The soundtrack to the game Grand Theft Auto IV, like the previous games in the series, is mostly made up of in-game radio stations. These radio stations can be listened to when driving various vehicles in the game, or at the start menu. Radio stations in past games have included licensed music, original music made specifically for the game, DJ chat, and spoof advertising. This game includes 19 in-game radio stations (20 in the PC edition, though the 20th is just a user custom music player with over 360 tracks. Of the 19 stations, 16 are musical stations while the other three are talk radio.
The soundtrack is expanded by purchasing two episodes of downloadable content, Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned and Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony, which each add over 50 songs and a talk radio program to the existing radio stations. The songs included with the downloadable content carry over to the compilation disc Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, but songs featured originally in Grand Theft Auto IV do not. Instead there are three exclusive radio stations featuring 48 songs not available for the original game.
The radio stations play songs in a random order, and will still start at a random point whenever the player enters a vehicle. The radio station that is on when the player enters a vehicle is based on the type of vehicle the player enters.
Along with the in-game radio stations, other credited music is heard exclusively at certain points in the game. This includes the opening credits sequence and when walking through the interiors of certain buildings in the game. Michael Hunter composed and produced the theme song called "Soviet Connection -- The Theme from Grand Theft Auto IV" and incidental music for the original game.
As part of a partnership between Rockstar Games and Amazon.com, most of the music heard on the in-game radio stations is available for download through the Amazon MP3 digital music store. Beginning with the release of The Lost and Damned, Rockstar's soundtrack sales partner is the iTunes Store.
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Production
Like previous games in the Grand Theft Auto series, Grand Theft Auto IV features a soundtrack that can be heard through radio stations while the player is in a vehicle. Liberty City is serviced by 19 radio stations, three of which are talk radio stations. The other stations feature music from a large range of genres, including tracks from Genesis, David Bowie, Bob Marley, The Who, Queen, Kanye West and Elton John.
Grand Theft Auto IV uses a similar music system to that of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004). In other games in the series, each radio station was essentially a single looped sound file, playing the same songs, announcements and advertisements in the same order each time. With the radio stations in Grand Theft Auto IV, each sound file is held separately, and sequenced randomly, allowing songs to be played in different orders, announcements to songs to be different each time, and plot events to be mentioned on the stations. Certain songs are also edited to incorporate references to the fictional Liberty City.
A variety of real celebrities provide voices for the radio DJs in the game, including fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld, musicians Iggy Pop, Femi Kuti, Jimmy Gestapo and Ruslana, and real-life radio talk show host Lazlow Jones. Saturday Night Live actors Bill Hader and Jason Sudeikis appear on the liberal and conservative radio talk shows respectively, with Fred Armisen playing several guests on Lazlow's "Integrity 2.0". Numerous other comedians, including Jim Norton, Patrice O'Neal, Rick Shapiro, and Robert Kelly, as well as radio hosts Opie & Anthony appeared on the radio and/or as characters in-game.
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Music stations
The following is a complete list of music-oriented radio stations in Grand Theft Auto IV and the music programming found on them, as credited in the Grand Theft Auto IV game manual and the Amazon.com MP3 Music Store. In the PC version there is also a "Independence FM" station which plays music files stored in My Documents\Rockstar Games\GTA IV\User Music path (the songs also need to be scanned on the Audio menu in Settings). Songs that featured with the downloadable content can also be heard in the original version.
The Beat 102.7
DJ: Mister Cee, DJ Green Lantern (GTA IV), Funkmaster Flex and Statik Selektah (TLaD and EFLC)
Genre: Hip hop, rap (gangsta rap, East Coast hip hop), R&B (contemporary R&B)
The Classics 104.1+
DJ: Mixed by DJ Premier
Genre: Hip hop (East Coast hip hop, golden age hip hop, new school hip hop)
+ Not included in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
Electro Choc
DJ: François K (GTA IV) and Crookers (TBoGT and EFLC)
Genre: Electronic music/house (electro house), post-punk (GTA IV)/electro house, hip house, fidget house (TBoGT and EFLC)
Fusion FM+
DJ: Roy Ayers
Genre: Jazz (jazz fusion, jazz-funk, jazz-rock)
+ Not included in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
International Funk+
DJ: Femi Kuti
Genre: Funk, afrobeat
+ Not included in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
Jazz Nation Radio 108.5+
DJ: Roy Haynes
Genre: Jazz (bebop, hard bop, big band, free jazz)
+ Not included in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
The Journey+
DJ: A computera
Genre: Ambient, chill-out, downtempo, minimal, new-age
^a A Macintosh computer was used to produce the computerized DJ voice for this station, as "Vicki" from the speech recognition software PlainTalk can be heard throughout this station's DJ banter.
