Debate: Which Grand Theft Auto radio station has one of the best tunes?

Ah, licensed music in videogames. An embarrassingly huge contributor to my music style over time, extremely favoured among the many sports activities sims, episodic videogames, and open world free roam ditties à la Sleeping Dogs and Grand Theft Auto.

The latter is the place I’ve ingested all types of music over time, broadening my tastes to genres I by no means thought I’d have bothered listening to. As a raging emo within the 2000s, the Grand Theft Auto video games had been my gateway to stuff I by no means would have listened to in any other case like hip-hop, nation, and home.

That’s due to the myriad of fictional radio stations that Rockstar has crafted over time—it began introducing a big chunk of licensed music to its radio stations in Vice City—with fastidiously curated playlists that do a lot for every recreation’s worldbuilding and normal vibes. Nothing beats cruising down roads in Vice City whereas ’80s bangers like Out of Touch by Hall & Oates play, or diving into San Andreas’ glorious East Coast hip-hop library with Biz Markie and Public Enemy.

If you are something like me, some radio stations may have caught with you greater than others. Country music is probably the final style I’d voluntarily hearken to in my day-to-day life, however I’ve so many fond reminiscences of blasting Okay-Rose whereas taking part in San Andreas. It’s my go-to radio station each time I boot that recreation up.

There’s something about host Mary-Beth Maybell sharing far too many details about her life (“you ever stick your entire arm up a cow?”) before going into the likes of All my Ex’s Live in Texas, a song that regularly worms its way into my brain for days on end despite never listening to it outside the confines of the game.

Maybe it’s recency bias though, but by far my favourite station has to be Grand Theft Auto 5’s Non-Stop Pop FM. It’s hosted by Cara Delevingne with the kind of weirdly pleasant wooden performance I’d expect from the British model—though she certainly calls me out with the line “This is the home for all the music you used to pretend not to like back when you were trying to be cool. You weren’t cool.”

The station is stuffed with pop bangers over three decades—Amerie’s 1 Thing, Britney Spears’ Gimme More, Lorde’s Tennis Court—and one of my fondest memories of Grand Theft Auto Online comes from a late-night lockdown heist where I uttered the words to my partner-in-crime: “I hope to God they play Backstreet Boys,” before flicking the radio on to I Want It That Way. It was the perfect post-diamond heist soundtrack as we drove back to base, most definitely annoying our real-life neighbours with our 3am warbling.

But with dozens of radio stations to choose from, am I right in crowning Non-Stop Pop FM as the reigning champion of the virtual airwaves, or have I blatantly missed far more iconic transmissions I should be tuning into instead?

Be sure to comment your favourite GTA radio station below, and let us know why it’s the best of the best.