A Brief History of Future Tunes

Science fiction has always known that music and entertainment matter. In Star Trek, we’ve got Commander Riker jamming on his space-jazz trombone, and Data interpreting classical violin with android-level precision. The Cantina Band in Star Wars? Iconic. Weird, slightly chaotic, but undeniably catchy. (Fun fact: they’re canonically called Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes, which sounds like a math rock group from Seattle.)

In The Expanse, we see the flip side—Belters singing work songs to bond and endure, proving that even on the edge of survival, people will find rhythm and poetry.

Even Mass Effect let you wander your spaceship while ambient synths and alien radio channels played softly in the background. And Firefly—well, Firefly had an acoustic guitar, folk tunes, and a whole “space-western” aesthetic that showed art doesn’t have to be high-tech to thrive in the void.

But these examples, charming as they are, are just scratching the surface. If we’re going to spend months or years on a spaceship or live in gravity-regulated domes, we’re going to need more than a playlist. We’re going to need a cultural engine.

Entertainment in Deep Space: What’s Coming

Immersive Holo-Theater

Forget Netflix. Future entertainment is likely to be fully immersive, with modular holograms that simulate everything from Broadway musicals to alien gladiator sports. Want to perform in Hamilton 2140? Upload your avatar and you’re on stage. Want to watch a 1930s film noir inside a replica of a smoky jazz bar on Venus? There’s a setting for that.

Low-Gravity Dance Raves

Dance floors in space? Yes, please. Picture raves in the observation dome, where every beat sends you gently floating and rhythmic lighting is controlled by an A.I. VJ who moonlights as your ship’s navigation assistant. (Bonus: zero-gravity makes breakdancing way less painful.)

3D-Printed Instruments & Alien Remixes

Instruments will evolve too. Imagine 3D-printing your own personalized instrument, or remixing Martian wind recordings with whale-song from Earth to create a “terraforming ambient mix.” Musicians might even team up with xeno-anthropologists to explore soundscapes from new lifeforms. (Klingon death metal, anyone?)

Micro-Theaters & Dome Proms

Even on small outposts or asteroid colonies, entertainment will remain essential. Think micro-theaters showing interactive plays, poetry recitals broadcast to helmet visors, and proms held under pressure domes, with views of the rings of Saturn twinkling overhead.

And yes, let’s talk about that:

Prom Night on a Space Station

You thought the awkward slow dance with your crush was complicated before? Now try it while floating. Prom in space could be the ultimate sci-fi coming-of-age moment.

• Theme: Galactic Elegance: Dancing Among the Nebulae
• Decor: Holograms of starlight, black-hole centerpieces, and gravity generators set to “romantic sway.”
• Music: A blend of synthwave, ancient Earth ballads, and some genre invented by a 17-year-old TikToker born on Titan.
• Drama: Someone’s A.I. date malfunctions mid-dance. Someone else tries to spike the nutrient punch with caffeine concentrate.
• Memories: Best night of their life until space college.

And yes, even in space, someone will inevitably arrive wearing something way too extra and someone else will forget their shoes. Some things are eternal.

What It All Means for Sci-Fi Writers

Entertainment is an anchor of culture. It’s how people bond, mourn, celebrate, and imagine together. So when you’re building your next world—be it a Martian bunker, a lunar research base, or a Dyson Sphere summer camp—ask yourself:

• What do people laugh at here?
• What kind of music soothes them when the oxygen scrubbers are acting up?
• What do kids rebel with? What do elders pass down?

The future isn’t just tech and war and wormholes. It’s mixtapes, karaoke nights, and prom dresses with magnetic seams.

Sci-fi gets even richer when we remember that, wherever humans go, we bring our need for joy, rhythm, and connection with us. Even to the stars.

So go on—write the next great intergalactic battle scene. But maybe give your hero a playlist, too.

Leif J. Erickson is a science fiction and fantasy author from a small farming community in west central Minnesota. Using his time wisely when he was a farmer, Leif developed many ideas, characters, and storylines to create over fifty unique first drafts and outlines for stories. From his start in a small town school, to college at North Dakota State University, back to his family farm, then to the bright lights of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and back to his small farming town, Leif has always had a love of writing.

When Leif isn’t writing he can be found with his wife hiking in state parks, canoeing local lakes and rivers, exploring local and regional ghost towns, experiencing museums, or simply reading or hanging out with friends and family. Leif draws on the local nature and ecology to find inspiration for his writing while he also asks what’s possible for technology and the human race, weaving them together for amazing stories that will stay with the reader for years to come. Leif looks forward to having many novel and story releases in the years to come.

You can see all of Leif’s Books here: Leif’s Amazon Author Page