Ananchronistic Soundtracks, do they work?

[Neurotic Void Melody]

Fallout is a mass grave where all kinds of shit went wrong and it plays happy retro songs to create some kind of cheap dissonance.

I would argue that calling it "cheap dissonance" is sort of missing the point. In Fallout, yes the world is mostly tragically dead due to atomic warfare having wiped civilization nearly off the face of the earth. But (using the most recent Fallout game as an example) the world is experiencing a time of rebirth. Civilization is getting back on its feet and people have adjusted to the new world. Part of that is salvaging from the old world and rebuilding upon that foundation. That includes music.

The final days of the old world existed in a retrofuturist 1970, though the music depicts society from 20 years prior which could've been a result of the resource crisis not being a particularly ideal condition for the world of music to really grow. So those living a couple centuries in the future are left with the remnants of whatever music was left untouched by the centuries of wear and tear.

So here comes early civilization, working with what they have, listening to old music because life without music is quite frankly depressing. And (again, using Fallout 4 as an example) creating new music from that established foundation. If the music seems happy and uplifting it's because it's supposed to be. Think of the world immediately after the Great War and compare it to what it has become 200 years later. It's much brighter and it's getting better. And I think the music reflects that. Equating it to farting or Yakety Sax is entirely disregarding the world around the music.

For some reason i really dig that whole post-apocalyptic, future 50s-60s theme. It may be a chemical inbalance or i dunno. Plus that "plutonium fever is getting me down" song is catchy as fuck. XD But i do not understand how no new songs were written during that whole period of nuclear technology embracing.

 

[hermes]

Sometimes it does, but it has to be used consciously. Many times, it is used to accentuate a sense of displaced reactions, like how everything violent in Tarantino movies has an edge of comedy (people are meant to be horrified by it, but we can't help to smile), or everything grandiose in Bioshock has an edge of rotten and falling apart (people are meant to be impressed by it, but we can't help to be unease), or even the epic elements in GotG has an edge of levity.

As such, it has to be placed at times when such dissonance is part of the desired effect and the soundtrack reinforce that, not just when you want people to say "what a weird choice". "I don't want to miss a thing" in Saints Row 4 works, "Total eclipse of the heart" in Battlefield 4 doesn't.

 

[Mutant1988]

For some reason i really dig that whole post-apocalyptic, future 50s-60s theme. It may be a chemical inbalance or i dunno. Plus that "plutonium fever is getting me down" song is catchy as fuck. XD But i do not understand how no new songs were written during that whole period of nuclear technology embracing.

New music was probably written. But I reckon that any music that disagreed with or challenged the government policies was banned and the musicians jailed as communists.

 

[sXeth]

For some reason i really dig that whole post-apocalyptic, future 50s-60s theme. It may be a chemical inbalance or i dunno. Plus that "plutonium fever is getting me down" song is catchy as fuck. XD But i do not understand how no new songs were written during that whole period of nuclear technology embracing.

New music was probably written. But I reckon that any music that disagreed with or challenged the government policies was banned and the musicians jailed as communists.

New Vegas was where the idea started to fall apart, really.

Why? Because you have the Kings, which says that at least the early stages of rock and roll happened, and were successful. It even counteracts the argument of the parallel universe variations of Hippy and Punk movements causing a government backlash to erase rock happening, because why would they leave the Elvis school/museum still standing?

 

[Mutant1988]

For some reason i really dig that whole post-apocalyptic, future 50s-60s theme. It may be a chemical inbalance or i dunno. Plus that "plutonium fever is getting me down" song is catchy as fuck. XD But i do not understand how no new songs were written during that whole period of nuclear technology embracing.

New music was probably written. But I reckon that any music that disagreed with or challenged the government policies was banned and the musicians jailed as communists.

New Vegas was where the idea started to fall apart, really.

Why? Because you have the Kings, which says that at least the early stages of rock and roll happened, and were successful. It even counteracts the argument of the parallel universe variations of Hippy and Punk movements causing a government backlash to erase rock happening, because why would they leave the Elvis school/museum still standing?

Elvis was probably allowed due to not being considered threatening to government policies. His music isn't all that political, if at all. Meanwhile, the hippie and punk movement as a whole was about challenging established authority, in one way or another. With the hippies protesting the war (As hippies are wont to do) and the punks being punks, the extremely fascist government of the Fallout verse would consider them a threat and suppress them.

 

[sXeth]

Elvis was probably allowed due to not being considered threatening to government policies. His music isn't all that political, if at all. Meanwhile, the hippie and punk movement as a whole was about challenging established authority, in one way or another. With the hippies protesting the war (As hippies are wont to do) and the punks being punks, the extremely fascist government of the Fallout verse would consider them a threat and suppress them.

You'd think there'd still be the evolution in pop music present though, even if it was the "souless corporate rock AOR garbage" of the 70s/early 80s.

Granted, its also possible the war just happened during something like the 1990's throwback swing craze, or that the preserved records were only preserved because some hipster had them sealed up somewhere.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Elvis was probably allowed due to not being considered threatening to government policies. His music isn't all that political, if at all. Meanwhile, the hippie and punk movement as a whole was about challenging established authority, in one way or another. With the hippies protesting the war (As hippies are wont to do) and the punks being punks, the extremely fascist government of the Fallout verse would consider them a threat and suppress them.

You'd think there'd still be the evolution in pop music present though, even if it was the "souless corporate rock AOR garbage" of the 70s/early 80s.

Granted, its also possible the war just happened during something like the 1990's throwback swing craze, or that the preserved records were only preserved because some hipster had them sealed up somewhere.

I think one of the justifications as well was that the new format they put music on after a certain point in time just didnt have the durability to survive the nuclear apocalypse. So new music was made, its just all music made in the new format was nuclear proof or something. Its a cheap explanation, but at least it explains a little bit.


OT: I think that they work great usually, especially when its super out of place, case in point - The J-Rock song that kicks off Dragons Dogma is a personal favourite song of mine, and made the game incredibly memorable from the moment I started. Its a shame that Dark Arisen replaced the generic J-Rock song with a generic instrumental track

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

EDIT: Stupid double post