Can indie-devs license popular music without going bakrupt?

I've recently thought about a game that I really like set in the 70s, it has a bunch of licensed songs that pretty much everyone knows to sell the time period. I was thinking about making something inspired by this game set in the modern age. Now I know it sounds silly but songs that people know playing in a game would actually help a lot with the immersion in this context. Any thoughts and/or experiences? (please be nice, even if you think it's a dumb post)