I think another way Horizon 1’s soundtrack avoided fatigue was that every race had a chosen song for it, meaning whichever radio station you were listening to in free roam wasn’t always the radio station you would be listening to during the race by default. It allowed players to sample more music from the radio stations they may not have wanted to listen to at first.
I remember in horizon 3 (best soundtrack imo), when you made a blueprint to a bucket list event, you could choose the song playing under it. We need stuff like this back!
i think its funny that there was so much backlash on the music in 5 that they felt that they had to add two entire new radio stations, one from fh3 and another solely comprised of music from the older games. horizon XS was so far detatched from what it was, they literally needed an entirely new metal station 💀
@@RadDEATHTRAP What's funny is that I have this playlist of songs in Forza games, and they are 42 of my favorite songs in the series, 20% of it is FH1, 12% is FH2, 48% if FH3, 19% is FH4 and the last 1% is FH5. And I can definitely assure that when it comes to forza music I will always believe in quality over quantity
When they said that Horizon Mixtape was gonna have the older songs back i legit went "THANK FU€KING LORD" because all the music in the game by default god so old so fast i has to resort to YTMusic just to keep myself entertained whilst driving...
@@cinemapigeon4898 I do like a lot of skrillexs music but tbh putting the levels remix on the soundtrack was like the only miss because the original is better and would feel more like a familiar banger every music festival plays.
Hell yeah, actually I think that despite the fact that FH2 soundtrack was made by Rob Da Bank it definitely cannot hold a handle to FH1 soundtrack, totally different league.
I might be biased but the FH3 Base Arena Soundtrack was perfect for the game. It screams 2015-2016 Australia festie culture, songs you'd hear at festivals or on the radio. I was shocked at how accurate the soundtrack was
Yeah to be fair FH3 songs are the last good ones. It strikes a balance between what's popular around the world, best Australian selections, and a sprinkle of nostalgia.
@@mcatrane I love listening to Vagrant Records on FH3 whenever I hop on idk if anybody likes it since I see nobody talking about it but I think this guy should have separated FH3 from FH4 because that's when I actually noticed how some mainstream songs got in FH4 when I bought the game.
Definitely even these days - I was on a Festival last month here in europe that had Rufus du sol playing with the hottest weather here for weeks - holy shit when they started playing like an animal which i didnt even expect it was so fire i had goosebumps running all over.
Finally someone mentions the looping songs in fh5. It is honestly one of the most frustrating and distracting things I’ve ever experienced in a racing game and is what made me permanently mute the radio in the settings.
The “music festival” atmosphere of the early games has also been put well to the wayside since then. I think one of the best examples of this is the loading screen in Horizon 1 which was made up to look like a festival poster; and some of the screens near the central area would rotate through band logos from the soundtrack. It gave the impression that yes, there was a festival going on around you, and the radio stations were playing highlights of their sets. Even the announcer chatter gave the impression that they were taking in sets when they weren’t on air. Since then, there’s been so little focus on that music festival atmosphere that it’s not even a thing any more. It’s just “commercial radio station #271 in country X”.
And the decline of the festival itself. Fh1 had 6 or so buildings to enter, a massive amount of people in grandstands, and a massive stage, and lights everywhere, and you could see the festival from most places in the map, and the outposts and the buildings where you sighn up, plus sighns everywhere. It made it so the festival seemed like the centre of attention, like an actual festival is. Now everything outside the festival makes it seem like everyones indiffeent Fh2 was smaller, but still good, Fh3 had the worst IMO, 4 tiny identical festivals, 4s was alright and 5s is just a race track
@@dylanburston7453 They switched from you being part of the festival to you being the center of the festival and the immersion suffered heavily from it.
From Horizon 3 on it’s just become more and more of a corporate product unfortunately. From the music choice to the car progression being made too easy, and the terrible dialogue etc etc. They just kept making it more “accessible” instead of better.
@@stickvortex the terrible thing is they made you "the boss" of From Horizon 3, which isn't great~~ I supposed to earn it like FH1 and FH2 did, from zero to hero thingy~~
I think Block Party from 3 on did the worst damage in this sense. Like, the number of songs that are popular to most people, and not just within it's genre, such as "It's Tricky" by Run DMC and "Intergalactic" by Beasty Boys shows how generic the entire thing is becoming.
Just want to point out that for anyone who was big into drum and bass it was WILD opening Horizon 2 and seeing a Hospital Records Station. That was fucking sick
horizon 3`s soundtrack was so good, and included so many great australian artists. Future classic was so good. i still listen to songs like pizza guy to this day
I reckon Horizon 3's Soundtrack was pretty spot on for what was popular in Australia at the time and honestly is my favourite in the series (A bit biased as an Aussie myself) but I absolutely agree they need to have a proper DJ back to curate the soundtrack, maybe bring in a popular DJ from the country they chose to set the game in so the soundtrack is more in touch with the local culture Either that or just partner with either Apple Music or Spotify so we can officially bring our playlists into the game just like what we had with Groove Music in Horizon 3
Well, if they used a famous DJ from the country in which they are located, FH5 would be full of very bad pop music since that is what is played everywhere, or in the worst case, Mexican corridos with narco lyrics, or even worse, fucking reggeton XD
@@AlexBehemot yea there’s only a couple Mexican artists that really speak widely to people outside of Mexico. I think the best solution is to get a few Djs from Europe (I’m American but European DJing is the best and most widely appealing) and maybe some Australians for the rave stuff and let them each make a station kinda like blonded from gta v for frank ocean where there’s one artist picking music per station.
The censoring in FH5 has gotten out of control. If you're gonna censor it so much, why not just use the instrumental version instead, or pick another song. Better yet, why even have music at this point? No music, no censoring.
I truly hate the censorship in FH5, having words and lines like 'god', 'lit', 'consumption', 'got it so bad', 'let it hurt till it stops', 'addicted to a lonely kind of love', etc being all censored just to target a 3/E rating is absolutely horrible decision-making. Just ruins the excitement of Horizon, if you know what I mean.
@@djharrisonfb1008 Yes I know what you mean. If you listen to the song De Lux - Cool Up from Horizon Pulse, there is a lyric that goes "There's nothing wrong, with a little push". Guess what, they removed the word "push". Like why? Its not a bad word. It doesn't even mean anything bad. Either the person who is censoring these words gets disturbed so easily (I guess you can call them a snowflake or something), or maybe they felt like removing it just because they can.
In Fh4, the song "Fake It Til You Make It" from the DREAMERS had the phrase "color black" from "Lost all your money on the color black" cut which was peak The West has Fallen moment for me
in my opinion, the worst thing about the music in 5 is that the festivals and viewing stands in races play about five songs over and over again, making driving without music borderline unbearable after a while. the censorship is also great because why have a game centered around a music festival, a literal celebration of song, when you're just gonna censor the songs anyway? industry baby is one of my favorite songs from the soundtrack, but the censorship just makes it sound like a corporate joke. which is funny since it's also the song used in a meme format, meaning that whenever i hear it i feel like i'm watching a "forza slander" video
@ipityplaystationpeasants2305 yes, but they should pick songs with less or no swearing then. Half of industry baby is censored, which makes it unbearable
I loved when the song changed during the longer races in Horizon 1. It let you know the race required more endurance and consistently good driving to get first place.
I personally LOVED the horizon 3 and 4 soundtracks as they're not only right up my alley but also feature some of my favorite artists, but i do agree that songs looping so much do make them get old sooo quickly
The intro song for 3 (Constellations) is fantastic. Lots of great songs in 3 (Justice !!!!) and the intro to 4 (Sunrise) literally became one of my favorite DnB songs of all time. 5 definitely didn't hit the same, but I think 3 and 4 both had some great tunes. Sure 1 and 2 had good songs, but they had their stinkers as well
After FH2, most of the tracks felt safe, inoffensive, and corporate. Like they went out of their way to chose songs that “matched” the atmosphere and culture of the map vs what people would enjoy. Same thing happened to Heat and Unbound’s soundtracks.
The only radio station that has never gone down in quality is Hospital records but honestly its pretty much impossible to fumble it when the station not only focuses on just one subgenre of music but also because its literally an actual record label
All racing games have heavily shaped my taste in music. Specifically Need For Speed got me into metal. And Horizon got me more into dubstep and electronic
For the last few years, since Horizon 5 launch, given how much the quality of the licensed music kind dwindled heavily with the 4 and 5 installment, I've been asking myself who was the genius who has been curating the immaculate soundtrack of the first two Forza Horizon games. Well, guess now I have my answer. Thank you Mr. Robert John Gorham for these amazing collections of licensed music and for introducing me to some of the artists that shaped some of my musical tastes during my youth and godspeed on your next endeavours.
