Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Official Soundtrack

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Well, the current of hate mail regarding our Top 100 Albums of the 1980s list has begun to wane, and we've now heard from the entire spectrum of dissenting readers, from the metalheads to the popists to the people that just really, really like Oingo Boingo. The most commonly lodged complaint, however, from both within Pitchfork HQ and from our swollen mailbag, is that our list was not entirely successful at depicting the sound of the Reagan decade, covering the indie-centric favorites while glossing over the other trends that defined the era. Our stock response is that, hey pal, it was an albums list, not a singles list, and presumably a discussion of the best radio hits would more accurately pin down what happened in what is universally considered to be a "singles decade".

But regardless of how you classify the 80s, what was on the airwaves is equally fit material for sociological analysis or entertaining home listening-- hence the number of 80s retrospectives starting to drift into the record stores, like Rhino's seven-disc Like, Omigod! box set. Much better organized than that scattershot hits collection, however, is the soundtrack to the recently released PS2 title Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Receiving almost as much hype as the game's delightful lack of morals is the music licensed and packaged within-- eight fictional radio stations packed with genre-programmed classics. Released concurrently, the likewise seven-disc soundtrack (available together or individually) preserves the style-segregation format, providing a different compilation disc for each of the big radio trends of the decade.

Which makes the Vice City OST a much more accurate snapshot (or collection of snapshots) depicting the 80s musical climate than the kitschy hodgepodge provided by previous compilations. While the song selection is sometimes unusual, and the fake DJs and commercials from the game (jokes that make That 80's Show look subtle and nuanced) break up the flow, the discs offer a lot more insight into what was moving people back in the day, including some of the genres we Pitchforkers have been accused of neglecting: hard rock, new wave/electro, and early hip-hop. So, ignoring for the time being how much fun it is to brutally chainsaw-murder innocent bystanders to the strains of Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out", here's a quick look at each musical installment.

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http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/watw/02-12/vice-city-box.shtml