Kacper Niburski
The Silhouette
It is a universal truth that Monday mornings are the worst and mine was certainly veering on astronomically bad: I committed a double homicide.
I didn’t mean to, really. I was just driving along and one thing led to another and before I knew it, I found myself knee-deep in the offal of another man. His liver wobbled underneath my tire as I put my phone away.
Sure it could be argued that his Monday was undeniably worse – he was nothing more than a meat pillow now after all - but I had to deal with the messy aftermath and car washes certainly weren’t cheap these days. I’m sure that my fender was bent too and I liked my fender. It shined in the sun.
While I was considering these complications, I heard the scurrying of feet behind me. A different man who had witnessed me mow down the ground-beef lookalike underneath my car was screaming and running. As if my mechanical problems weren’t enough – I couldn’t have any loose ends. So off my car went, spinning bright red tires and fading maroon tracks as I roared towards the high pitch shrill in front of me. I might have even put on my blinker as I performed the U-turn. I can’t be sure – sometimes these things escape me on Mondays.
I wouldn’t call this a regular Monday though. Instead I would call it a tradition that has lasted some seven days since the release of Grand Theft Auto V, a seminal electronic masterpiece that has not gone without its share of controversy and senseless diatribes. Despite its high anticipation, exalting reviews, five years of development, an extensive original soundtrack and spellbinding portraits of real individuals captured in the minutia of a video game, the common critique is that the game is a juvenile, shortsighted, and degenerate caricature of life.
As these critics myopically see it, GTA V dissolves life into a cycle of carnage, carnage, and more carnage in that order. It is violence unbridled and unadulterated, which says nothing of the potential for senseless malice and misogynistic tendencies. Choppy, unrealistic and driven by sociopathic tendencies for brutality, some say the game is a gross, uninformed cliché of reality.
This criticism, I feel, is absolutely true and that’s the point. What so few seem to understand is that Rockstar, the game developer, is not trying to hide this overt excess in human indecency; in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Debauchery is relished, vice defines the norm and the world is nothing short of ugly. The hellscape is entirely intentional and familiar; it is a reflection of ourselves rather than an impression – and for this reason, GTA is the most authentic, most provocative and most compelling piece of art I have ever experienced.
Though it is difficult to unanimously define, art is meant to subvert and change. It is a manifestation of cause and effect in order to reverse that process inherently. By viewing a painting or a statue or reading a book, the viewer is meant to vicariously experience something emotional, psychological or mental, and in doing so, they are meant feel, act and do. For art is not a depiction of what is necessarily, but what has been and what should be instead.
The world of GTA V - Los Santos - is exactly that blend of unique, creative temperament distilled down to encapsulate humanity’s dirty, crude, and abhorrent nature. As a complete globe littered with desires and insecurities stretched to their extreme, the player sees their own world – this world – without its filter. Behind the sunlight, roaring mountains and endless beaches, everyone is driven by self-interest. Whether it is corrupt FBI agents, plastic wives, duplicitous TV hosts, people are either being exploited or exploiting someone themselves. In the game, all are victims but none are innocent, us included.
But it is also more than just a simple mockery of perverse lifestyles, contemporary pop culture, invading social networks, ridiculous political systems and our own vices magnified. Because unlike other art forms that simply mirror life, GTA puts life back into art by putting the player in control of the world and its ramifications.
In each mission or event, we see our actions run their course and we find ourselves in an inescapable torrent of contempt and pain. Wherever we go, suffering follows and we hate it. We don’t enjoy it. No character is happy. No character is left unscathed by their proclivity for violence. Lives are ruined. People are killed. And though the game goes on, we are not enamored by the violence. We are rebuked, chastised and horrified by it. Not because of its grotesque nature or because of how ridiculous it seems, but because we see ourselves in that world of Los Santos and we see how recognizable it is to our own, and that scares us.
There is one scene where a raging psychopath must perform torture on another character in the game. But there is no enjoyment. There is no fun. The controller vibrates. The screams are blood curling. And after it all, we are left with the imprint of our action, the despicable, disgusting, and fruitless action for very little information is gleaned if any at all.
And we hate ourselves for it. Or at least I did.
That is art. It is the agitation of a cruel universe only to provide a message afterwards. In GTA, the message isn’t violence though some people can only see that limited end. Instead it is a cry that with moral choices and consequences, we are responsible for our actions and how society comes together as a whole. If we breed hate, hate results. If we are selfish, others will be too.
Though GTA is a world inhabited by these sins, it is not an embodiment of them. Among the bloodshed and bodies, it whispers that as humans we often get caught in our excesses and mistakes, and this is not right. Earth need not be Los Santos. By showing us what is disgustingly possible in an extreme sense, GTA is a hope that we don’t have to succumb to our selfishness, vanity, and depravity. We are better if we want to be. Like the characters, whether we are good or evil is our choice. It always was. And in order to realize that, sometimes we just need to have a bad Monday morning.
Michael Gallagher
The Silhouette
Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto V likes to do things big. How big? Well, I could tell you that the game’s playable map is twice the size of real world Manhattan. Or maybe mention that the game became the world’s most successful entertainment release by achieving more than $1 billion in sales within three days of its release. But I’d especially like to point to the sheer size of the soundtrack, because yes, it’s also pretty huge.
The game features 15 radio stations, with 240 licensed songs, celebrity DJs, and new material from artists like Tyler the Creator, A$AP Rocky, and Neon Indian – just to name a few.
For added realism, the stations feature professional DJ’s with realistic sounding conversation between songs, and multiple commercial breaks satirizing everything from plastic surgery to corporate corruption.
Each of these radio stations caters to a specific musical genre which means that there is endless variety available for the player. Players simply don’t have to worry about being limited to a particular genre, and are instead able to listen to reggae, classic rock, indie rock, 80s funk, and old school hip-hop just some of the many choices GTA V has to offer. Don’t like rap music? You can drive around the city blasting Queen and Elton John just as easily as you can listen to Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar (although something about “Radio Gaga” and car chases just don’t mix).
All this is partly thanks to GTA V’s music director Ivan Pablovich, who recognized the need for musical variety in a game that is supposed to create an open world full of seemingly endless possibilities and customization.
By allowing players to not only personalize their cars and clothes, but the musical lens through which they experience the game, GTA V allows for the kind of depth fans of the series have been looking for. In fact, I have actually discovered new artists and songs that I really enjoy, something I wasn’t expecting from a video game.
There were times while playing that I spent just driving around the fictional city of Los Santos (think real world Los Angeles), taking in the atmosphere and just enjoying some of the beats and lyrics the game dishes out.
But what if you aren’t a gamer? Or maybe you just aren’t a fan of the GTA series, why would all this matter to you? Well the game’s soundtrack not only makes for a killer in-game experience, it also doubles as a truly fantastic mixtape.
My only complaint is that despite featuring Kenny Loggins as the DJ for the classic rock radio station, “Danger Zone” is nowhere to be found. It is something probably only Archer fans and I will find disappointing, but I guess in a soundtrack this good, there’s room for at least a few mistakes.
Ultimately, if you’re the kind of person who likes musical variety, particularly across multiple genres, checking out the GTA V soundtrack is definitely worth a listen, even if the game is not something you are interested in.