The soundtrack of the game Grand Theft Auto III has found popularity outside the game's fanbase. In the game, music is played on various "radio stations" which the player can listen to after a car has been acquired. Most radio stations play a mixture of music, DJ chat, and spoof advertising. The stations each reflect one style of music intended to evoke a certain atmosphere.
Some stations feature songs that were written specially for the soundtrack (or in some cases for the soundtracks of previous games in the series). Most of these tracks were written by Craig Conner and Stuart Ross, often with vocals and performances by other musicians. Where music has been created by Conner and Ross, a fictional band is credited to the song, and often the name of the band or the music itself is a parody of a well-known artist's style. Other stations, however, use music licensed from various record labels; this combination differs from those of the game's predecessors, which featured entirely original soundtracks.
The station that plays when the player gets in a car is fairly random (and can be changed or switched off if desired), but there are certain factors that will make the "choice" lean certain ways, such as the area the car is in, the type of car, and if it is a gang's signature car. All of the gangs in the game have favored radio stations.
Other than the radio stations, the only other occurrence of music in the entire game is within the game's intro and credit sequences, which play to very jazzy/bluesy piano tracks.
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DJ: Morgan Merryweather
Genre: Classical, Opera
Tracklist:[1]
Summary: Hosted by Morgan Merryweather (Gerry Cosgrove[9]), Double Clef FM plays a selection of popular sequences from various classical operas. In the game, Double Clef FM is the favorite radio station of the Leone Mafia Family. Morgan Merryweather is a stereotype of a pompous classical music afficionadio, interspersing the tracks with references to his refined lifestyle. His cultural references, however, are often incorrect. For instance, he at one point likens a piece of music to "Fellini's Lolita." Lolita was written by Vladimir Nabokov, and adapted for film once by Stanley Kubrick and again by Adrian Lyne. Federico Fellini never turned the book into a film. Moreover, Merryweather notes that he spent a summer "reading Proust in the original Italian". Marcel Proust wrote in French, not Italian.
DJ: Toni
Genre: Hi-NRG, 80s Pop music
Tracklist:[10]
Summary: Flashback 95.6 plays 1980s pop music, and is hosted by "Toni" (Maria Chambers[9]). It is aimed at people who are "stuck in the 80s"[11] and, between songs, Toni reminisces about her hedonistic lifestyle during that time. Toni is also a DJ in two of GTAIII's prequels, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, both of which are set in the 1980s. The tracks on Flashback 95.6 are all taken from the soundtrack of the 1983 gangster film Scarface and all composed by Giorgio Moroder. Flashback is another of the Colombian Cartel's favorite radio stations. The DJ's name might also reference the film, with the protagonist named Tony Montana.
DJ: DJ Stretch Armstrong and Lord Sear
Genre: Underground hip hop, Midwest hip hop, East Coast hip hop
Tracklist:[12]
Summary: Game Radio FM provides the radio of Liberty City with hip hop featuring many lesser-known real-life artists and MCs. The station is hosted by DJ Stretch Armstrong and Lord Sear as themselves.[9] Game Radio FM is one of the favorite stations of the Southside Hoods in the game. The instrumental "Scary Movies" which can be heard at the beginning of the radio loop, was produced by Red Spyda for Eminem and Royce da 5'9" (Bad Meets Evil).
DJ: Michael Hunt
Genre: Soft Rock, Adult Contemporary
Tracklist:[14]
Summary: Soft rock and adult contemporary radio station hosted by DJ "Michael Hunt" (Russ Mottla[9]), and owned by Love Media (a fictional media company in the GTA world, parody of Clear Channel Communications). Head Radio is the Diablos gang's favorite radio station. This is the third appearance of a Head Radio station in a GTA game.
DJ: Horace "the Pacifist" Walsh
Genre: Dub
Tracklist:[22]
Summary: Hosted by Horace "the Pacifist" Walsh (Herman Stephens[9]). K-Jah is the favorite station of the Yardies gang, and plays dub reggae music with interspersed bits of chatter from the DJ. All tracks played on the station are from the Scientist album Scientist Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires. The frequency for the station, as mentioned by some between-song commercials, is 103.7. It is also one of the few stations not owned by "Love Media", the fictional corporation owned by Donald Love, as can be seen from Horace's line "Me have no love for Donald Love, man."
