I remember how Bioshock really brought me back in time with the old music in Rapture, and really made me enjoy the old music. I'm sure not many people know of good music from 1912 or before that, but if you do, or check it out, what kind of songs do you think we'll hear in Columbia? For an example, here's one.

I just think it's a good time to talk about this since I haven't seen it around, and I think it was an important part of the first and second Bioshock that this kind of aspect when going into Infinite is something I'm interested in.

I'm a bit less than hopeful about the music selection. It was something I loved about BioShock 1 and 2 but my sincere appreciation for classic music drops pretty sharply prior to 1930.

That same factor played hugely into my love of Fallout 3 vs New Vegas. The music in 3 was fantastic, while I never liked the Roy Rogers-esque style in NV.

But I've faith in Ken Levine.

it's alternate history so they're gonna have some hardcore g-funk gangsta rap up in this muh'fucka!

@DeF: OR some siiiiiiiick dubstep by Skrillex. Imagine it -- sick drops, WHILE you drop

</sarcasm>

Non-classical music pre-1930s tends to only have novelty value for me, I expect to be pretty amused by the music, but I imagine it'll all be pretty hokey.

Sousa, Sousa, and... more Sousa.

1912 was the year the RMS Titantic sank.

The only thing that comes to mind is "There'll Be A Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight":

ALL yakety-sax.

Ragtime music, the precursor to jazz was popular at that time. So, lots of Scott Joplin. If you've seen the 1973 movie, The Sting, that's what to expect.

Also classical composer Igor Stravinsky was writing some of his most famous works then including The Firebird and Petrushka. Both of these pieces were penned before 1912.

Maybe some early jazz and blues.

@lockwoodx: Yeah it was. I've been thinking about that.

It's the overt innocence in those old songs that could be even more effective than Bioshock's jazzy swagger, when contrasted with such fucked up places.

I'm pretty sure this song was made pretty recently but fuck if they put this in here I would be so damn happy. Great  blues song and I don't even really like blues. Of course they have to kinda disorient it to make it sound like its older but thats fine.

If all the music's gonna be like that one song, I'll fucking hang myself while playing BioShock Infinite.

I would imagine there will be some strong similarities with the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack. That's set about 20 years later, but a lot of the songs are traditional folk music that had been around for a while (Wikipedia says "Man of Constant Sorrow" was first recorded 1913).

My one objection to that, though, is the tonal similarity it would have to the original Bioshock. Even if they don't sound similar, the 'old timey songs provide atmosphere/ emphasis on the dissonance between cheerful music and brutal murder" thing has been done already. Bioshock did it, Fallout did it, Quentin Tarantino more or less invented it. I'm not saying they shouldn't have period-appropriate music, because they should, but I would hope they utilize it in a more unique way.

40s music became my favorite "genre" of music because of video games like Bioshock (I think it was Fallout 3 that really did it for me, though), and I love to see how games use music to add to the experience (both designed specially for the game and from particular eras)...so I'm pretty excited by the prospect of even older music to be used in Bioshock Infinite. I think a lot of it will be patriotic, but I do hope they have some others mixed in, too. I'm not even sure where to start guessing as to actual songs that might be included. The songs most other people are posting are very cool, though :)

I kinda hope they have a song like Cohen's Masterpiece that plays a bigger role in the game.

They're not bound to ANY era of music. In that first demo, there's a chick sweeping a porch singing Tears for Fears to herself, since things have been brought in from alternate dimensions/times from "tears" and all that jazz.

Probably some jazz. I don't think there were that many music genres back then haha.

Funny how music can make you love a game so much, it creates a nice atmosphere or something. Fallout 3 and Bioshock were great examples of it :-)

Man, even posting that thumbnail is a spoiler...

@wrighteous86: My bad. Consider it sanitized.

Back in those days, pre-mass production of vinyl records or Edison wax cylinders, musicians sold their sheet music in the same way a single would be sold. So it wasn't uncommon that music would be played as covers by other musicians.

I want a pipe organ cover of "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", I'm dead serious about that, I don't kid when it comes to Cyndi Lauper.

Yeah, I smiled when I heard that. Glad they used Cyndi.

Girls Just Want to Have Fun @ 36:50. For those interested.

some of the music i've heard from the game was period inappropriate but i doubt they and for that matter anyone buying this game really cares.