Retrofuturism: Why Fallout Looks Like the 1950s
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- Опубліковано 6 кві 2024
- Retrofuturism is an aesthetic often described as “a vision of the future, from the past”, and is a style that encapsulates many different forms of media, including the focus for this video, Retrofuturism within the Fallout universe. Fallout’s Retrofuturism can be seen widely throughout the world, incorporating a deeply ingrained 1950s nuclear atompunk style, contrasting the vintage shining colours of the optimistic 50s with the devastation of the wasteland.
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Fallout sparked my love of 1950s design aesthetics. Architecture, advertising, propaganda, mid-century modern furniture, retro-futurism, ect. I simply can't get enough of it.
Same here!
Same. Everything about it is so cool and beautiful.
Yep! I abandoned my heavy metal music taste for songs from the 40s and 50s because of this game
All advertising is propaganda, but not all propaganda is advertising.
@@sageempires1232bruhh
Biggest for the TV show is showing how people would have lived in that 1950's retro-future.
It was actually 2077
@@guiwonsik yeah it's stylized after what people living in the 50's thought the 21st century would look like.
Almost like the Jetsons
what?
@BTCFKIVS i think it did
@BTCFKIVS I really think it did, even down to the style of bedding in Coops home (for example,) the wallpaper, clothing, cars being driven (even though they're fusion powered as in line with Fallout lore.)
It definitely captured the 1950's aesthetic with a sprinkle of retrofuturism In, the show captured that perfectly.
I love how fallouts style was basically just a what we think the people in 1940-1950 would think the future would look like in a Hundred years and then throw it through a nuclear apocalypse.
Just like all those artworks of the old days where the Internet, hoverboards and portable computers are likes some sort of a distance dream
A lot of fallout NPC were from 1950s future depictions like codsworth
Yes, that’s actually a big source of the series’ comedy, the juxtaposition of 50s optimism and nuclear devastation
Fallout sparked my love for the 50s (Despite being born in the 90s)
The music of that era has become some of my favourite music of all time.
I love the musics, especially Magnolia's greatest hits.
Agreed. The games opened me up to so much more stuff, from the music to listening to the old, Golden Age Radio Shows. And that led to me other music like Broadway musicals.
And they day video games can't teach you anyhing. 😅
I absolutely love the 1950s version of the future. 🛸
Fallout is the reason why I became interested in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s fashion, Atompunk retro-futurism and just the eras all together and the reason why I like 1930s-1960s music too with the exception of Kpop. I really like Fallout 4's pre war style, especially the high tech buildings in downtown Boston.
My only issue with the show was the cars. They looked like normal 1950s cars and not retro-future cars. Other than that, the show was awesome.
Unique customised atompunk cars would look cool, but it would stretch the budget.
I don't know why they left that out that, since they did such a great job on orher elements. I know it's just a little detail, but how hard would have been to put a CGI Corvega in the background there?
I'm guessing it was a cost thing. They already had the highest budget of any Amazon tv show.
In fallout 1 the cars looked like that so idk
thank you @@cillianmclaverty9392
its how people in the 2020s imagine how people in the 1990s imagine how people in the 1950s imagine how people in the 2070s would live, plus 200 years for good measure.
the retro futurism never made sense to me, it would be like if we all started dressing, acting, and living like we were in those futurist/steampunk victorian drawings of strange flying machines and commuter submarines and such. then that world gets nuked.
Yeah the OG fallout was more like Art Deco than atom punk. Ofc Bethesda took an inch and made it a mile.
@@draco_1876Not really, the Fallout series has always been a mashup of different aesthetics, Atompunk and Dieselpunk are the most prevalent punk genres the games take influence from, but there were also modern firearms
Started to watch the fallout series and the general aesthetic was bugging me. This video helped massively thank you
Great to hear! I'm loving the series so far :)
@@TheBlazingRedcoat I've recently finished the TV series, never actually played games but I'm low key tempted to have a play through
Definitely worth a play! My favourite is Fallout New Vegas :)
Loved the shoutout to country roads🤙🏻 good stuff bro👏🏻 not many fallout channels tend to appreciate the beauty of F76. Good seeing it. Because it was an overall good game.
