Music for Cyberpunk 2020/Shadowrun

[coyote6]

I was always fond of Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime.

 

[Chainsaw]

Hackers soundtrack

 

[timbannock]

Sonic Mayhem (look 'em up on the web; does guitar-oriented industrial/techno usually for video game soundtracks)

Front Line Assembly

Ministry

Generated X-Ed (good luck finding this one, but they are AMAZING for this genre)

For the Eastern vibe of Asian Megacorporations and such, check out Lumin, Vas and Delerium...mostly ambient electronica and "Eastern" style vocalizations

Animatrix soundtrack has some really hot tracks

Spawn soundtrack

DO NOT FORGET ABOUT RAP/HIP-HOP, especially the more militant stuff. Great inner-city feel, which is perfect for the Sprawl. Certain acts have a lot more electronica than you'd expect, too, like Busta Rhymes.

Aphex Twin

For a horror feel, you can't beat the Event Horizon soundtrack (Michael Kamen w/ Orbital)

I think I repeated some stuff, but otherwise, everyone else mentioned some really great stuff.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

The recent Nine Inch Nails insturmental release, Ghosts I-IV, seems like it would be ideal. Much as I like things like Operation Mindcrime, I prefer few lyrics in my gaming music. I would also (as neuronphaser points out) use different music for different locations to set the scene. NiN would be great general music, but some rap/hiphop would be good in some places, as would some more mellow electronic music - I think of Air as a good group to play for a fancy upscale location. World music would be cool, too, emphasizing the continuing merging of cultures...

 

[Desdichado]

Hackers soundtrack

I was gonna say this one. I've got about 7-8 audio CDs worth of similar vocal-less trance mp3 files, mostly from the late 90s, kicking around in a folder on my hard drive. To me, that's the ultimate cyberpunk music. It's kinda boring to just sit and listen to, but if you go to a rave, or want background music for a cyberpunk type game, it's perfect.

 

[Krensky]

You need to be more eclectic, and you need German and Japanese artists.

Velvet Underground (per William Gibson)
Rush
The Clash
The Who
Priss and the Replicants (from the Bubblegum Crisis soundtracks)
Disturbed
Rage Against the Machine
The Streets of Fire soundtrack
Bladerunner soundtrack
Matrix soundtracks
Almost any metal or hard rock act
Covenant
Beasty Boys
Billy Idol
Daft Punk
And One
Frontline Assembly
Front 242
Mentallo and the Fixer
The soundtacks from Appleseed (2004) and Appleseed Ex Machina
A number of J-rock bands, but you'll need to listen and decide on a sond by song basis as most are not particually strongly thematically focused (their catalog is all over the place)
Uwe Schmidt (as Lassigue Bendthaus)
The Sharon Apple albums from Macross Plus
Yoko Kano, especially her Ghost in the Shell series work
A number of opening or closing themes from anime shows, To Aru Majutsu no Index has a good opening for this

 

[Kishin]

Be careful with Drone (particularly Sunn O))) ) on a quality stereo system: You will give certain people intense headaches. It has a great moodiness to it, but I have to grit my teeth and wince my way through an album of theirs. It surpasses even early, badly recorded black metal in terms of the sonic assault it launches on your eardrums.

I also recommend the music to the Persona/Digital Devil Saga games.

 

[Mercule]

Photek has some techno/trance stuff with a vaguely Japanese undertone that would be good for several scenes. Try the Blade soundtrack (Deacon Frost is listening to Photek in the library scene).