Horizon 1 and 2 soundtracks give you the feel that their songs were taken straight from a music festival. In the other hand, take a couple of songs from FH5 and it feels like they took them out of Spotify's most played songs. They drifted out of the festival setting towards including more and more 'viral' and very popular songs that are more appealing to the average casual player because they listen to them all the time in social media. Some of those songs I'm very tired of, others are not bad, but in general rather than adding to the festival setting and experience, they are detrimental to it. Heck, not even the music, but the entire game focus went from having a festival centered about music, cars and racing, full of vibes, to a car game 'for everyone' appealing to the masses just because it is a better selling idea. I did not kow of Rob and his role in the first games, but he sure did a great job and his departure can explain the progressive change of focus on the games' soundtracks. Really nice video!
Idk what you’re on about. I’ve never heard of more than half of these artists 😂. And besides, Horizon is indeed for everyone since it’s a casual racing game and there’s nothing wrong with that.
I really loved the Pulse radios in Horizon 1 and 3 with songs like Walking On A Dream, Paddling Out, along with both of the CHVRCHES and Ladyhawke songs from FH3. The only song I really even liked from FH5s Pulse playlist was that one Porter Robinson song Look At The Sky.
I really enjoyed FH2's soundtrack. I can listen to Wolves by Digitalism and not get tired of it. There's a lot of postitve feel good energy pumped into it.
For me, there were a few songs that I liked in horizon 5 Deadmau5, Wolfgang Gartner-Channel 43 RIOT-Jungle Fury Seven Lions & Jason Ross-Foolish of me Bring me the horizon-teardrops (it's kinda messed up in game)
Playground Games made a mistake signing with individual record labels. By continuing with Hospital Records for example, they freeze out artists from labels like RAM, Shogun, Metalheadz etc, who have the same if not better quality, and a much more varied sound. As an electronic music lover, I can only speak for that family of genres, but there's more to it than big-room EDM and drum 'n bass. Where's the breakbeat? The psydub? The progressive trance? I had a look at The Crew: Motorfest's soundtrack list, and it actually looks very promising.
@@Imnotsurewhattoput798 They have a rock station as well as a dedicated punk/metalcore station. Problem is these stations have great songs, but are also bloated with pretty stodgy songs. The "rock" station, Horizon XS, has many songs that are genuinely not rock in any stretch of the music genre (for example, that one Sofi Tukker song about spending the night in someone's house because you're a freak?). Epitaph Records pulls music from the record label of the same name. This includes well known rock and metal bands like The Offspring, Architects, and Bring Me The Horizon. However, the BMtH song in the game is in Horizon XS. Also, while the station is far better than XS, it still has some less than great songs, such as those from "The Linda Lindas." God help me if I ever have to hear anything from that band again. They take up TWO songs in that station, whereas Architects, The Offspring, Alkaline Trio, and The Ghost Inside each get one song. I'd rather have Architects - Doomsday than either of the The Linda Lindas songs.
I wish they would add a custom radio. Like GTA IV and V and "Custom Radio", there's a file you drag your music in and BOOM it'll play those tracks on that radio station. Since they collect our data anyways they can use that to make a list of the most played songs to help them choose different music for the next game as well.
Man you can't imagine how much I agree with you on music in Horizon games. It's like 100% sync rate. Remembering H1 & H2 soundtracks hits so hard with both joy (for how good it was) and grief (for how worse things had become).
FH5 is the first Forza game I ever played because of getting an xbox later in life. As a rocker / metalhead, I was so freaking disappointed with Horizon XS. There's only 2 fun songs on there, and guess what, they're both from the Foo Fighters. in FH4 we at least had Greta Van Fleet, but they censored the words "love" and "loving" like... dude... really?
I'm sure you already know, but you can mute the Horizon radio and play Spotify in the background. Gotta find a good fader balance for the game and Spotify audio, but being able to play your own driving music really helps the game feel more fun.
chvrches is my favorite band and they were in 2, 3 and 4, even two songs in 3! It broke my heart when I saw the tracklist from Horizon 5 Pulse and they weren't there, and instead we got... Dua Lipa and crappy songs in Spanish
For me it's close between NfS ProStreet, Most Wanted 05, and Burnout Paradise. Yes, specifically PARADISE, not Takedown or Domination, because I haven't played those two and frankly Paradise's soundtrack is so good that I'm not sure those will have a better one (though I have heard that the three Burnouts do share some songs).
@@J.PC.DesignsParadise took a lot of songs from previous burnout games and a few nfs games in their own set of songs, so don't worry, you're not exactly losing anything in the music department, since like I said, a lot of songs are from previous games, and pretty much all fit the game perfectly
I don't think the racing game soundtracks that appeared throughout the 2000s are ever gonna be topped, absolute solid gold. Also some late 90s stuff as well, back when people experimented more with original soundtracks, like Rom Di Prisco's bangers on NFS High Stakes, and the western Gran Turismo 1 also had some mixes of existing songs specifically for it
There's a list of words that are banned in horizon, and using those are a bannable offense as a license plate or on your car. They include "33, 10, 68, ABC, We, Boss, Joke, Promotion, Sniper, Turbo" and many more. So don't be surprised to see half the lyrics being censored. Also Angelica Garcia's song on XS is there because she's actually the DJ of XS.
@@tfwnoyandere Nobody truly knows what the actual thought process behind these is, and the rules are getting more vague with every new instance, so we can all only guess which words will be banned next.
An easy fix would be to include a spotify radio or something like groove music was in horizon 3, having your own music in game was so cool to have, they need to bring that back Another issue is mainstream music now sucks compared to the mainstream stuff from back then in my honest opinion (the radio stations here in Quebec suck ass atleast if that is what is considered mainstream that is lol)
I think saying mainstream music now sucks is an ignorant approach because if someone would tell you that when horizon 1 came out you would call them old and out of touch the problem here is that fh5 just used semi popular songs without swear words that would be also cheap to license which made the song pool small and having someone who is not a professional picking music made it even worse (on top of the songs not feeling good to drive to)
Mainstream music back then was ass too. Music is subjective and I have not found any racing game which has an enjoyable sound track apart from the older Gran Turismos which have some good instrumental songs.
8:20 THEY DIDNT EVEN CENSOR THE MUSIC LYRIC CREATIVELY!! they just mute it, unlike Midnight Club LA where they make it seem like the radio is static or losing connection
This is why older racing games soundtracks are better. They had amazing songs like Decadence by Disturbed, Don't Get Close By Slipknot, I Am Electric by Heaven's Basement, Determined by Mudvayne, Skinnyman by Static-X, Red Flag by Billy Talent, Beast and The Harlet by A7X, Indestructible by Disturbed, Hand Of Blood by Bullet For My Valentine, and Dance Dance by FOB.
Horizon today is Fortnite with cars. They forgot what the franchise original direction was: a mix between Tomorrowland with car culture. Also in the latest game they just play music it doesn't feel like a radio anymore.
I like the classical station. When its used in showcase events and in story its pretty out of place often. But my personal taste is that I like listening to classical when doing time attack stuff.
I genuinely believe that if there was a new Horizon game like 1, it'd be hugely popular. Horizon Colorado felt like a real festival that someone would just visit to see the cars and hear the music. All the other games? They just feel like a racing competition with added music. The garage felt like a magic place where a car could enter as an S and leave as an R1 (I miss the old performance classes)
One thing I dislike about 4 and 5s hospital records stations is that now they’re specifically made for the games, which does sound counter intuitive but they’re really not living up to the standard that horizon 2 placed.
This video is quite interesting and I agree on what you are saying. Horizon 3 was the last game with a good soundtrack because my theory is that most likely rob started working in FH3 before he got removed. I think that horizon 5s soundtrack is full of random songs that don’t fit and aren’t that good.(subjective). A fix would definitely is to put a professional to do their job than some random mediocre guys that are just lacking the knowledge. Another fix would be to let you have a custom radio with all the songs from all the previous horizons which is what is implemented in Fifa 23 which is insane.
Great video, you brought back some good memories. Most of my nostalgia from horizon 1 and horizon 2 is from the music and feeling like I was part of a music festival. I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks the music has fell off hard. I've had the music on mute since horizon 3.
I remember when the song "Roses - Imanbek Remix" came onto one of the stations I was listening to on FH5 only to hear so many weird gaps and pauses. I later checked the song out on Spotify to realise that the FH5 version was just heavily censored.
