Cyberpunk songs can play out as a number of different sounds. Good examples include the revolutionary music of the 1970s, the techno pop of the 90s, and the heavy metal of today. Following are the most recent top 40 hits according to the charts in Night City:
# Song*Group*Album*Type 1 Only the Original*Junglecat*Fo(u)r Anne*Rock 2 Ginsu Gaijin*Technetics*Synthality*Techno 3 Never Fade Away*Johnny SilverHand*A Cool Metal Fire*Chrom 4 Chromed Over*Junglecat*Fo(u)r Anne*Rock 5 Encased in Caseless*Agony, Inc.*Painkillers*Chrom 6 Chippin’ In*Johnny Silverhand*A Cool Metal Fire*Chrom 7 Rabbit Ears*Junglecat*Fo(u)r Anne*Rock 8 Gut Pain*Innocent Porn Kings*Slave*Chrom 9 Just a Soul*Ki-tu-lu*666*Goth 10 187*Slaughter*MDK*Chrom 11 Rolling Thunder*Nomad Road Singers*#1*Rock 12 Chrome .45*Caliber*Armory*Chrom 13 Wired ‘put*Kerry Eurodyne*Little for Everyone*Pop 14 Buttonhead*Everything in a Sink*Staring Glass*Techno 15 Ronin Again*Eversoul*Japanimation*Alt 16 Little bit of God*Death’s Headsmen*Full Leather Jacket*Techno 17 Black, Grey, and Smog*Chromatically Inclined*Color*Alt 18 Not White*Chromatically Inclined*Color*Alt 19 Raging Against the Wall*Damon Desolation*Damon Puts Out*Rock 20 In the Net*Technetics*Synthality*Techno 21 Not just Hopeless: Lost*Melinda Night*Night City Sounds*Rock 22 That Canadian Bastard*Off Whack*Pocket Rocket*Alt 23 Origami Heart*Eversoul*Japanimation*Alt 24 No PhD*Hack*Orgasm*Chrom 25 Apocalypse*Shelter Dwellers*Out in the Sun*Rock 26 Satanic Lapdance*Satan*I am the God of Hellfire*Goth 27 A Sick Puppy, Strangled Cat, and A Drink Too Many*An Urban Cow Poke*Texas Plains*Cntry 28 The Long Way Back*Nomad Road Singers*#1*Rock 29 Red, White, and the Blues*Chromatically Inclined*Color*Alt 30 Gibson’s Son*Johnny Silverhand*A Cool Metal Fire*Chrom 31 Kalakari*Slashing Steel*CutThroat*Chrom 32 On The Third Shift*Ben Winters*An American Nightmare*Rock 33 Flashing Lights*Johnny Silverhand*A Cool Metal Fire*Chrom 34 Tangled Cables of the Urban Jungle*Junglecat*Fo(u)r Anne*Rock 35 Song for John (Fifty Years)*Destiny*Cheyenne Mountains*Rock 36 The Hackman*Blood and Ice*Out of the Alley*Chrom 37 Last LDL*Blood and Ice*Out of the Alley*Chrom 38 Brave New World*Shelter Dwellers*Out in the Sun*Rock 39 Out of the Alley (And Into Your Head)*Blood and Ice*Out of the Alley*Chrom 40 Sensual Street Samurai*Eversoul*Japanimation*Alt
Lyrics:
"Encased in Caseless" by Agony, Inc. from the album Painkillers:
Living life on the edge. I’d complain if I wasn’t dead. Breathin’ Kickin’ Howlin’ Screamin’ Killin’ Diein’ inside. Live the day in the combat zone. Walkin’ corpse, won’t you send me home?
Tattered, haggard, torn, and dying
Encased in caseless, if you know what I mean.
Blood dribblin’ over chrome, down to the hole in my heart. Life just tickin’ away, eternal count-down, watchin’ you bleed. Holdin’ your soul in my hand, watchin’ you leave this land.
Tattered, haggard, torn, and dying
Encased in caseless, if you know what I mean.
