Creative music ideas for GTA VI (pt.1) - Rock Show

A likely ever-growing series of creative music ideas for Grand Theft Auto VI.

Look, I’m sure if you’re reading this you’re aware of Grand Theft Auto in some shape or form. I’d say you could skip the first point if you’re short on time, but the rest builds the foundation of the series. Excuse me for the longer one this time, but all the rest of these in the future will be shorter - I promise! Your itinerary for today:

1. The origins of Grand Theft Auto

2. Where music comes into play

3. GTA VI music ideas - a rock show

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1. The Origins Of Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto (will now be summarised as ‘GTA’ going forward) is a game series created by Rockstar Games. It’s part of a long-running series of sandbox/open world games that are based in the real world…well, an overexaggerated and satirical interpretation of reality. You can drive cars, walk around to explore the world, go to clubs, buy food, interact with reality - but those cars you drive are mostly hijacked and gunfights are so common in and out of the story it is almost de-sensitising. Don’t fear though, there are lots of studies that people know ‘it’s a video game’ and they aren’t going to become more violent (what a way to start a SubStack!).

GTA’s sandbox design is the most realistic sim of an unrealistic and extreme world that has encouraged huge communities to thrive in (such as the Purples vs Greens 2020 takeover). A huge engaged user base for a long period of time also means a huge revenue…with the latest game (GTA V) alone earning more than $7 billion since release.

For context, here are release dates for some of the leading games of the series:

GTA III - 2001
GTA: Vice City - 2002
GTA: San Andreas - 2004
GTA IV - 2008
GTA V - 2013
…and we can assume GTA VI will be released in 2025:

Each game’s aesthetic and story focuses on an era. Vice City was based in 1986 and San Andreas was based in the early 90’s, but the numbered series are based in the year it was released. This conveniently works very well for aligning with culture and technologies, as well as development timescales, without a game being too out of date before the next one comes out.

Even though it has been over 10 years since the last release, GTA V is not ‘out of date’, but so much has happened in the past 10 years that would make more sense in an updated game in the current era. I mean, just watch the GTA VI trailer and you’ll see why. In a wierd way, what you see on this trailer looks overexaggerated but…when you see that it references real life clips taken from social media and popular culture since 2013…it would benefit from a new sandbox to pour our latest trends into.

2. Where music comes into play

So, why is GTA my focus for this SubStack? Well…while you’re driving your newly hijacked car in GTA, you can listen to lots of real life radio stations, packed full of music spanning across multiple eras according to the genre or style of the radio station. Read this quote below for more context:

“Since Grand Theft Auto 3, Rockstar has put a lot of effort into getting licensed songs to use for a huge selection of radio stations. Grand Theft Auto 5 continued this by adding sixteen unique radio stations with over 400 songs to choose from. Throughout the game's long life cycle, Rockstar has continued to update the music by adding multiple songs and even entirely new radio stations for players to listen to as they explore the city of Los Santos.”

In the latest GTA games, you generally spend a fair chunk of time in vehicles going from A to B exploring their extensive maps, so you’ll be spending a lot of time listening to the radio stations. (source):

Business hat on: A very intelligent move from Rockstar - they also own their own record label, and have been using this as a platform to release and advertise their own music.

There have been performances from real DJ’s in GTA V in one of the online studios, taking inspiration from other game’s music initiatives, in similar collaborative efforts that Fortnite and Roblox have been showing in recent years.

It’s clear the whole team at Rockstar are huge fans of music and this is clearly ingrained into their philosophy and creative direction. I read a cool article interviewing Ivan Pavlovich who is the director of music for both GTA and Red Dead Redemption (swoon) talking about music’s involvement for one of the updates GTA had launched called After Hours where you run a nightclub. Ivan discusses the excitement behind the inclusion of Solomun, Dixon and The Black Madonna as leading producers and DJ’s having their own curated set experiences. In another interview between Complex and Ivan, he goes further into the importance of music inclusion in future updates for established catalogue artists as well as emerging artists. Read this as proof from Rockstar directly, I’ve put key bits in bold:

“One of the biggest boons with their work in really curating sounds from different genres is that games like GTA Online low-key put people on to artists all the time—this is a game that Rockstar says has exposed players to 75 billion minutes of music since Grand Theft Auto V debuted in 2013. "We have this platform to introduce people to new music," Pavlovich says, "a platform to turn young generations onto classic music. It’s incredible to have that position where you can really kind of influence and inspire people’s musical tastes."

It's also an avenue for artists like Flying Lotus, who are hype to add new material to GTA V. "FlyLo has such a strong identity in the game. The same with someone like Tyler, the Creator—they’re passionate about their contributions. Plus, they’re always creating new music, sometimes with us in mind. FlyLo is giving us unreleased tracks he's worked on—he had recorded a Mac Miller verse that never came out for "Black Balloons," but he's putting that on in the game! He's always pushing the boundaries of what he's doing for us, and I think that it comes out of respect to the game."

For a game like Grand Theft Auto V—and now GTA Online—being a bastion of new music discovery is key; I know people who got put onto the Teklife crew because of DJ Rashad's collaboration with Heavee, "It's Wack," being a part of FlyLo FM.

