We all know about Trog trash metal.
In the Kellian Colt stories they talk about the upswing in Celtic influence in elvish culture.

So I guess what I am asking here is, What is the new cool music in your game?

Are Trolls with bagpipes wandering the streets of Boston?
Have Bands of Flamenco dancing gypsy punks wearing Purple taken over your bar?

Are guilds of ragged dwarven percussionists taking over your park?

Whats music like in SR, how do we define/ describe it?

I don't try to describe what music is actually like in my games, because it would be like predicting Fallout Boy while listening to a big band show in 1935.

What I do is describe the cultural role it fills. ie, no it doesn't sound like Metallica, but the same crowd that likes Metallica in 2007 would like "Sprawlcology" in 2070.

I do much as Ed does. It's the "idea and feel" of a band that matters, and I let the players' imaginations take over from there. If there's a band that I want to specifically touch on (maybe I just had a neat idea, or maybe it's actually important for the run or something) then I might come up with a bit more.

...my RiS campaign has a decidedly "film noir"slant so most of the places the team ends up meeting contacts at tend to feature small combo jazz or Euro Bistro music.

...of course where they are now, music is the least of the locals' concerns.

Interesting Ideas and I do agree that while the spefic sound of the band is sometimes cool on its own, its more about the people you will find in the crowd form a players point of view.

I like the details of the sounds because its kinda what I do, I record and produce music.

If/when I do use music in my live games, it's just the same in Shadowrun as it is in any other game I'm running; mood music. It's soft and quiet, and tailored to the particular mood I'm trying to evoke. Anything else is just a distraction and makes playing more difficult.

I do use music to help me when designing characters or scenarios, though. One of my favorites when working on Shadowrun is Scissor Sister's "I Can't Decide." It just has this great whimsical vibe cloaking psychopathic lyrics that suits my style to a letter.

IRL whne I play music for the game, its usally metallica, susan mckeown, coheed and cambria, and whatever happens to be playing on soma.fm at the time.