"Chromed Over Soldier" by Junglecat from the album Fo(u)r Anne:
I believe in the cool metal soul
Born in fire and set on a roll
Torn apart like a cop on the beat
Thrown aside like a piece of meat
Chorus:
Set aside on Judgment Day
Burn in hell, gonna make you pay
Burned by your friends,
Chromed over soldier
Chrome and steel slapped on a slim physique
Balls of brass and light on your feet
Under the knife; the only way to grow
Battery’s dead, stuck on death row
Chorus
Take a combat knife to slit your wrist
Turn your back on all of this
Out in the street, under the sky
Chromed over soldier going home to die
Chorus
Out on the street, use your brass
Don’ hear the line, gonna kick some ass
Under the chrome, the flesh gets old
Most valuable cyber is the heart of gold
Like a watching a beaten dog,
It lifts a certain moral fog
When you know you don’t mean shit
At least you know where you sit.
Chorus
"Human Again" by Junglecat from the album Fo(u)r Anne:
Don’t want to be your hero
Keep your heart of steel
My heart pumps blood and mixed emotion
But at least I know I can feel
Chorus:
Living in stasis
Burning in the rain
Living in stasis
Never human again
Don’t want to try to win the day
Just a draw will do
I lack hope or ambition
Never know what I’m losing too
Can’t stand to be your romantic
Keep my heart in my chest
But if you give your heart I will take it
Leave the scraps to the rest
Chorus
Not too healthy, but I’ll live
Soul’s the one in pain
I am that which dies alive
But I don’t have to sleep in the rain
Chorus
"Chippin’ In" by Johnny Silverhand from the album A Cool Metal Fire:
Got the chips and enhancements
Got the attitude right
Got the metal beneath my skin
I’m chippin’ in
Got the chrome in the bloodstream
Got a metal soul,
I’m out looking for action,
Guess I’m on a roll.
Got the old mega violence
When I boost, it’s for real,
The capacitors roarin’ inside my brain
You know just how I feel.
Cold chrome, molten lead,
Can’t be hurt cuz I’m already dead.
Ain’t no time as real as realtime.
I’m chippin’ in.
Chippin’ in
Chippin’ in (got my head to the wall)
Chippin’ in (can you hear my call?)
Chippin’ in (I’m the man of steel)
Chippin’ in (is that how you feel?)
"Song for John (Fifty Years)" by Destiny from the album Cheyenne Mountains:
Fifty years gone by
Since we heard our nation’s cry
Fifty years gone by
Since we all watched you die
Another time, another war
Another backwater hole
Not worth fighting for
Fighting for the poll
Nukes and corporations
Owning your souls
Too much aggravation
Just to stay a prole
"Solo" by Toby the Hammer from the album Corpse Killer:
It’s a clean cold feeling,
Just me and the chill,
The victim, the heat,
And the edge-induced thrill.
The afterglow of life,
The prey paying the bill.
Loving the Street.
Making the kill.
Solo.
"Never Fade Away" by Johnny Silverhand from the album A Cool Metal Fire:
Sixteen and sixteen hundred
Wired with the max processor edge.
Never die and never breaking
Throw myself over the ledge.
Have you ever seen the sunlight
Screaming fast and mean and low?
Get yourself illuminated
Get yourself that cyber glow.
Made of steel and hard emotion
Give my love and face the day.
In your face and here to party.
Never gonna fade away.
"Buttonhead" by Everything in a Sink from the album Staring Glass:
Stuck in the bathroom,
Locked behind an open door
Studded into the deck
The only thing you really need
Is a hole in the head.
Broken by the world
Fled through the gates of paradise
Just plug in and braindance
Dance the night away,
If only with yourself.
Locked away behind an open door
Can’t find anything worth living for
Just a buttonhead.
But is it better than being dead?
"On the Third Shift" by Ben Winters from the album An American Nightmare:
It got hard at the farm
Temps went up and prices down
Dreams crashed in a burning wreck
Our father’s land in corporate hands
Moved to the city
Trying to keep food in my mouth
Got a girl to feed, and a rent to pay
Café job didn’t work out.
Got a gun to protect
Decided to serve too.
Got put up in the combat zone.
Get enough money for food.