I was so happy when i heard glenn miller playing on the radio in 76 and playing in the show lol
cause retrofuturism is dope
Very nice video dude!! On another note it would make sense with how patriotic America was in the fallout universe for them to idiolize the music from the 40s/50s and keep them previlent as they couldve been seen as like 'the best version of American media' and propped up above all else
I believe Bioshock has something similar
3:53 In Fallout New Vegas. many songs are also played on Mafia II ingame radio stations. like 'Ain't that Kick in the head?' (Dean Martin) and Why don't you do it right? (Betty Paige or someone i can't remember correctly).
Peggy Lee
i love the style of the Retrofuture .. and this music ... Set the World on firreeeee... i love it
I love it! I love it just the way it is!
The Pip Boy is running on a 64kbs OS if I recall?
It's like a post-apocalyptic episode of The Jetsons, and i love it
3:11 in the end Player Character has to live (and build) houses of the past. with or without settlement construction mods.
AFAIK there's one mod that allows player to simply 'restore' Sanctuary Hills housings to the pristine prewar conditions. i'm not sure if these mod requires so many deals of DLCs though.
0:33 Ah yes, can't forget the famous Food Mart, classic.
Also do you feel that 1, 2, and tactics tend to play looser with Retrofuture of 50’s than newer ones.
Like 10mm pistols and sub machine gun feels 90’s, contemporary fire arms like desert eagle and P90, and entire Chinatown being rebuilt based on 70’s Kung Fu movie from holotapes.
I really think each games goes further into the 20th century
Fallout 1, 2: 30s style
Fallout 3, NV: 40s style
Fallout 4: 50s 60s style
Fallout 76: 70s 80s style
@@t1g504this actually seems true
The 1950's retro-futurism was always present in the series, but it was very much in the background and not in the foreground in the first two games. It's mostly there to make the old world seem even more bizarre and alien in comparison to the wasteland. The vault dwellers aren't portrayed as some little surviving pocket of Americana in their outlook, either. When you find a box of noodles in Fallout 1, the in-game text description reads "You have no idea what 'Instant Spaghetti' means." The Vault Dweller also notes in his memories that Los Angeles must have been the largest city in the world before the war. Similarly, in Fallout 2, your Chosen One is mystified by the Magic 8-ball, and has no idea what the title "President of the United States of America" actually means, is genuinely skeptical about the possibility of a mono-headed brahmin. The games aren't subtle about this: The old world is gone. When people refer to it as all, it's with a great deal of distance.
For me retro futuristic is better now if I am thinking about my problem with people on social media and I quite don't know if the retro futuristic happened will I still be exist since my parents met each other online during the early 2000s
Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall 🎶
Atleast we got spurs that jingle jangle
Transistors were actually a thing by 2023. In Jack Cabot's terminal we see him using transistors for something in the year 2023.
I like the 1980s vision of the future from Movies like The Running Man and Blade Runner
You answered every single question i had in like... under 10 minutes, shoutout to you bro, great video, i really enjoyed it.
Thank you so much :))
An excellent video, thank you )O(
I hope to see the Southeast Commonwealth at some point. Not only am I from there but we got a lot of venomous snakes and I’d love to see why the rads did to them.
I've always preferred the art design of the pre war more before Fallout 4. Even though Fallout 3 and New Vegas's pre war stuff looks tame and looks mostly like the real 1950s with mild Sci fi stuff, they didn't go full Jetsons/Meet the Robinson's mode, like seen in Fallout 4. There are some designs I like from both versions though.
Who else recalls the short story that began what's now called retrofuturism? It was published in the 1980's by cyberpunk author William Gibson, entitled The Gernsbach Continuum.
Mix of 50s and 60s really. With some 40s thrown in for good measure.
I remember Tranzit and Nuketown from COD, when playing Fallout.
The 50s style is from F4 soft rebooting the style, specifically Googie.
The older games leaned more into an actual 50s look with brutalim structures, art deco (30s), and modern items like 90s firearms. 1 and 2 are cited as 'Mashups' and pull from far more styles.
3 and NV also followed this, but 4 really wanted to lean into that futurism, rocket, googie style the show now follows.
It's possible that the "50s" was a resurgence happening in the 2060s-70s rather than it staying that way for 120 years.
I hate the look of 4... Bethesda never understood Fallout.
