I just know everyone's gonna look at me funny for suggesting Bruce Springsteen, but...

"Philadelphia" just screams legwork...or the end of the run after the runners have been screwed over twice by their Johnson.

Just thought that having some japanese classical music (the one from the samurai age and such) can be great when meeting Yakuza bosses, or important figures in the Japancorps.

For gaming I usually go with Soundtracks, of movies or games. The following are part of my regular rotation:

Pirates of the Caribbean
Quake II
Mechwarrior II
Bubblegum Crisis
Alien 3
Conan the Barbarian
Children of Dune
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Noir
Escaflowne
Gettysburg
Fellowship of the Ring
13th Warrior
Sleepy Hollow
Gladiator
Highlander
Diablo 2
Blood
Band Of Brothers

I also second what Ancient History said about Cristoph Sachal. But I only have 3 songs of his.

A long time ago, I did much the same as you are doing SgtSavage, and combed through my mp3 collection to make a series of SR-related cds. I do not use them much during actual gaming. I prefer soundtracks for that. I find them less likely to distract people, but still powerful in setting a mood. I mostly listen to my SR Soundtrack while working out now, bicycling, or working on SR stuff.

Anyway, here they are:

Shadowrun Soundtrack

Disc 1: A World Of Shadows
1: Mortal Combat Theme - Utah Saints
2: I Am I - Queensryche
3: Zoo Station - U2
4: Livin' On The Edge - Aerosmith
5: Konya Wa Hurricane - Bubblegum Crisis Soundtrack (artist unknown)
6: The Garden - Guns N Roses & Alice Cooper
7: In The City - Joe Walsh
8: Love And Happiness - John Mellencamp
9: Wildest Dreams - Asia
10: Bedlam Bridge - Midnight Oil
11: Neon Nights - Black Sabbath
12: Mob Rules - Black Sabbath
13: Dog Eat Dog - Ted Nugent
14: Baba O'Riley - The Who
15: Keep On Rockin' In The Free World - Neil Young
16: Too Much Information - Duran Duran
17: Its The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - R.E.M.


Disc 2: Shadowrunners
1: Two Cool Guys - Isaac Hayes
2: Walk In The Shadows - Queensryche
3: South Side - Moby & Gwen Stefani
4: Dirty Deeds - Ac Dc
5: Blaze Of Glory - Jon Bon Jovi
6: Ride Across The River - Dire Straits
7: Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits
8: Flirtin' With Disaster - Molly Hatchet
9: Last Action Hero - Tesla
10: Bad Animals - Heart
11: Dogs Of War - Pink Floyd
12: Blood Brothers - Rob Tyner
13: Tom Sawyer - Rush
14: Flash Of The Blade - Iron Maiden
15: Beatin' The Odds - Molly Hatchet
16: Eye Of The Tiger - Survivor
17: Epilogue (Nothing About Me) - Sting


Disc 3: People In The Shadows
1: Veteran Of The Psychic Wars - Blue Oyster Cult
2: 'Round Here - Counting Crows
3: Zombie - Cranberries
4: Twilight Zone - Golden Earring
5: Knockin' On Heaven's Door - Guns N Roses
6: Live And Let Die - Paul McCartney
7: Sone Cold Crazy - Queen
8: Everybody Knows - Concrete Blond
9: Orange Crush - R.E.M.
10: Stuck In The Middle With You - Stealers Wheel
11: The Prisoner - Iron Maiden
12: Put Your Lights On - Santana & Everlast
13: The Dream Is Over - Van Halen
14: The End - The Doors


Disc 4: The Underworld
1: Billy Get Your Guns - Jon Bon Jovi
2: Man On The Run - Molly Hatchet
3: Runnin' With The Devil - Van Halen
4: Bad Company - Bad Company
5: Smuggler's Blues - Glenn Frey
6: Bounty Hunter - Molly Hatchet
7: Breaking The Law - Judas Priest
8: Meanstreet - Van Halen
9: Wild Side - Motley Crue
10: Another One Bites The Dust - Queen
11: Stone Cold Crazy - Metallica
12: Saturday Night Special - Lynyrd Skynyrd
13: Temple Of Love - Sisters Of Mercy
14: The Boys Are Back In Town - Thin Lizzy
15: Crack City - Tin Machine
16: Alive - Edwin McCain
17: Atomic Punk - Van Halen
18: Put Out The Fire - Queen


