What is Sci-Fi Music to You?

[Witch0Winter]

Pretty simple. What sort of music do you think of when you think of science fiction? I ask since science fiction, as a genre, seems to have wide ranges of music from beeps and boops of Star Trek and the various "-wave" music forms to the grand orchestral scores of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica. Since it's highly personal, I thought it'd be interesting to see what other people think of when they think "sci-fi music".

Personally, for me, what instantly comes to mind is Vangelis' score for the film Blade Runner. Nothing can beat it, to me.

 

[Alex]

Depends on the sub genre of Sci-fi I suppose but when I think about future/space music the opera scene from fifth element sticks out in my mind.

 

[E73S]

The soundtrack from Star Trek: Armada counts.

 

[Avernus]

If someone says "sci-fi music", my immediate thought is "theremin music". Like in Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still.

 

[Choo Choo]

There's lots of different kinds of sci-fi music to me, but I'm going to highlight a personal favorite track from Mass Effect (that I feel is underrated, at that!)



EDIT #1: And one more example which isn't underrated but which I love so much:



EDIT #2: I guess that while a grand, orchestral score could be for sci-fi, such as with Star Wars, my first thought upon hearing a grand orchestral piece won't be "oh this makes me think of sci-fi." Something more electronic, however, will.

 

[Sergeant Sarcasm]

"Sci-fi" music doesn't necessarily have to sound futuristic by using electronic instruments. 2001 A Space Odyssey used purely classical music and John William's score for Star Wars is tinged with sound of European Romantics and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. There is lots of music by various composers that sounds 'wide' like the universe.

Mahler symphonies always sound like he's building a universe of sound around you.

Bruckner's symphonies never sounded like a human wrote them, especially with Celibidache's recordings. A cellist in the Munich Philharmonic said that the music "comes out of the cosmic force. It is already there, all I have to do is bring it forth on my instrument."

And some Wagner, cause why not.

 

[Sublink]

When I was young, science fiction sounded like bad PC speaker and Casio synths; the obvious sounds of the future that science fiction showed was full of despair, violence, and dehumanisation.



Now that I'm an adult, science fiction sounds like a more textured combination of synthetic and traditional sounds, for a less certain future where there is still room to hope for a time better than the present.

 

[libbrit]

Perhaps its reflective of the kind of sci fi i like, which is the intricate, grand, sweeping, convoluted storylines, such as Battlestar Galactica, or even recently, Westworld, that makes me fond of rich and complex music with a bit of an emotional edge-infact a recent example from the affore mentioned Westworld, is probably worth posting-the music in this clip was amazing

 

[Witch0Winter]

Perhaps its reflective of the kind of sci fi i like, which is the intricate, grand, sweeping, convoluted storylines, such as Battlestar Galactica, or even recently, Westworld, that makes me fond of rich and complex music with a bit of an emotional edge-infact a recent example from the affore mentioned Westworld, is probably worth posting-the music in this clip was amazing

Click to shrink...

Very much agreed. My favorite part was that the song there (and in the finale) is a cover of a Radiohead song, "Motion Picture Soundtrack" from their album Kid A:



Both it and the cover are, I think, beautifully haunting music fit for sci-fi. Which isn't surprising given one track on another Radiohead album ("Paranoid Android" on OK Computer) is a direct reference to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

 

[Fell]

Techno-Reggae.

Thanks Neuromancer.