- For the official score composed by Garry Schyman, see I Am Rapture - Rapture is Me.
Django Reinhardt, whose music is iconic of BioShock.
BioShock's licensed soundtrack helped contribute to the immersive atmosphere of the game with real world licensed music reminiscent of Rapture's time period. Most of the selections came from the mid-Twentieth Century and cast a feeling of the past in the ruins of the fallen utopia. Several other songs have been licensed without appearing in-game, though some are still present in the game's files, and two more were added for the release of the game on PlayStation 3 systems. Also, three modern tracks were recorded by Moby and Oscar the Punk for The BioShock EP album included in BioShock's Limited Collector's Edition released in August 21, 2007.
Background[]
Several of the songs were chosen from Emily Ridgway's personal record collection, which included the artists Django Reinhart, Bing Crosby, and Noël Coward.
In an interview, Ridgway explains "The songs themselves, there's a really interesting juxtaposition of...a happy quirky musical...razzle dazzle number and then...they'd be singing about...how the world is ending...It was supposed to mirror the optimism and the decay at the same time...those two things sort of coexisting with each other."[1]
The licensed songs designed to be source music as if heard by the characters emanating from radios, phonographs, and jukeboxes rather than as incidental music heard from the game's score.
Other songs were chosen by creative director Ken Levine who researched music with the help of his dad and through iTunes. He emphasized that the music came from the pre-rock 'n roll era including the work of artists such as Johnnie Ray, Rosemary Clooney, Patti Page, and Billie Holiday. Levine was also inspired to include Django Reinhardt's recordings, in particular "La Mer", after hearing his music in the 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown and in the 2002 video game Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven.[2]
In an interview, Levine commented that "The question usually is: are you supporting the scene or are you playing against the scene. And sometimes playing against the scene can be a good thing." [3] For the songs that fit perfectly, he mentions Django Reinhardt's and Stéphane Grappelli's "La Mer". He then cites the unusually cheery nature of Patti Page's "Doggie in the Window" playing against "dark and violent sequence" as well as Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers" playing against the crazed actions of Sander Cohen's Fort Frolic.
However, he expressed there were sometimes difficulties obtaining the licensing for some of the songs, given the age of the recordings and their legal rights status. In several instances, songs were chosen to be performed by different artists or later re-recordings were obtained.
Some of the songs Levine was not able to license included Édith Piaf's "La Vie en Rose" (later reprised in the BioShock Infinite soundtrack for Burial at Sea), Louis Prima's and Keeley Smith's "That Old Black Magic"[4], as well as Charles Trenet's original French version of "La Mer".[5]
One of the first rooms to have completed ambient audio was Painless Dental in the Medical Pavilion. Ridgway chose Bing Crosby's "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" with the lyrics "What price happiness? Who can truthfully say? But for every share with tears we pay?" to play over an Art Deco aesthetic littered with dead families.[6]
Appearing in-game[]
The following are the songs and music played while exploring distinct locations in BioShock.
| Song title | Artist | Year | Location(s) in game | Video |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "La Mer" | Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli | 1949 |
|
 La Mer (Beyond the Sea) - Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli - RCA Victor Records LPM-2319 |
| "If I Didn't Care" | The Ink Spots | 1939 |
|
 The Ink Spots - If I Didn't Care |
| "The Party's Over Now" | Noël Coward | 1959[7] |
|
 Bioshock - The Party's Over Now - Noël Coward |
| "The Best Things in Life are Free" | The Ink Spots | 1947 |
|
 Bioshock - The Best Things In Life Are Free - The Ink Spots |
| "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" | Bing Crosby | 1931 |
|
 Bing Crosby - Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams |
| "It Had to be You" | Django Reinhardt | 1938 |
|
|
| "God Bless the Child" | Billie Holiday | 1941 |
|
|
| "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" | Bing Crosby | 1933 |
|
|
| "Bei Mir Bist du Schön" | The Andrews Sisters | 1937 |
|
|
| "Jitterbug Waltz" | Django Reinhardt | 1942 |
|
|
| "Night and Day" | Billie Holiday | 1939 |
|
|
| "Liza (All the Clouds'll Roll Away)" | Django Reinhardt | 1946 |
|
|
| "Twentieth Century Blues" | Noël Coward | 1959 | ||
| "Beyond the Sea" | Bobby Darin | 1959 |
|
|
| "Waltz of the Flowers" | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky | 1892 |
|
|
| "(How Much is) That Doggie in the Window?" | Patti Page | 1966[8] |
|
|
| "It's Bad for Me" | Rosemary Clooney | 1955 |
|
|
| "Please Be Kind" | Django Reinhardt | 1938 |
|
|
| "Papa Loves Mambo" | Perry Como | 1954 |
|
|
| "You're the Top" | Cole Porter with Vince Giordano & his Nighthawks | 2004[9] |
|
|
| "Danny Boy" | Mario Lanza | 1952 |
|
Bobby Darin: Beyond The Sea
Additional Licensed Songs[]
Only short snippets of the following songs are heard during gameplay.