K-Jah's west coast affiliate is named K-JAH Radio West, as seen in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.
DJ: Andee
Genre: Pop music
Tracklist:[23]
Summary: Hosted by "Andee" (Shelley Miller[9]), Lips 106 plays pop music. Lips is the Yakuza's favorite radio station. The song "Grand Theft Auto" by Da Shootaz was originally featured in the soundtrack of the first Grand Theft Auto game, where it can be heard on the fictional N-CT FM radiostation.
DJ: MC Codebreaker and DJ Timecode
Genre: Drum and Bass, Jungle
Tracklist:[31]
Summary: MC'd by MC Codebreaker and mixed by DJ Timecode, MSX FM is a station that plays Jungle/drum and bass music and has no commercials. The station is based on a pirate radio theme which broadcasts illegally across Liberty City. The station's FM frequency is mentioned to be 101.1, an allusion to the 2001 Moving Shadow mix CD mixed by Timecode named "Moving Shadow 01.1". The tracks featured on MSX FM are a subset of those on 01.1. MSX FM is the second favourite station of the Southside Hoods. It should also be noted that the game is set in the year 2001 while the station has the frequency 101.1, while it has the suffix "98" in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, which takes place in 1998.
DJ: Andre The Accelerator
Genre: Trance
Tracklist:[39]
Summary: Hosted by "Andre The Accelerator" (voiced by "Andre"[9]) and plays four to the floor style electronic dance music. The playlist in the game is presented as a continuous liveset which is being played and broadcast live from a nightclub called the Planetarium. This station does not feature any commercials. Rise FM is one of the Colombian Cartel's favorite stations. Rise FM is also the name of a real-life internet radio station which is owned and run by Denmark based Rise Future Media. However, it is in no way connected to the GTA version.
Hosted and produced by Lazlow[9] (who also co-wrote the script along with Dan Houser), Chatterbox FM is the only radio station in the game that does not feature music. Much like the talk radio stations in the real world, Chatterbox features a format in which listeners call in with opinions, concerns, and complaints, and the host responds with his take on the situation.
The station features two long interviews with fictional Liberty City characters. The first is with Fernando Martínez—a recurring character in the GTA series—who is the founder of Fernando's New Beginnings, which is billed as a sort of revolutionary new "miracle" therapy designed to save struggling marriages. Martinez speaks in a heavily exaggerated Spanish accent; when pressed about his heritage, he replies that he is "Latin." Martinez spends the length of the interview deflecting any deep review of his services, and instead relays his particular brand of folksy and absurdist wisdom. At the end of his interview, however, it is revealed that his therapeutic "techniques" are merely a thinly-veiled excuse for the husband to commit adultery when it suits him. Martinez asserts that whenever a man is tired of his wife, he should cheat on her, thereby reducing the anxiety he feels towards his wife, and thus "saving" the marriage. Until the next time. This results in Lazlow throwing Fernando out the studio, accusing him of being "just a cheap pimp from upstate". The second interview is with the pacifist, organic food-eating martial artist Reed Tucker, whom Lazlow constantly makes fun of. Towards the end of the interview, tired of being mocked, Reed attempts to karate chop the studio's desk "into two half desks", claiming he "already visioned" it. After failing miserably, Lazlow starts mocking him by adopting his voice and making comments about him ("I bruise easily, don't throw any tofu or bean curds at me"). It is said by both Lazlow and Reed that he has a food market called "Now and Zen" in Trenton, but this does not exist in the game.
The callers and calls are humorous, and the replies Lazlow gives to his callers are usually comically caustic and opinionated. A common reply to nonsense callers is "Well I'm sure that's a lesson to us all." Several calls reference elements of the game's storyline. Maria Latore calls regarding relationship troubles with her boyfriend, and Toni Cipriani calls complaining about his mother's failure to treat him like a real man, though he disallows Lazlow to use his name, and he's the only character to utter the word "shit" twice on any of the GTA3 stations. Lazlow scolds him the first time, but doesn't on the second use. Ironically, Toni is the first character that the player encounters that uses the word. Maria calls in about Claude (the main character): "He don't talk much". Another call is from a SPANK-head, referring to the increasingly popular leisure drug prevalent in the game. He refers to Lazlow as a pansy and goes on about conspiracies and government brainwashing involving toothpaste. There are also five second image promos with Donald Love (a character that gives you missions in the game) saying, "You're listening to a Love Media station. Enjoy!"
