Side Topic: Music for RPGs

[Mickey Finn]

Simply a list of music either perfect for (or you swear was inspired by) RPGs.

To start:
Manfred Mann's Blinded By the Light: Cyberpunk, Shadowrun
Smashing Pumpkin's Bullet With Butterfly  Wings: White Wolf's Werewolf: The Sulking Apocolypse
Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London: White Wolf, Toon, Castle Falkenstein, Amber

Also, spoofing:
The Beatle's All You Need is Blood: White Wolf's Vampire

[jtaylor]

Ok, here are some off the top of my head...

Concrete Blonde's Bloodletting: White Wolf's Vampire
Bjork's Bachleorette: Vampire
Daft Punk's Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger: Cyberpunk, Shadowrun
The Prodigy's Firestarter: Cyberpunk, Shadowrun, Spycraft
Tegan and Sara's Walking with a Ghost: Wraith or any other game were you're plaing ghost.
Radiohead's Paranoid Android: Paranoia
Beck's Tropicalia: Spycraft game set in the tropics.
Basil Poledouris' Conan the Barbarian soundtrack: Best D&D music ever.

I forgot, Voltaire's The Vampire Club: Spoof of vampire goths good for a vampire game.

[Kiriath]

Lord of the Dance or Riverdance.
Castlevania music... Symphony of the Night especially rocks.
I've heard some people say the Alien soundtracks rock.

The Lunar: Eternal Blue music played during an RPG session I played in once, and it fit really nice. The game was Star Wars, but it was nice and hyper anyway...

[taralon]

For fantasy, you don't get better than this band called Dragonforce outta Britain, and Heather Alexander. 
 

Simply a list of music either perfect for (or you swear was inspired by) RPGs.

To start:
Manfred Mann's Blinded By the Light: Cyberpunk, Shadowrun
Smashing Pumpkin's Bullet With Butterfly  Wings: White Wolf's Werewolf: The Sulking Apocolypse
Warren Zevon's Werewolves of London: White Wolf, Toon, Castle Falkenstein, Amber

Also, spoofing:
The Beatle's All You Need is Blood: White Wolf's Vampire

[Samldanach]

As background music for a session, I find that soundtracks are better.  Usually, the obvious ones (Conan, LotR, Diablo, Disney's Three Musketeers).

There are a huge number of European metal bands, like Dragonforce, that clearly have a fantasy or RPG influence.  It's actually a sub-genre of metal over there.  Like most niche sub-genres, they range from awe-inspiring to dread-inspiring.

Queensryche (predominantly Operation: Mindcrime, but to a lesser degree Empire) is, in my mind, the ultimate cyberpunk sound.  I can't listen to some of their songs (particularly Jet City Woman) without picturing a guy in a trenchcoat and mirror shades standing in the rain.

Metallica's Shapeshift is a fabulous werewolf song.

I can't let this go, however, without pimping Darkest of the Hillside Thickets (I hope that link actually works).  They are the premiere (maybe the only?) Cthulhupunk band.  And they rock hardcore.

[TredHed]

Here ya go for the Darkest of the Hillside Thickets http://www.thickets.net/. I love this band =)

I also think some of Roison Murphy's http://www.roisinmurphy.com/ music fits the weirdness of the Dresdenverse. Especially Night of the Dancing Flame and RamalamaBANGBANG.

Also in a weird way Daikaiju http://www.daikaiju.org/....The Phasing Spider Menace is a fave of mine.

[skegmonkey]

All of coheed and cambrias stuff is very RPG

Also CKY flesh into gear is very cyberpunk.

As for background music for cyberpunk games i used a soundtrack from the manga cybercity.

For modern day horror ie D20 or dresden files one day soon i like to use an album by Two Gallants called "what the toll tells"
I also like "The Man Comes Around" by Johnny Cash.

[Nursefuratu]

Have you seen/heard Stephen Lynch's Dungeons and Dragons (D-n-D)
ps: I am at work and youtube is blocked so I hope this is the correct link, I can't verify it to be sure though. If you would rather google Stephen Lynch & Dungeons and Dragons, it would work too, well worth you time 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNNtgiOdWNM

[SoulCatcher78]

Have you seen/heard Stephen Lynch's Dungeons and Dragons (D-n-D)
ps: I am at work and youtube is blocked so I hope this is the correct link, I can't verify it to be sure though. If you would rather google Stephen Lynch & Dungeons and Dragons, it would work too, well worth you time 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNNtgiOdWNM

That was freakin' genius!  Thank you for sharing.

[Slife]

You know what's really great music for RPGs?  Free music composed/remixed from videogames by japanese bands with weird names, that's what.  Well... not all of it is great, but there are quite a few good ones.

http://www.muzie.co.jp/cgi-bin/artist.cgi?id=a017591
http://opus-xero.com/contents/music.html
http://www.middleisland.net/sound.htm
http://www.muzie.co.jp/cgi-bin/artist.cgi?id=a003884
http://www.ucatv.ne.jp/~ookami/music.htm
http://www.dobuusagi.com/

[glmagus]

There's this really cool metal band from Austin called The Sword and their stuff is great for D&D. Most of their lyrics are based on Norse myth.

[The Doctor]

Null Device: A Million Different Moments - Wraith, GURPS, Illuminati: New World Order (so it's a CCG; we really get into it.)
The Sisters of Mercy: Vision Thing - Vampire, Cyberpunk/Cyberspace/CP2020, Car Wars
The Shamen: Axis Mutatis - Mage, GURPS, Changeling
Depeche Mode: The Best Of - Mage, Vampire, BESM (I used to use it as background music in a Lain campaign)
iris: Disconnect/Reconnect - Mage, Hacker (bookcase card game), Shadowrun, Cyberpunk/Cyber Hero/Cyberspace
Information Society: Don't Be Afraid - Vampire, Etherscope
Information Society: Peace and Love, Incorporated - Cyberpunk, Shadowrun
Tim Curry: Fearless - Teenagers from Outer Space, BESM
The Cruxshadows: Dreamcypher - BESM Utena, Mage, Cyber Hero
Pet Shop Boys: Introspective - Mage, BESM (it can be fit into 80's style campaigns if used well)
The Dresden Dolls: Yes, Virginia - Etherscope, GURPS, Paranoia (for that great "WTF??" feeling)
Psykosonik: Psykosonik - Cyberspace/CP2020