I loved the atmosphere in Horizon one. Earlier this year I got the chance to attend a music and car festival called “FuelFest” hosted by the late Paul Walker’s brother Cody. The theme of that matched FH1 to a tee and was so nostalgic.
Horizon 1’s soundtrack was so fantastic! It’s the only game where I listened to all the radio stations, because they were all so damn good! I never turned them off to listen to my own music. 2 was brilliant too, it had the best house/EDM/D&B roster in the series. Yet, in 3-5, there always was a point where I’d turn the radio stations off and just listened to my own music - music of which I think better suited the mood of the game. I’m so glad you made this video, because I felt like nobody else felt the way I did about this. Yet it turns out, a lot of people care just as much for the music as I do. It’s probably half the reason Horizon was so appealing to me in the first place.
All I want for Horizon 6 is for them to just bring back a DJ to curate the songs. I LOVED how diverse the music was in Horizon 2 and I miss that true summer festival vibe the older games had.
2 things 1, i absolutely love Horizon Wave in FH5 and 2, i like to imagine that in 1 and 2 you're hearing the festival from more of like a festivalgoer and in 3 and 4 you're hearing it from the perspective of an important figure in the festival
Regarding why the word "God" is censored: back in FH4 it wasn't, until the "China update" when the game was finally on sale in PRC. It wasn't listed on the changelog, but players have noticed the Big Man got ousted from songs like Jack White's "Over and Over and Over" and CHVRCHES' "Never Say Die." tl;dr PGG put the fear of God to the West Taiwanese.
@@costaskl6589 to put it in the least political way possible: CCP does not acknowledge religion beyond mere traditional / heritage fluff. So while Buddhists, Confucianists, Muslims, and others do exist in West Taiwan, those people are officially acknowledged as atheists.
nascar thunder 2004 is a masterclass on how to pick music for a racing game. The songs EA picked perfectly encapsulate the high intensity, high octane vibes of nascar in general at the time. Action - powerman 5000, guilt - fingertight, and chromatic fades - autopilot off are absolutely perfect choices to further hammer home the feeling of blasting around an oval at tipple digit speeds in the early 2000s. Every other racing game should do something similar to what EA did in the early 00s.
EA licensed music from that time period was masterful. Games like Madden 05 and MLB 04 had great soundtracks that felt more like an actual person's playlist rather than corporate trite.
something that REALLY kills FH5's music for me is how every single time you approach a festival site, the radio just always happens to be blasting the "best" part of one particular song it's the most painful thing to race The Gauntlet when every single Wilds outpost you approach is blasting "DON'T YOU EVER" and you end up hearing that same 5 seconds of whatever song that is every single time you drive past one. i started to dread seeing the orange barriers - not because it meant a tight or technical part of a course, but because it meant i had to hear "DON'T YOU EVER" i literally don't know the rest of the song. the game has never given me a chance to hear it. it's a cancer spreading in the horizon series, this sanding down of every possible rough edge that comes with realism in this chase of hyperidealism. i drove off a 30ft cliff with ramiro in the car and it was "WHOAHOHOH THAT WAS AWESOME" and not "I NEED TO SEE A CHIROPRACTOR" - there are no "bad times" at the horizon festivals. no crashes, no tension, no rivalries, no drama, no maintenance issues, no wildlife issues, no money issues, nothing. everything is perfect, all the time. every song comes on at the catchiest moment, every car you get has 0 miles on the odometer and looks the part, every guardrail is made of tin foil and soda cans, every AI driver hits the perfect line even when they're driving the goddamn Hennessy Velociraptor through Guanajuato's tight streets and sharp corners in a street race it's gone from idealistic to this unsettling level of "there is no war in Ba Sing Se" to see everyone having the Best Possible Time Ever All The Time the entire point of having the Horizon series was to focus on a more laid back atmosphere celebrating cars and their drivers - at least, i thought it was. it was grassroots and down to earth while at the same time over-the-top and full of spectacle. you started out with a VW Corrado with every first time car builder's starter pack: wheels, coilovers and exhaust. it was a quirky, interesting car you'd see gathering a crowd at Cars and Coffee, not a supercar, not an insane widebody drift car, it was something i could see someone getting lucky at an auction with and putting some love into. you started from the bottom, and got your way up to the top of the festival's roster. in later games, 4 and 5 especially, you're The Superstar and nobody can touch you. despite going all over the world, you're not meeting local drivers with great talent who pose any real threat to your position. nope, only some random guy (you, the superstar) from Colorado with a British Accent can pull that off. everybody else? just a side mission. this is all perfectly reflected in the music. it's always upbeat, never uncomfortable, never challenging, never worth thinking about. never meaningful. my theory? the Horizon Festival, at least from 4 onwards, is canonically, in-universe, in-story, a simulation. it's not even real in the game's world. at the end of Horizon 1's credits, your car is spun out and smashed against a guardrail, and your character suffered a massive spinal cord injury, rendering them paralyzed. at the start of Horizon 4, your character is placed in a car, in front of a giant, panoramic screen for a projector. everything in the game? it's all on that projector. it's not about realism, it's about comfort, reliving the best days of their glory days.
Basically agree with everything you said but to be fair in the story I believe the protag in FH5 is from FH4, not from FH1. That's why they have a British accent.
Is it just me or does it seem like there are very few songs in general in all the Forza horizon games? Like it's a game about cars and cars only, so why does it feel like every game has only 3 songs in total? Like they got some good songs in their games, but when you have an extended play session you can only take hearing the same song so many times before you want to put your head through a wall
FH's doesn't have particularly less music per station than GTA, but it has less *radio stations* than GTA and in a game where you're *always* hearing the radio. I absolutely think FH should have more stations. Like, split XS into a soft and classic rock station and a hard rock and metal station. Take some of the stuff that would normally be on both Pulse and XS and create an indie station. Add reggae, jazz, and folk/county. Add stations dedicated to the contemporary and traditional music of where the game takes place. I'm sure someone with wider taste than me has more ideas.
@@kfcnyancat that's a good shout but it still doesn't feel like there are that many songs in the games. Granted I don't change my radio station all that much. I tend to find myself getting attached to one station and not caring for the others. In GTA 5 I do switch my station quite a bit. It's better there but still kinda wish they had a few more. Although I will say when they brought it to xbone/PS4 and they like doubled the song lists that helped TREMENDOUSLY
FH has to have big influence from the real life car and music festival #Gridlife . Music is usually electronic and hip hop at those festivals. I really like the soundtracks in FH1 through 3.
Despite I like few songs in the FH5 and FH4, the amount of likable songs really HAD DECLINED. You are absolutely right, and now I even know why is that. When you had play Netsky Everyday, man I had literally goosebumps all over me from the greatness and nostalgia! And despite I wuite liked the FH4s Hospital, and felt it really goes with "trends and time", without a doubt, its still worse than FH1. Thank you for this great, well done video! ;3
Tbh, i started playin with horizon 3 and always had radio on. Then I played 4 and had it on most of the time, though I still think it had great music. And then came horizon 5. Radio is almost always turned off. I just don't care anymore. Even if I turn it on, most of the time I just forget about it just as quickly, which rarely happened with the other games. But i'm currently looking to get into fh1 and 2, so I'm on my way to good music
I played horizon 4 and 5 and i gotta say that horizon 4 soundtrack was full of bangers, i could get myself to listen to almost any song on any radio. Horizon 5 on the other hand... well the teardrops song and unperson were cool.. and that's about it, i can name 2 good songs from the entire game. i remember i could restart a race even like 15 times just so i got a good song.
The thing I loved about fh1's music was that quite a few songs in the game felt like they had passion and soul in them. Like Take a Walk by Passion Pit and 1901 by Phoenix fit the energy of the festival perfectly. Meanwhile fh5's music feels like a sanitized, "family-friendly" version of the early games.
I literally have music permanently off in FH5 and I would do that quite often for FH4, however I do find FH5's music the most insufferable and boring out of all the entries. Occasionally I can jam a bit to something but they get old so fast, however the second I revisit FH2 the story changes, and it isn't just because of nostalgia because I actually began playing Horizon's on FH3 (even though I really wanted FH2 but couldn't get it before), which means that although the subjectivity of music and personal preference does line me up with FH2 more, it was reaaaaaaaally evident how much better it was compared to FH3, even if I still think FH3 had some nice ones. It's just so unfortunate how low the bar is now, any game is elevated by its music, I'm sure we all remember 30 seconds to Mars in Hot Pursuit, or "You'll Be Under My Wheels" from Most Wanted. In many ways those became extra good through the greatness of the game, however in THE MUSIC FESTIVAL GAME, it's very ridiculous one of the worst parts is its music nowadays. Let's is connect Spotify if you're not even going to try then... I'm sure the devs would love to return to form, dang cost cutting, I mean good management. (Also added Rant, can I PLEASE get another song besides f*cking Marshmellow or Dawnbreaker in the Mixtape playlist??? It was made for a return to form but everytime I enter the playlist it's just those two songs????????)