^b In the digital version of The Music of Grand Theft Auto IV "5:23" by Global Communication is listed as "Maiden Voyage". On the soundtrack CD included with the Special Edition it is listed correctly.
^c While not credited as such, as the official title for this song is a picture, it is unofficially titled "[z twig]" or "[b+w stripes]", which is also referenced in the file name ("ZTWIG"). The nomenclature used in this article comes from Warp Records' own labeling of the song.
+ Not included in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
K109 The Studio
DJ: Karl Lagerfeld
Genre: Disco, funk/space disco (GTA IV)/post-disco (TBoGT and EFLC)
Liberty City Hardcore
DJ: Jimmy Gestapo (GTA IV) and Max Cavalera (TLaD and EFLC)
Genre: New York hardcore, hardcore punk, crossover thrash (GTA IV)/varied extreme metal genres (death metal, black metal, thrash metal) (TLaD and EFLC)
+ Not included in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, exclusive to DLC version of TLAD.
++ Song exclusive to EFLC edition of TLAD.
Liberty Rock Radio 97.8
DJ: Iggy Pop
Genre: Rock (classic rock, pop rock, alternative rock), metal
Massive B Soundsystem 96.9+
DJ: Bobby Konders
Genre: Dancehall, reggae (ragga)
+ Not included in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
Radio Broker
DJ: Juliette Lewis
Genre: Indie rock, alternative rock, dance-punk, electronic rock
San Juan Sounds
DJ: Daddy Yankee (GTA IV) and Henry Santos Jeter (TBoGT and EFLC)
Genre: Reggaeton (GTA IV)/reggaeton, merengue, Latin pop (TBoGT and EFLC)
+ Jowell and De La Ghetto were not credited on the game's booklet
Tuff Gong Radio+
DJ: Carl Bradshaw
Genre: Reggae, dub
+ Not included in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
The Vibe 98.8+
DJ: Vaughn Harper
Genre: Soul, R&B (contemporary R&B), funk, quiet storm
+ Not included in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
Vladivostok FM
DJ: Ruslana (GTA IV) and DJ Paul (TBoGT and EFLC)
Genre: Eastern European (Russian pop, Russian rock, Russian hip hop) (GTA IV)/house (progressive house, nu-disco), dance (TBoGT and EFLC)
On the original version of GTA IV, music formats switch between the original music content found on Radio Vladivostok and the new dance music content with DJ Paul.
Ram Jam FM+
DJ: David Rodigan
Genre: Reggae (dub, dancehall)
+ Songs that are only featured in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
Self Actualization FM+
DJ: Audrey (voiced by Ashley Albert)
Genre: Ambient (ambient techno, ambient house), chill-out, downtempo, new-age
+ Songs that are only featured in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
Vice City FM+
DJ: Fernando Martinez (voiced by Frank X. Chavez)
Genre: 1980s Pop (sophisti-pop, synthpop, new wave), rock (pop rock)
+ Songs that are only featured in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
Independence FM
DJ: Gary Sheen (voiced by Tom Patrick Stephens)
The PC version of Grand Theft Auto IV adds Independence FM to the station line-up, which plays digital music files of the user's choice. Music files or shortcuts to music files placed within the GTA IV User Music folder are played in varying modes as selected by the user. Sequential mode plays the files in order, Shuffle mode randomly selects files, and Radio mode randomly plays songs with DJ commentary and advertisements. Supported file types are .wma, .mp3 and .m4a. QuickTime or iTunes needs to be installed for M4A support. In order for music to be played in Independence FM, the player must tell the game to scan the folder.
Talk stations
The following is an incomplete list of talk radio stations in Grand Theft Auto IV and the programming found on them, as credited in the game manual.
