GTA 6 Leaks Gave Fans a Soundtrack Tease, But We Want More

We’re one week away from Grand Theft Auto 6’s big Netflix showcase, but the party has already been spoiled. This week, a group called Cyberleek released a cache of leaked GTA 6 gameplay footage — a move meant to punish Rockstar for not releasing a physical disc version of the game, according to Cyberleek’s website. If legitimate, the videos reveal quite a bit about a game that we know next to nothing about, but there’s one thing Cyberleek has yet to spoil: the soundtrack.

More than the wanton violence, music is the lifeblood of the GTA series. It’s what gives each game a distinct sense of identity, with radio stations almost acting as characters. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, for instance, is defined by its west coast hip-hop, grungy 90s alt-rock, and soulful R&B. Grand Theft Auto 5 worked some modern indie rock into the mix, making for an of-the-era blog rock soundtrack featuring bands like Wavves and Ty Segall Band.

So, what kind of sound are we in for with GTA 6? We’ve gotten a few teases already thanks to its official trailers. Tom Petty’s “Love is a Road” and The Pointer Sisters’ “Hot Together” headlined the first two trailers, implying that Rockstar is going for an 80s vibe this time around. That makes perfect sense given the Miami Vice nostalgia of it all.

The leaked footage signals that GTA 6’s soundtrack will still be both genre- and era-spanning, though. The clips only tease a bit of the music that could be featured in GTA 6, with fans identifying one thumping pop song: “Impact” by SG Lewis, Robyn, and Channel Tres. Considering that Vice City will likely be filled with nightclubs, it seems pretty reasonable that we’ll get some danceable heaters in there alongside Rockstar’s usual classic rock, hip-hop, and alt-rock selections.

All of this is a good excuse for me to drop one last GTA 6 wishlist before the Netflix presentation sets anything in stone. (Come on, we only have a few months of fantasy booking left!) From breezy 70s tunes, to hip 80s pop, all the way to modern dance tunes, here’s a shortlist of songs I hear when I picture driving around Leonida.

• Michael Martin Murphy “Wildfire”
• Steely Dan “Deacon Blues”
• Crowded House “In The Lowlands”
• XTC “No Language In Our Lungs”
• The Talking Heads “Crosseyed and Painless”
• Grauzone “Eisbär”
• Kate Bush “Heads We’re Dancing”
• Corinne Bailey Rae “Put It Down”
• Bad Bunny feat. Chuwi “WELTiTA”
• Frank Ocean "Pink + White"
• Charli XCX “Club Classics”
• Danny Brown feat. 8485 “Flowers”
• Carly Rae Jepsen “Fake Mona Lisa”
• Clipse feat. Kendrick Lamar “Chains & Whips”

Regardless of what actually appears on the soundtrack, I’m excited to hear which songs I’ll be listening to for the next decade as I commit millions of crimes. GTA 6 is like Mixtape for sociopaths.