I fixed Fallout's music by creating a totally new genre | Unraveled

fallout this scrappy billion-dollar franchise takes a fun cooky look at planet-wide Armageddon it's an alternate history splitting off from our timeline somewhere around World War two despite the divergence fallout features some familiar real world culture and plenty of cultural innovation there are new architectural styles that are stolen from Mad Max and plenty of cool new fashion that is also just ripped off from Mad Max and yet even with this cultural innovation fallout has one massive problem and there's only one problem with the Fallout series right now other than that the Fallout series is doing just fine but despite this one it just is one of why todd is the music still there the same dozen songs from before the apocalypse you're telling me that humans figured out how to make a gun that turns you into goo and yet they haven't made any new music that's garbage Todd fallout is a meditation on mutation and the ways that humanity and culture evolved to meet new challenges and having music that stays the same the whole time is a plot hole war never changes but music should and today I'm going to change there's a new dance move for me I don't know if I like it yet now you may think that fallouts music is fine it fits the aesthetic and it adds a sense of retro-futurism but you're wrong and here's why the Fallout games range in time from 2100 to the Year of Fallout 76 to 2287 the year of Fallout 4 that's a span of 185 years imagine for a second that our musical sensibilities hadn't been updated in nearly 200 years and the current song topping the Billboard charts was the alphabet song a song literally written about 185 years ago actually that kind of sounds possible modern times are weird what I'm saying is that if 80% of humans died today in a hundred years we'd still have old town road but it would have a few more remixes do you really think that if the world ended in 1997 our culture would linger over Barbie girl and tub-thumping that we would be complacent with the cultural debt earnest of euro techno manufactured pop and third wave ska no and yet it seems the people of Fallout have forgotten how to make music fallout 76 is littered with instruments and band stands and stages but by the time you get to Fallout 3 the only instrument left is a Stradivarius violin locked in a vault surrounded by mirelurks fallout 76 also has the highest track count nearly twice as many as all of the other games which implies that these tracks are being lost over time and nothing is there to replace it only two people in the entire 185 year span of these games are making new songs the first is a synth that makes the same bluesy style as the rest of the music it's good but it's not different the other is a burnout DJ who does not seem to know how to sing or play an instrument and yet he still insists on playing a guitar which goes to prove that even in the apocalypse you can't escape the guy who will bring his guitar to your party thank God the bombs went off before Wonderwall people need food to eat sure and you know clothes to cover their sinful so that makes sense that those areas have continued to flourish but fallout is a world where people have ignored the basic human endeavor of making art I won't stand for that we need art because of its fundamental importance to human expression songs were made long before written language to help keep stories alive and they'd be added to and embellished much like the cultural touchstone of our time TV Tropes org science may improve our health and longevity but art is what makes long life worth living and that's why I am here to scientifically improve on this art and synthesize a totally new genre of music that we should be hearing in the Fallout universe this genre should be inspired by the music landscape and culture of Fallout swirled any cultural step that goes one step beyond current accepted standards it risks alienating its audience by being too challenging to intelligence so let's guide our creation by considering the ten definitive purposes of music and how they fit into the beautiful wasteland of Todd's mindscape first to create or control emotion from the soaring triumphant music of Jurassic Park - the ice cream truck version of pop goes the weasel' which for reasons I don't understand always makes me cry voguing emotion is the number one purpose of music so what does I mean for Fallout well one thing this soundtrack does get right is the upbeat tempo of most of the songs it cheers up the experience of playing through the wasteland except for the miserable inescapable energy of Johnny Guitar play it again by Johnny in the wasteland you need something to Rev you up keep you moving and that's why this new genre will only feature peppy songs - remembering or sharing information these can be simple mnemonics like schoolhouse rock or classic story balance like Kesha's tick-tock I actually believe these will be more important than emotions just because written language seems to be pretty dead in the future it's all on abandoned computers or in Diaries safely tucked up in a skeletons ribcage up-to-date information is transmitted verbally and think about how much further it could go if it was some even an SOS signal gets more traction if it comes with a little ditty and I learned that from Rihanna three entertainment for jingles in other words propaganda commercial jingles are designed to make you remember brands and political songs fit here too because what is the star-spangled banner if not America's jingle despite the amount of remnant advertising for companies like nuka-cola and radiation King the only jingles that remain and fall out are the ones on gene autry Spurs fallout does have a few antiquated political songs on Enclave radio but as Plato said any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole state when modes of music change the state always changes with them Thank You Plato the transitive property means that the opposite must be true as well fallout state has very much changed and so too should the music so our music genre will be catchy to the point of propaganda you hear this song once and you know the hook and exactly what it wants you to do 5 to mark time rhythmically in a group like a chain gang or rowing an underlying theme of fallout is a disruption of low-wage labor systems half the locations are robot warehouses or nuka-cola factories or the industrial goo pit where the Joker was made in the 2100 s commerce is no longer the main structure around which a human's life is