I use the XBox USB player. You can put 200 of your own songs in the game background.
I do not resign myself about the censorship of the songs on the radios in FH4.
Please, restore the songs as they were before!!!
As we know, Forza Horizon 4’s soundtrack is a bit flat compared to the tracklists that came before it. While the game’s job is to showcase music popular the year it’s released (we know popular music isn’t particularly good nowadays) some of it is due to lackluster design. For example, Horizon Bass Area is just Horizon Pulse but with remixes. There’s no guest record station other than Hospital, which at this point I see them as a default radio station in the series. There’s also just LESS music. Horizon 2 & 3 have tracklists that hovered around 140 songs. Horizon 4 just has under 120 and the music just gets real old, no matter which station you primarily listen to. I still love listening to Forza Horizon 3’s soundtrack while every time I hop on 4, it’s immediately followed with my custom XS styled playlist and five minutes of me carefully audio mixing so the music doesn’t drown out the game and vice versa, which is as annoying as it sounds like.
Fearless Records is a record label based in Culver City, California. Fearless Records primarily focuses on metal, a genre barely heard in the Forza Horizon series. Only two examples of “metal” songs have ever been featured in the franchises’ 446 song soundtrack. I think they should get their own radio station in a “music” update, or at least in a future title. Like earlier Horizon guest stations, i’d have the lead singer of a staple Fearless Records band be the DJ. My biggest picks right now would be James Clark, from Kill The Lights or Jon Hershey of August Burns Red. As for the tracklist, i have an obscure passion for licensed soundtracks and have been carefully curating a hypothetical Fearless Records radio station for Forza Horizon. All of the music is carefully picked to fit with the gameplay. Like other Horizon guest stations, some bands will have more than one song. I try to keep the majority of songs recently released so their appearance would fit at a live-performance music festival.
–TRACKLIST–
August Burns Red - Bones
August Burns Red - The Narrative
Capstan - livebait
Eat Your Heart Out - Closer To The Sun
Eat Your Heart Out - Carousel
Ice Nine Kills - The Coffin Is Moving
Ice Nine Kills - SAVAGES
I Prevail - Hurricane
Kill The Lights - Shed My Skin
Kill The Lights - Plagues
Pierce The Veil - Circles
STARSET - TRIALS
STARSET - My Demons
The World Alive - SEARCHING FOR GLORY
Underoath - Loneliness
Wage War - Who I Am
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I miss Future Classic Radio from FH3.
You are right, the music choices this time around are very lackluster in comparison to past FH’s.
Given how the E for Everyone rating led to a lot of songs in FH4 getting censored lyrics and some songs being removed entirely because their names were deemed problematic, all post release, I don’t think a metal station will happen.
It would be nice though. They could bump up the age rating to something more reasonable in future titles.
Licensed soundtracks are surprisingly more important than most people tend to give credit for. They can set the mood of a game just as much as a normal made-for-game OST, with the primary difference being that the music wasn’t specifically made for the game. With Forza Horizon being set at a music festival, carefully making a soundtrack that not only fits the game, but the world of the game too makes it much more important. You can’t have the majority of the songs you use be produced by retired bands or have overtly old music. The first three games had great soundtracks, with each station having awesome music to cruise and race to. Not only do the soundtracks serve as a “time capsule” of sorts for when the game was released, but they need to line up with the Horizon festival as it’s strongly suggested the music that appears in the game is also being performed live at the festival. With Forza Horizon 4, I was expecting a fantastic soundtrack, but it largely missed with me overall, and hearing the rest of the community’s opinions, I think they agree with me, too.
Forza Horizon 4 is the longest running game in the series. With the new direct live-service business model, and the hours upon hours worth of things to explore, discover, and grind for, dedicated players have spent a long time in Playground Games’ interpretation of the UK’s countryside. Normally, there’s a two year life cycle with the games, but with the next Horizon title up in the air, we’re stuck with Forza Horizon 4 for the time being. New content is always being added into the game on a monthly basis. I alone have nearly a month’s worth of playtime on this game. This is where the soundtracks first issue comes in: It’s the smallest tracklist since Forza Horizon 1, and music painfully repeats a LOT. Forza Horizon 2 and 3 both have around 150 songs in their tracklist, while Forza Horizon 4 has just exactly 117. For a game with such a long life cycle, this baffles me. I’ve slowly cycled through each of the stations, and now I’m tired of every one of them. I’ve listened to them so much, I recognize what song is coming next before the current one ends (appears the game is hard-coded to play songs in a certain order.) For example, I just listened to “Little Thing Gone Wild” by BRMC on Spotify to test my skill with this, and yes, “Safari Song” by Greta Van Fleet would be playing next had this been coming from the game. I know licensing music is expensive, especially for newer music, but is it worth the money saved for the music to grow so sickeningly repetitive? I don’t know why Forza Horizon 4 has around 30 less songs than it’s predecessors, but it’s not good. Another issue would be the music itself. This isn’t entirely Playground’s fault, as quality in popular music seems to be slowly declining through the years, but I know for a fact the music picked isn’t their best. Horizon Bass Arena is just Horizon Pulse with remixes, there’s very little proper bass and techno on there, despite the genre flourishing nowadays. Horizon XS for example, why is Bat Fangs’ “Turn It Up” in the lineup? Compare that to “The Infected” by Four Year Strong on the original Forza Horizon, and you can see the music curator’s idea of racing game rock music is declining in quality. Also, what happened to the real-world record labels getting stations? Remember Innovative Leisure Radio? Ninja Tune? Epitaph and Vagrant Records? Future Classic? Sure, Horizon 4 has Hospital Records, but they’ve been with the game for so long I just see them as a default Horizon station. Why were licensed record label stations cut from the game? This perpetually confuses me, as it’s a great way to advertise as well as add more music into the game.
