Written by: CUSAQ [ Instagram ]
Edited by: XEONIQ [ Instagram | Tumblr ]
Music may be the most challenging medium to quantify within the Cyberpunk genre. Visual and written works easily describe a near-future dystopia – neon-lit metropolises, technological aesthetics and dark, polluted environments – but what does Cyberpunk sound like?
In search of an answer, four different approaches to music in the genre were examined: the application of then emergent synthesizer technology in 1980’s films; the works directly engaged with the Cyberpunk subculture during its prominence in the 1990’s; to the more modern retrofuturism of Synthwave; and finally the artists who embody the ethos inherent within cyberpunk’s ideological anarchism.
The Synthesizer in Cyberpunk Film
The synthesizer instrument is one element that can be found in almost every example within the cyberpunk music genre. Synthesizer music originated in the ‘60s with the creation of the Moog and Buchla instruments. These were developed to improve the versatility of live performance tools but also for the sake of novelty.
Electronic enthusiasts and experimental musicians developed a rapid affinity for the instruments, including Wendy Carlos who was involved with Moog’s development and would soon go on to use synthesizers to create much of the soundtrack for A Clockwork Orange in 1971. Using the Moog, Carlos transformed classical Beethoven arrangements into ethereal, warped melodies to match with the chaotic dystopian future envisioned by the film. While made more than a decade before the advent of Cyberpunk, A Clockwork Orange serves as an aesthetic precursor to the genre.
By the ‘80s, synthesizers were fully defined as a marketable electronic product – but at a high price that excluded all but the most successful musicians. In 1981 John Carpenter used electronic instruments to produce music for the film Escape From New York which would later inspire several characters in Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear Solid, a highly referential video game series that has amassed significant popularity in cyberpunk subculture. The film is itself recognised by some as proto-cyberpunk, depicting a fascist dystopian future where Manhattan has been transformed into a prison colony.
In 1983 Bruce Bethke coined the term ‘Cyberpunk’ in his so-titled short story, referring to the rebellious use of technology against established authority systems within a near-future setting. Henceforth all existing and soon-to-come associated media was blanketed by the description.
Blade Runner (1982) brought popularity and recognition to the genre. Greek composer Vangelis’ soundtrack for the film was a use of synthesized sounds, combining electronic equipment with original jazz compositions to inspire a neo-noir aesthetic that became heavily associated with the genre.
For the film Terminator (1984), Brad Fiedel created a dramatic soundscape he described as inspired by “a mechanical man and his heartbeat”. This in turn was inspired by Fiedel’s previous synthesizer work on a TV Movie about Adolf Hitler, in which the producers had been concerned that traditional orchestral sounds may come across as sympathetic. In response he used electronic equipment to develop a cacophony of metallic industrial crashings for the soundtrack. Terminator‘s opening theme song owes its unique sound to Fiedel manually crashing frying pans and other metallic objects into a sampler and playing synths over the top. With no MIDI or auto-correction available, this improvised work created the off-tempo time signature that heavily differentiated the sound.
These four films, and many more following them, helped cement the dark, industrial use of synthesizers in the cyberpunk genre. Example Videos:
Audiovisual Examples from this Section
- A Clockwork Orange (1971) Theme – UNOFFICIAL AUDIO (VIMEO)
- Escape from New York (1981) Theme – OFFICIAL AUDIO (WEBSITE LINK)
- Blade Runner (1982) Theme – UNOFFICIAL AUDIO (YOUTUBE)
- Terminator (1984) Theme – OFFICIAL AUDIO (YOUTUBE)
Music within the Scene
Cyberpunk as a sub-culture began to flourish in the mainstream from the 1980’s onwards and inspired numerous musicians who contributed their own work independent of cyberpunk film and other media.
Sonic Youth’s Sister (1987) and Daydream Nation (1988) albums are reported to be inspired by authors Philip K Dick and William Gibson, respectively. The band apparently had a habit of all reading the same books, and often wrote lyrics inspired by the current pick. Despite lacking any obvious lyrics or referential cyberpunk sounds, band member Kim Gordon claimed that Philip K Dick’s themes of paranoia in a world of surveillance and drug-induced warped reality were heavy inspirations; and that the author’s writings on schizophrenia were more accurate than any medical journal. Further, Sister (1987) was named after Dick’s paternal twin sister who died shortly after being born – an event that haunted his thoughts for the remainder of his life.
Daydream Nation (1988) was written and recorded at least partially under the influence of Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy – inspiring song titles such as “The Sprawl” and lines including “In this broken town, can you still jack in?”. The band felt Gibson’s descriptions of the urban landscape of his fictional universe tied in closely with their experiences in Los Angeles and the sense of alienation, escapism, vapidness and corporate dominance.