organized so [ __ ] the man and [ __ ] the beat he made you drum - the man was beating you down so we're gonna focus on the up beats the off beats something more syncopated this isn't to say we're gonna get overly complicated with seven fours and 15 eight time signatures those time signatures only belong in math rock which is to say in the garbage we're taking back for four from the man and we're making it our own six tradition music - mark events or occasions this can range from singing odd Lang Syne on New Year's to playing pop goes the weasel whenever one of your pet weasels died when you were a kid that's why they're just songs that usher in a specific moment like an alarm but most cultures in Fallout don't seem to use them at the end of the quest a nice day for a right wedding there is a wedding but no wedding march and in the quest for auld lang syne they do not play odd Lang Syne which means there's a real opening to be the only tradition song for every holiday and fall out it may seem lame to force a tradition song like making all of your friends call you by a nickname you gave yourself but if you believe that every traditional song came about naturally you're naive you think vitamin-c didn't know that the graduation song would become a once a year cash cow that when Green Day was writing good riddance they weren't thinking some sitcoms are gonna have to end someday tradition songs can be crafted and our first song in this new genre will fit this bill seven ambient music or background music aka chill anime beats to study and relax to nobody in Fallout is studying or relaxing this one is a guide on what not to do in our new genre our honor should be present and aggressive and when you're listening to it you are listening to it 8 to create or maintain social groups without labor to constrict a person's time or movement people organized into social cult-like gangs which makes this category a big one you got the LARPers the a/v Club the rude boys all of which have their own cultural standards but there is a distinct lack of punks which came about through a shared political consciousness expressed through music but we can be that we just need to include identity establishing lyrics that appeal to all denizens of the wasteland perhaps this genre will help you unify all of the many warring factions or at least create a new very cool warring faction number 9 stimulating physical movement dancing there is no dancing in fallout well there are a few sex workers and Fallout New Vegas that dance but it kind of just looks like the dancing baby gifts so I don't think it should count and fallout 76 hasn't included a singular dancing emote all they have are like smoking kills and joined my poly cool this is probably to avoid overlapping with fortnight which does have a pretty long head start on the dancing emotes so for the sake of originality I had my research assistant Google find all of the dances that haven't been included in fortnight yet it's just a Regency era quadrille and skanking we will make it work and the tenth purpose of music is to use it as a crutch when you can't think of a different way to end a video actually I don't think this one really applies to the Fallout universe so I'm just gonna take it off so with our 9 definitive purposes of music we can begin to build our genre and the more I'm thinking about these 9 purposes the more I'm realizing that fallout has the opportunity to create the perfect genre one not tied down to the whims of society but I'm getting ahead of myself the current music in fallout is overwhelmingly jazz standards and rhythm and blues so will incorporate elements from those genres will have heavy beats syncopation rhythm guitar and honestly any instruments that fits in a mobile wasteland setting so no pianos but any marching instrument like trumpets and trombones things that stand up to roughing it and also would appeal to the Brotherhood of Steel another thing these jazz standards excel at is having a powerful catchy melody sung by a main vocalist but since it's hard to maintain your safety as a loner in the wasteland we can have a lot of backing vocalists too if you can carry a gun you can carry a tune in terms of topics for the songs will keep the themes relevant to the people of Fallout which based on my experience seems to be freedom from tyranny looting and drinking so I can be stronger and carry more loot now we mix together these in fiction elements with our 9 definitive purposes of music 1 we're gonna make people happy needs to be Jeep commercial music yeah your wife just got eaten by a yaoguai but listen to that skiffle to all of our heroes are dead so it's time to make new heroes how else are we gonna know how many beers Janice drank last week or how far Kevin's head went flying when a super mutant tagged him with a fire hydrant three bangers only four what should I do with the information about how many beers Janice drank tell me this is music for the scavenger not the assembly line worker there's a whole world of useful scrap out there and this music should inspire you to get out there and pick it up six the old ways are dead and we've got to make new songs to celebrate the new ways there's no song for when you're swamp itch clears up but there should be seven background music no this is foreground music eight fallout is a world divided awaiting a messiah of music to bring them all together or at least inspire them to wear cooler clothes nine the music should inspire dances that are violent and rushed just like the world you're in yeah your fists are used for melee but that leaves your beat and your elbows open to [ __ ] jam you're starting to imagine it you're starting to hear those first few notes in your head that's good what are we gonna call this new genre that is poppy informational good catchy pick up loot traditional in your face Punk kicks energetic educational antics in your kick it out your cousin Ben's wedding their society spicy laps hard get up again Arbor Day [ __ ] you Philip Glass pick it up don't wear the same shoes pick it up pick it up pick it up pick it up pick it up pick it up pick it up [Music] did I just make ska guess [Music] and when you get outside there's nothing to welcome you back she fell be passed down in a run-down Shack with the newcomers in my hands she pick me up and she slap my face and said come on let's start a band she said start the music get off your ass if you don't still join the Brotherhood start do or never changes Bassam the lips with the loudest brassy skull out boy skull out for stall out for [Music]