My partner’s young,
Like the rest of the night shift,
Waiting for the time our numbers’ called
Stuck on the third shift, waiting for death.
"Tangled Cables of The Urban Jungle" by Junglecat from the album Fo(u)r Anne:
(open with a savage yell)
Don’t need the gene banks
We’ll never have a forest again
All we need is the urban jungle
Can’t help it if I’m the king
My species would give you your turn
But we just can’t wait.
(Tiger’s roar)
Built to prey, built to kill
Little less human,
But that’s how we get our thrill
Thriving on chrome and steel and lead
You won’t care when you’re dead.
"Sensual Street Samurai" by Eversoul from the album Japanimation:
I found a little girl last night
While cruising the bars
Looking to drink, she wanted to fight
I had the right idea,
But she had fun
It’s an odd living that she had
Living of “the Edge” she called it
Know what she wanted, don’t take shit
Looking mean and being tough
Don’t stop even if you had enough
Chorus:
Pure attitude
Gutsy and blond
Supple and in supply
Sensual street samurai
Beating the odds everyday
Betting on luck to carry her through
Soul pushed to the limits
Harried by reminding herself to feel
Fights the fights that she can win
Took lots of ground in my heart
Got a beachhead and I let her in
Then she took my mind apart
Gave me an axe and brought me to life
Chorus
Taught me the politics of the other side
Macro economics in the streets
Live a little longer until the day
The day when your heart stops
Or the day when your heart breaks
When the sensual street samurai
Living on a loan of time
Finally forgot to pay
Chorus
Latest Releases for 2020:
-"Into the Light", by JungleCat, independent release:
"Into the light is a quick kick in the nuts to wake us all up. Sometimes the album just reminds me of that ‘90’s band, Rage Against the Machine, but other times it seems to reach out to an undisclosed sector, a shadow world of vids and braindances, where people live these fictitious lives of adventure. Like JungleCat is trying to drag them out of the big screen or the brainbox to join his cause" -Max Carmicheal, DMS music reviewer.
"Fuck. I’m pretty sure that the lives of adventure ‘Cat’s trying to drag us out of aren’t on the big screen. Sometimes I wonder if these non-conformist rocker whack-jobs might have something." -Morgan Blackhand, solo at large.
-"Keyboard Input," by Johnny Silverhand, independent release:
"Filled with cryptic messages and vague metaphors, this album is only noteworthy for it’s technical proficiency on the guitar. Silverhand is definitely in the process of ‘Fading Away.’" -Roxxi Slater, Net54 critic.
"Keyboard input stinks of something, but it’s not the smell of bad music. I’d say that it stinks of truth more than anything. Silverhand seems to be playing with ideas here. I think he’s puzzling out something and feels the need to express himself in his ponderings. We may be looking at a revolutionary’s mid-life crisis." -J. Partisan, Rockerboy Magazine critic.
-"With Fire in the Streets," Technetics, Poolside Records:
"If fire could be distilled into a liquid and was cast into a disk, this would be it. The Technetics diverged from their standard pro-technology computer beats to bring in a guest singer, none other than Yorinobu Arasaka. As a personal favor to him, the band changed from a purely computerized form of music to a harder and more guttural traditional beat, pure rock and roll, to accommodate Yorinobu’s image. With Fire in the Streets, the title track, features a backdrop of a gun fight that is not sound effects, nor staged. The song was actually recorded in the heat of battle with an Arasaka hit squad. Yorinobu’s movement, the Kotetsu no Ryu, stopped the squad, sending a slap of embarrassment express mail to Arasaka every time the album is played. I loved it." -Yosaki Baget, Net54 critic.
-"Battle of Night City," Agony, Inc., independent release:
"Well, it is refreshing to see the span of time, especially in such a previously one dimensional group. Agony, Inc. released this tribute to Rage Against the Machine on the Net while in hiding from ‘undisclosed corporate entities’ after staging an anti-biotechnology concert in Bolivia last year. This brilliant throw back album reached back to some of the roots of the Rocker movement and dragged them back to the forefront, letting the world remember that we owe it to them to fuel the fire." -Bes Isis, freelance reporter.