Disc 5: Big Brother
1: Imperial March - Metallica
2: The Hellion/Electric Eye - Judas Priest
3: Surgical Strike - Queensryche
4: Night Of The Long Knives - Ac Dc
5: Seek & Destroy - Metallica
6: Man Who Sold The World - Nirvana
7: Under The God - Tin Machine
8: Overcome (acoustic) - Ed Kowalczyk
9: Anarchy X - Queensryche
10: Revolution Calling - Queensryche
11: The Mission - Queensryche
12: World Leader Pretend - R.E.M.
13: Uprising - Damn Yankees
14: Unmarked Helicopters - Soul Coughing
15: Down In The Park - Foo Fighters
16: At War With The World - Foreigner
17: Stormtroopin' - Ted Nugent
18: Shapes Of Things - Gary Moore
19: Secret Song 1 - Songs In The Key Of X (artist unknown)
20: C-Note - Body Count

Rosa, you have excellent taste in music. Very nice compilation there.

And I apologize in advance, but this is a personal pet peeve of mine: Stealers Wheel is spelled without an apostrophe.

I know this has been done to death here allready, but I'm chiming in anyway. The albums we always play in the background of my games are by Vangellis. There the Bladerunner soundtrack, full of atmospheric stuff that lets everyone picture the landscape from the film. Another is The City also by Vangellis. Also atmospheric and with a more techno beat. City sounds added into the background, some japanese singing as well.

Both are good since they don't distract from what I am saying.

I like the mechwarrior 2 music.
put in the CD (yes, a PC computer game cd) and the music is track 2 an on...so skip from track 1 to 2...and it plays wonderfully from there.

Can't really describe the different music pieces very well, it's been ages since we used 'em...but it did really suit Shadowrun when we used it...

Just thought that some songs by Guns and Roses (Welcome to the Jungle and Terminator 2 Soundtrack) might work great, and some of Iron Maiden's too.

I shoulda mentioned "Sympathy for the Devil" by the good ol' Rolling Stones! That should be Lofwyr's personal anthem!

I have to throw in this band. They're from Houston, TX called The Hunger, 90s style industrial/techno. Some pretty good songs in their discography.

The Abstruse One

Recently the soundtrack to Aeon Flux came out on CD. It's a double cd set by Drew Neumann, with a funny name and very little indication that it was actually used for the show. I think it'd make fine SR music.

There are probably better sites than this one, but it just happened to be in my bookmarks and I'm not looking for any more, since I already have it.

Rabbit in the Moon has some good tracks, such as: "Bullet in a Gun (Oakenfold Mix (a good battle song, not to mention almost 11 minutes long), "Out of Body Experience" (good for mysterious places or prolonged ventures into astral space, anything mystical, really) and "Euphoria (Divine Disco Mix)" (has a nice "groove" to it, and would probably suit clubs or just walking out on the streets). "A Drug Not Meant For You" by Epsilon-Zero is a techno/metal kind of song that might fit into a battle or some sort of nightclub.

I'd continue to peddle through my MP3's and see what else would fit, but I've got a run in about an hour, and I still have to get all my materials together

there have been some nice choices listed so far but I'm suprised that no one has suggested Savatage. Their "Wake of Magellan" CD has several really good tracks for Shadowrun.