Integrity 2.0
Host: Lazlow
Topics: Talk radio
Other Info: This station follows Lazlow as he tours Liberty City, speaking with various vendors and pedestrians, and does not actually go on the air until the player unlocks Algonquin Island in the game (prior to this several references are made to the station launching soon). During the program various references are made, mostly from Lazlow's life, like V-Rock in Vice City, WCTR in San Andreas, and Chatterbox FM in Liberty City, there are also specific references to the Chatterbox program aired in GTA III, as he is told to bring back "the vegetarian guy" (Reed Tucker) who Lazlow made fun of, other references include a Backstage encounter at a Love Fist Concert (Love Fist being a band featured in an earlier game). These references are notable as GTA IV is set in a different continuity to the earlier games, and other than Lazlow's discussions contains no direct connections to any of the previous games. During the course of his program he interviews a pervert, a Latin hot dog vendor, a taxi cab driver, and an artist shooting a music video about rain, he also enters into arguments with several pedestrians, including one who tells him to keep his voice down, one telling him that he is an asshole, an internet obsessed teenager who calls him an old man, and a geek who he asks to build a website to sell Lazlow stuff. The pervert, the hot dog vendor, and the geek were all voiced by Fred Armisen.
The Ballad Of Gay Tony adds additional segments to the station. Lazlow mentions that the station "went dark" for a while because of lack of funding (explaining off the absence of new content to the station for The Lost And Damned). The segments deal with Lazlow having an intern named Jorge follow him around Liberty City while he interviews people and shows him the city. Jorge cannot speak English, which Lazlow takes advantage of regularly (and, to that effect, Lazlow cannot speak Spanish which is Jorge's language). He repeatedly threatens to deport Jorge. At the last new segment, Lazlow and Jorge, with Lazlow claiming that he can get into all the clubs, are directed to the Hercules club (which is one of the two clubs featured in the plotline to Ballad). Lazlow is ignorant to the fact of the club's main theme (it's a gay club, synonymous to Ballad's characters). Jorge finally gets revenge on Lazlow by saying something in Spanish, to which all of the clubgoers in the front door line look to Lazlow (to which Lazlow is still ignorant as to why, stating that "the people are attracted to me all of a sudden").
Public Liberty Radio+
Program: The Séance
Host: Beatrix Fontaine (Ilyana Kadushin)
Topics: A call-in talk show focused on New Age spiritualism. During the show, Beatrix, a phony psychic, provides callers with questionable advice, and constantly asks for their money. Beatrix's last name may be a reference to Darius Fontaine, a get-rich-quick huckster who appeared in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
Program: Peacemaker
Host: Ryan McFallon (Bryan Tucker)
Topics: A talk show focused on health care. Host Ryan McFallon interviews a panel of three guests: Sheila Stafford (portrayed by Rachel Allen), a spokeswoman for Betta Pharmaceuticals who is said to have left a woman to die because Sheila feared the dying woman was uninsured, Wilson Taylor Sr. (portrayed by Bill Hader), a representative for an HMO, and Waylon Mason (portrayed by Rick Shapiro), an advocate of holistic medicine and home remedies. The show ends with Mason drilling holes in the heads of the other two guests.
Program: Intelligent Agenda
Host: Mike Riley (Brian Sack)
Topics: A left-wing call-in talk show. Host Mike Riley interviews a panel of three guests: Brandon Roberts (Chris Gannon), a Vinewood actor who associates himself with left-wing causes only to enhance his own image, John Hunter (Henry Strozier), a candidate for state governor, and Zachary Tyler (Matthew Gumley), a child prodigy who was brought onto the show as an example of liberal parenting. The show ends with John Hunter spanking Zachary Tyler, and Zachary pleading 'No! Please no!'. Brandon also mentions a 'real' religion that he's a member of, The Epsilon Program of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas fame, and says "Kifflom" at the start and the end of the program.
+ Not included in Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.
We Know The Truth
Program: The Richard Bastion Show
Host: Richard Bastion (portrayed by Jason Sudeikis)
Topics: A right-wing call-in news talk show. During the show, host Richard Bastion (a parody of Rush Limbaugh) answers guests' questions and statements about what they think is wrong with America. One male caller (voiced by Matt Pearson) details about the "Maibatsu Monstrosities", a large luxury SUV parodying the Ford Excursion, which winks GTA III's radio commercials and Chatterbox FM's female caller driving one.