| Song title | Artist | Year | Location(s) in game |
|---|---|---|---|
| "And All the While I'm Loving You" | Essential Jazz Masters | production music |
|
| "The Ballroom Waltz" | Cliff Eidelman | 1997 |
|
| "Jesus Loves Me" | Anna B. Warner (lyrics) William Batchelder Bradbury (music) |
1862 |
|
| unknown whistling tune | - | - |
|
The following songs are found in their entirety in the game's files in streams_music_common_audio with the other period tracks, but are not known to play in-game.
| Song title | Artist | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Wild Ride" | The Faux Frenchmen | 2007[11] |
|
| "Just Walking in the Rain" | Johnnie Ray | 1956 |
|
| "World Weary" | Noël Coward | 1928 |
|
These song names are found in the game files, but are not playable. All are located in the audio files for the Medical Pavilion (streams_1_music_audio) along with the organ music (music_1_radiofuneral) for Twilight Fields Funeral Homes. In addition, some of the songs can be found in duplicated files associated with Neptune's Bounty (streams_2_music_audio) and Arcadia (streams_3_music_audio).
No artist name can be found in the metadata. Several versions of the songs may exist, but the most popular have been chosen to be representative.
| Filename | Approximate Length | Possible Artist | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| music_1_radiorosalie ("Rosalie") | 1:55 | Artie Shaw | 1939 |
| music_1_radio_porgy ("I Loves You, Porgy") | 3:04 | Billie Holiday | 1948 |
| music_1_radiojiveatfive ("Jive at Five") | 1:52 | Count Basie Orchestra | 1937 |
| music_1_radiohappyfeet ("Happy Feet") | 1:59 | Cab Calloway | 1930 |
| music_1_radiolildarlin ("Lil' Darlin'") | 2:32 | Count Basie Orchestra | 1958 |
| music_1_radiotooyoung ("Too Young") | 2:03 | Nat King Cole | 1951 |
Several more songs appear to have been licensed for the game but do not appear in the final version or in any of the game files.[13]
| Song title | Artist | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Avalon" | Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli | 1935 | - |
| "Let's Fly Away" | Lee Wiley | 1940 | - |
| "Just One of Those Things" | Lee Morgan | 1957 | - |
| "This is a Changing World" | Noël Coward | 1946 | - |
| "You're Getting to be a Habit with Me" | Bing Crosby/Harry Edison | ? |
|
| "Academy Award" | Stanley Black | 1966 |
|
PlayStation 3 Exclusives[]
| Song title | Artist | Year | Location(s) in game |
|---|---|---|---|
| "You're Getting to be a Habit With Me" | Buddy Rich (drums) and Harry "Sweets" Edison (trumpet) | 1955 | Loading screen |
| "Dream" | Pied Pipers | 1946 | End credits; BioShock 2 "Sea of Dreams" teaser |
| "Getting Closer" | Bill Brown | 2008 | BioShock PS3 Trailer |
The BioShock EP[]
CD Sleeve front cover.
This album was recorded by Moby and Oscar the Punk for the Limited Collector's Edition of BioShock. The first two songs are remixes of original ones present in-game, while the third combines "Wild Ride", composed by Paul Patterson and Brian Lovely of the Faux Frenchmen, and various sounds and PSAs from the game.
- Beyond the Sea - 03:15
- God Bless the Child - 03:58
- Wild Little Sisters - 03:56
References[]
- ↑ http://www.gametrailers.com/full-episodes/iar1ci/backtrack-composing-bioshock Composing BioShock Part 1
- ↑ http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?20304-EGM-Interview-with-Ken-Levine-Spoilers Electronic Gaming Monthly November 2007 issue (recorded verbatim on the 2K Forums)
- ↑ The music behind Bioshock Infinite: Burial At Sea - An interview with Ken Levine at GameSpot @ 4:15
- ↑ Brush Up for BioShock originally at Gametap.com; archived at archive.org
- ↑ Ken Levine Talks BioShock at IGN.com
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20090117183326/http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=177 Music4Games Interview with Audio Director Emily Ridgway (archived)
- ↑ The game uses the short version from the 1959 album Noel Coward in New York. Coward did however, record a full-length version in the 30s.
- ↑ The game does not use the original 1952 hit recording which featured Patti Page singing with overdubbed vocals of herself. It is a re-recorded version made by Page in 1966 that instead has her solo voice accompanied by an orchestra.
- ↑ The song uses Cole Porter's original 1934 vocals, but overdubbs the piano with additional strings and drums from the CD It's De Lovely - The Authentic Cole Porter Collection
- ↑ The filename is mistakenly labeled as "music_licence_academyaward"
- ↑ The track has been re-titled and released by the band as "Eleventh Floor Stomp". It is available on their 2008 album Oblivion.
- ↑ http://forums.2k.com/showthread.php?20304-EGM-Interview-with-Ken-Levine-Spoilers Electronic Gaming Monthly November 2007 issue (recorded verbatim on the 2K Forums)
- ↑ "BioShock Music list" post by Major Nelson on his blog.