So, there have been more than a couple reasons for Fallout to be on my mind, and that includes the unique soundtrack they have in game. Although this was fleshed out more in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas, classic music from the 1940s through 1960s is a dominant theme in Fallout.

This makes me wonder where music may have went for the 1970s through the mid 21st century. Could "newer" genres like heavy metal be invented, even with the vastly different history of the Fallout world? On the other hand, is it possible that the in game music we are hearing, even though it is from the 1940s through 1960s in our world, is from the 2040s through 2070s in the Fallout world?

We do have an example of post-nuclear music being made, at least, in New Vegas with the Lonesome Drifter and other performers at The Tops. This indicates to me that acoustic oriented non electric music would be the most common new stuff to come out - there isn't exactly much room for a bustling scene. I would be interested to see if such performers are seen in Fallout 4, given Bethesda Game Studios incorporation of tavern minstrels in Skyrim.

So, I think there was a Fallout world equivalent to Black Sabbath, that may have even led to heavier forms of metal like Judas Priest, but it might not have gotten quite as far as our world did, maybe no heavier than the first wave of thrash metal bands, if even that. The technology to produce such sounds did not depend on new technology, though. Being that there is still a century between the time Black Sabbath started (if they existed at all) and the final decade of normalcy, it is also likely such music may have been forgotten. Or maybe not, maybe it really is underground and not really played on the post-nuclear radio stations.

There are also signs some sort of punk rock may have existed - many raiders sport hair styles that would fit in with the punk scene (mohawks and the like). Perhaps such music is seen to be unfit for society and is solely enjoyed by the outcasts.

Microchip dependent music would never have become dominant. There are indications that Fallout's world may have had its own 1980s type era in the 2030s, with video games becoming common at that time as well.

music strongly goes along with the "look and feel" of a society, like, elvis or the beatles weren't just musical, but also social issues.

so, for a society at a (mostly) late 40ies state, the jazz/country/folk mix as is reflects that and fits.

"the wanderer" in one of the demos though already doesn't fit that well anymore imo. rock'n'roll had a strong social impact, i just don't see that in pre-war society.

same with many other styles, disco, metal, house - what we see of the pre-war world just doesn't give that.

something i think WOULD perfectly fit would be early (60ies) reggae. like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ikvY93k8ns for an example. perfect fallout music.

and i think what you say about punk is perfectly true, but _post_ war. ruins packed with instruments and bored raiders with nobody to teach them how to play - SCREAMS for punk

about the same could be true about some dancehall like kind of rap. the original rappers ("toasters") from all i know were jamaica's version of a news radio, travelling dj's with sound systems freestyling over dub plates about daily news. something like this would fit a post apocalyptic world very well. brahmin sound systems. full stereo moo.

Rock and Roll is here to stay... It will never die... Or something like that.

Pre-War American was eternally frozen into the culture of the 1950s. That, and it's a lot cheaper to get old music than new music. Mohawks have also been used for centuries. From warriors, to native Americans. Even a few soldiers from WWII had them. There's absolutely no excuse from Bethesda as to why there are Mohawks, other than they look cool on dirty raiders, and protagonists. There's just really no solid evidence for any other music past the 1960s existing in Fallout. Also, could you explain where you got the 2030s from?

I have my own custom radio station with tons of Judas priest, megadeth and black Sabbath music, so for me personally in my headcanon, that music exists.

I don't find it out of place to be shooting up the tops casino in order to kill Benny while listening to Judas priest's all guns blazing, or blow up megaton while listening to black Sabbaths electric funeral.
Or my favourite, killing freeside thugs in the Vegas ruins with throwing knives while listening to Judas priest's the sentinel.

The way I see it, if history branched off during the 50s or 60s, the members of Judas priest and black Sabbath would still exist, and seeing as how metal stemmed from old blues artists, classical music like Beethoven and even hard rocking country like Johnny cash, then I don't see any reason why metal shouldn't exist.

Hell, black Sabbath was around in the 60s as a blues band, the same time led Zeppelin was around, Jeff beck, Eric clapton, etc.

You mean... ... Disco may have never been born?

I've thrown it around on these forums for some time now. But if we go forward, musically?
I want Devo.

Not the overly synthpop mid 80's stuff as much as the late 70's- early 80's stuff, which is more Raw and punk.

I give you Exhibit A, a little tune used in a movie called Heavy Metal. Here, they are playing futuristic instruments in a rough wasteland bar.
Through With Being Cool/Heavy Metal bar scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frp4AtPshRo

Since Robots are a part of FO, I give you Exhibit B- A song about robots who want to take over for humans.
Mechanical Man
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJcshY5ywro

Finally, The Truth About De-Evolution.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxXulrYQ3rE
De-Evolved people. Spuds. Mutants. Paperwork from Chinamen. Boojie Boy and General boy. The whole vibe fits well with a world torn asunder by nuclear war.

