More and more of our human experience is mediated by systems we don’t understand, and that might be why “Matrix music” sounds so good, and might in fact be universally human.

A few months ago, I posted a video deep dive on something that had been bugging me and seemed to ring true in a music world defined by increasingly excessive categorisation attempts: a broader concept of “Matrix music”, meaning sounds that gravitate around, and call back to, the world created in the film.

This struck a chord in a lot of people, across many generations, and having seen isn’t even required. The prism through which this sound aesthetic was pinpointed in the video landed like a timeless monolith, both at the core of, and seemingly unadulterated by, a now algorithm-bound world.

“Matrix music” isn’t just the aesthetic of the film, but a soundtrack for “breaking out of the ”, in a broader sense – deciphering and resisting the hidden structure behind apparent reality.

That can mean capitalism, algorithms, mainstream media, parasocial influence, political ideology, consumerism, agentic AI, social convention, or literally the fear of an entirely simulated reality.

Slogans akin to “Escape the Matrix”, “Don’t be an NPC” and “Manifest your reality” circulate throughout many distinct internet communities, whether that’s despicable “red pill” manosphere content, crypto bro conversations, conspiracy culture, manifestation TikTok, various spiritual communities, and now the discourse around the frightening advancements of agentic AI.

It’s correlated to, but only has a loose relationship with, the Wachowskis’ film, and proved to be an extraordinarily successful metaphor because the referent, the “common enemy”, can constantly change. So how did this all start? Well, one night we got past the option paralysis of choosing a film by going for a classic that my visiting little cousin, who was born post-2012 apocalypse, had never seen: The Matrix (1999).

Plot – still compelling. Acting – perfectly imperfect. Soundtrack – undescribably but so obviously . You know how successful works of art often have earlier, possibly lesser known, blueprints of themselves out there? A to their ?

Well for the Matrix that would be , also featuring a Sci-Fi Keanu Reeves but albeit slightly more slapstick and voluntarily pantomime-esque. It was suggested by the entertainment system after we finished, to the joy of my little cousin who wanted to “stay in that zone”.

Only during the ending credits of this second film would we get a super-concentrated shot of the aesthetic-juice we’d been dwelling in for the entire night:

“Matrix music!” was what he immediately said after the first phrase, and I almost immediately agreed.

Of course this was the way a 13 year-old who has just seen would decipher this track, and though I laughed at first, it felt like common sense. Although it didn’t feature in the film itself, the track feels so tied to the pieces of the film’s meta-environment (both aesthetic, sonic and philosophical) that ring so uncanny, and could easily adorn the anxiety-filled, doomsday resistance tales, of the post-AI era we’re living in today.

Nodding on, we both agreed that we liked the track as the credits rolled (even noting how similar the closely-wound vocal harmonies sounded to Alice in Chains’ Layne Staley and Jimmy Cantrell), so he asked if I knew more stuff like “Matrix music”. My inner teenager knows that I do, even if I couldn’t yet pinpoint the “vibe”, why such a “vibe” could even have come into existence, and thus branch out from it.

My little cousin’s visit ended soon after I could touch back on this “vibe” with him, with the exception of showing him a standout 2000s track from soundtrack…

Coming up with only a single other Matrix-adjacent track before his departure was a little disappointing, so I could only double down in the days that followed and answer his question as publicly as I possibly could. The whole thing became a hunt to achieve a concept that must be broad and understandable for people of any generation, even those who only know through secondary source material and pop culture references.

This track by Kasabian, released years after the films…

“Matrix music”! Even the lyrics and sonic world seem to evoke the black and grey slime of vast fields filled with mile-high data-harvesting facilities/monsters. And it’s drawing nearer to us. “Can you feel it coming?”

That structure of the guitars then instantly reminds me of another one – even if this is from the “Snatch” soundtrack, it’s also “Matrix music”.

Maybe it’s in the growling guitars, in their chant-like ? Or the big, syncopated, mid-tempo breakbeat, often with busy 16th-note ghost notes and kick syncopations, processed so that it feels halfway between an actual drummer and a sampled drum loop?

However this…

Not “Matrix music”! What is “not Matrix music” is just as important as what is, and this Turnstile track is immediately recognisable as “not Matrix music”, or at least doesn’t live up to the anachronism, despite sharing a few similarities, in rhythm and sound, with…

…which is obviously very much “Matrix music”.

Even if it’s featured in the films, it isn’t a match with this broad concept of “Matrix music” we’re hunting for either, because you need to have seen the film for this image to immediately be branded onto your mind, as soon as the first down-strum of that iconic Tom Morello riff kicks in.

So you’ve got the fuzz-filled chant-like growls, but you’ve got to have some snarling electronic elements that bring a sort of “rave” touch. The Zion rave scene in speaks volumes to the trilogy’s increasing relevance today.

The particular feeling of resistance in that scene, a display of unified force and unified exaltation, the sweaty kind in this case, seems to be the ultimate party zeitgeist right now.

