Kenny Loggins, King of the GTA V Soundtrack
You open this blog post and your eyes land on the first line of text, about to read it, when suddenly, you look up from your device and you see that you are outside and a big white volleyball is coming straight towards your head. You miraculously grow a six-pack and gain some giant toned muscles as you whack that volleyball back to the other side of the net, where it lands in the sand as the beautiful bodies on the other side dive to attempt to recover the ball. Everyone's smiling and having fun, and you yell a manly growl as you flex your huge chest. As you get into your zone position with your hands on your slightly bent knees with your eyes shooting directly forward at the enemy, you start to hear the faint high-pitched guitar riff of Playing with the Boys, and sure enough, Kenny Loggins comes shuffling onto the beach with his six-string strapped and ready to rock.
The enemy team serves the volleyball as Kenny Loggins unleashes his energy and his joyful movement as he jams on his guitar. When the King of the Movie Soundtrack steps into the room, everyone smiles wider. Kenny Loggins is probably best known for his contribution to the soundtracks of many good 1980s movies, like Top Gun (1986), Footloose (1983), Over the Top (1987), and the Caddyshack movies. Besides that, Kenny Loggins is also a rock guitarist and singer with a career going all the way back to 1968.
Kenny Loggins is known as the King of the Movie Soundtrack because of his great music used in several 1980s movies. In 2013, Kenny Loggins became the voice of the radio host of Los Santos Rock Radio in the video game Grand Theft Auto V, where he played a version of himself referred to as Captain Loggins. GTA V gave Kenny Loggins the opportunity to connect with the younger generations. It is clear that GTA V's developers love Kenny Loggins and 1980s culture. Here are things in GTA that reference his influence in the 1980s:
- According to unused dialogue in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, one of Loggins' songs was due to be featured in the game before being removed during production for unknown reasons.
- Another of Loggins' songs, "I'm Alright", from Caddyshack (1980), was also due to appear on Los Santos Rock Radio in GTA V, but was cut from the final game. One of his lines on the radio is “I’m alright, baby. Nobody worry about me,” perhaps a reference to the song.
- Loggins is referenced in the online race Business Class. The description reads "Do Loggins proud and race some fighter jets around Downtown LS and Vinewood. Weave between buildings and through construction sites on your laps. Two tight turns at either end." This is most likely in reference to his song "Danger Zone" being in the soundtrack of the movie Top Gun and also featured in the enhanced version of GTA V.
- Top Gun is also referenced during the Humane Raid - EMP mission in the enhanced version of GTA Online, as "Danger Zone" plays after the player steals a Hydra jet.
- On Los Santos Rock Radio, besides Bob Seger, Loggins is the only one who has two songs featured on his radio station. He also co-wrote What A Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers that is also on the radio.
- Danger Zone from Top Gun (1986)
- I'm Free (Heaven Helps The Man) from Footloose (1983)
- The player character bangs their head to the music when the radio is on while they are driving in a car. Usually, they only do it during the chorus or the guitar solo. I noticed when Kenny Loggins' songs are playing, the player character will often bang their head to most of the song.
It is clear that the GTA developers are big fans of Kenny Loggins and enjoy recalling life in the 1980s. He also has a line before a Simple Minds song comes on where he mentions them making music for 1980s teen movies, a reference to their song Don't You (Forget About Me) from The Breakfast Club (1985). I am not sure, does any other radio host have this many Easter eggs associated with them? I think Rockstar Games intentionally made it so your character will head bang for almost the entire songs by Kenny Loggins, just like how the AI drivers are intentionally programmed to hit you when you are driving. It seems they have great respect for Loggins from all the Top Gun references in GTA V. These references are what caused me to proclaim Kenny Loggins, in addition to King of the Movie Soundtrack, as King of the GTA V Soundtrack. Given that GTA V is considered by many sources to be among the best video games of all time, given that it broke sales records, and that it was still so successful that it didn’t need a sequel until 10+ years later, that is an extremely significant title for contribution to 2010s pop culture.
P.S.
I think I discovered Kenny Loggins both from Top Gun and GTA V concurrently. I didn't start playing GTA V until summer of 2020 when it was free on Epic Games. I didn't seriously get into watching Top Gun at around that time, too. I looked up the Top Gun soundtrack one day about a year later and I got hooked, which helped me get started liking 1980s rock and pop rock. Obviously, it listed Kenny Loggins on the playlist, but I don't know if I ever made the connection to GTA V initially. I must have thought the radio host from GTA V had the same name as the guy who sang Danger Zone, so eventually I searched the Internet and would've found my answer, and the rest is history.
My favorite song by Kenny Loggins is Playing with the Boys from Top Gun's iconic sexy beach scene written specifically for the female audience, of course. It is so catchy and gets you so pumped up. I love the guitars and the synthesizers near the end. The music video is so 1980s, it's not even funny. The short shorts, the big hair, the hot muscular bodies, the storytelling, the slow-motion, the attention to detail, the boys vs. the girls and the effort to work as a team, and that girl doing the badass air guitar. The crowd is so diverse, with Caucasians and various minorities. They each get a spotlight in the camera looking sexy and attempting to hit the ball, and more importantly, they each get a spotlight when they fail and fall down. Equality! Take that, Disney live-action remakes, they're all the main characters and they're not afraid to get hurt. Finally, they come together like they were really all one team from the start.
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