Is this a concept that's been explored before? I've taken an interest in the idea of different music genres setting the mood for a cyberpunk setting and got interested in the idea after desiring to create my own version of the ghetto blaster out of an old Raspberry Pi I got me into the mood to look into old school hip hop and what not.
Punk, metal, and goth and all sorts of other rock as well as techno are all fairly indicative of the genre but what about country and cyberpunk? Jazz?
>>43586959
Country could be interesting in a cyberpunk cowboy kind of way. Wouldn't surprise me if it's been done before. The old school hip hop/rap thing could also be pretty cool aesthetically, would probably have pretty heavy themes in classism and shit like that, though that's pretty standard for cyberpunk as a whole.
It would have more of an affect on the fashion and the aesthetics of the world then anything else, unless you were looking for something less dystopian though I'm not sure you could even call it cyberpunk at that point. All in all it's an interesting idea to toss around but there's not a lot of substance to it.
>>43587010
I suppose. After a point it's all aethetics from there. I don't actually think you could really innovate on the theme of cyberpunk without branching out and making it not cyberpunk. Going into the the hip-hop theme would be retreading old grounds of classism and maybe a bit more racism I guess if you decide to use some kind of expy for blacks in the hood or something although I am amused by the idea of crips and bloods Shadowrun style with mages, riggers, and hackers and standard issue.
>Be a solar rancher out in the stixs
>Ride my horse out to check on the panels to make sure they work
>Occasionally have to fend off energy thieves and a few animals
>Head into the nearest town to get wasted and get supplies
>Smoke and knock'em back while the local band is playing
>See a few corporate boys in their fancy suits hanging out
>Things just might get interesting out here for once.
While they're not straight jazz, Medenski Martin and Wood might fit your bill.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HevjXKONsZY
Typically I use music to set the tone of the scene rather than the tone of the setting. Medenski, et al.'s End of the World Party has the added bonus of having recognizable 'futuristic' musical traits, so I could see using it for a jazzy, upscale night club as opposed to the usual dive bars frequented by the pcs.
IMO, the best music to set tone either is ambiance with obvious trappings of the setting with less setting-characteristic music bringing its own associations to set the tone of a scene.
So, characters might be out on the town with this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IR-KjkdXBE playing in the background to get that oppressive neon atmosphere going when they look up, see a lone, heavily augmented street samurai heading their way. That's when you switch to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxMeKjwyEBg. Even if your players aren't familiar with Johnny Cash, the lyrics, beat, and key should signal somethings up.
I only listen to nu-wave Sinopunk.
I'm running a Shadowrun game set in Neo-Tokyo right now, and here's what I would try were it a face to face game rather than IRC: In appropriate scenes, daytime in the middle of the metropolis, interacting with normal people, play J-Pop. Just the most brainless, vapid, criminally catchy J-Pop I can find. Sort of reinforcing the theme by contrast - you get off your hip-hop and punk-backed adventure and it's all cute girls, computer-generated tunes, and bullshit lyrics that are the same thing regurgitated over and over. And everyone eats it the fuck up.
If you're looking for more ambient/upbeat stuff...
http://swedishcolumbia.com/album/else-heart-break-original-soundtrack
>>43586959
Have you ever heard of Cowboy Bebop? Might be a good place to start for cyberpunk jazz, particularly the Edward-focused episodes.
It occurs to me you could use music choice, especially if you restrict yourself to certain artists or works, to tweak tone if not necessarily theme. For example, combine cyberpunk with the Persona 3 soundtrack for a more psychological feel, probably messing around with the matrix and AIs. Saving the world and debating whether it's worth saving optional but recommended.
I would definitely go with a dystopian sound
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF-q_JdcCD8
>>43586959
It'd be kind of weird to for actual punk music to appear in cyberpunk (assuming a progression from today, not alt-history/present or the future of an alternate past), but the things that caused it - deep social issues in society and big, elaborate and over-produced mainstream music - both fit well in cyberpunk
If every song is meticulously crafted, super catchy or super complex and featuring any number of brand-stars doing drop in/guest work then a new era of punk could easily rise against that.
Though a networked world makes it much easier to self-produce into any genre you want and get it out to the world - sometimes seriously, sometimes as just a meme, but it's something new that's only just starting to affect music
>>43586959
Check out perturbator for cyberpunk music. I'm a metalhead but I Damn love it for cyberpunk background music.
Try glitch mob 1st album - drink the sea. Second one is shitty generic techno - spare your ears.
Soundtracks are awesome - HEALTH - TEARS from max Payne 3 can be used wonderfully for some kind of last escape, last stand, awesome exit music - ESP if you manage to keep the flow as gm, and make feel players like they move in slow motion.
Metal gear rising ost is awesome.
Check out made of hate too - ESP the 1st album.
And the holy grail - deus ex ost.
>>43587983
So basically modern world music industry if forced everywhere, and you have to dig for good demoscene music eh?
Also - Demoscene music is perfect for cyberpunk - search for.Crack/keegan music on yt.
>>43588114
Fucking autocorrect - keygen*
Cyberpunk is Scifi Noir and Noir has always gone very well with Jazz.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2rVnRwW0h8&list=PL65E33789AA7052BC
Country and Western works as a subculture. In Cyberpunk you can easily idealize and reduce a cultural genre to very few markers. Cowboy boots and a Sergio Leone perspective would be more than enough to establish a Cyberpunk Western character, fluff with cultural background as needed (moisture farmers?) Italo Western tropes mesh well with the cultural sprawl of Cyberpunk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1PfrmCGFnk
And for early days Hip-Hop I see this working wonderfully. Before the gangsta era and all its poser outgrowths there was a genuine cultural identity attached to the Rap life style, more like Jet Set Radio than Saints Row. It was a authentic political counter culture, just the thing to build a Cyberpunk faction on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4o8TeqKhgY
>Thread about music in cyberpunk
>See Jazz mentioned
>Ctrl+f Nujabes
Probably most people's experience with guys like Nujabes would be Samuraichamploo but it wouldn't be hard at all to convert that into a gritty cyberpunk yearn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xZY8VJHqU4
A E S T H E T I C S
>>43590191
Do you want more?
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-UWPlRIl68rMQe8V-VV0WWuhs7ADq2KG
>>43590282
That's...Kind of the point. When it comes to cyberpunk it's kind of pointed in the way it's going and you can only do so much with it before you're jumping into a new genre with it.
I think in this case, for me, the music sets up different settings people may not have considered. For instance, most cyberpunk games generally take place in inner city areas but have you ever really delved into communities that exist there? Imagine your PCs are dudes from a particular hood having to deal with shit from other gangs to corporate dudes causing trouble so they can declare the area blighted and buy it out so they can build their own shit there.
If nothing else, it serves to expand one's musical palatte a bit and I feel music from the era that cyberpunk invokes definetly has a place in the genre as well.