@@fifteen8850 you're probably right heh, and I am probably being a bit reactive, but for me personally it has been my least liked so far. Hospital Records is pretty good though
You beat me to it I wanted to say something about the radio stations getting worse Personally I’m a big fan of music that makes the game feel alive and hype
Would it be another cost cutting solution to integrate spotify or youtube music? because you could probably cut out an entire division if that's what they want to do. also, nostalgia hit hard at some of those early soundtracks. thanks man!
Personally I think FH2's OST was a little too subdued after FH1. It fit the environment though I guess, which is why I also think the classical station exists. "We're in Italy/France, we should be driving a Ferrari while listening to Mozart." Was probably their thought process. I actually think FH3 has the best OST next to FH1. It has the energy, the variety, and most of the best songs in the entire series. The song selection started to change though in 4, where they seemed to be more focused on the artists than the songs.
this may be nostalgia speaking since it was my first proper look into Horizon, but i absolutely adore the Horizon 3 soundtrack. all the stations just felt right for australia, especially Pulse, despite not having the "music festival" feel that Horizon 1 and 2 captured so well
I started my Horizon journey with horizon 2. That was several years ago and I still jam to the songs on a weekly basis. I had no idea that Microsoft had decided to take control of the music. It explains why 3 and 5 just don't have as good music as 2. I'm definitely checking out he Horizon 1 soundtrack now because those sounded like absolute bangers!
Finally someone made a video about this. I started playing Forza since FH3 was out for a year. They had such cool tracks on the radios. Since FH4 dropped the FIRST thing I always do is mute the radio, what a garbage music they put in that game. And I have a feeling for FH5 that they made a playlist of the most horrible, repeative music in existence and based every radio station on that.
Once I was doing a 25 lap Goliath race and of course all the radio stations were locked to the worst songs on the station for example, Pulse with D.A.N.C.E. But fh3 does have some of the best music
I used to love cruising to New Order's "Blue Monday" in Forza Horizon 1. Really wish they would add more classic dance stuff to future games, a radio station of 80s 12" singles would be great.
Horizon 2 holds a special place in my heart due to the music. Even when playing FH5 I just slap on Horizon Pulse from FH2 on Spotify and just cruise around.
for FH5, one song that i was ecstatic to hear but upset at the censoring (although i understood this one a bit cuz yeah) was Valley of The Pagans by Gorillaz. its such a good "send it on the highway" song
the only good thing about the classic radio was that in Horizon 3 there was a song that is around 9-10mins long and would sometimes play as a skill song so you could use that to level up fast
I think another way Horizon 1’s soundtrack avoided fatigue was that every race had a chosen song for it, meaning whichever radio station you were listening to in free roam wasn’t always the radio station you would be listening to during the race by default. It allowed players to sample more music from the radio stations they may not have wanted to listen to at first.
You're spot on man!
I remember in horizon 3 (best soundtrack imo), when you made a blueprint to a bucket list event, you could choose the song playing under it. We need stuff like this back!
Did fh1 have blue Monday?
@@caledonianrailway1233yup, i'm almost sure
I would say the same thing about NFS Heat. Whether it’s day or night, free roam or racing, or garage, there was a set playlist for each setting.
i think its funny that there was so much backlash on the music in 5 that they felt that they had to add two entire new radio stations, one from fh3 and another solely comprised of music from the older games. horizon XS was so far detatched from what it was, they literally needed an entirely new metal station 💀
Yep and Epitaph radio only has like 3 good songs
hi
@@qurgo :ola:
@@RadDEATHTRAP What's funny is that I have this playlist of songs in Forza games, and they are 42 of my favorite songs in the series, 20% of it is FH1, 12% is FH2, 48% if FH3, 19% is FH4 and the last 1% is FH5. And I can definitely assure that when it comes to forza music I will always believe in quality over quantity
When they said that Horizon Mixtape was gonna have the older songs back i legit went "THANK FU€KING LORD" because all the music in the game by default god so old so fast i has to resort to YTMusic just to keep myself entertained whilst driving...
Friendly reminder of the golden era when you could use Groove on Horizon 3 and play all the music YOU wanted. Those were the days
I'm so sad they cut that
I wish they brought it back. Hearing the festival bump DMX was something else.
i was heartbroken when they cut this.
@@James-cr8mt Worst part is that I never got to use it :(
It was the only way I’ll ever get to do 200mph in a Pagani Huayra with breaking Benjamin blaring on the stereo
The amount of bangers FH1 was insane, it fits so amazingly well with the festival theme and it always gets you excited for any event in the game
Couldn't agree more, Dove! Thanks for watching man.
It's so many of the best songs of the late 2000s/early 2010s. Skrillex, Foster the People, Empire of the Sun, Black Keys, etc....Masterpiece.
@@cinemapigeon4898 I do like a lot of skrillexs music but tbh putting the levels remix on the soundtrack was like the only miss because the original is better and would feel more like a familiar banger every music festival plays.
Hell yeah, actually I think that despite the fact that FH2 soundtrack was made by Rob Da Bank it definitely cannot hold a handle to FH1 soundtrack, totally different league.
Dove I like your videos :D
I think having Rob made it feel more like a festival because he put a lot of independent music into it
Dude, you're right on! A huge part of festivals is hearing independent artists and music you've never heard of. I think we're missing that now.
The best example was ninja tune, there are so many underrated artists under that record label radio station with not a lot of streams.
I might be biased but the FH3 Base Arena Soundtrack was perfect for the game. It screams 2015-2016 Australia festie culture, songs you'd hear at festivals or on the radio. I was shocked at how accurate the soundtrack was
As far as DnB goes the Hospital soundtrack in that game was still really good aswell
Yeah to be fair FH3 songs are the last good ones. It strikes a balance between what's popular around the world, best Australian selections, and a sprinkle of nostalgia.
@@mcatrane I love listening to Vagrant Records on FH3 whenever I hop on idk if anybody likes it since I see nobody talking about it but I think this guy should have separated FH3 from FH4 because that's when I actually noticed how some mainstream songs got in FH4 when I bought the game.
Definitely even these days - I was on a Festival last month here in europe that had Rufus du sol playing with the hottest weather here for weeks - holy shit when they started playing like an animal which i didnt even expect it was so fire i had goosebumps running all over.
Same, fh 1, 2, 3 had the best soundtracks, fh4 also had a few nice songs, horizon 5 had atleast deadmau5 which was really good
Finally someone mentions the looping songs in fh5. It is honestly one of the most frustrating and distracting things I’ve ever experienced in a racing game and is what made me permanently mute the radio in the settings.
I do the exact same thing lol, I created my own playlists on spotify and just use those and i have more customization
Which by the way isn't possible in FH4!
I think it is in 5.
Playground Games just don't know when to stop, do they!?
Never even noticed it, i just played it listening to spotify
Same 😢
The “music festival” atmosphere of the early games has also been put well to the wayside since then. I think one of the best examples of this is the loading screen in Horizon 1 which was made up to look like a festival poster; and some of the screens near the central area would rotate through band logos from the soundtrack. It gave the impression that yes, there was a festival going on around you, and the radio stations were playing highlights of their sets. Even the announcer chatter gave the impression that they were taking in sets when they weren’t on air. Since then, there’s been so little focus on that music festival atmosphere that it’s not even a thing any more. It’s just “commercial radio station #271 in country X”.
And the decline of the festival itself. Fh1 had 6 or so buildings to enter, a massive amount of people in grandstands, and a massive stage, and lights everywhere, and you could see the festival from most places in the map, and the outposts and the buildings where you sighn up, plus sighns everywhere. It made it so the festival seemed like the centre of attention, like an actual festival is. Now everything outside the festival makes it seem like everyones indiffeent
Fh2 was smaller, but still good, Fh3 had the worst IMO, 4 tiny identical festivals, 4s was alright and 5s is just a race track
@@dylanburston7453 They switched from you being part of the festival to you being the center of the festival and the immersion suffered heavily from it.
From Horizon 3 on it’s just become more and more of a corporate product unfortunately. From the music choice to the car progression being made too easy, and the terrible dialogue etc etc. They just kept making it more “accessible” instead of better.
