Photo: Rockstar Games via YouTube
Ah, shit, here we go again. This post has been updated with additional information about the songs in the GTA VI trailer.
It’s not outlandish to predict that Grand Theft Auto VI will have the most-listened-to soundtrack of 2026. In late 2023, Rockstar Games revealed its official trailer, which claimed the Guinness World Record for the most-viewed non-music video on YouTube within its first 24 hours, beating the record previously held by MrBeast. The Internet, including popular YouTube shows like Game Theory, immediately took notice of the trailer’s use of “Love is a Long Road,” Tom Petty’s beloved 1989 B-side to “Free Fallin,’” which, according to IGN, saw its Spotify streaming numbers increase by nearly 37,000% after the trailer dropped.
There’s more here than meets the eye. We already knew GTA VI would take place in Vice City, Leonida, GTA’s fictional take on Miami and the setting of 2002’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The song’s lyrics were revealing, too. “Love is a Long Road” finds beloved Florida Man Tom Petty remembering a woman he once loved. She tried to make him see and follow life through her worldview, comparable to the Bonnie and Clyde-like protagonists of GTA VI, whom Rockstar has now confirmed to be ex-Army man Jason Duval and fresh-out-of-prison Lucia Caminos. Will we roleplay as a doomed couple heading towards their own implosion? Breadcrumbs like this are tailor-made for online speculation.
This is not the first time GTA has used music, and specifically lyrics, to hint at what’s to come. GTA IV used Vagabond’s “Greenskeepers” to describe a protagonist traveling far from home to get revenge, which mirrored that game’s story for player character Niko. GTA V used Stevie Wonder’s “Skeletons” to prep players for a story full of dangerous secrets on the verge of coming out, like one of its protagonists, Michael, faking his death to the shock of his former bank robbing associate Trevor. That’s in addition to over a hundred carefully curated radio stations programmed across the series that adds extra charm and worldbuilding, from the slapstick heavy metal classics on Vice City’s V-Rock station to GTA V’s balance of West Coast Classics featuring Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg and Radio Los Santos spinning contemporaries like A$AP Rocky and Freddie Gibbs. Rockstar knows what it’s doing, at least when it comes to using music to tell its stories.
GTA VI’s second official trailer dropped yesterday, with even more songs. That means more threads to unravel, which will give us something to do until the game’s delayed release date of May 26, 2026. There’s already speculation that the likes of Megan Thee Stallion, ScHoolboy Q, and T-Pain will be in the game or are involved with curating its music (the latter confirmed as much on a stream, and complained that he’d been banned from GTA roleplay servers because of his involvement), so each new trailer helps us paint a clearer picture of how it’ll feel exploring a modern-day Vice City. Analyzing this newest trailer’s most recognizable songs, we can try to deduce what kinds of stories we should expect to roleplay.
Ferguson’s 1977 soft rock hit evokes romantic, tropical escapism, featuring Joe Walsh on slide guitar and recorded at Miami’s famous Criteria Studios, where the Eagles recorded Hotel California (and where half your dad’s record collection was recorded). It’s the first song we hear in the trailer, albeit playing faintly in the background, as co-protagonist Jason works out in the sun and talks with his landlord, the drug runner Brian Heder. Glad to know that some local yacht rock will get proper representation in Vice City.
The influential Haitian konpa group’s track from their 2004 album 5 Etwal plays on the radio as co-protagonist Jason drives around the outskirts of Vice City. Its rhythmic grooves fit within the Florida-inspired atmosphere. Haiti plays a role in the trailer too, with Jason later driving past a large Haitian mural, making the game’s potential connection to Miami’s real-life, shrinking Little Haiti more overt. It may hint at the origins of one of the game’s protagonists—Jason Duval’s last name could be of Haitian descent—or one of the character’s responsibilities or debts to pay. Or maybe this is just Rockstar trying to make up for Vice City’s infamous “Kill the Haitians” incident.
This ‘80s classic is the next track on Jason’s radio as he looks upon Vice City’s blue skies and its happy, endless possibilities. It’s a pretty short snippet yet reinforces the more upbeat moments of GTA, as well as its connection to the original Vice City; the 2002 game featured Wang Chung’s “Dance Hall Days” on its Flash FM pop station. Between this and “To Live and Die in L.A.” opening each week on Netflix’s Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, we might be amid a Wang Chung revival.
“Talkin’ to Myself Again” is the last snippet we hear on Jason’s radio as he drives around Vice City, except now driving past a sunset arrest. Wynette’s mournful lyrics about a partner who has left—will one protagonist leave the other during the game’s main campaign?—to the sound of lonely, sad acoustic country music is the flip side of Wang Chung’s carefree spirit. Wynette was previously featured on GTA V with her 1968 hit “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” featured on the fictional Rebel Radio.
“Hot Together” is the main song playing throughout the rest of the trailer and is the only song credited in the video’s YouTube description. It starts towards the middle, when Jason meets Lucia to pick her up from Leonida Penitentiary, followed by a montage of the two of them together, in private and out and about committing crimes throughout the game’s several playable locations, inspired by real-life Florida locations. Like “Love is a Long Road,” these dance pop lyrics follow a couple reflecting upon their passionate connection and how they could be so, ahem, hot together.
Unlike the last trailer, these lyrics feel relatively straightforward. The “We left it up to chance” pause could imply that this couple’s ending won’t be so clean cut, but the song feels more appropriate for its sun-kissed feeling than, for now, its lyrics. The song came out in 1986, so it could also be a tribute to the 1986 setting of the original Vice City. Or maybe Rockstar Games are just fans of Spaceballs.
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