Grand Theft Auto VI

As much as this trailer is about the much-hyped sequel to the best-selling game of all time, with over 185 million units sold, it’s also a curious case of music curation. With Grand Theft Auto V having been released over a decade ago, it’s something of a generational event. And the fact that the sixth instalment revisits Vice City (a fictionalized version of Miami) reinforces this idea.

Sometimes, as we heard a couple of weeks back in Migration, the editors seem to license a popular song (such as a Taylor Swift track) to help sustain interest in a weak franchise. With this trailer’s soundtrack—“Love Is a Long Road” by Tom Petty, not even a single from his 1989 album Full Moon Fever—the editors knew that there was absolutely no such need for added star power.

Given the complete opposite situation here, we can be pretty well assured that the choice of song here is chiefly an aesthetic consideration. (In fact, GTA’s popularity has sent “Love Is A Long Road” into the stratosphere on Spotify, with a 36,979% increase in listeners week over week since the trailer’s release.)

Granted, musically it fits to a tee: electronic keyboard on the beat sets up the hazy, colourful ambiance of Vice City (i.e. not-Miami), with bursts of guitar and drums accompanying the skyline reveal—epic, but not overwrought. Petty’s singing accompanies a gameplay montage as we see various examples of the GTA-style civil mayhem we’ve come to expect over the decades, but set here like a music video. The lyrics have a bit of contextual tie-in: this time, you play as prison inmate Lucia (incidentally, the series’ first female protagonist since 2000), and the story follows Lucia and her partner; the pair share a relationship like Bonnie and Clyde.

For the most part, the tune runs parallel to the scenery, save a choice synch point at the one-minute mark. Here, a man falls to the ground, matching a snare hit preceding the guitar solo. This is bookended at 1:16 as the protagonist, Lucia, kicks open a gas station door. After the words “Well look who’s back,” the trailer takes somewhat of a narrative turn in the last half minute: we see and hear the protagonists.

Overall, the song choice is understated, aesthetically coherent and complementary, and audiovisual techniques are restrained. This is surely in part because, as a video game trailer, a gameplay montage is nigh-requisite. However, it also exudes a sense of cool. There’s no rush in revealing everything or convincing the viewer of its meaning or stakes—at least judging by its popularity, it’s a video game franchise with nothing to prove if there ever was one. It’s only fitting that its song choice should sound so carefree.

Grand Theft Auto VI is currently set for release in 2025.

— Curtis Perry