@@stickvortex the terrible thing is they made you "the boss" of From Horizon 3, which isn't great~~ I supposed to earn it like FH1 and FH2 did, from zero to hero thingy~~
I think Block Party from 3 on did the worst damage in this sense. Like, the number of songs that are popular to most people, and not just within it's genre, such as "It's Tricky" by Run DMC and "Intergalactic" by Beasty Boys shows how generic the entire thing is becoming.
Just want to point out that for anyone who was big into drum and bass it was WILD opening Horizon 2 and seeing a Hospital Records Station. That was fucking sick
Still my go to station.
horizon 3`s soundtrack was so good, and included so many great australian artists. Future classic was so good. i still listen to songs like pizza guy to this day
It was the station that got me into Chet Faker and Flume
^SAME! They weren’t joking with the name Future Classic. Still listen to those songs while driving to this day.
Agreed
I reckon Horizon 3's Soundtrack was pretty spot on for what was popular in Australia at the time and honestly is my favourite in the series (A bit biased as an Aussie myself) but I absolutely agree they need to have a proper DJ back to curate the soundtrack, maybe bring in a popular DJ from the country they chose to set the game in so the soundtrack is more in touch with the local culture
Either that or just partner with either Apple Music or Spotify so we can officially bring our playlists into the game just like what we had with Groove Music in Horizon 3
FH3 was just gold in general
Local DJs is a genius idea
Well, if they used a famous DJ from the country in which they are located, FH5 would be full of very bad pop music since that is what is played everywhere, or in the worst case, Mexican corridos with narco lyrics, or even worse, fucking reggeton XD
@@AlexBehemot yea there’s only a couple Mexican artists that really speak widely to people outside of Mexico. I think the best solution is to get a few Djs from Europe (I’m American but European DJing is the best and most widely appealing) and maybe some Australians for the rave stuff and let them each make a station kinda like blonded from gta v for frank ocean where there’s one artist picking music per station.
I agree, future classic radio is one of my favorite stations in the series next to pulse
The censoring in FH5 has gotten out of control. If you're gonna censor it so much, why not just use the instrumental version instead, or pick another song. Better yet, why even have music at this point? No music, no censoring.
I truly hate the censorship in FH5, having words and lines like 'god', 'lit', 'consumption', 'got it so bad', 'let it hurt till it stops', 'addicted to a lonely kind of love', etc being all censored just to target a 3/E rating is absolutely horrible decision-making. Just ruins the excitement of Horizon, if you know what I mean.
@@djharrisonfb1008 Yes I know what you mean. If you listen to the song De Lux - Cool Up from Horizon Pulse, there is a lyric that goes "There's nothing wrong, with a little push". Guess what, they removed the word "push". Like why? Its not a bad word. It doesn't even mean anything bad. Either the person who is censoring these words gets disturbed so easily (I guess you can call them a snowflake or something), or maybe they felt like removing it just because they can.
@@djharrisonfb1008 The word "consumption" being censored in a car game...
In Fh4, the song "Fake It Til You Make It" from the DREAMERS had the phrase "color black" from "Lost all your money on the color black" cut which was peak The West has Fallen moment for me
The Song "roses" in the game is also like 50% censored. What is even the point of putting it in the game
in my opinion, the worst thing about the music in 5 is that the festivals and viewing stands in races play about five songs over and over again, making driving without music borderline unbearable after a while.
the censorship is also great because why have a game centered around a music festival, a literal celebration of song, when you're just gonna censor the songs anyway? industry baby is one of my favorite songs from the soundtrack, but the censorship just makes it sound like a corporate joke. which is funny since it's also the song used in a meme format, meaning that whenever i hear it i feel like i'm watching a "forza slander" video
But clean songs were always a thing in racing games, it's an E rated game, dummy
Maybe because the game is rated E for everyone genius?
@ipityplaystationpeasants2305 yes, but they should pick songs with less or no swearing then. Half of industry baby is censored, which makes it unbearable
I loved when the song changed during the longer races in Horizon 1. It let you know the race required more endurance and consistently good driving to get first place.
I personally LOVED the horizon 3 and 4 soundtracks as they're not only right up my alley but also feature some of my favorite artists, but i do agree that songs looping so much do make them get old sooo quickly
4 is meh. 3 is very good to good, and FH2 and 1 are great!
@@kanayanfantv 4's pulse radio is my favorite pulse station in all the games lol
The intro song for 3 (Constellations) is fantastic. Lots of great songs in 3 (Justice !!!!) and the intro to 4 (Sunrise) literally became one of my favorite DnB songs of all time. 5 definitely didn't hit the same, but I think 3 and 4 both had some great tunes. Sure 1 and 2 had good songs, but they had their stinkers as well
FH3 is the best soundtrack imo, but FH4's soundtrack never really caught on for me, idk why
After FH2, most of the tracks felt safe, inoffensive, and corporate. Like they went out of their way to chose songs that “matched” the atmosphere and culture of the map vs what people would enjoy. Same thing happened to Heat and Unbound’s soundtracks.
Most Wanted 2012 and Rivals music vs Heat and Unbound music 😭
It’s so lame!
Heat at leaat had its moments when you did the night races, since it had a completely separated soundtrack, unbound didn't even had this
@@Cez-arioyeah but still not that good anyway
you literally forgot about 2015 @@falcongamer58
The only radio station that has never gone down in quality is Hospital records but honestly its pretty much impossible to fumble it when the station not only focuses on just one subgenre of music but also because its literally an actual record label
Epitaph Records:
@@J.PC.Designs damn I didn't know about that one because im not much of a Rock fan but Im glad to know there's another radio station that we can trust
I do wish they had fewer sad DnB songs but yeah they hardly miss
I kinda wish they'd do that more. Future Classics in 3 was actually pretty good. Can't say much about everything else though.
@@froggodoggo79 hospital records is an IRL drum and bass label, they will only have dnb
Every horizon had a couple of cool songs, but no one is going to defeat Horizon 1 soundtrack, no doubt the best
Agreed man!
true, Horizon 1 soundtrack is the most consistent one, most of the songs from each station are pretty good
@@sssvedentheres literally no bad songs in fh1
All racing games have heavily shaped my taste in music. Specifically Need For Speed got me into metal. And Horizon got me more into dubstep and electronic
Hot Pursuit got me into 30 seconds from Mars.
@@JustAutistic ITS NOT A MATTER OF LUCK ITS JUST A MORBIUS TIME
@@JustAutisticLiterally anyone who played Hot Pursuit 2010 or the remaster 10 years later.
For the last few years, since Horizon 5 launch, given how much the quality of the licensed music kind dwindled heavily with the 4 and 5 installment, I've been asking myself who was the genius who has been curating the immaculate soundtrack of the first two Forza Horizon games. Well, guess now I have my answer. Thank you Mr. Robert John Gorham for these amazing collections of licensed music and for introducing me to some of the artists that shaped some of my musical tastes during my youth and godspeed on your next endeavours.
Horizon 1 and 2 soundtracks give you the feel that their songs were taken straight from a music festival. In the other hand, take a couple of songs from FH5 and it feels like they took them out of Spotify's most played songs. They drifted out of the festival setting towards including more and more 'viral' and very popular songs that are more appealing to the average casual player because they listen to them all the time in social media. Some of those songs I'm very tired of, others are not bad, but in general rather than adding to the festival setting and experience, they are detrimental to it.
Heck, not even the music, but the entire game focus went from having a festival centered about music, cars and racing, full of vibes, to a car game 'for everyone' appealing to the masses just because it is a better selling idea.
I did not kow of Rob and his role in the first games, but he sure did a great job and his departure can explain the progressive change of focus on the games' soundtracks.
Really nice video!
Well said man!
Idk what you’re on about. I’ve never heard of more than half of these artists 😂. And besides, Horizon is indeed for everyone since it’s a casual racing game and there’s nothing wrong with that.
I really loved the Pulse radios in Horizon 1 and 3 with songs like Walking On A Dream, Paddling Out, along with both of the CHVRCHES and Ladyhawke songs from FH3. The only song I really even liked from FH5s Pulse playlist was that one Porter Robinson song Look At The Sky.
fh3 pulse was literally peak music in forza
i like Levitating too
I really enjoyed FH2's soundtrack. I can listen to Wolves by Digitalism and not get tired of it. There's a lot of postitve feel good energy pumped into it.
For me, there were a few songs that I liked in horizon 5
Deadmau5, Wolfgang Gartner-Channel 43
RIOT-Jungle Fury
Seven Lions & Jason Ross-Foolish of me
Bring me the horizon-teardrops (it's kinda messed up in game)
I loved Look at the Sky.
