History Main / FutureMusic

If a futuristic movie is made in the '70s or '80s, you can expect at least one scene to take place in a "futuristic disco" which features lots of heavily synthesized music and people in neon costumes writhing around. (The ''Buck Rogers'' TV series featured a lot of scenes like these, as did the movie ''Logan's Run'' and the ''MST3K'' episode ''SpaceMutiny.'') And CyberPunkIsTechno, naturally.

* Averted: As early as 1956, the soundtrack of the aforementioned ''Forbidden Planet'' consisted of sounds generated by "self-destructing" electrical circuits, each of which produced a single sound, then died. These sounds were mixed and layered to create an atonal score unlike anything heard before.

* Appreciably [[AvertedTrope Averted]] in the reimagined ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'', in which colonial music is largely familiar to the viewer, with Classical, Celtic, Tribal, and Rock styles. According to the WordOfGod, the musical similarities are relevant to the show's mythos.
** [[ArcWords All this has happened before; all this will happen again.]] Apparently including musical fashions.
*** There must be some kind of way out of here...
*** Said the joker to the thief.

** Subverted in ''VideoGame/StarCraftII''. Most of the songs on the ''Hyperion's'' jukebox are rockabilly classics like [[Music/LynyrdSkynyrd "Sweet Home Alabama"]].
*** [[LampshadeHanging "What's an Alabama?"]]

* One episode of ''EarthFinalConflict'' brings us Taelon music using a light-based musical instrument translated as "tubes". Also, the show's theme music just has a OneWomanWail to a peaceful-sounding music.

* ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'' has ex-photojournalist rebel Jasper entertaining his younger counterpart Theo with some delightful Zen music from TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture... it sounds like traditional drums mixed with guttural punk screaming all being scratched by a DJ. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUq4P-v4BMs Have a listen]]. The song, minus the screaming, is actually "omgyjya Switch 7" by AphexTwin.

* ''{{Zenon}}: Girl of [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale the 21st Century]]'' focused heavily on the music of a band called Microbe. This being a 1999 DisneyChannel movie, their biggest song sounds prezactly like modern light tween pop, except with lyrics such as -- sing along, contemporaries, you know the words -- "ZOOM ZOOM ZOOM, make my heart go BOOM BOOM, would you be my [[SciFiNameBuzzwords Super Nova Girl]]?" Slightly hilariously, the "futuristic" personal aesthetic of the FaceOfTheBand, [[http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/smartie145/Disney/protozoa.png Protozoa]], seems to have been adopted wholesale by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:JayManuel.jpg Jay Manuel]].

*** This unfortunate name for this style of music in-universe is jizz.

** Given that many free humans came from the Matrix, wouldn't their musical tastes reflect the trends in the virtual world? It'd be different for those born in Zion, of course.

* ''Film/ChildrenOfMen'' has ex-photojournalist rebel Jasper entertaining his younger counterpart Theo with some delightful Zen music from TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture... it sounds like traditional drums mixed with guttural punk screaming all being scratched by a DJ. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUq4P-v4BMs Have a listen]].
** That track is actually called "Omgyjya Switch 7" by AphexTwin from his 2001 album ''drukQs''.

* In Dan Abnett's {{Eisenhorn}} trilogy, taking place in the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' universe, there's apparently this thing called "pound", which is by [[{{Fanon}} fans]] described as a mix between house, trance and dance music turned [[UpToEleven up to over 9000]].

* A Creator/GrantMorrison story in a Vertigo anthology has people in the future listening to 'freakbeat Vivaldi, skewed and chopped' which either predicted remix culture or just assumed it would continue into the future.
** He does use this "image" at one point, although it's in the Comicbook/DoomPatrol arc following Red Jack's [[DudeShesLikeInAComa abduction of the comatose Rhea]]. It's described as being intersected with [[{{Squick}} wedding bells]]. ItMakesSenseInContext. [[MindScrew Sort of.]]

* ''TheMatrixReloaded'' contains [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment a futuristic rave in Zion that seems to go on forever while adding absolutely nothing to the movie]] [[FanService but Fan Service]].

** In one episode of ''TNG'', a Ferengi has a bar entertainer play some Ferengi music (istead of the Klingon opera she was playing before), which turns out to be rather monotonous serialist twelve-tone music (whose mathematical structures are fitting for a culture of accoutants and merchants).

* Jules Verne's little-known (never published in its day) ''Literature/ParisInTheTwentiethCentury'' features music of the "future": the music pieces have names relating to technology ("Thiloriade, Great Fantasia About Condensation Of Carbonic Acid") and sound like unrhythmic, jubled mess of noises.

** One of the scenes in ''Revenge of the Sith'' features some Mon Calamari opera. It most succinctly described as "abstract."

* ''[[Film/BillAndTed Bill and Ted'ss Excellent Adventure]]''. Contemporary music ''creates utopia in the future.'' The movie makers wisely never actually give an example of whatever composition Bill and Ted create that brings about world peace.

** A similar gag was used in the original ''MaxHeadroom'' TV movie, in which a telemarketing ad for a collection of all-time classic ''digital watch tunes'' is played back by Carter's answering machine.
* A rare example of this trope being handled tastefully comes from Wim Wenders' 1991 film (better seen as a trilogy) ''UntilTheEndOfTheWorld.'' The director asked well known artists like REM, DepecheMode, TalkingHeads, LouReed, PattiSmith, ElvisCostello and NickCave and the Bad Seeds to come up with the kind of music they thought they would be recording [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture in the year 1999]]. The result was one of the most influential film soundtracks of the 1990s.

** R. Talsorian's ''CyberPunk'' games had similar popular music to ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'''s, featuring 80s-esque pop, rap, and chromatic rock, which was basically hair metal with more synthesizers and electronic beats.

* ''The Game Of Life'' had a ([[TheProblemWithLicensedGames surprisingly decent]]) video game adaptation on the original PlayStation. It had "2000s" music which was generic 90s techno.

* ''Videogame/MassEffect'' has some samples of "future" electronic music playing in bars and clubs. As well as some remixes of the main themes for the long elevator rides that don't sound too different from present-day muzak...

* Donna Summer's album ''I Feel Yesterday'' consists of disco homages to various decades of music history, but the final track, [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7r83-y3j2A "I Feel Love"]], is supposed to represent the future of music, and drops the live orchestras of contemporary disco in favor of synthesizers. It does sound like modern EDM if you squint hard enough.

* In AnneMcCaffrey's ''TheShipWho Sang'', BobDylan is the most popular classical musician of the future. Singing in his style is banned in some countries, because it's too persuasive.

* ''{{Remnants}}''. The NightmareFuel filled series K A Applegate wrote after Animorphs started off on a light note... with Opera being the new "pop" music.

* ''Galaxy Goof-Ups'' featured disco music with [[NightmareFuel frighteningly trippy]] [[DisneyAcidSequence visual sequences]].