Cyberpunk (1993) by Billy Idol was an attempt to join the cyber-romantic Internet culture of the early 90s. Originally cast as the T-1000 in Terminator 2 (1991), Idol suffered a debilitating motorcycle accident during production and had to be replaced. Spurred on by immobility, and perhaps inspired by the science fiction film he was denied a high profile Hollywood role in, Idol experimented with virtual studios and machine-assisted music, composing songs that referenced common Cyberpunk themes. He went on to use the talents of Terminator 2‘s practical effects wizard, Stan Winston, when producing the music video for Shock to the System, which launched in promotion to the album. In the clip, Idol plays a cyborg revolutionary, leading a resistance against oppression.
Further, Idol named William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) as heavy inspiration (and even titling one of the tracks after it), Idol reportedly demanded that any journalists interviewing him as part of promotion for the album also read it. Embarrassingly, it soon became clear he had not read the book himself, claiming he never had to in order to absorb its themes. The album’s lyrics are lists of hollow buzzwords, barely touching on the ideas they claim to relate to.
William Gibson remarked “I don’t get what he’s on about.. I don’t see the connection” when asked to comment on the record.
The touring outfits and album art also match the aesthetics of the genre, with brightly coloured digital distortion and machine-human interfacing integrated throughout. Music critics were distributed their press kits on floppy disk and the music production itself was heavily computerized. However, despite so much promotion, the album was not well-received by Idol’s fans and there was a strong sentiment expressed by members of the cyberpunk sub-culture that Idol was pandering to a community he did not belong to or understand.
David Bowie and Brian Eno’s collaborative project Outside (1995) is an experimental dystopian narrative told through a series of mixed media vignettes, song lyrics, monologues, and liner notes. In the near future of 1999, the government has formed an ArtCrime division which is tasked with determining which artistic creations are legal, and which are “Trash”, the latter a punishable criminal offense. The central character, Nathan Adler, is a member of the ArtCrime bureau, investigating the murder of a 14 year old girl by a group of underground artists who have become increasingly aggressive in their displays. The album’s narrative describes a world of custom intoxicant “interest-drugs”, the fetishization, but also fear, of the new millennium, and a blurred line between cyberspace and reality.
Perhaps even more interesting is the manner in which the album was developed. Eno and Bowie had previously discussed their desires to remain distant from “central” creativity and to explore fringe ideas and outsider art for inspiration. Their methodology included visiting a mental hospital to interview and photograph patients which then spawned a large glossary of terms and expressions. None of the songs recorded were pre-written, and instead they used a combination of devices to improvise. Bowie entered key words into a computer program that randomly generated phrases, then using these as either direct lyrics or inspiration for characters and storylines he made up on the spot while recording. Eno created prompt-cards with descriptive clauses and handed them to band members, asking them to embody the character described for their performance that day.
The resulting album is an experimental synthetic noise-fest, telling the fragmented tale of a society quickly losing its humanity through rapidly-advancing technology and reality warping chemicals, both excited for and deathly afraid of the incoming future. Outside (1995) was both avant-garde in its production for its use of technology and the narrative itself is heavily laden with cyberpunk themes.
Fear Factory’s Obsolete (1998) and in part, it’s predecessor Demanufacture (1995), are set in a distant future in which machines have achieved complete dominance over humanity. Obsolete (1998) was created as a complete concept album with a comprehensive narrative detailing this scenario. Both albums describe a desire to revolt against robotic entities built to “serve and protect” who now rule over all aspects of human life, including religion, the ability to procreate and even when to die.
A booklet companion to Obsolete (1998) contains visuals by comic book artist Dave McKean that depicts human limbs and organs combined with machinery, holographic religious icons and industrial factory environments. Also included written account of the journey of protagonist EdgeCrusher who leads a human revolution against the oppressive cyborgs and their robot servants.
The band make a fearful prediction of Artificial Intelligence given too much power, rendering humanity obsolete, and openly discussed their beliefs that people have become too reliant on machines. Obsolete was released in 1998, and by this time works directly inspired by or made from within the Cyberpunk sub-culture and genre seemed to slow down. It is notable that many of the musical examples from this period included significant amounts of companion artwork and prose to accompany the albums, further fleshing out the concepts that perhaps were not as comprehensively detailed in the music themselves.
The release of The Matrix (1999) saw a spike in interest in the genre, with the film utilising existing Cybergoth fashion that was popular with the hard industrial techno rave scenes. The narrative has numerous parallels to the setting illustrated in Obsolete (1998). From the early to mid 90’s and in the UK, and later the rest of Europe, the Cybergoths enjoyed their own niche category of electronic rave music that spawned a seemingly resilient sub-culture that still exists to this day. However, while many individual works in the 2000s appear inspired by the stories and themes of Cyberpunk, there is clear decline if not an absence of mainstream cyberpunk music post 1999; not in the way that it seemed to thrive in the 1990’s.