Playground Games made a mistake signing with individual record labels. By continuing with Hospital Records for example, they freeze out artists from labels like RAM, Shogun, Metalheadz etc, who have the same if not better quality, and a much more varied sound.
As an electronic music lover, I can only speak for that family of genres, but there's more to it than big-room EDM and drum 'n bass. Where's the breakbeat? The psydub? The progressive trance? I had a look at The Crew: Motorfest's soundtrack list, and it actually looks very promising.
Totally agree on the record labels man! And yeah I'll have to take a look at the Motorfest soundtrack. Interested to see what's in there. 🤞
Motorfest has a full-fledged synthwave station
That would be enough to make me buy for any other game of this style
Some queens of the Stone Age or AC/DC or Metallica or something would be nice. The crappy TikTok songs suck.
@@Imnotsurewhattoput798 They have a rock station as well as a dedicated punk/metalcore station. Problem is these stations have great songs, but are also bloated with pretty stodgy songs. The "rock" station, Horizon XS, has many songs that are genuinely not rock in any stretch of the music genre (for example, that one Sofi Tukker song about spending the night in someone's house because you're a freak?). Epitaph Records pulls music from the record label of the same name. This includes well known rock and metal bands like The Offspring, Architects, and Bring Me The Horizon. However, the BMtH song in the game is in Horizon XS. Also, while the station is far better than XS, it still has some less than great songs, such as those from "The Linda Lindas." God help me if I ever have to hear anything from that band again. They take up TWO songs in that station, whereas Architects, The Offspring, Alkaline Trio, and The Ghost Inside each get one song. I'd rather have Architects - Doomsday than either of the The Linda Lindas songs.
Exactly. Good Lookin Records as well
I wish they would add a custom radio. Like GTA IV and V and "Custom Radio", there's a file you drag your music in and BOOM it'll play those tracks on that radio station. Since they collect our data anyways they can use that to make a list of the most played songs to help them choose different music for the next game as well.
FH3 had it as Groove, unfortunately that feature was cut…
@@logoutnexttime4883 Groove Music as a concept was killed off by M$.
Man you can't imagine how much I agree with you on music in Horizon games. It's like 100% sync rate.
Remembering H1 & H2 soundtracks hits so hard with both joy (for how good it was) and grief (for how worse things had become).
Let's hold onto hope for the next one 😄 it's never to late to turn things around.
FH5 is the first Forza game I ever played because of getting an xbox later in life. As a rocker / metalhead, I was so freaking disappointed with Horizon XS. There's only 2 fun songs on there, and guess what, they're both from the Foo Fighters. in FH4 we at least had Greta Van Fleet, but they censored the words "love" and "loving" like... dude... really?
I'm sure you already know, but you can mute the Horizon radio and play Spotify in the background. Gotta find a good fader balance for the game and Spotify audio, but being able to play your own driving music really helps the game feel more fun.
Buy fh4, turn on block party. And enjoy
The Stone Roses and Arctic Monkeys are two of my favorite bands, the fact both were in 1 was just insane to me
I couldn't agree more...I wish I could hear She Bangs the Drums for the first time again, that was such a life-changing moment lol
@@colbytaylor9805one of the best songs ever
Horizon 1 exposed little 12 old me to Arctic Monkeys, and they’ve since become one of my all-time favorite bands
chvrches is my favorite band and they were in 2, 3 and 4, even two songs in 3! It broke my heart when I saw the tracklist from Horizon 5 Pulse and they weren't there, and instead we got... Dua Lipa and crappy songs in Spanish
@@halcyon-ar I'm not sure if you're aware, but the "crappy sings in Spanish" is because it's... you know... set in Mexico (where they speak Spanish.)
Random but imo peak soundtrack is nfs Pro street. Had different genres and I liked almost all of them. That game had such good vibes.
For me it's close between NfS ProStreet, Most Wanted 05, and Burnout Paradise. Yes, specifically PARADISE, not Takedown or Domination, because I haven't played those two and frankly Paradise's soundtrack is so good that I'm not sure those will have a better one (though I have heard that the three Burnouts do share some songs).
@@J.PC.DesignsParadise took a lot of songs from previous burnout games and a few nfs games in their own set of songs, so don't worry, you're not exactly losing anything in the music department, since like I said, a lot of songs are from previous games, and pretty much all fit the game perfectly
I don't think the racing game soundtracks that appeared throughout the 2000s are ever gonna be topped, absolute solid gold. Also some late 90s stuff as well, back when people experimented more with original soundtracks, like Rom Di Prisco's bangers on NFS High Stakes, and the western Gran Turismo 1 also had some mixes of existing songs specifically for it
I remember being surprised and pleased when I'd found the RAC Remix of Wolves in FH2. One of my absolute favorite songs in the entire series.
I WILL NOT allow any Radio Levante slander here dude. It was PERFECT for Horizon 2 vibe. That's the station I've heard the most in that game.
There's a list of words that are banned in horizon, and using those are a bannable offense as a license plate or on your car. They include "33, 10, 68, ABC, We, Boss, Joke, Promotion, Sniper, Turbo" and many more. So don't be surprised to see half the lyrics being censored. Also Angelica Garcia's song on XS is there because she's actually the DJ of XS.
lol why
@@tfwnoyandere Nobody truly knows what the actual thought process behind these is, and the rules are getting more vague with every new instance, so we can all only guess which words will be banned next.
i hate corporations so much
33? 10?? We???
Bro what??😭😭😭
Why would boss be censored
An easy fix would be to include a spotify radio or something like groove music was in horizon 3, having your own music in game was so cool to have, they need to bring that back
Another issue is mainstream music now sucks compared to the mainstream stuff from back then in my honest opinion
(the radio stations here in Quebec suck ass atleast if that is what is considered mainstream that is lol)
Have to agree.
I think saying mainstream music now sucks is an ignorant approach because if someone would tell you that when horizon 1 came out you would call them old and out of touch the problem here is that fh5 just used semi popular songs without swear words that would be also cheap to license which made the song pool small and having someone who is not a professional picking music made it even worse (on top of the songs not feeling good to drive to)
Spotify would be awesome. Imagine making your own Horizon sound track. You're a genius!
Mainstream music back then was ass too. Music is subjective and I have not found any racing game which has an enjoyable sound track apart from the older Gran Turismos which have some good instrumental songs.
i agree with the spotify part. custom songs, thats where its at
8:20
THEY DIDNT EVEN CENSOR THE MUSIC LYRIC CREATIVELY!!
they just mute it, unlike Midnight Club LA where they make it seem like the radio is static or losing connection
This is why older racing games soundtracks are better. They had amazing songs like Decadence by Disturbed, Don't Get Close By Slipknot, I Am Electric by Heaven's Basement, Determined by Mudvayne, Skinnyman by Static-X, Red Flag by Billy Talent, Beast and The Harlet by A7X, Indestructible by Disturbed, Hand Of Blood by Bullet For My Valentine, and Dance Dance by FOB.
exactly. forza's soundtrack at its best could never come close.
Horizon today is Fortnite with cars. They forgot what the franchise original direction was: a mix between Tomorrowland with car culture. Also in the latest game they just play music it doesn't feel like a radio anymore.
Im glad im not the only one who noticed the decline in the music
I like the classical station. When its used in showcase events and in story its pretty out of place often. But my personal taste is that I like listening to classical when doing time attack stuff.
Radios in Horizon 1 through 3 will always have a place in my heart ♥
I genuinely believe that if there was a new Horizon game like 1, it'd be hugely popular. Horizon Colorado felt like a real festival that someone would just visit to see the cars and hear the music. All the other games? They just feel like a racing competition with added music. The garage felt like a magic place where a car could enter as an S and leave as an R1 (I miss the old performance classes)
The drum & bass of all forzas has been pretty solid and sick imo, hospital records in the 4 🔥
One thing I dislike about 4 and 5s hospital records stations is that now they’re specifically made for the games, which does sound counter intuitive but they’re really not living up to the standard that horizon 2 placed.
This video is quite interesting and I agree on what you are saying. Horizon 3 was the last game with a good soundtrack because my theory is that most likely rob started working in FH3 before he got removed. I think that horizon 5s soundtrack is full of random songs that don’t fit and aren’t that good.(subjective). A fix would definitely is to put a professional to do their job than some random mediocre guys that are just lacking the knowledge. Another fix would be to let you have a custom radio with all the songs from all the previous horizons which is what is implemented in Fifa 23 which is insane.
That's genius! They should definitely do what FIFA did. Bring back all the best songs from the past. They should hire you 😎
I’m all for it hahaha. You would be my sidekick lol
Do you not know what the horizon mixtape radio station is?