Pavlovich says that music is a part of Rockstar's DNA, and thus makes his team's conversations a vital part of the development of these games. "We’re brought on pretty early to sit down with Sam [Houser, founder of Rockstar Games, who] is incredibly passionate about music. These conversations with Sam start early on, so if we know we’re creating a nightclub in the game, we obviously know we need to bounce around some DJs that might fit in the GTA world, and some of them become a part of the gameplay, so you have to really think about it. This stuff is integrated into the storyline!"

This feels like just fact-dumping session right now so lets go over what I’m getting at:

• Rockstar is passionate about music inclusion and executed this through radio station and live events.

• GTA is full of rich narrative with a strong storyline built through the single player as well as the online community, so music as part of the narrative has big potential for added value and context for the experience and the music.

• GTA VI will be based in 2025 and therefore reflect current culture. Musically, this reflects a rise in older songs as well as modern music.

This brings me onto the beginning of a series where every time I think of an idea where GTA VI can include music. So even though I’m about to jump into point three of the itinery, the rest of these won’t have such a preamble and they will start with the idea going forward and likely be alot shorter. You’re welcome.

For the record, all these ideas will be focused on what GTA VI can consider.

3. GTA VI music ideas - a rock show

Okay, we made it. We’re here to the first one, and I have a whole BAG of these. We understand there is room for music partnerships and it is important to Rockstar, check. We know that there is evidence that artists/songs have benefitted from inclusion in GTA, check. We know there have been examples of a variety of music involved with GTA already, check…But what about a rock show?

My idea: It’s not that groundbreaking - House parties, back yards and/or underground rock bars where there are mosh pits. Hells Angels style biker crews that litter the edge of the venues. At least one instance where the story takes the player into a show, and you have to chase someone through a mosh pit to suffer the physics engine throwing you around a bit. Music gets licensed for this use as well as the “Name and Likeness” (the look and brand) of the artist, and this gets presented cosmetically to the performers of the show. This feels authentic, understated, optional & secret but also rowdy, full of character & fun.

The key part of this is the physics of the mosh pit. GTA’s physics have been used when people randomly start fights and push you over, to you flying through a windscreen if you crash a car. Here, the physics engine can be used in a non-lethal manner that adds a fun and engaging twist to contextual music in an in-game venue.

Now here’s a load of evidence. Quick fact-dump about Rock Music:

• Merch sales are higher in rock music per head.

• Ticket sales price demand is higher for rock.

• …But that doesnt stop Rock Music fans from going to shows.

These all tell us that rock music fans love live shows and engage with the artists through merchandise/physical representation.

Most recently, GTA V has had Los Santos Rock Radio, which includes 2 hours of rock music, with a huge selection of artists across multiple labels and eras. All the games at least had a rock radio station, such as Vice City having VROCK, and San Andreas having K-DST.

The GTA universe has had a fictional rock band intertwined with its narrative, named Love Fist. They were originally featured in Vice City where you have to help the band by protecting them from a crazed fan trying to attack them, but throughout the games since then there are inclusions both in the narrative and the radio stations. Rockstar released Love Fist’s 4 track EP in 2013 after remastering the tracks. When checking on Spotify, these are owned and released directly by Rockstar Games. Love Fist has over 24k monthly listeners and the lead track ‘Fist Fury’ has over 1 million plays. Not bad for a fictional group with no marketing campaign outside of the game!

What does this tell us? Even over a decade ago, Rockstar had the potential to create a digital artist, build this into the narrative across the game series and expose them to a huge audiences through their platform. Do we think 1 million plays is a big deal? Depends on the context. However, 24k monthly listeners suggests people are coming back to either the artist, the GTA-themed playlist or mirrored radio stations on various streaming platforms.

This is proof that there is good derivative conversion from music inclusion in narrative. I’m using the word narrative sincerely here, because inclusion and narrative are completely different types of exposure. Inclusion is just on a radio station, where you would hope a track is enjoyed and someone listens to that outside of the game, but narrative is introducing the track in the context of the story of GTA. This is unavoidable, builds context and can be considered memorable for that reason.

One critique of my idea - there could be a restriction to the size of live shows, which is why I specified house parties or underground rock bars. There is an inherent temptation from the music industry side to try and shout at Rockstar and say “hey, put on a big event stage and we will put artists in there so online players can watch a digital performance live” or something like that. Across the last decade, there have been some tragic incidents at live venues such as the Travis Scott Astroworld live tragedy and the Ariana Grande Manchester Arena tragedy. GTA intends to be an overexaggerated sim of reality, and despite everyone clearly knowing that the game is fictional, the idea of arming yourself in a crowded live event place is not something the music industry should push for, and instead something low key and authentic has a much better and tasteful experience for users across the board and avoids these concerns.

TLDR:

Rockstar likes music (no pun intended). GTA VI is coming out in 2025, and is setting up to be the best place to parallel real-life events digitally. My idea is to have lowkey but fun underground rock events that have mosh pit mechanics. Don’t hijack cars IRL just to listen to good radio stations - stream responsibly, kids.