To work best, I would like to see some post apoc cyber punk culture emerge.
Say, if there was a tech (not pre-war tech, like BoS) faction, who worked in cobbling together gadgets from post war scrap- this would be their faction's soundtrack.

Yes, that felt wrong to me too. I don't want to hear music from the sixties in a Fallout game. I hope whoever chose that song is not in charge of selecting music for the game itself.

We've had good radio stations in 3 and NV, no need to add your hippy music. You could always make your own custom station or use a mp3 player.

One artist that would fit perfectly with the Fallout universe is Ronnie James Dio. Of course, maybe not his metal band from the 1980s, or Rainbow or Elf, but he started making music all the way back in the 1950s. So, part of his early discography wouldn't be out of place in a Fallout game.

And I don't know what you're talking about when a couple of you say The Wanderer doesn't fit that well. It's from 1961, and I'm pretty sure I've heard similar sounding rock and roll in New Vegas. Incidentally, Dio's earliest music is of this genre, as well as doo wop.

The 2030s being Fallout's 1980s was just speculation. This might even be a controversial idea for old school Fallout fans, but holodisks in Fallout 4 sometimes have video games, and one was from the 2030s while the other I think was a bit newer.

I just listened to the songs on the http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Fallout:_New_Vegas_songs Wikia page and I didn't hear anything that sounded like rock and roll to me. Even the brand-new songs written by J.E. Sawyer didn't sound like rock and roll.

I dunno.. I mean. It was written for another band, who passed on it, and was later given to Dion who recorded it in 1961.

It definitely followed the musical stylings of the 1950's, which makes sense, because Dion started in the 50's.
I see it this way- the 1960's did happen in the FO universe,so songs would have definitely been written in that decade. If we are to assume that the FO universe follows 50's cultural trajectory, wouldn't a song that mimicked the songs of the 50's be the most fitting? The alternative is that no music was made post 1959.

So... Fallout is kind of specifically obtuse when it comes to pre-War culture. We know, obviously, that it's predicated on the notion that 2077 ended up looking a lot like The World of Tomorrow as envisioned by 1950's science fiction. Thematically, we can pretty much leave it at that, really (and that's how it's generally been handled apart from little tidbits here and there.) But obviously, that much negative space leaves a lot of room for conjecture, and there's basically two diametrically opposed viewpoints on this matter.

One view is that culture stagnated for 120 years or so. We had the 1950's and in all that time up until 2077 there were no new musicians, no fashion designers, no evolution or change in culture. So the idea is that 1980 in the Fallout universe would have looked pretty much exactly like the 1950's or the 2070's - just with somewhat different technology. Since that's not the viewpoint I subscribe to, I can't really comment on it much more than that.

The other view is that culture went through it's natural shifts like always - we're dealing with an alternate timeline so things happened differently in Fallout than they did in our world. And there's a lot we just don't know in this alternate timeline that's just floating unformed in the ether, but the end result is that the predominant culture in 2077 America embraced this World of Tomorrow theme. Kind of like a retro-retro-retro 50's thing. (I don't know if this is a thing anymore - when I was in High School in the 90's the 70's were "cool" again and it was hip to listen to disco and such, in the 80's the whole hippy thing saw a revival; and even going back to the 1970's there was actually quite a lot of interest in 1950's culture - see "Happy Days," for instance.)

Anyway, that's a big unanswered question - did Billy Idol exist in the Fallout universe? And if he did, what sort of music did he play?

Personally, something I've always found interesting about the post-apocalyptic genre in general is this concept of... the archeological piecing together of our modern world (or in the Fallout Universe, this oddly parallel and dystopian world.) Sometimes you get it right, and other times it's just a bit off. You're scrounging around in the rubble trying to figure out what this world was like, fitting the pieces together. (A good example would be The Kings in New Vegas, or the history museums in Fallout 3, or what's-his-name in Rivet City.)

It could simply be that all that survived from the Pre-War were these old holotapes of ancient musicians. Like if Laserdisc came out just before a world-ending Nuclear Apocalypse, their first run of discs was made entirely of old classics, and by some twist of fate it turns out that laserdisc just happened to be the only medium that survived. I don't think it necessarily fits what we do know of the Fallout universe, but I always thought it was an interesting thought that maybe "Maybe" wasn't a #1 hit in 2077 - it just happened to be one of the few surviving recordings left.

Back to topic, though - I've always wanted to stroll through a settlement at night with a couple residents huddled around a fire playing folk-tune renditions of old 80's power ballads, or sneak up on a Raider humming an old Clash song. I think you need to stay thematically relevant - part of the charm of Fallout is this retro-kitsch. But it may be neat to hear something that doesn't necessarily... "fit" every once in a while. And I like the idea of the different types of people in the Wasteland each having a bit of their own culture.