that match my tastes, I gotta go with V on this point, sorry fellow IV fans.

[Patrizio]

Three excellent posts.

 

@GTA-Biker I agree with you completely that the rock and pop stations on V were a bit of a mess. They did reflect any particular era and so to me didn't really fit with the theme of the game. I felt Radio X didn't fit in GTA V, especially as LCHC in IV was so similar (to me). They both have a niche version of rock/punk - Hardcore. I didn't feel they needed to be in both (although I don't mind them). You know what I mean?

 

@Utopianthumbs great contribution as always. I definitely feel IV's soundtrack fit Niko's story better. I wonder if having three characters in V made it harder to have a soundtrack match the theme?

 

@Jeansowaty great post. I feel the same. A lot of V's songs just don't fit and don't match other characters.

 

 

[GrudgefromSanAndreas]

i think eflc somehow had better music than vanilla iv, metal in tlad is even better than any radio station in v

[Ash_735]

If GTAV was more focused into what it wanted to do, I'd say that, but GTA IV felt like the last proper "GTA Radio Station Doing a Theme", I get more nostalgia from hearing Radio Broker, The Vibe, TBOGT Vladivostok Fm, etc, then I do from the confusing mess of most of V's stations. But at the same time, stations like SPACE 103.2 and The Low Down are damn good, but somehow feel, ...less, even after the added PC/NG tracks, it just feels like some of the DJ's in V never recorded much dialogue.

[kobeni]

17 hours ago, Patrizio said:

I felt Radio X didn't fit in GTA V, especially as LCHC in IV was so similar (to me). They both have a niche version of rock/punk - Hardcore.

 

The bands featured on Channel X all come from the local Californian hardcore punk scene, which also gave birth to subgenres like nardcore and deathrock, and the pop punk/skate punk/ska punk movement later in the 90s with bands like green day, rancid and the offspring.

 

I recommend watching Repo Man (1984) if you want to get a better feel of this subculture, particularly in LA.

Edited July 10, 2020 by DownInTheHole

[Patrizio]

On 7/10/2020 at 8:37 AM, DownInTheHole said:

The bands featured on Channel X all come from the local Californian hardcore punk scene, which also gave birth to subgenres like nardcore and deathrock, and the pop punk/skate punk/ska punk movement later in the 90s with bands like green day, rancid and the offspring.

 

I recommend watching Repo Man (1984) if you want to get a better feel of this subculture, particularly in LA.

Great reply! No I think you're right. I thought about it after posting. Hardcore is very California. I just feel Rockstar have continually negected certain subgenres of rock and electronic music in favour of other "niche" ones and I was surprised that they had a hardcore station two games in a row. But you're right, it does fit California. I will check that film out .

[jaylenpizarro12]

gta 4

[B Dawg]

On 7/9/2020 at 3:22 PM, Utopianthumbs said:

- IV didn't have a proper pop station while V had Non stop Pop and Radio Mirror Park(this is pop right?) so V wins here too

Not having a pop station is a positive 

Meanwhile, V didn't even have a Jazz or Metal station.

Anyways, to add onto the discussion:

- LCHC sh*ts all over Channel X. LCHC is hardcore as f*ck with some Thrash Metal fusion, while Channel X is hella weak in comparison. It was just boring, standard punk rock with vocalists who sounded weak. If it's not Hardcore and or doesn't have any elements of Metal, then it's just discount rock music, which is how i would describe Channel X. Where's the aggression? Where are the cool solos? They had D.R.I. on the radio but they picked some crappy short song instead of one of their better ones like from the Thrash Zone album.

[billiejoearmstrong8]

32 minutes ago, B Dawg said:

 

- LCHC sh*ts all over Channel X. LCHC is hardcore as f*ck with some Thrash Metal fusion, while Channel X is hella weak in comparison. It was just boring, standard punk rock with vocalists who sounded weak. If it's not Hardcore and or doesn't have any elements of Metal, then it's just discount rock music, which is how i would describe Channel X. Where's the aggression? Where are the cool solos? They had D.R.I. on the radio but they picked some crappy short song instead of one of their better ones like from the Thrash Zone album.

I think they're both pretty good and authentic representations of what they're supposed to be - an East coast 80s punk station and a West coast 80s punk station. That's just how West coast punk is, it's generally more melodic and less aggressive. I prefer the West coast melodic punk of Channel X, most of LCHC is too ugly sounding for my taste.

Edited July 14, 2020 by billiejoearmstrong8

[GhettoJesus]

I am going with V. For me the only radio station I could only enjoy in IV was the jazz radio. The rock station was very weak (although in TLAD it was amazing) and there were around 3 good songs on Vladivostok FM. Even the Classics were disappointing, I didn't hear any of the rappers I expected. When it comes to V it had West Coast Classics which was amazing, they had a lot of good songs there, same goes for Los Santos Rock Radio. And I even managed to enjoy a few songs on Los Santos Radio despite not being a fan of contemporary rap.

Edited July 15, 2020 by GhettoJesus

[[Ambient]]

On 7/9/2020 at 1:58 PM, Patrizio said:

• Which one had more songs that would fill you with nostalgia upon hearing it years into the future?

That's a quite hard choice. Both GTA IV and GTA V provided a good deal of songs that would later become nostalgic to me. I think I'll pick GTA V, but the original (PS3/Xbox 360) version, since that's where most of the "nostalgic-in-the-future" were introduced first.

 

On 7/9/2020 at 1:58 PM, Patrizio said:

• Which one reflected the tone of the game better and its story?

GTA IV, no doubt.

 

On 7/9/2020 at 1:58 PM, Patrizio said:

• Which one had the stronger soundtrack in terms of variety of genres and songs featured?

Again, GTA IV. GTA V lacks of stations that play ambient or jazz music and with GTA Online, the variety has gone down with around 40% of the soundtrack being rap. Nothing against rap music, but too much music of a specific genre, compared to the rest of the music selection, can ruin the whole soundtrack's variety.