The original score has become one of the most quietly transformative additions to Rockstar Games' modern output. Where the Grand Theft Auto series historically leaned almost exclusively on licensed radio music, Grand Theft Auto V (2013) introduced a bespoke interactive score co-authored by Tangerine Dream, Woody Jackson, The Alchemist and Oh No, with DJ Shadow handling the final mixdown (Plante, 2013). Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018) then doubled down on the discipline, with Jackson composing roughly sixty hours of music across more than 190 interactive mission cues, complemented by Daniel Lanois' vocal productions for D'Angelo, Willie Nelson, Rhiannon Giddens and Josh Homme (Macgregor, 2018; Rockstar Games, 2019). The question for Grand Theft Auto VI is who Rockstar's music director Ivan Pavlovich has tapped to extend that lineage into a neon-saturated, Latin-inflected Vice City.
This report speculates on the likely composer team, weighing the case for Jackson's return against the strong likelihood of a Miami-flavoured collaborator and a deep bench of Latin and Cuban session players. It also considers how the dynamic mission scoring system — the stem-based "Gunfight Conductor" first prototyped in GTA V and refined for RDR2 — has probably evolved for the new title.
Pavlovich's compositional philosophy is now well-documented. On GTA V, the team built a "stem-based" architecture in which each mission was scored as up to eight stems of roughly five-minute WAV files, mixed dynamically against the player's actions and dispatched between composers for reinterpretation (Plante, 2013). Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream reportedly produced 62 hours of material in his first eight months alone, with Jackson layering hip-hop and rock textures, and The Alchemist and Oh No chopping, sampling and pitching the results (Plante, 2013).
Red Dead Redemption 2 refined this into three distinct score layers — narrative, interactive and environmental — with Jackson recording eleven looping stems per cue that morph as the game engine's AI conductor reacts to emotional and combat state (Macgregor, 2018). Crucially, Rockstar also engaged outliers — Colin Stetson, Senyawa, Rabih Beaini and Arca — to add a "too angular" modernity Pavlovich could fold back into otherwise period-correct material (Macgregor, 2018). That precedent matters: it shows Rockstar is willing to enlist avant-garde producers as texture artists even when the surface palette is conservative.
The simplest hypothesis is that Jackson is back. He has scored every flagship Rockstar release since Red Dead Redemption (2010), owning Electro-Vox Recording Studios where most of the orchestral and ensemble sessions are tracked (Wikipedia, 2025). His ability to act as a "centre of gravity" — gathering rotating personnel like Mike Watt, Petra Haden and Jon Theodore for jam sessions — has become structurally important to Rockstar's workflow (Macgregor, 2018). Jackson's recent solo work, particularly the Cowboy Yoga (2024) and Way Out West (2025) instrumental albums recorded with Bill Frisell and Jay Bellerose, suggests he remains creatively active and on call (Wikipedia, 2025).
However, Jackson's signature is rooted in dust, gut-string guitar and Morricone-adjacent Americana. A Vice City built around Cuban influence, EDM-saturated nightlife and contemporary Latin trap demands a different sonic anchor. Jackson's most plausible role this time is therefore as music supervisor or co-composer for the rural/Everglades-set portions of the map, rather than the sole lead.
The likeliest new lead is a producer fluent in the Latin-electronic axis that defines twenty-first century Miami. Three names stand out:
Of these, Jaar is the speculation favourite: he straddles Latin heritage and electronic experimentation, and his interest in narrative pacing aligns with Pavlovich's stem-based brief.
Whatever the lead composer, regional authenticity will demand a dedicated pool of Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican session players. The RDR2 model of acquiring period instruments and recording call-and-response sessions with named virtuosos (Macgregor, 2018) will likely be repeated with congueros, timbaleros and tres players. Expect credits including descendants of the Buena Vista Social Club tradition, contemporary salsa producers based in Miami, and reggaeton session musicians to provide the live percussion bedrock against which any electronic score sits. The presence of artists like Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro or Ivy Queen on the licensed radio side has been widely rumoured but is logistically separate from score work.
Since RDR2, Rockstar's audio middleware has had seven additional years of internal development. Two trajectories seem plausible. First, an expansion of stem count and granularity: where RDR2 used six to fifteen stems per cue, GTA VI may move to per-instrument layering with engine-side procedural mixing tied to player heart rate, weapon state and pursuit level. Second, a tighter coupling between score and radio: the GTA V "Welcome to Los Santos" / "The Lab" model (Wikipedia, 2025) demonstrated that licensed radio stations can host original collaborative material; GTA VI may erase the boundary, with score cues bleeding into car-radio diegesis as the player crosses thresholds.
The most likely outcome is a hybrid arrangement: Woody Jackson retained as continuity composer and music director, paired with a Miami-fluent electronic lead (Jaar or Arca being the prime candidates) and a substantial Latin session ensemble. Daniel Lanois, given his RDR2 role producing all original vocal tracks, may also reappear in a curatorial capacity for original songs. Whoever is finally credited, the underlying machinery — the "Gunfight Conductor", stem-based interactive cues, and Pavlovich's insistence on the score complementing rather than competing with licensed radio — will be the actual star.
Macgregor, J. (2018) 'Red Dead Redemption 2's music: the inside story of the most ambitious video game score ever made', Rolling Stone, 5 November. Available at: https://www.rollingstone.com/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Plante, C. (2013) 'How Grand Theft Auto V got its score', Polygon, 18 September. Available at: https://www.polygon.com/ (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Rockstar Games (2019) The Music of Red Dead Redemption 2 (Original Score) [Liner notes]. Lakeshore Records / Rockstar Games.
Wikipedia (2025) 'Music of Grand Theft Auto V'. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Grand_Theft_Auto_V (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wikipedia (2025) 'Music of Red Dead Redemption 2'. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Red_Dead_Redemption_2 (Accessed: 14 May 2026).
Wikipedia (2025) 'Woody Jackson'. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Jackson (Accessed: 14 May 2026).