I've been wondering this:

The Great War started in October 2077... But there is still technology, cars, radio songs and so on from the 50's.. Why?? And Vault-Tec made commercials for vaults in the 50's?? Is there something I've misunderstood.. Or what:D

Our history was exactly the same up til the end of World War 2, we advanced technology (Lasers, Power Armor, etc.) but stuck with the 50's feel, and they didn't advance computers and TV's as they use vacuum tubes.

The music is artists from the actual 50s because there's no way Interplay could have funded dozens of great original songs in the 40s and 50s style; thus, actual songs are used instead.

It's just that... Why is there only 50′s music?? Wouldn't there we like "techno" or other futuristic music??

No offense, but you seem to be missing the whole point of Fallout.

As it's a fictional setting, any conditions can be laid out, and it just so happens that in Fallout America is culturally and socially stuck in the 50s, hence the music that was popular in the 1950s is still popular in 2281.

Not very realistic, I know, but hey, neither are Super Mutants.

Dunno about Fallout 3 and NV, but in the originals, they only played in the intros and the credits. It was never said that the people in Fallout world actually listened to that kind of music.

Also as far as I'm aware no one has ever officially confirmed that culture never changed from the 1950s. It's entirely possible that the Fallout universe went through plenty of cultural shifts but were just experiencing a retro 50s revival around the time the bombs dropped.

That's implied; the 50s music is playing in Vaults, which are essentially a snapshot of American culture at the time of the Great War. That was the dominant music at the time, and as such it's the music that people in the post-apocalyptic Fallout universe would primarily listen to.

@Okie-I don't know if that's ever been officially confirmed per se, but at least in my opinion it's pretty clear the Fallout universe never really changed culturally at any point past the 50s.

Yeah that's probably how most people view it and it's likely true as far as the developers are concerned but I find it more interesting to imagine that changes did happen.

Also look at the pre-war architecture in Fallout 1 and 2. It doesn't really scream 50s IMO.

It only played in the Fallout 2 intro.

I too think that probability there was several other culture shifts before the bombs dropped. It's just that the "50's world of tomorrow" was the dominate theme in the years upto the bombs. Tech most likely also had alot to do with being usable after EMP too hence all the anolog stuff. However it's mostly just because they never progress hardware past the vaccum tube stage but concentrated on other areas. They developed cold fusion for example, and with that breakthrough power armor. They you have energy weapons too thanks to cold fusion as well.

No but I always thought that it did scream "1950s Retro-future".

"Finishes his reports with a flourish" Finally! Anyway, I agree with my good person here with the Minigun, The World was stuck in the *50's world of Tomorrow* culture and technological wise, but developed things that would fit in the 50's norm. The cars looked exactly like you would see during the 50's with the high fins, huge bodies, and steel frames that take forever to rot away*especially in the rust belt*. Fashions were pretty much what you saw in propaganda films, dresses for the ladies, suits for the gents, unless it was a unique occasion that dresses were not practical. And Tech and buildings, besides what was mentioned above and what of it was left, had the 50's feel to it, like New Vegas, all the Major Casino's screamed 50's, and were like the old resort casinos of old like the Sands and such from LV.

In short there still is and pretty much a lot of the 50's still left in the Fallout Universe, even with the additions of more modern inventions that still retain some 50's style design to it. Please feel free to add anything else i might have missed people, I got to go get some food, these reports took me all day, and i got to go to the Mess.

Because no one wants Ke$ha to be considered an Oldie, and be replayed 4328 times for each playthrough.

Really? I always got more of an Art Deco vibe. Maybe it's just the Necropolis slides.

Never developed.

Art and social structures never evolved beyond the 1950's. With the music I use a bit of game logic - 3 Dog really isn't playing the Inkspots, but the music styles in the lead up to Armageddon were the same.

Fallout isn't our future - its a retro-future, the future that the folk of the 1950's imagined. A wonderful, and scary place.

Which was in a vault, if I remember correctly. The point stands.

I, personally, find it more satisfying to imagine the Fallout world never underwent cultural shifts after the 50s; I love Fallout for its retro-future nature so I have no real reason to want them to have changed culturally. I also have a hard time imagining a culture back to the in many ways pretty backwards social standards of the 1950s.

The only real change from the real 50s socially seems to be in regard to the standing of women, who appear to be more or less equal to men in terms of social status.

Chances are that only develop after the war, because you need everyone to survive and help you in battle. If you look at some of the trailer released before FO3 came out, a woman's place was still the kitchen. But whether or not that those commercials are cannon or not is up for debate.

Indeed, the bombs could have been a bit of an equaliser. Given the high amount of manual labour that would have been required in the immediate period, all hands on deck would have been required. It also could have equalised other areas of society where inbalance existed.

"While doing some target practice" According to some records in the Archives......There was Women in the Armed Forces as well during the Anchorage Battle in Alaska on the Front Lines, meaning that while........there was indeed a gap in where the genders might have been, i think the gap was narrowing by the time the Great War was approaching, otherwise.......i think things would have been a lot worse off in Alaska and in China than they were. Sorry for the pauses there, i was squeezing shots off there. Anyway, There is no gap now, and that is all that matters to me, as their is plenty of Sisters who would lie their lives down as Knights and Paladins, as their are in the Scribes. Makes me proud...... :thumbsup:

:fallout:

(getting serious here for a moment, I did have an alternate question about the great war? I know Richardson said the Chinese launched first, but as he was the Enclave leader, how do we know he was telling the truth and that the US, under Enclave Control, launched first to finally stop the Chinese once and for all? I know we will not know the truth, until it is confirmed further than it has been, and lastly, i am NOT counting the Alien theory, regardless of Canon, those little freaks cannot figure out a missile from a Nuka Cola bottle.)

I don't see the Americans as having launched first because they had just pushed the Chinese out of Anchorage and were knocking on Beijing's doorstep with a few dozen thousand T-51b soldiers. In that context, it makes far more sense for the Chinese to launch first; the Americans were winning the conventional war so they had no reason to.

Yeah, just scrap the idea that with each game they're trying to make it more realistic. Eventually they'll have to add Detroit Rock City!

Just started playing FO1 for the first time, and not only does FO1 have a 40s song in the intro, but it has a very heavy retro-future vibe in that sequence. Just thought I'd point that out.

Yeah, I had totally forgotten that "Maybe" played from the television. Maybe you are right.