Other Info: In July 2007, Rockstar sent out an e-mail to their mailing list subscribers advertising an opportunity to get on the radio in the game. The e-mail included a link to a website with more information. On the website, it was explained that anyone could call a phone number provided and leave a message complaining about America. Selected messages would be chosen and would appear on the political talk station WKTT in the final build of the game.
Program: Just or Unjust
Host: Judge Grady (Michael-Leon Wooley)
Topics: A radio court show, drawing some inspiration from Judge Judy and Divorce Court. The show's star, Judge Grady - who is a parody of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas - is extremely misogynistic, biased and ideological. He is constantly heard insulting and hitting on his female guests, will take the man's side during domestic disputes regardless of how blatantly in the wrong they are, and his monologues are full of right-wing talking points which are often irrelevant to the case. At the end of each show, rather than the judge deciding who is right, the plaintiff and the defendant take part in a game to see who wins the trial. Games include duels, gladiatorial combat with lions, a Three-way, cannibalism and glass-eating contests.
Program: Fizz!
Hosts: Jane Labrador (Melinda Wade), Marcel LeMuir (voiced by Fez Whatley), Jeffron James (voiced by Patrice O'Neal)
Topics: A celebrity gossip radio show, parodying TMZ, What the Buck and Perez Hilton. Features interviews with Ricky Gervais and Katt Williams in GTA IV & Frankie Boyle in TLaD and EFLC.
Program: The Martin Serious Show
Hosts: Martin Serious (Will Forte), Lisa Lynn (Carla Renata), Mark the Manager (Michael Elkind), Smithy the Stunt Boy (East Side Dave McDonald of the Ron and Fez Show)
Topics: Only on Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, this is a parody of The Howard Stern Show
Program: Conspire
Host: John Smith (voiced by R.J. Allison)
Topics: Only on Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, this is a parody of Coast to Coast AM and The Alex Jones Show.
Other in-game music
The following is a list of songs that are found in the game, but cannot be heard on any in-game radio stations, as credited in the game manual. Instead, other than the song played during the title sequence, they can be heard exclusively while walking through the interiors of different buildings in the game. One song being heard in a cutscene for the mission, Buyer's Market from TLaD, is dancing Elizabeta Torres.
Missions
Music in building interiors
Radio Commercials
Opening credits theme
Several different adaptations of this song are used in various parts throughout the game. A remix of the theme plays upon game's startup. A solemn version plays on the pause screen and several different short variations are heard upon the player's completion of a mission. A few notes from the theme play when a mission is completed. A remix also plays during the last 30 seconds of a multiplayer match. There is also a short musical jingle version of the theme that is played from an ice cream truck within the game. Another remix version is also played at the end of the game's storyline.
These themes and accompanying incidental cues replace "Soviet Connection" in Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned and Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony, respectively.
Ringtones
- Most of the ringtones found on the game's ringtone download website are from previous Grand Theft Auto games in the series. The ringtone "Drive", for example, is by 15 Ways (a fictional band made by Rockstar) and the full song appears on Head Radio and Lips 106 in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, and "Pager" is the tone of the pager in Grand Theft Auto III (which is, in turn, the melody of the theme for the original Grand Theft Auto, "Gangster Friday", which also appeared on radio station Lips 106 in Grand Theft Auto III) and the opening tune on Grand Theft Auto: Vice City when it displays the Rockstar North logo, in the form of a Commodore 64 loading screen.
Soundtrack releases
Rockstar Games has released five soundtrack albums to date. The Music of Grand Theft Auto IV contains several soundtrack selections from the game. Vladivostok FM features tracks from and "inspired by" the in-game radio station. Liberty City Invasion features original music produced by DJ Green Lantern, some of which appears on 102.7 The Beat in the game. Similarly, Statik Selektah's The Lost and Damned EP features original music produced by Statik Selektah that features in the downloadable episode. The original themes are available in Grand Theft Auto IV -- The Theme Song Collection. A soundtrack album for the first expansion, The Music of Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned was announced with artwork and Drive By Audio - "Jailbait" was released on the iTunes Store as a single from the album. However, a full track listing was not announced, the album was not released, and the announcement was subsequently removed.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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