NV was pretty googie. Like Vegas itself
I agree with your last point, the idea always seemed extremely odd to me that the culture stayed basically exactly the same for 120 years, because obviously that never happens.
While yes, the idolized culture of the 50s was always present in these games. That’s the idea. The Fallout universe is one of a 50s World of Tomorrow. It’s also a satire of the Cold War
Video: It diverged around ww2.
Me and my desert eagle: yeah idk about that
It made more sense if the bomb was dropped in the 60s while bunker vault survivor retained 50s culture. Since most of the songs used are from the 50s.
I just can’t believe they have fusion power, power armour, plasma and laser rifles, Mr. Handy Robots but no colour TV.
Because of war they never developed technology
The generation of the 50 is the symbol of RECONSTRUCTION that is become a MODEL in FALLOUT
Solid state comes very late.
And Streamliners never went out of vogue.
In New Vegas. NCR did restore F-Unit locomotives into working condition, though the lore never specify if these F Units still use diesel engines modified to burn processed vegetable oil or nuclear powered of any kind. these might be either fission or fusion powered.
Somewhere in the Multiverse, this version of Earth is real. I however am more interested in the world where Cyberpunk 2077 is real. 😅
Honestly I think I'd rather end up in Fallout being a free roaming scavenger ect, the closest I see to that in Cyberpunk 2077 is the Nomads but with the way more precarious issue of megacorp anahilation waiting around one wrong turn.
At least I still have a chance to outrun or outsmart a mutated bear with Laser Pistol in hand.
That and I just like the Atompunk look more, but that's all personal opinion and too much playtime in the Fallout games probably
Civilization?! .. .. I'll stay right here..
1940s, and 1950s like future.
The 1950’s arguably looked the best as well especially compared to these days, boring and ugly.
Atompunk ❤❤❤
Fallout world is so advance
They have Clone machine in institute
Nuke cars and laser weapon and Robot guards also power armors
My question is why can’t it start out in the 1950s and then speed up time I think that would be cooler
It's called atompunk guys😅
Imagining an America that only continued along its post-WW2 path is a bit suffocating, even if it would be great for most Americans until 2077. The pre-bomb America in Fallout is pretty progressive, but imagining the culture of excess and really never being questioned for over a century since WW2 would be wild…
I believe it's was because of 1997 Fallout 1 Right ??
i like the style alot but it just doesnt seem so realistic that everything would just stay the same culturally for 120 years straight
I love Fallout but not much about it is realistic.
Love how Texas stays Texas but just becomes a little bigger 😂
Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata has. because reunited again viva Argentina Viva Uruguay.
Fallouts world was my favorite game world up until I played bloodborne
The reason why we don’t have fusion is because up until 2022 takes more energy to produce fusion then fusion what fusion produces, the first commercial fusion reactors be built some time in the 2030s, as for robots what the mr handy is capable of doing it not what a computer is capable for doing and that is emotions which are linked to neuron’s, a computer dose it have neurons so it dose not have emotions
You don't need a smart head to figure out that they're in an alternate dimension
What would be cool is if Bethesda could get a Chinese corporation to produce a Chinese POV of what happened to them after the "Great War."
Actually seriously doubt that would happen, the CCP is very pick about how China is depecicted in media.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see at least a DLC showing us the state of tge Chinese mainland in Fallout (or as a Canadian, the state of my country post annex post great war) but if it does happen it probably won't involve a Chinese company, at least that's my read of the situation.
Operation Anchorage from Fallout 3 and the Chinese Submarine in Fallout is probably the closest peak we've had at their equipment and style and I would love to see more and how it contrasts what remains in the Amarican Wastelands
That would just become a hard propaganda
The Bethesda games are the ones that look like the 50's. One of the things about the Interplay games, as noticed by another UA-camr: "The old world is FUCKING GONE"
Yeah, but the Prewar world still existed, the Interplay games still had a certain 50s atompunk/dieselpunk aesthetic
As much as FO4 writing was very much on the poor side, the world itself in respect to your content was really great.
It’s like technology but it advanced backwards then the real world. Like they still get 50’s cars but they also have flying robots here it’s the opposite we get future cars but no flying robots 😂
I mean a bomb blew ages ago anyways in real life
Surprise nobody brought up how racially diverse and integrated the people are! When the main kisses his wife I was afraid somebody was going to come by and torch them.
