'GTA 5 Online' To Receive New Music

Music is an important aspect of any video game – and 2013’s “Grand Theft Auto 5” is no exception. NewBay Media’s “Electronic Musician,” a monthly music magazine, recently offered an in-depth look behind the scenes of the creation of the “GTA 5” soundtrack. The article featured interviews with NYC-based developer Rockstar as well as with score composers Woody Jackson, Alchemist and Oh No. “Electronic Musician” also spoke to some of the artists who created original music for the in-game radio stations like “Flying Lotus” and “Chain Gang of 1974.”

“Composers were assigned to each of the game protagonists to create their signature scores. Tangerine Dream’s Edgar Froese created De Santa’s score, Alchemist and Oh No for Clinton’s score, and [Woody] Jackson created Philips’ score. But the music heard at any point during the course of the game or on The Score disc is an amalgamation of the composers’ sounds in a true collaboration,” "Electronic Musician" reported. “The score kicks in when a mission starts; it is delineated from the radio station music by shifts in action such as getting out of the car and having a conversation with another character. The score reacts to gameplay throughout the mission: Eight music stems function as tracks within a song.”

Some of the artists discussed the challenges of creating music for a video game – where the setting is consistently being altered by players and in-game events.

“Oh No and I were trying to wrap our heads around how this is going to work,” said Alan Daniel Maman, 36, aka The Alchemist and Eminem's DJ. “Each time you play the game, things are going to happen differently. It wasn’t so much about the automation of it, but about creating stems that were interesting. … It was different from making your own album because as an artist, being stubborn, it’s got to go one way or you can’t deal with it. It was good to have a task. You just have to deal with it. In the end, it was a trust thing.”

Rockstar also announced it was adding to the original online musical score. “Modes such as Survival, Deathmatch as well as your own custom-made Creator Jobs will all be complemented with an updated range of never-before-heard unreleased instrumental music from the original scoring sessions by Tangerine Dream, Woody Jackson, Alchemist and Oh No,” said the developer on Monday in a blog post.

Meanwhile, players are still waiting for heists to come to the online mode. Others are also hoping the game will be available on the PC sometime soon.