@@Twiggo_The_FoxxoYeah but even that was lacking.
@@Twiggo_The_Foxxo i agree with the comment above. It lacks and doesn’t let you choose what you want to listen to
Great video, you brought back some good memories. Most of my nostalgia from horizon 1 and horizon 2 is from the music and feeling like I was part of a music festival. I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks the music has fell off hard. I've had the music on mute since horizon 3.
Thanks, Joe!
Listening to Forza Horizon's soundtrack brings back many amazing memories...
The nostalgia is off the charts :)
I remember when the song "Roses - Imanbek Remix" came onto one of the stations I was listening to on FH5 only to hear so many weird gaps and pauses. I later checked the song out on Spotify to realise that the FH5 version was just heavily censored.
The use of ODESZA in Forza Horizon 4 was incredible to me. A Moment Apart really captures the significance of Britain.
I loved the atmosphere in Horizon one. Earlier this year I got the chance to attend a music and car festival called “FuelFest” hosted by the late Paul Walker’s brother Cody. The theme of that matched FH1 to a tee and was so nostalgic.
That's awesome to hear! I'm gonna have to check out FuelFest.
Horizon 1’s soundtrack was so fantastic! It’s the only game where I listened to all the radio stations, because they were all so damn good! I never turned them off to listen to my own music. 2 was brilliant too, it had the best house/EDM/D&B roster in the series. Yet, in 3-5, there always was a point where I’d turn the radio stations off and just listened to my own music - music of which I think better suited the mood of the game. I’m so glad you made this video, because I felt like nobody else felt the way I did about this. Yet it turns out, a lot of people care just as much for the music as I do. It’s probably half the reason Horizon was so appealing to me in the first place.
Dude I'm right there with you! The music has always been a huge draw to the series. Hopefully they can get back on track with the next one 🤞
All I want for Horizon 6 is for them to just bring back a DJ to curate the songs. I LOVED how diverse the music was in Horizon 2 and I miss that true summer festival vibe the older games had.
2 things
1, i absolutely love Horizon Wave in FH5
and 2, i like to imagine that in 1 and 2 you're hearing the festival from more of like a festivalgoer and in 3 and 4 you're hearing it from the perspective of an important figure in the festival
Yea we’re the boss after horizon 3 that’s why blueprint events exist after 3
I completely agree with you on this one because sometimes I even forget what horizon is even based around 😭
Regarding why the word "God" is censored: back in FH4 it wasn't, until the "China update" when the game was finally on sale in PRC.
It wasn't listed on the changelog, but players have noticed the Big Man got ousted from songs like Jack White's "Over and Over and Over" and CHVRCHES' "Never Say Die."
tl;dr PGG put the fear of God to the West Taiwanese.
why would they even censor it? what's wrong with people nowdays
@@costaskl6589 to put it in the least political way possible: CCP does not acknowledge religion beyond mere traditional / heritage fluff. So while Buddhists, Confucianists, Muslims, and others do exist in West Taiwan, those people are officially acknowledged as atheists.
Interesting man! Thanks for the comment. I learned something new 😀
That FH4 patch also completely excised a song from the soundtrack altogether IIRC…
...but racing games have always censored religious content. God is also censored in a Burnout Paradise track.
I just went to your channel expecting to see at least 100k subs but less than 1k! Your production quality is so good! Keep it up!
I like classical music and classic cars so I think the Radio Levante was a good introduction I can't complain
nascar thunder 2004 is a masterclass on how to pick music for a racing game. The songs EA picked perfectly encapsulate the high intensity, high octane vibes of nascar in general at the time. Action - powerman 5000, guilt - fingertight, and chromatic fades - autopilot off are absolutely perfect choices to further hammer home the feeling of blasting around an oval at tipple digit speeds in the early 2000s. Every other racing game should do something similar to what EA did in the early 00s.
I've actually never played NASCAR Thunder so I'll have to give the soundtrack a listen!
EA Trax used to be masters of their craft, even getting guys like Rom Di Prisco to do a custom soundtrack for Need for Speed 2.
EA licensed music from that time period was masterful. Games like Madden 05 and MLB 04 had great soundtracks that felt more like an actual person's playlist rather than corporate trite.
Horizon 2 was how I first found Jungle with busy earnin and the heat and now they are my favorite group to this day
fh5's soundtrack is like a constant tiktok music playlist lol
NPC music Playlist
I didn't even realize it but i stopped listing to the horizon radios after Forza 3. I always have it on mute now
Same here man I've got Spotify going in the background 😎
bro this vid blew up! good job@@OldTires
@@SolarFarer Thanks, man! Doing my best to keep up with comments 😄
something that REALLY kills FH5's music for me is how every single time you approach a festival site, the radio just always happens to be blasting the "best" part of one particular song
it's the most painful thing to race The Gauntlet when every single Wilds outpost you approach is blasting "DON'T YOU EVER" and you end up hearing that same 5 seconds of whatever song that is every single time you drive past one. i started to dread seeing the orange barriers - not because it meant a tight or technical part of a course, but because it meant i had to hear "DON'T YOU EVER"
i literally don't know the rest of the song. the game has never given me a chance to hear it.
it's a cancer spreading in the horizon series, this sanding down of every possible rough edge that comes with realism in this chase of hyperidealism. i drove off a 30ft cliff with ramiro in the car and it was "WHOAHOHOH THAT WAS AWESOME" and not "I NEED TO SEE A CHIROPRACTOR" - there are no "bad times" at the horizon festivals. no crashes, no tension, no rivalries, no drama, no maintenance issues, no wildlife issues, no money issues, nothing. everything is perfect, all the time. every song comes on at the catchiest moment, every car you get has 0 miles on the odometer and looks the part, every guardrail is made of tin foil and soda cans, every AI driver hits the perfect line even when they're driving the goddamn Hennessy Velociraptor through Guanajuato's tight streets and sharp corners in a street race
it's gone from idealistic to this unsettling level of "there is no war in Ba Sing Se" to see everyone having the Best Possible Time Ever All The Time
the entire point of having the Horizon series was to focus on a more laid back atmosphere celebrating cars and their drivers - at least, i thought it was. it was grassroots and down to earth while at the same time over-the-top and full of spectacle. you started out with a VW Corrado with every first time car builder's starter pack: wheels, coilovers and exhaust. it was a quirky, interesting car you'd see gathering a crowd at Cars and Coffee, not a supercar, not an insane widebody drift car, it was something i could see someone getting lucky at an auction with and putting some love into.
you started from the bottom, and got your way up to the top of the festival's roster.
in later games, 4 and 5 especially, you're The Superstar and nobody can touch you. despite going all over the world, you're not meeting local drivers with great talent who pose any real threat to your position. nope, only some random guy (you, the superstar) from Colorado with a British Accent can pull that off. everybody else? just a side mission.
this is all perfectly reflected in the music. it's always upbeat, never uncomfortable, never challenging, never worth thinking about. never meaningful.
my theory? the Horizon Festival, at least from 4 onwards, is canonically, in-universe, in-story, a simulation. it's not even real in the game's world. at the end of Horizon 1's credits, your car is spun out and smashed against a guardrail, and your character suffered a massive spinal cord injury, rendering them paralyzed. at the start of Horizon 4, your character is placed in a car, in front of a giant, panoramic screen for a projector. everything in the game? it's all on that projector. it's not about realism, it's about comfort, reliving the best days of their glory days.
Basically agree with everything you said but to be fair in the story I believe the protag in FH5 is from FH4, not from FH1. That's why they have a British accent.
What
That is super sad and it makes me sick.
@@wiegraf9009the protag IS from the past forza horizons (I think 3 or 4), in the first sections you get a voice line about being the boss I think
Are you good?
Is it just me or does it seem like there are very few songs in general in all the Forza horizon games?
Like it's a game about cars and cars only, so why does it feel like every game has only 3 songs in total?
Like they got some good songs in their games, but when you have an extended play session you can only take hearing the same song so many times before you want to put your head through a wall
FH's doesn't have particularly less music per station than GTA, but it has less *radio stations* than GTA and in a game where you're *always* hearing the radio. I absolutely think FH should have more stations.
Like, split XS into a soft and classic rock station and a hard rock and metal station. Take some of the stuff that would normally be on both Pulse and XS and create an indie station. Add reggae, jazz, and folk/county. Add stations dedicated to the contemporary and traditional music of where the game takes place. I'm sure someone with wider taste than me has more ideas.