Another two apparently unrelated calls appear to subtly reference each other; a caller who indicates he is fond of eating animals of any kind says he sometimes finds pigeons that have notes attached, commenting "it's like a fortune cookie with wings". Another caller, a woman from "Citizens Raging Against Phones" (C.R.A.P.), a fictional pressure group within GTA3 who are against the use of telephones, declares that the group uses carrier pigeons in the place of telephones, but that they keep going missing, implying that the first caller is, in fact, eating these pigeons. Lazlow also points out the ironic fact that this anti-phone group had to use a phone to reach the station.
Other callers include an English man calling to tell Lazlow that he needs a nanny to spank him (who also calls into Grand Theft Auto: Vice City station K-Chat) , a man calling in regard to taxes (which he pronounces "Texas"), a man who hates clothes ("Does a lion wear clothes? And the lion is the king of the jungle!") this same caller is also featured in the sequel game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City as a debate participant,on VCPR, nudist Barry Starks. And a caller who talks about turnips. Lazlow tells this caller that "This isn't 'Gardening with Maurice'." ("Gardening with Maurice" was later featured on WCTR, a talk radio station in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas). Another caller calls in just to say women are made from sand, a theory that was mentioned by Marvin Trill in San Andreas. Another male caller calls in to talk about a protest going on in Liberty City, though he never says what it's for despite Lazlow asking him numerous times about what he's protesting.
Finally, a war-veteran caller (who seemingly sounds like George W. Bush) mentions an American-Australian war. Lazlow asks what the war is, and that he's never heard of it, which angers the veteran as he doesn't think Lazlow knows his history (in reality, though there has never been a military war between the two, this is probably to make a reference to several Grand Theft Auto games having been temporarily banned in Australia). This becomes a running joke in later GTA games, as commercials for Ammu-Nation in Vice City and San Andreas references certain guns being used when "we whooped Australia's ass."
Lazlow off-offhandedly mentions that he is only hosting Chatterbox because he "got kicked off the rock station". In the next game in the series, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, (set 15 years previously) he is the host of the radio station "V-Rock". The station is referenced again in Grand Theft Auto IV on the WKTT radio station, mentioning that Chatterbox has become defunct by 2007 and that Lazlow is attempting a new radio show called Integrity 2.0.
The guests on the station were voiced by: Lucien Jones, Karin Bykowski, Hank Stewart, Abbi Davis, Mellowvision.com, Paul Maloney, bernieS, Frank Fava, Kit Halsted, Joe Casalino, Dan Houser, Jay Crutcher, Frank Chavez, DJ Rush, Laura Bykowski, A.M. Watson, Navid Khonsari, Sherry Wohglmuth, Porkchop, Renaud Sebbane, Kyle MacLachlan, Sabby, Kim Schaefer, Debi Mazar, Nick Mandelos, David Connell, Reed Tucker, Jennifer Kolbe, Ami Plasse, Keith Broadus, Cameo Carlson, JD Leeds and Michael Madsen.[9]
Chatterbox FM is the Triad's favorite radio station.
The myriad commercials are written by Dan Houser and Lazlow (the latter of whom also produced them). They are fairly convincing as real adverts as they adhere to many typical marketing clichés and tricks. Several advertisements mention telephone numbers and official websites. Rockstar actually created these websites, and although many links eventually lead back to the Rockstar site, some are more detailed. The Petsovernight.com website, for example, displays pictures of animals and promises "If it's got a central nervous system, we've got it ready to go in a box to your house", tying in with the humor of the commercials.
Some examples of commercials within the game are:
The ads are voiced by: Stephanie Roy, Gerry Cosgrove, Sean Lynch, Lazlow, Alex Anthony, Jonathan Hanst, Chris Silvestro, Jeff Berlin, Shelley Miller, Ron Reeve, Maria Chambers, Alana Silvestro, Alice Saltzman, Dan Houser, Frank Chavez, Craig Olivo and Laura Bykowski.[9]
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