Especially after 200 years ? Where is the ballad of the Vault Dweller ? Campfires songs about the great Super Mutant invasion ?

I can understand the predominance of pre war recorded music being the principal source of entertainment. But music itself would not stagnate for two centuries.
Rock and roll was just around the corner and jazz / blues was already getting a harder edge to it...

There are recording systems still working ( ie 3 Dogs studio ) and instruments galore....why would we still be listening to the same music ?

People want change....and music is always changing. Just look at the world in real life.


Some people were upset that the Intro music from Tactics didn't fir the genre...I thought it did.

There seems to be a large enough population and trading network that some tid bit here or there...some piece of new music...would find it's way into the world. Even a song sung by caravaners would have potential.

So why did it stop ? Musical progression that is...? Especially in Vegas...Entertainment Capital of the World...

Discuss....

200 years is a long time...

People are too busy surviving to be creative. Except for Jerry the Punk, but he's not really good at being creative. God awful poems XD

Well, why did society stagnate for a couple of hundred years during the dark ages? Sometimes the constant threat of death and despair and just trying to scratch out a living is enough to prevent music from "evolving"

'Cuz the record companies got blowed up. With no record companies who's going to tell us what to like? It's impossible.

Because Obsidian is good at writing stories, not songs.

Maybe it did evolve, it just looped.

This got me thinking about what a great side-quest line this could make. Have two different radio stations...one owned by a guy who loves music, the other owned by someone that just sees radio as a money-making opportunity. They both want you to find musicians they can sign to a contract to write/play new music for their radio stations. Not only would it be a cool way to add more songs to the radio stations, but it would provide more quests and some moral decisions about the value of artistic integrity versus monetary gain.

For things like art and music and other entertainment to evolve or improve you need to have free time to make it.

People trying to irk out a living farming dirt and trading scrap have little to no time to educate themselves in a trade or if they have a trade, dedicate time on that trade to luxury items. You need a standing economy and a stable food source in order for there to be a class of people dedicated solely to creating new artistic or entertainment works.

As mentioned previously, the Dark Ages were a long period of stagnation. You then have the Renaissance, which came about as a result of economy and social stability in Europe. One can't learn to play an instrument, learn to write music and then play that music (or record it) when one is busy trying not to starve to death or be eaten by something larger.

Go for the money, they'll both play the music afterall. The guy who loves music can go work for money bags and make better music with the extra income.... well... unless he's the only one that loves his style, but the world need starving artist as well

I know what side I'd pick already...

Who was that lady in Fallout 3 who composed new songs for the violin? Her name is Agatha, right?

There are people like that, two in fact. Agatha and The Lonesome Drifter if you don't count singers like Bruce Issac.

Ain't just music that is gone. Many knowledge of the past goes with it. This include technology, techniques of many trades and agriculture, building, communication, resources and etc. I would repeat what other say and it all in the Dark Ages. Survivor > everything else. It would be a long while before all the past knowledge is gain again and progress from there and go up.

Because in the fallout universe, 50s music is the pinnacle of what the human ear thinks sounds good, you can't get any better, anything different is worse.

Hmm.. I guess because people have such a hard time surviving, and the games aren't all about music, though this could be a cool mod for some.

Fun fact: Inside the New Vegas game directories is a song about New Reno.

It didn't "Stop" however with isolated communities where travel between them is risky at best, and limited to no recording and publishing outlets its hard for a movement to get started.

(I like the Idea of Junktown NCR being the home of a Music movement, kinda like Motown but more rock N roll)

I had an idea once for a questline based around it I hope to use in a mod if I ever get around to learning how. Junktown Radio is to host a talent contest (That Junktown Sound - Think Junk Idol and you're most of the way there).

Junktown is host to a number of number of Bars filled with aspiring musicans (and a few that are good enough for management to pay) and its your job to act as a scout. You get to select a few possibilities (there are talented, Those willing to pay their way in, and those willing to exchange "favours") your choices effect the success of the contest (and doublecrossing those exchanging cash and favours can have dangerous results),

See, that's just it, though - the "Dark Ages" weren't necessarily such a horrible age of stagnation. There were still advances in music, society, etc during that whole period. Sure, the Renaissance was a period of relatively extreme expansion - but that doesn't mean that it wasn't happening back then, either.

Honestly, I think the OP probably has a point. I think what I'd see fitting most with the Fallout vibe would be either music that you might expect to hear when walking into a Tribal town, or something a bit more "folksy." "Ballad of the Vault Dweller" sounds about right, I think.

It could certainly lend a bit more character to the towns and villages you go to if you would occasionally find them gathered around trading songs back and forth, etc.

First off the bat, people are still getting new music by finding old records. To them, the songs are new, although they may have been produced centuries ago.

Second, people are probably busy with other things. Most of them atleast.

Third, it wasn't just music, but entire culture that stopped, and that can only be restarted once the world is back up on its feet.

Fourth, Music hasn't actually stopped, as we see Agatha in Fallout 3, who is a musician.

Well, there's the singer from All Roads.

Society didn't stagnate at all in terms of the arts.

Religious influence lead to many of the art styles seen in western art today evolving, the convention of angelic cherubs as they are now, the style and symbolism of positioning and placement of objects and hands.

The madrigal form also evolved and in the latter part of the era some of the staples of modern dramatic and comedic style came about as well.