If the future consists ofmassive computer networks,corrupt corporations /governments andaugmented humans, and isdirty and grim (i.e.Cyberpunk), you can bet that the music of choice will be techno, electronica, and/or industrial music. Ambient music of choice? Techno. Hanging out at theCoolest Club Ever? No hip-hop, punk rock, or any other dance music here, just techno.

Since techno, industrial music, and electronica require electronics (hence the name) to work, the use of such can bring a futuristic feel to it. The music is usually played to give a dystopian mood. Since cyberpunk is usually set inDystopia, and in a technological world, this kind of music is perfect for that setting.

Anime andManga

• Serial Experiments Lain: While the opening and ending themes don't fall under this trope, all the in-show music is dark electronica.
• ItsSpiritual SuccessorTexhnolyze also puts techno on the opening theme.
  • But not, in turn, in the series universe itself, which is mostly modelled after old-school Yakuza films, stylistically speaking.
• Armitage III
• Bubblegum Crisis: Tokyo 2040 uses techno for its background music.
• Notably averted in the film versions ofAkira andGhost in the Shell, where the soundtrack instead consists of a combination of synthesizers and traditional Asian chanting and instrumentation.

Comic Books

• 90s-eraJudge Dredd comics frequently had posters up on the walls forNine Inch Nails,White Zombie and other industrial-metal acts. The tendency of thedystopian future setting to use this kind of music was lampshaded during theDoomsday For Megacity 1 arc across2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine: Anderson meets a contact at a nightclub and comments that the music is giving her a headache and she can't understand why its so popular.

Film

• Hackers. Mid-90s techno music is almost constant throughout this film.
• The Matrix: Seeing that the movie is the epitome ofCyberpunk, techno is, of course, found here, as is some actual punk.
• Johnny Mnemonic
• Played with in the Tech Noir nightclub inThe Terminator: the music is initially normal 80s pop, until the electric/metallicLeitmotif of the Terminator kicks in.
• The Gene Generation soundtrack. Mostly the music is EBM/Industrial (several songs from EBM/Industrial/Electro act Combichrist are used), and even the non-Industrial music is written by Ronan Harris from VNV Nation (a popular Futurepop act). Add the fact that the director and all the characters constantly dress as futuristic goths and you have a film that basically is one giant advertisement for the entire catalogue of Metropolis Records.
• The originalTron score was composed by Wendy Carlos, a pioneer in electronic music. It was not so much techno as (much like herClockwork Orange score) a symphonic score with electronic sound effects and instrumentation. The score to the sequelTron: Legacy, however, was done by French house duoDaft Punk, mixing straight orchestral violins and pumping electronic beats.
• One scene fromRoboCop takes place in a club, where Robocop arrests one of Clarence Boddicker's minions. Industrial techno plays in the background. The track?Show Me Your Spine byMinistry side-project PTP.
• The music inBlade Runner (by Vangelis) is not quite techno, but makes heavy use of synthesizers (except for the famous "love theme",played on a saxophone).

Live-Action TV

• The Glen Larson-produced shows|Battlestar Galactica' (the original) andBuck Rogers in the 25th Century only had techno synthesizer music.
• Caprica, despite having fashions inspired by the 1950s, used a lot of techno.

Music

• Perhaps some justification for the trope;Industrial music actFront Line Assembly deliberately aimed for aCyberpunk sound with their albumsTactical Neural Implant andHard Wired.
• Justified Trope: "Techno" differentiated itself from other electronically produced music in 1980's Detroit, which pretty much _was_ an industrially driven dystopia. Explicit themes of futurism, technological advancement, corruption, industrial dehumanization and consequently dark mood are all over techno from the beginning. See 1983's "Industrial Lies" and 1985's "Future"