The utmost feeling to achieve (or at the very least, cosplay) on a good night out at the club or at a more unconventional spot. That’s probably why I quickly thought of…

100% “Matrix music” – and it wouldn’t be the only Deki Alem track that’s basically the shape of Trinity slow motion jump…

And that’s probably because Deki Alem could be considered one of the natural heirs of…

Most of The Prodigy is “Matrix music”, and this one by them actually soundtracks part of the first film.

However this dance track, which should also conjure a feeling of intense party crowds and sweat and movement…

Definitely not “Matrix music”. Too codified and cosmopolitan, too 30€ cover at the door and then queue for the cloakroom, not enough lawless exaltation.

All this despite being originally by a duo blossoming out of an anarchic, lawless rave setting, and remixed by an artist who is just as knowledgeable and engrained in it. Might its ineligibility to “Matrix music” be a sign of the excessive aestheticisation of lawlessness, that true “Matrix music” aspires to be untouched by?

Actually while we’re on the topic of lawlessness – anti-piracy song…?

“Matrix music”!

Propellerheads are mostly “Matrix music” too…

And fittingly one of their tracks is actually featured in the first film, but it’s too The Matrix (1999) to really be “Matrix music”. 

It feels more like “generic spy music”, which teaches us that “Matrix music” can’t be too on the nose. It’s definitely “main character music”, but that main character is not Inspector Clouseau stumbling into the Spykids universe. “Matrix music” is a fantasy that must feel uniquely original.

So as we’ve established, first you’ve got the “action” side of the “Matrix music” spectrum. It’s “thrashing around” music that really takes itself seriously, whether that’s with the aforementioned growling and weaving guitars, or the unapologetic “Big Beat”-adjacent electronic pummels, with a ravey touch of acid sweat for true cognitive immersion.

So what about this one?

It could be… but not “Matrix music” – too wacky and sarcastically corny!

“Matrix music” is focused, like you’re persuaded that what you’re doing is really important.

Yes – this is unadulterated “Matrix music”, both thematically leaning into the impending violence and rage (against the machines that is), and the diffused electronic fuzz of human resistance that can only be channeled with the assistance of the very entities we may end up against (the machines that is).

Similarly heaving and heavy tracks such as…

…sounds nice, and almost “Matrix music”, but not stealthy or linear enough, and seemingly lawful in their apparent lawlessness. Stealth, because on the “tortured but determined stare into the distance” side of the “Matrix music” spectrum, there’s murky and sultry downtempo :

“Matrix music”! Most trip hoppy tracks with an expressive bassline and sexy dystopian synths are “Matrix music”, probably because this classic is in the soundtrack…

Some Dub is “Matrix music” – the plate-heavy, echo-heavy and otherworldly kind:

But other Dub really isn’t – the kind that lets an ideal of serenity transpire a little too explicitly:

Before I knew it, I was placing every track ever made on a “Matrix music” vs not “Matrix music” Matrix! You know, I mean if it had to be one or the other…

Not “Matrix music” – too self-mythologising in its lyrical development. But kind of? A little..?

I might be biased because of my knowledge of the 90s-infused context around the track, and the clear motivational “us against them”, “just do it” tone. The following tracks were hotly disputed in my mind, and by commenters following the ensuing video…

I would say this is “Matrix music”. The screeching “bullet time” slowness in this track places you as your own reflection in the spoon Neo bends with his mind.

Mindbending is actually how I’d describe this instrumental, and if I had to assign it a colour, it would probably be that fabled emerald green found across the visual arsenal. Then you check out some other Trap stuff from nearby realms and…

Not “Matrix music”, for sure positively not. But then similarly whispered and mumbled hip hop brings back the “Matrix music” aura, like the sneering guitars and raspy vocals in this one…

Contrary to first impressions, this is “Matrix music”.

“Matrix music”! But don’t start thinking every slightly ethereal mid-tempo club beat can join the club…

Not “Matrix music”! It’s definitely close, but doesn’t have the “Matrix music” sneer that the previous track (“Rapid Eye Movement”) has. And to make absolutely sure that I might’ve gone too far, I reached for the outer fringes…

Honestly could be “Matrix music” …until the football-related themes shatter the illusion.

This is closer. I’m getting a “Matrix music” whiff, but also kind of not? If it were to necessarily be one or the other, it would be “Matrix music”, mainly because of this feeling of alienation, possibly self-alienation, that emanates from the track.

At its core, the Matrix is a tale about alienation, and finding belonging specifically via the knowledge, and harnessing, of a deeper truth on the fabric of reality, and most importantly, sharing this secret with a “resistance” group. In so doing, it becomes more of a tale of enlightenment, resistance, and keeping “your people, the enlightened ones”, at the centre of the narrative.

It is only after digging through all of this that I would realise just how much the Matrix has quietly and spookily become the most relevant film imaginable, through the many aforementioned multi-level meta-references tied to it in big 2026. Basking in the ever-present, ancient struggle to decode reality and battle adversity to achieve survival and eventually enlightenment, is the deeper needle that “Matrix music” moves.

So there you go, kids at large, including all the inner children… I hope this inspires you to keep fit, stay alert and determined and stuff.