The genre appeared to be lying relatively dormant, until the 2010’s when the availability of music on the internet saw both a rebirth in appreciation of these older artists and in cyberpunk in general.
Audiovisual Examples from this Section
- Sonic Youth (1988) Hey Joni – OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO (YOUTUBE)
- Billy Idol (1993) Shock to the System – OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO (YOUTUBE)
- David Bowie (1995) Hallo Spaceboy – OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO (YOUTUBE)
- Fear Factory (1998) Resurrection – OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO (YOUTUBE)
The Rise of ’80s Retrofuturism
As a relatively modern, experimental technology, electronic music has a strong connection to Cyberpunk media. Automated software, tools comprised of complex microcircuitry and the instantaneous collaborative effect of the internet have changed music as a medium forever.
One relevant genre that has emerged online via social media is Synthwave. These retrofuturistic artists combine electronic sounds from films and video games, typically from a nostalgic point in the 1980’s and 1990’s with an emphasis on science fiction themes. 8-bit Nintendo tracks, synthesized film OST’s and mechanical sound bytes are sampled and remastered with modern equipment and techniques; amplified with dark synth wubs and thumping, complex industrial drumbeats.
Distributed on YouTube and other streaming sites, grassroots Synthwave was often accompanied with static images or videos of the direct inspiration or sample source for each song. As the genre quickly gained steam, artists such as Perturbator commissioned their own unique pixel art videos, many of which containing decidedly cyberpunk imagery and narratives.
Perturbator’s Uncanny Valley (2016) is his most critically acclaimed release, unapologetic in it’s nostalgia-blasting and intensely dramatic, with imagery of fast-paced urban exploration, robotic punch-ups and dark alley shootouts. Each song in the album sounds like it belongs in a thrilling animated action scene – reinforced by the consistent use of neon coloured computer graphics, and a pixel art film clip depicting human-robot amalgams and glitch-laden jumpcuts.
Other notable artists in this scene include Kavinsky, Com Truise and Carpenter Brut who use similar appeals and imagery; directly forming a connection between the music and the art and stories of Cyberpunk universes that were forged decades earlier. Com Truise has referenced cyberpunk media for his album and song titles, and many of the songs sound like they could be used for an 80’s science fiction movie or video game. Of these more well-known Synthwave artists, Com Truise full embraces his cyberpunk and retrofuturist inspirations. Kavinsky’s music videos, while not explicitly futuristic, combine neo-noir film tropes and violence with electronic rock beats; capitalizing on retrofuturism and creating parallels with cyberpunk’s own genre usage of dark, atmospheric visual aesthetics.
Initially inspired by cyberpunk, or at least ’80s, video games and films, eventually Synthwave started to form its own pop culture media, with video games such as Hotline Miami coming out with their own curated Synthwave sountracks. The game itself reinforced the genre a with a ’80’s pixel art aesthetic, retro game play and ultra-violent imagery. Paranoia, reality-bending drug use and other themes that run parallel to those in cyberpunk literature are referred to throughout.
A similar homage to technological nostalgia can be found from the collaborative team 2814, with their album 新しい日の誕生 [Birth of a New Day] (2015) highly contrasted to the upbeat energy of the previous artists. The album uses samples of bustling cities, running trains and brooding Japanese monologues to create an ambient futuristic soundscape. The album sits among a culture of YouTube musicians remaking, remixing and combining video game soundtracks with obscure samples, paying homage to the classic media they love, with low-battery WalkMan crawling melodies and scratched PlayStation-disc tinny warbles amplifying the retro effect. Birth of a New Day (2015) was highly praised, and after an extremely limited CD-R release, fans were fast to crowdfund a vinyl pressing of the record.
With the failure of earlier artists like Billy Idol to capture the cyberpunk sub-culture market, it begs the question if such inspired work was simply ahead of its time and would have been more readily received by audiences as a homage as Synthwave has. And while Synthwave might not embody the ethos of rebellion espoused by Cyberpunk, it certainly is inspired by it and its popularity has seen a renewed interest in the mainstream for the aesthetic, and the sounds, of the genre.
Audiovisual Examples from this Section
- Perturbator (2016) Sentient – OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO (YOUTUBE)
- Com Truise (2011) Fairlight – OFFICIAL AUDIO (BANDCAMP)
- Kavinsky (2012) Protovision – OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO (YOUTUBE)
- 2814 (2015) 新しい日の誕生 – OFFICIAL AUDIO (DREAMCATALOGUE)
Modern Cyberpunks
The final facet that will be covered in this article includes those artists who are creating music in line with the ethos and ideology of cyberpunk as a genre. This suggests artists whose final products and methodologies are in line with Bruce Bethke’s “rebellious use of technology” playing against, or at least separate to, the mainstream and who are at the bleeding edge pushing the medium forward into the future. Coming into 2020, music is highly centralized and predominantly digitally networked for wide and convenient distribution. This has provided new avenues for avant-garde artists to create and share their work.
