To reply over the "this has to be in, that to be out"
Long post, but that's my honnest take on the subject.
The thing is, it's "Cyberpunk"
Not "Mass Effect" or "Deus Ex", it's not just:
"Ho, let's have some cool music for a cool game with cyborgs", it's way more deep than this, mostly if you take the source material as basis for the soundtrack (because, if you come telling me
"there aren't anything musicaly related in CP2020", well, get back reading the book, you'll be surprised...)
If some people here are mostly listening to "radio-mainstream-stuff" they'll probably don't get it, or don't see how the "media" part of CP2020 was as much deep as the economical/geopolitic side of the massive corporations and all the background stuffs.
Cyberpunk isn't Cyberpunk if you remove the underground, it's just bland scifi without any meaning.
Cyberpunk is a scream coming from the deep of the underground to the highest level of the leader.
Cyberpunk, as a "universe", isn't some soon-futuristic bullshit like Mass Effect or Star Trek or Blade Runner with epic synth music playing along and a
"serious tone for serious people because you know, that's cool when it's serious and all, because life is a square", with Vangelis jerking his fat ass in the background when it comes to the soundtrack, it's waaaaayyyy deeper than this, trust me.
When it comes to Cyberpunk, forget the
"badass cyborg soldier pictures" you seen on tumblr, think more about a crackhead in a dump, high on meth listening to GG Allin.
Or the crazy Corporate from "American Psycho", freaking over some New Age before having some coke and having fun with an escort.
It's all about the people, not the "world", and when it comes to people, they are... like us.
Night City is a "City", filled with different tones, sounds, cultures, languages, etc....
I expect a wide variety of style, ethnic music and all.
About the edgerunners "music"...
Music and art in general are a powerfull tool, it can make people sleep like most mainstream music nowadays, without real message, just some
"buy my shits and live your life happy without asking yourself any questions", or it can create revolt, like the rock in the 60/70, when youngster actually scared the mob, nowadays you'll listen to "The Doors" without thinking that much, back in the days... it had a meaning, it pushed people to say "FUCK YOU" to the establishment.
That's how you have to figure the Cyberpunk soundtrack, more than trying to know what genre has to be in.
Music evolve with society, look around, listen to it throught the ages, and you'll see that the mainstream music goes softer and minimalist day by day, by the times the underground is more and more violent (the "Chrome Metal" described in Cyberpunk 2020 is somewhat like something ultra violent sounding, some over agressive punk/metal with really engaged lyrics
(more than our actuals bands... those guy are wanted dead by corporations), and the crowd are beating each other to pulp in the pit, there are actual people dyings in concerts, it's not mosh, it's a big melee).
Why?
Because the society is more and more violent in everyway, it's in our world, and it's even more in the Cyberpunk one.
Street punks needs to "unleash" their frustration, to release stress in a way
Corporates would be more "clean and classy music", to relax after an hard day of work.
It's two different worlds, totally, the Corporate are like the "kings" in...Games of throne, they live in luxury, in their crystal castle, they don't want to hear a guy screaming
"fuck you and blow my brain" all around, they have their own vision of the world, even there, they'll probably have some "nice" Rock or Punk band for the posers gangs, but nothing more offensive than Avril Lavigne: some easy riffs and stupids lyrics for teenagers, or even Electro (like ambiant, synth a la vangelis, stuff like this), some "nice and beautifull things", they don't want, and don't care about the misery of the world, they just want to be trapped in their endless happiness, and fuck the rest of the world.
On the otherside, you have the casual streetpunk / edgerunner, living a shitty live, and they probably don't listens to Mozart if you see what I mean...
They go in dark club, made in the ruins of abandoned buildings, listening to "angry and engaged" music, sure it's ugly and "noisy", but it's intended to, it's their mindset, they have nothing to lose, they live in the dirt, they don't care about "nice music", they want something to kick out their rage over.
Now, Cyberpunk will be refreshed, I don't say "let's put only metal and cool music", but IMO the soundtrack will not just be "a soundtrack", it's as much important in the Cyberpunk universe as the implants and the corporations, it doesn't have to sound futuristic,
"just because it's 2077", it has to sound like something coming from a divised society, with the ultra-rich at one side, and the ultra-poor on the other.
That's the
"Edge" William Gibson talks about when he talk about Cyberpunk.
I can't find back the exact sentence, but he said something in the line of "Without the edge, there aren't cyberpunk, it's just sci-fi".
Just like movies, you have movies like Blade Runners or Strange Days, filled with "Edge", a chaotic city, with fully fleshed characters, living in a messy world, some kind of a "dangerous high tech babylone", Style over Substance, that's the thing.
Remove the edge, and you have bland movies like Minority Report, I Robot, Prometheus...
Sure it's "a distopic soon future", but Case, Molly, Max Headroom or Decker wouldn't fit in it.
And the "nice people" from those movies wouldn't last long in the actual "Cyberpunk" world.
We need an "edgy soundtrack", whatever style find their way in, a big difference between "corporate" and "edgerunners" mindset and music.
Even the main story have to make you travel through every layer of the society, and by so, giving you different tastes of the Cyberpunk's "musical world", the same way the radios on GTA seems so "living", because you can find the same in your car, that's just my opinion tho, but it's something they need to reach to really make a "cyberpunk soundtrack" and a fully fleshed Cyberpunk world, otherwise it'll be a lil "forced" IMO.
It's not just for the sake of music, but to enhance the "realism and social credibility" of a fucked up world in 2077.
You can go from music like this in the corporate world (inner night city, etc...)
More "club friendly" and "eerie" ala Vangelis, more
"it's the future, welcome in our nice city with neon and all"
I'm pretty limited about the link I can put there, it's just some examples
and the deeper you'll fall in the combat zone, you'll stumble into the dirt and the anger, and the sound have to become harsher to stick with it.
I could have put more songs but that's not the point, it's just to show how the music and the art in general is pictured in Cyberpunk 2020, and Cyberpunk as a genre usualy, corporate wants "bland" songs, and edgerunners want "agressive and meaningfull songs".
It all depend how they'll picture the game tho, but if they keep the roots of 2020, what I said is, I think, pretty relevant.
Just my 2cts.