Video Games

• Most of theJudge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death soundtrack.
• Deus Ex: The night clubs are all techno. The music has a very dark feel to it.
• The Longest Journey
• Mega Man Battle Network: Although Battle Network is more of aPost Cyber Punk, because of its more positive view of massive networks, electronica and techno are the music of choice during the game.
  • On the other hand, given that the games appear on the Game Boy Advance system, it could very well just beRetraux 8-bit style music (a la the 8-bitGame Boy).
• Hard War had a soundtrack comprised of artists from the British Warp Records label, which was an eclectic mix of techno, ambient, and drum n' bass.
• Shadowrun: Sometimes averted, Hair metal is the music of choice at times.
  • TheCyberpunk RPG sometimes averts this as well: the music of choice is "chromatic rock", which is hair metal set to techno beats (so basically industrial?), but supplements imply that hip-hop, spoken word and more stripped-down forms of rock still exist.
• The soundtrack toSan Francisco Rush 2049 (excluding the N64 version) is almost entirely techno.
• Descent I andII hadIndustrial andIndustrial Metal soundtracks. The third game also has many techno and industrial tunes, along with liberal use of aTheremin and ethnic/tribal instruments.
• TheWipeout series is noted for its all-star techno soundtracks. The soundtrack to the third game was produced by well-known DJ/producer Sasha, and included his single "Xpander".
• F-Zero AX/GX has tons of techno tunes. A little polarizing sinceF-Zero X had nothing but rock music.
• Die Hard Trilogy 2: Viva Las Vegas has a techno soundtrack produced by Brian "BT" Transeau. Excluding the credits theme, which is hip-hop.
• P.N.03, with some of it reused forResident Evil 4's mercenaries mode (as well as the game engine).
• InDystopia, all music packaged with the game is techno, and a muffled techno track can be heard near a club.
• Perfect Dark has several levels with electronica soundtracks, since the game's genre is acombination ofCyberpunk andScience Fiction.
  • Subverted inPerfect Dark Zero, where the Nightclub Stakeout music starts with a banging techno track, then changes to the disco-house tune "Limelight" (a real song by Kepi & Kat). Much of the other in-game music is rock/metal. Played straight with the intro and ending themes.
• Final Fantasy XIII has an undeniably cyberpunk theme to go along with its purely sci-fi setting, so naturally there are quite a few ambient trance and techno tracks within the soundtrack.
• TheRay Series.
• Rez.
• The originalQuake was scored byTrent Reznor, although that's more dark ambient.
  • Quake II has anIndustrial Metal soundtrack by Sonic Mayhem and they co-producedQuake III Arenas soundtrack with theIndustrial bandFront Line Assembly.
• Sensory Overload for the Macintosh, with its mind control technology-based plot, had techno-industrial music.Crowning Music of Awesome, although there were only four BGM tracks.
• Lethal Skies uses mostly techno,Industrial, andIndustrial Metal.
• Contra: Shattered Soldier features techno and industrial metal produced bySota Fujimori andAkira Yamaoka.And it's awesome.
• Raiden III is somewhat of a musicalodd man out in the series, as much of the soundtrack is techno, except for the Stage 1, 2, and 3 themes, which are the usual J-synthpop.
• Vegas Stakes, a casino game byHALLaboratory for theSNES, has the"2020", a futuristic,Cyberpunk-themed casino complete withrepetitive techno music blaring in the background.
• Played with inMetal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, which is undeniably cyberpunk, but accompanied mostly by a sort of techno/light jazz fusion. The straight-up techno elements are also heavier in Snake's chapter; Raiden's has more of a jungle slant, until returning to techno right at the very end wheneverything goes to hell.
• Averted withBeneath a Steel Sky—despite being cyberpunk-themed, it has mostly traditional-sounding tunes, the one nightclub plays jazz, and the cyberspace level's theme has a surrealNew Age-y feel.
• Splinter Cell series.
• Spectre VR, being set inCyberspace, has the obligatory techno and industrial tunes, but also New Age and neo-classical music.
• Syndicate
• TheX Universe series uses an electronic music score and has several aspects of theCyberpunk setting.
• Sonic the Hedgehog's Scrap Brain Zone, which has a cyberpunk theme, uses a sped-upJimmy Hart Version of the credits music fromBlade Runner.
• Aside from beingDarker and Edgier,Mass Effect 2 gave us a dose of this trope with theAfterlife nightclub onOmega, anold and rickety space station that's practically the capital of the galactic underworld. The upper section plays a slow electronic piece (Callista from Saki Kaskas) while the lower section has drum and bass (Techno Madness from Jesse Allen). Too bad you don't get to start a fight here...

Western Animation

• Batman Beyond
• TheMIB cartoon theme is sort of a techno/hip hop hybrid.

• Trope
• Cyberpunk Tropes
• Cyberpunk Is Techno