Artists such as Bladee and ECCO2K expanded their popularity using purely the internet; wholeheartedly embracing a meta-personality that was only reachable by audiences via virtual interaction. With no label association and the freedom of online digital accessibility, these artists are able to constantly shift and modify their personas, aesthetics, attitudes, and themes in a way that makes them less like the idolised pop celebrity of yesterday, and closer to a virtual Idoru that exists only online: wholly transformable and capable of adapting in real time.
Alongside regular “character” shifts, Bladee fans frequently point out that the artist never looks exactly the same in any photo or video release. While lyrics often cover themes of alienation and drug use, the music production invokes a futuristic essence through heavily layered sampling, sudden and dramatic tempo changes and glitch-laden electronic sound effects evoking memories of classic consoles and ’90s anime. Bladee and his associates appear to be making music for a disassociated and ADD-afflicted youth, devoting most of their time to the internet, lacking the ability to be serious about a topic for more than a few seconds; requiring constant changes in experience to remain entertained.
While Death Grips spent some time under major label association, they quickly showed audiences they had no interest in conforming to the desires of a marketing team or the restrictions of mass-appeal. They removed themselves from the Epic record label after refusing to delay the release of the album NØ LØV∑ D∑∑P W∏B (2012) and instead intentionally leaked it online (featuring a NSFW cover) using torrent sites. Their next album was promoted via intricate Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) posted to image boards and forums, leading users through several deepweb .onion sites, with multiple methods of encryption and coded text, and embedded data in sounds and images hinted at through interactive twitter and forum posts. Eventually, this ARG lead to a set of unreleased instrumentals from the band and their announcement of a release date.
Death Grips have released albums with no prior promotion, including the Cyberpunk-sounding Fashion Week (2015) instrumentals, which are reminiscent of the soundtrack for the System Shock 2 game with its warped synthesizers and panic-paced drumming. While lyrics are often as cryptic as the bands online activities, interpreted lines frequently refer to paranoia and anxiety in a world of surveillance. This has been a recurring theme of music in the cyberpunk genre. Twisting metaphors blend threats of physical violence with hacking and malware, implying a world where the online and physical worlds are blended. Others describe shady underground movements, secret religions and intelligence agencies.
Death Grips have used the confusing and complicated layers of internet communication to enrich their musical work with lore and character. The result is decidedly cyberpunk in their use of technology and near-future dystopian themes.
Finally, Californian rapper BONES may be the strongest example of a modern musician subverting the industry. BONES exclusively utilizes internet platforms like Soundcloud and YouTube to distribute his work; determined not to compromise his artistic integrity with a major label. His own website and film-clips feature glitching graphical effects and found-footage style VHS static media while lyrics describe heavy internet usage, technological hybridization and low-life characters functioning in the underbelly of society.
BONES frequently collaborates with artists on the fringe of internet popularity, changing styles between hardcore screaming, emo acoustic rock and underground rap. With an enormous catalogue that has been released for free online, BONES has formed a devoted following by remaining true to his creative spirit, proving that in the modern age music is accessible enough for fans to find artists they truly connect with, rather than being sold a product.
These artists are working to reinforce that the line between real human creators, virtual personas and collaborative internet audiences is consistently being blurred. With machine learning being applied to every aspect of the industry, including creative works, it’s almost a guarantee that in the future we will see entirely automated musical projects, including more and more virtual pop idols such as Japan’s Hatsune Miku.
Audiovisual Examples from this Section
- BONES (2016) Rocks/AwayFromKeyboard – OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO (YOUTUBE)
- Bladee + ECCO2K (2018) Obedient – OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO (YOUTUBE)
- Bladee (2017) Gatekeeper – OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO (YOUTUBE)
- Death Grips (2012) Hacker – OFFICIAL AUDIO (YOUTUBE)
The Future of Cyberpunk Music
Cyberpunk music comes in many forms. The four facets discussed here evolved chronologically along with this sub-culture, with some overlap, and exist both in competition and complement to one another. The OSTs of iconic cyberpunk films cemented the sound, but even homages to the genre like Perturbator have had their own impact spawning games, video and other artistic content outside of the medium of music. The future of cyberpunk as an art form will no doubt be online-based and continue to utilize emergent technologies to subvert the mainstream systems of distribution and consumption. In the sphere of music, as long as technology is being engaged with by a rebellious culture to share as well as create, cyberpunk will exist as a genre.
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