The Music of Grand Theft Auto IV | ||||
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Soundtrack album | ||||
Released | 29 April 2008 | |||
Genre | East Coast hip hop, alternative rock, heavy metal, dancehall, R&B, reggae, Russian hip hop, disco, jazz fusion, afrobeat, ambient music | |||
Length | 70:42 | |||
Label | Rockstar Games | |||
chronology | ||||
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The soundtrack to the game Grand Theft Auto IV, like the previous games in the series, is mostly made up of in-game radio stations. These radio stations can be listened to when driving various vehicles in the game, or at the start menu. Radio stations in past games have included licensed music, original music made specifically for the game, DJ chat, and spoof advertising. This game includes 19 in-game radio stations (20 in the PC edition, though the 20th is just a user custom music player with over 360 tracks. Of the 19 stations, 16 are musical stations while the other three are talk radio.
The soundtrack is expanded by purchasing two episodes of downloadable content, Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned and Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony, which each add over 50 songs and a talk radio program to the existing radio stations. The songs included with the downloadable content carry over to the compilation disc Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City, but songs featured originally in Grand Theft Auto IV do not. Instead there are three exclusive radio stations featuring 48 songs not available for the original game.
The radio stations play songs in a random order, and will still start at a random point whenever the player enters a vehicle. The radio station that is on when the player enters a vehicle is based on the type of vehicle the player enters.
Along with the in-game radio stations, other credited music is heard exclusively at certain points in the game. This includes the opening credits sequence and when walking through the interiors of certain buildings in the game. Michael Hunter composed and produced the theme song called "Soviet Connection — The Theme from Grand Theft Auto IV" and incidental music for the original game.
As part of a partnership between Rockstar Games and Amazon.com, most of the music heard on the in-game radio stations is available for download through the Amazon MP3 digital music store. Beginning with the release of The Lost and Damned, Rockstar's soundtrack sales partner is the iTunes Store.