I like cyber-punkish attitude music with a lot of noise and sampling or etheral kind of ambiant music


FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY / TACTICAL NEURAL IMPLANT album
Haujobb - Trivial.mp3
GLIS - Dream [Extract].mp3
Suicide Commando - Hellraiser [Psychopath 01-Version].mp3
Juno Reactor - Komit.mp3
Project Pitchfork - Island.mp3
funker vogt - Civil War [tripping in boot camp Remix].mp3
Archive - Again.mp3
Aphex Twin - Digeridoo.mp3
Angry White Mob - Two Minutes Hate.mp3
Noise Unit - Hollow Ground.mp3
Mentallo & the Fixer - Proxima.mp3
Mentallo & the Fixer - Systematik Ruin.mp3
Haujobb - Net Culture [File Operation Error].mp3
Haujobb - Net Culture [Instrumental].mp3
Autechre - PIOBmx19.mp3
Autechre - Vletrmx21.mp3
Autechre - Garbagemx36.mp3
Front 242 - Collision.mp3
Orbital - Illuminate.mp3
Orbital - Last thing.mp3
Orbital - Meltdown.mp3
Orbital - Pay per view.mp3
Orbital - Shadows.mp3
Orbital - Tension.mp3
Orbital - Tootled.mp3
Orbital - Doctor.mp3
Orbital - Funny Break (One is not enought).mp3
Nine Inch Nails - Heresy [Blind].mp3
Mellowness.mp3
Delerium - Twilight.mp3

...and many more

I agree with a number of different bands/songs I saw on this list; Prodigy's "Firestarter" is pretty inspiring for combat at that. Fair warning though, some people are very sensitive to musical association (I happen to be one of them), and will have specific memories called up by hearing a particular song. Sound cool? Try listening to your favorite song and imagine having constant images from a Mech Warrior 2 mission playing in your head... Also, I scanned the thread and didn't catch a reference to NIN, so I'll plug that. Mind you, I'm not talking about any of Trent's newer stuff, just the older material from Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, etc. "Head Like a Hole"'s first stanza seems particularly appropriate for runners, as a lot of them seem to be driven primarily by one thing: ye olde nuyen.

"God Money'll do anything for you,
God Money, just tell me what you want me to,
God Money, nail me up against the wall.
God Money, don't want everything, He wants it all."

The best, IMHO, paranoia/chase soundtrack is the Alien(s) soundtrack.

Soundtracks / Scores

Aliens
Hellraiser
Hellbound: Hellraiser II
Sleepy Hollow
Akira
Babylon 5
Babylon 5 vol 2: Messages from Earth
The Lord of the Rings (any)
Myth: The Fallen Lords
Myth II: Soulblighter
Warcraft III
Batman the Motion Picture
The X-Files: Fight the Future
Quake (just put the video game CD in your player)

Miscellaneous Instrumentals

The Chieftains: The Celtic Harp
Kronos Quartet: Night Prayers
Kronos Quartet: Released
Kronos Quartet: Black Angel
Beethoven's 9th Symphony
Tocotta and Fugue in D Minor - Bach

Electronica

Prodigy: Fat of the Land
Prodigy: Music for the Jilted Generation
The Matrix
The Matrix: Reloaded
Aphex Twin: Drukqs
The Crystal Method: Vegas
BT: 10 Years In the Life
Moby (any instrumental track, some vocals)

Rock / Metal

White Zombie/Rob Zombie (any)
Metallica (any -- earlier works are faster, later are slower)
Gravity Kills: Gravity Kills
Spawn - The Album
Nine Inch Nails (any)
KMFDM - Nihil

When do you guys iuntroduce soundtracks like Sleepy Hollow? I just can't figure many places/moments in which it would fit. By the way, if you liked Sleepy Hollow, Edward Scissorhands is also great.

We usually find ourselves playing music appropriate to the time and place or runs and run set-ups. The team just recently spent some time in Trinidad and had a luau (just before all heck breaking loose) and we had Jimmy Buffett playing. When we went to Germany, there was a lot of Zara Leander going on. At a motorcycle show, we heard "Born to be Wild" along with others. Our GMs tend to pre-design adventure-specific soundtracks. And there are at least three sets of characters and three (now-intersecting) timelines in which all the players know that if "Save Yourself" by Stabbing Westward starts to play, we're toast and we can only hope the dice are kind enough to keep us alive, because the GM won't.

If I ever played Evanescence's "Bring me to life" I'd have to play the "Kidz Bopz 4" version just to see the expression on the faces of players listening to it sung by prepubescent children.