Channel: Polygon

Views: 2,175,549

Rating: 4.8320928 out of 5

Keywords: unraveled, brian david gilbert, bdg, fallout, Fallout 76, fallout new vegas, Fallout 3, fallout 4, music, ska, skateboard, videogames, video games, polygon, skatune network, genre, song, todd howard, bethesda, obsidian, fixing, how to, unravel, big iron, i don't want to set the world on fire, atom bomb, nuclear, wasteland, brotherhood of steel, minutemen, ambient, lofi, chill, trumpet, old town road, war, skater, mighty mighty bosstones

Id: DCEewyIE_0c

Length: 15min 6sec (906 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 28 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

yup, a totally new genre

[u/P_M_Attitude]

I love the genre NotSka

[u/Wolfwizardxx9]

Honestly my favorite episode. It surpassed bowsers military hierarchy when the “Brian David Gilbert, Saftey Fan and Beurocratic Wunderkin” popped up when he was talking about forcing friends to call you nicknames you gave yourself. I lost it

[u/Butterflylvr1]

I’m not entirely sure how seriously he takes the video’s research, but there’s a number of things that are a bit shaky about the premise.

First of all, a quick glance at this page shows there’s plenty of songs in Fallout recorded in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s.

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline_of_the_music_of_the_Fallout_series

Songs like “In the Shadow of the Valley” and “Goin’ Under” were written in the 90s. New Vegas even has “Where Have You Been All My Life” (not the Wikipedia 60s song) and “Sit and Dream” from 2009.

The composers are also far too young to have written them in the 1950s.

---

Vera Keyes and Dean Domino are obliquely touched upon for examples of pre-2077 songs.

For new music, he does mention Magnolia, RedEye and Agatha. Though he omits the Lonesome Drifter’s folk songs.

He also omits Bruce Issac’s “Cobwebs and Rainbows” in New Vegas. It’s also interesting since it’s a cover of a 90s song with the backing instrumentals ripped directly from the CD.

I also was surprised to hear the song being sung over the end credits of The Adventures of Pete and Pete’s “Yellow Fever” episode. It’s the epitome of 90s Nick shows.

Again, BDG usually does some pretty solid research, but this felt...more manically researched than usual.

[u/xavier51-3]

Big fan of ska tune network's assistance in this one

[u/[deleted]]

Minor nit pick but when he shows the dancers from FNV those aren't sex workers those are drunk chicks mainly drunk NCR troopers

[u/ShotanaFilms]

Way ahead of ya pal... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IrJHxoIXcc