Going through the musical archives and bit and was reminded of some seminal groups that every hacker or edgerunner out there should probably be familiar with, as a lot of this music came about as the cyberpunk genre was starting to develop and affect the public consciousness, and a lot of them saw the future coming way before the rest of us did. As always, suggestions and additions are encouraged!
'80s bands:
Information Society (they literally had an album called Hack!)
Sigue Sigue Sputnik
Clock DVA
Kraftwerk (obvi)
Devo
Billy Idol, “Cyberpunk” - I think this might have been the early '90s, but he definitely morphed from '80s pop punk to cyberpunk with this one
Gary Numan
'90s bands:
The Prodigy
Massive Attack, “Mezzanine”
Nine Inch Nails - most of this music is anti-corpo or could be applied that way, and of course later on he sort of became the real life embodiment of Johnny Silverhand (minus the suitcase nuke)
Some blasts from the past in the list already. Here’s a few more for your consideration:
Primarily from the 80s
Jean Michel Jarre - Revolution, Ethnicolor for glossy corpo-tech-sound
Cocteau Twins - Treasure for jacked-in mind trips
Haysi Fantayzee - because it’s the bonkers avant-garde pop-punk sound of script kiddies
Depeche Mode - because how have we got this far without mentioning them?
The Specials - because Ghost Town, in fact almost everything they did just fits IMHO
Toyah - Anthem, more punk than cyber but I Want To Be Free seems to fit really well.
From the 90s
Enigma - even if the albums scream solarpunk almost as loud as it screams “stolen samples” and “cultural appropriation”
Deep Forest - again a heavy solarpunk vibe and masses of cultural appropriation
Jesus Jones - political and social commentary hidden in catchy dance tunes
Meanwhile Back In Communist Russie, an eclectic one I first heard on John Peel’s show on BBC Radio 1 back in the day. A hint of steam in the cyberpunk, haunting, claustrophobic, dark soundscapes
The entire Strange Days soundtrack, because… well, just because.
None are absolute cyberpunk but all add to the vibe I reckon. Very UK centric but then again that was where I was at the time. For a 201#s addition I’d include Berlin’s brilliant Grossstadtgeflüster because they just seem to hit a sweet spot of punk and social commentary.
These are great additions to the list! Definitely some in here that I had forgotten about or hadn’t thought of in the context of the cyberpunk genre. And yes, I can’t believe I forgot to mention Depeche Mode.
I also didn’t mention The Specials because, and I know that this is nigh on to blasphemy to say in tech circles, but I frakkin’ hate “Ghost Town”. I don’t know why and I have no rational explanation. I know it was formative and it’s a core part of the cyberpunk reality, but I just can’t stand that song for some reason. So I guess it’s good that you included it here for everyone else to see.
And a big shout-out to Deep Forest also. I love that band, and I still listen to the eponymous debut on the regular. They also had that end-credits song on the Strange Days soundtrack with Peter Gabriel, which is an absolute banger. But yeah, the cultural appropriate is… a lot.
So I guess it’s good that you included it here for everyone else to see. 