Together these two song sets play off one another to create contrasting world views purely through musical notes. In a way these songs personify the wasteland like the instrumentals in FO3 did, and they lend a direct contrast to Radio New Vegas' instrumental lineup. Meanwhile, the instrumentals of Mojave Radio like 'Roundhouse Rock' and 'Lazy Day Blues' are much more lively, bouncy, and active. These songs embody the idea of New Vegas as a location, the existence of someplace where life is slower, better.

Slow Jazzy notes give a soothing and safe feeling, which the Strip tends to emulate. Radio New Vegas' Instrumental such as 'American Swing', 'Hallo Mr.X', and 'Slow Bounce' hold an air of classy lifestyle to them. Radio New Vegas and its contrasting stations therefore provide a thematic dialog on the game world: do we want news, sponsorships, indifferent reporting and soft-spoken advice, or as we rebuild the world is it better that we be left alone to our own devices, create something wholly ours? Isolation, being able to make something of your own without being swallowed up by the larger fish, permeates throughout New Vegas, and is your argument for House or Yes Man favored playthroughs. New Vegas does well to vocalize this contrasting opinion in many other facets, such as dialog from Goodsprings residents, or the BOS.

Black Mountain Radio also compounds on this by playing the same songs as Mojave Radio, Tabitha took the base of what they liked and built on it, made it their own, as one does with cultural shifts and integration. Meanwhile, broadcasts like Black Mountain radio focus on isolationism, a desire to be left alone. Radio New Vegas provides an idea of what it's like living in / near NCR areas. The second is what civilization MEANS to so many of the Mojave's inhabitants. The radio reports on these cracks, and the actions of the courier: the one person poking at them. through the rise of the NCR and Legion we see cracks forming a dependency on Caesar's leadership, the bureaucracy and insubordination of the NCR, these growing pains are the same cracks in the foundation that eventually leads to their loss of power if poked at enough. The first is the rise of civilization, and the fall of civilization. This ties into two major themes of NV in general. New-Vegas is impartial to the groups' fighting, broadcasting the details but never wording it in a way to make the NCR look better than the legion. The radio instead simply fits the state of the Mojave in general: Mr. There is no major NCR broadcast, there is no major Legion broadcast, or House, or Yes Man. The radio in Fallout New Vegas contrasts this by being the voice of nobody, instead focusing on personifying the themes of the game. The radio was, in a way, the extension of these characters.

In Fallout 3, the radio was its own character: it spoke the word of the enclave, it spoke the word of GNR and the BOS. Not only does this scope help build the world out to be complex, which ties with the main themes of the game, but this also changes the entire dynamic of the radio itself. For instance the NCR Emergency Radio during the Hoover Dam fight provides a sense that so much more is happening than just what you see, building out the scope of the game world. In New Vegas, almost everything that happens is much larger than the courier, lending a direct contrast to FO3 where most game events were directly related to the Lone Wanderer. These stations play a very important role in New Vegas, as they provide a much wider scope to the game than we saw in Fallout 3. New Vegas' Radio is very similar to 3's: containing world building stations such as Black Mountain Radio, or my personal favorite the NCR Emergency Radio. I'll be going through the significance of the radio stations, the importance of Songs from Radio New Vegas and Mojave Music Radio, and how they both tie into plot points and major game/series themes. As I said last time: it's important to note that these aren't confirmed things to my knowledge, but are rather just observations I made while playing the game. Fallout: New Vegas is no different in building on these larger themes, plot points, and dynamics. In the previous post we looked at how the radio in Fallout 3 reflected the inward struggles of the player character, as well as the outward struggles of the world around them. Since it was well received, this is a continuation of this previous piece for Fallout 3

Fallout new vegas radio