But 4 real we hav robots lazor rifiles & plasma rifiles 4 real now
Tube guitar amps will always be superior to transistor amps...
False. A man who was doing a tube VS kemper amp blind test thought he was playing his tube amp but in fact it was the digital . Afterwards,when he thought he was playing the digital amp it was actually his tube amp . Basically he chose the digital in the blind tests because to his ears it was superior.
@@Danieljevans92 Good luck repairing your Kemper after it fries..
@@Danieljevans92 One anecdote is not exactly a strong argument.
But in the end it's a matter of taste anyway, and a lot of people prefer tube amps over transistor.
It’s a shame Bethesda doesn’t understand retrofuturism and just made a 50s themed apocalypse
Genuine question, which part do they not understand
@@manlikemb6226 Fallout is about the future from the perspective of some one from the 1950s and then that world was nuked to oblivion but Bethesda thinks that means recreating the jetsons. It’s sad because I think Bethesdas did good with the aesthetic in Fallout 3 and I have no idea why they ruined it in Fallout 4
All around the fallout universe sounds like a shit universe to live in at any point
Fallout is just another caution tale about corporate greed.
I think they could improve the retro futuristic style by doubling down on 50s ethics and morality, Especially during pre war segments
It would have made much more sense to just have the nuclear apocalypse happen at the end of WW2, then all the tech advancement with robots and lasers and stuff happens after the bombs, using the only technology that has proven it's power in such a big way.
It's never made sense to me that noboby in the Fallout universe had a hit record after the fifties or whatever. Rap music was just never invented because there was a lot of war going on, I guess.
My head canon is that whenever new music was invented it’s seen as vulgar and unexceptable and got banned,like hard ban.
Something like what Atomic Heart did with its own Soviet retrofuturistic setting in alternate 1950s I presume?
rap in fallout would be horrible 💀
Lots of tech advances after the bombs would not make sense
Never understood this at all when I found out the music in fallout is over 280+ years old and no new music between like 2000-2077 survived the Great War. It’s literally all 1940s and 50s , i feel like the creators didn’t think this through.
Before Bauhaus ruined everything happy 😢
cuz Bethesda decided to hyper focus on that retro aspect from the first 2 games. they forsure over did it.
Retro futurism isnt real its an ocymoron, it cant be retro if its in the future
It's what people in the past believed what the future would look like. Not a hard concept if you can think.
Oh, fun, your English teacher taught you a new word. Unfortunately you've made a mistake, it's actually spelled "oxymoron", not "ocymoron". It's also quite important to note that something being an oxymoron doesn't stop it from being real, it simply means that the words used to describe it are contradictory. In this case, the contradiction is intentional. Retro-futurism is a concept used to describe a retro concept of futurism, both descriptors mean something.
Your main takeaway from my reply should be that something being an oxymoron doesn't stop it from being real. Did your teacher use "Jumbo Shrimp" as an example of an oxymoron? Many do, and that's because it's a good example of a real thing that is also an oxymoron. Importantly, it is real, despite being an oxymoron.
Cuz it's a game. Even a none fan has the brain power to put two and two together
@@keagsobrien6772 speaking of smoking 💀💀📸 plz share. If I don't give you attention the first reply. Why make another?
If I remember correctly, fallout 3/new vegas come closes to fallout 1/2 style.
Fallout 4 and 76 really lean into that art style to much. Maby It's the bright color pallete they used that put me off. 76 just had random objects placed everywhere. It did not feel natural or logical where some POI where.
Watching the tv show I thought they were using that crooner music bc the copyright was cheap - pop music before rock and roll really sucked. Literally whitewashwed bland garbage.
Because Bethesda doesn't understand fallout
Ah yes retrofuturism, a word invented by hipsters who can’t afford to seem normal and must allude to niche movements. This particular idea; no better than a bowel movement
Psychojet, what’s your excuse for joining this conversation, you mad bro?
You guys don't know how much cultural stagnation such as the one we see in the fallout world was the default for many many centuries.
AtomicPunk
because the bombs fell on 1950's in the fallout universe so the world didnt have the chance to advance pass that. thats it. end of video.
Lmao Go play call of duty, now that’s garbage