@@kfcnyancat that's a good shout but it still doesn't feel like there are that many songs in the games. Granted I don't change my radio station all that much. I tend to find myself getting attached to one station and not caring for the others.
In GTA 5 I do switch my station quite a bit. It's better there but still kinda wish they had a few more. Although I will say when they brought it to xbone/PS4 and they like doubled the song lists that helped TREMENDOUSLY
totally agree, forza horizon 2 had the best soundtrack, forza horizon 2 is what got me in the series
FH has to have big influence from the real life car and music festival #Gridlife . Music is usually electronic and hip hop at those festivals.
I really like the soundtracks in FH1 through 3.
Well spoken and 100% true… good job, keep up the great work
Thanks man!
Despite I like few songs in the FH5 and FH4, the amount of likable songs really HAD DECLINED. You are absolutely right, and now I even know why is that. When you had play Netsky Everyday, man I had literally goosebumps all over me from the greatness and nostalgia! And despite I wuite liked the FH4s Hospital, and felt it really goes with "trends and time", without a doubt, its still worse than FH1. Thank you for this great, well done video! ;3
Thanks!!
The music declined faster than the players of the most recent game.
striking how the FH1 and FH2 music are a big part of my phone playlist as well as bringing back some clear old memories when i listen to them
They're a big part of mine too. So many great summer driving songs.
They really need to allow us to play Spotify songs
The animations at 2:22 are clean as hell.
Tbh, i started playin with horizon 3 and always had radio on. Then I played 4 and had it on most of the time, though I still think it had great music. And then came horizon 5. Radio is almost always turned off. I just don't care anymore. Even if I turn it on, most of the time I just forget about it just as quickly, which rarely happened with the other games. But i'm currently looking to get into fh1 and 2, so I'm on my way to good music
I'm pretty much the same way with 3, 4 and 5, Ticki! Good music to come with 1 and 2 for you.
Play both games in multiplayer because the servers are shutting down in a week
FH5 has a pretty rough soundtrack. The quality has definitely declined.
@@wiegraf9009disagree, I think most songs in each radio station are good
Your content just somehow hits all the soft spots, i gotta give you a sub
Especially for that "because i love to get copyright strikes" part
Hey welcome to the channel! Glad you're sticking around 😄
2:48 these songs bring tears to my eyes for some reason
Same here dude! The nostalgia is strong 😂
I did notice a massive downgrade starting from 3, good info.
I played horizon 4 and 5 and i gotta say that horizon 4 soundtrack was full of bangers, i could get myself to listen to almost any song on any radio. Horizon 5 on the other hand... well the teardrops song and unperson were cool.. and that's about it, i can name 2 good songs from the entire game. i remember i could restart a race even like 15 times just so i got a good song.
Foo Fighters No son of mine was kinda great too
@@czeresniakkomentuje2295 Oh, forgot that one, i actually think, that i even added it to my playlist on spotify.
Didn't even know they had lil Nas X in the game 😅
Lol yeah it's in there
I heard the walking on a dream - empire of the sun song and it immediately brought me back, those were the days...
Ikr! Walking on a dream is such a good song.
The thing I loved about fh1's music was that quite a few songs in the game felt like they had passion and soul in them. Like Take a Walk by Passion Pit and 1901 by Phoenix fit the energy of the festival perfectly. Meanwhile fh5's music feels like a sanitized, "family-friendly" version of the early games.
I literally have music permanently off in FH5 and I would do that quite often for FH4, however I do find FH5's music the most insufferable and boring out of all the entries.
Occasionally I can jam a bit to something but they get old so fast, however the second I revisit FH2 the story changes, and it isn't just because of nostalgia because I actually began playing Horizon's on FH3 (even though I really wanted FH2 but couldn't get it before), which means that although the subjectivity of music and personal preference does line me up with FH2 more, it was reaaaaaaaally evident how much better it was compared to FH3, even if I still think FH3 had some nice ones.
It's just so unfortunate how low the bar is now, any game is elevated by its music, I'm sure we all remember 30 seconds to Mars in Hot Pursuit, or "You'll Be Under My Wheels" from Most Wanted.
In many ways those became extra good through the greatness of the game, however in THE MUSIC FESTIVAL GAME, it's very ridiculous one of the worst parts is its music nowadays.
Let's is connect Spotify if you're not even going to try then...
I'm sure the devs would love to return to form, dang cost cutting, I mean good management.
(Also added Rant, can I PLEASE get another song besides f*cking Marshmellow or Dawnbreaker in the Mixtape playlist??? It was made for a return to form but everytime I enter the playlist it's just those two songs????????)
Idk man, more than half of the songs are pretty good 🤷♂️
@@fifteen8850 you're probably right heh, and I am probably being a bit reactive, but for me personally it has been my least liked so far.
Hospital Records is pretty good though
Holy crap, is that pixel car racer at the end there?!
You know it!
Hell yeah someone has good game taste 💯
You beat me to it I wanted to say something about the radio stations getting worse
Personally I’m a big fan of music that makes the game feel alive and hype
I wasn't sure if anybody thought the same way, but as it would turn out there are a few haha. Agree with you man. Need some more lively driving songs.
6:03 Has to be my favorite song from FH2. I love the other songs, but this one feels so energetic, hopeful, and lively. I love it.
Bro forza horizon3 pulse musics just hits hard
Would it be another cost cutting solution to integrate spotify or youtube music? because you could probably cut out an entire division if that's what they want to do.
also, nostalgia hit hard at some of those early soundtracks. thanks man!
Something like what gta did add a self radio station
not really cost cutting since they have to pay spotify or youtube for that and you know how it goes once the game shuts down
i mean they had something like that for FH3, groove music or whatever, and it didn’t last
@@civicrider5556 Would they? Given it would require your own Spotify subscription
i gotta say horizon 4's radio was still pretty good. especially the main "theme" was something that you couldnt get out of your head
i'll be laughing if they add a christian song and censored all the lyrics
I really loved the Future classic station on FH3 fitting to Australia
The OG pixel racer music at the end
New retrowave radio🎉🎉🎉
Personally I think FH2's OST was a little too subdued after FH1. It fit the environment though I guess, which is why I also think the classical station exists. "We're in Italy/France, we should be driving a Ferrari while listening to Mozart." Was probably their thought process. I actually think FH3 has the best OST next to FH1. It has the energy, the variety, and most of the best songs in the entire series. The song selection started to change though in 4, where they seemed to be more focused on the artists than the songs.
this may be nostalgia speaking since it was my first proper look into Horizon, but i absolutely adore the Horizon 3 soundtrack. all the stations just felt right for australia, especially Pulse, despite not having the "music festival" feel that Horizon 1 and 2 captured so well
TYSM for putting samples of the songs so many memories
You got it! The vids about the music. Gotta include the tunes 👍
I started my Horizon journey with horizon 2. That was several years ago and I still jam to the songs on a weekly basis. I had no idea that Microsoft had decided to take control of the music. It explains why 3 and 5 just don't have as good music as 2. I'm definitely checking out he Horizon 1 soundtrack now because those sounded like absolute bangers!
Finally someone made a video about this. I started playing Forza since FH3 was out for a year. They had such cool tracks on the radios. Since FH4 dropped the FIRST thing I always do is mute the radio, what a garbage music they put in that game. And I have a feeling for FH5 that they made a playlist of the most horrible, repeative music in existence and based every radio station on that.
I never played horizon 1&2, but after listening to this, i think i might have to play those games just for the sound tracks
Once I was doing a 25 lap Goliath race and of course all the radio stations were locked to the worst songs on the station for example, Pulse with D.A.N.C.E. But fh3 does have some of the best music
I used to love cruising to New Order's "Blue Monday" in Forza Horizon 1. Really wish they would add more classic dance stuff to future games, a radio station of 80s 12" singles would be great.
I remember during a race in horizon 3 while on timeless as my station on the 3rd lap the song changed.
3:36 I love that song so much, NFS MW2012 vibes fr
Horizon 2 holds a special place in my heart due to the music. Even when playing FH5 I just slap on Horizon Pulse from FH2 on Spotify and just cruise around.
Same here! The FH1 and 2 music is all over my playlists
I wish they make FH1 remastered. That would bring our memories back, but with better graphics on pc. That would be insane❤
for FH5, one song that i was ecstatic to hear but upset at the censoring (although i understood this one a bit cuz yeah) was Valley of The Pagans by Gorillaz. its such a good "send it on the highway" song
the only good thing about the classic radio was that in Horizon 3 there was a song that is around 9-10mins long and would sometimes play as a skill song so you could use that to level up fast
Now I understand why I don’t feel connected to the later games. Thanks for sharing this information.