However, these are dwarfed by the absolute biggest issue with the soundtrack: The censoring.
Don’t get me wrong, some music features language and themes not appropriate for the game. Slurs, swearing, and sexual acts described in music should be understandably censored in this game, however so much in Forza Horizon 4’s tracklist has been muted it’s beyond parody. The use of words, like “God” “Love” and “High” and “Die” is censored, and the in-context use of the music doesn’t even mean anything mature! Forza Horizon 3 only censored references to sex, drugs, and smoking, alongside more infamous swear words. They even let lower ones slide. For Forza Horizon 4, this is the biggest and final nail-in-the-coffin for the soundtrack of this game; you can’t even properly listen to the music given to you. This isn’t entirely Playground Game’s fault, the ESRB put these ridiculous demands for censoring in place. There’s a solution, however. Just don’t bother with the ridiculous demands, it’s not the end of the world if the games up with an E+10 rating. Of everything a parent would be looking for in a game, I think “Mild Lyrics” are the least of their worries.
Now, I likely know what you’re thinking. “So? I just turn off the music and play my own.” And yes, that is a partial solution, but I’m not satisfied. It’s just playing OVER the game, not WITH it. Music will still play during cutscenes, pause menus, driving in a tunnel, and when you’re in your house/garage. Not to mention, even with music off the Festival still plays music from in-game speakers which clashes with what you’re listening to. The most annoying aspect is audio balancing between the engine and music. You need to be very careful so you can hear both the roar of the engine and the music clearly, and it will all be for nothing since you’re likely to swap cars with different engine noises several times in a play session. The reason the in-game music sounds so well is it has dynamic audio balancing. Try it out for yourself. Play some of the game’s music and stay idle in your car. Then start driving or revving the engine. Listen closely, and you can hear the music’s volume subtly changing to accommodate the engine noises. THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO HAVE A CUSTOM MUSIC STATION. Just ask Spotify, you seem on good terms with them, even giving Ultimate Edition users a free year of Spotify Premium around the launch of FH4. Heck, even make it a premium-only feature so there’s still a reason to have the game’s own music, as well as having something in it for Spotify. Something else I see people asking for is to update the soundtrack periodically. This makes lots of sense too. Although it may be a licensing nightmare, it would be worth it. Of all the absurdity of a permanently-open festival, bringing annoying gameplay features like seasons, a constantly-evolving soundtrack to reflect that seems like a no-brainer.
TL;DR The music featured in Forza Horizon 4 doesn’t just refuse to step up to the qualities of a Horizon Festival soundtrack; it refuses to step up to the long running, play forever game it’s trying to be.
I’ve been working on this project for over a year now, and it’s a list and recommendations of all the music and stations I want to see in the next Horizon title. I’ve picked the music on what best fits the Horizon Festival vibe, choosing recently-released music, popular artists, and artists that have been in earlier Forza Horizon games as well. Due to the absurd ridiculousness of copyright law (even though none of the music is even mine, and it’s highly likely the devs will never see this) I’m still officially stating Playground has all rights to choose and base music on these playlists I’ve made.
Horizon Pulse Fan Soundtrack: Spotify
Horizon Bass Arena Fan Soundtrack: Spotify
Horizon Synth Sanctuary: Spotify
Horizon Block Party Soundtrack: Spotify
Horizon XS: Spotify
Fearless Records: Spotify
Monstercat Radio: Spotify
Hyperdrift Radio: Spotify
Ryujin’s Classics: Spotify
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WOW! They should totally hire you to do the soundtrack for the next game! 'Nuff said!
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Originally, the soundtrack was actually pretty good. I enjoyed it a fair amount.
However, in March 2019 I think, there was an update that butchered many of the songs and removed one from Horizon XS (in fact it was one of my favorite tracks). The excuse given was “more stringent requirements from the ESRB”. Well I call BS on that because the game had always been rated E for Everyone from the beginning and there were no such news on gaming media.
I suspect it had more to do with the release of Lego Speed Champions months later and MS applying their usual, overzealous censorship to things, afraid that parents of young gamers would complain.
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They shouldn’t have gone down that route in the first place.
Also, don’t leave out that the songs had to cycle repeatedly during events and drone mode; akin to Horizon 3! I think that has to do with the skill songs feature.
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Look at the bright side: at least they’re not censoring gender-specific pronouns…yet.
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