So I'll start by saying that I don't know if this violates the 20 year rule, because I don't know how old the style in question is. Both of my examples are more recent than 20 years old, but I'm still asking the question because I strongly suspect the phenomenon is older than that, and has some history that can be talked about here. But if it not, I apologize.

Anyway, what phenomenon am I talking about? Well, was watching the new Star Trek series, and at the end of the intro I noticed this rendition of the Star Trek theme right at the end, where it's played in a kind of... well, you know, a sort of out-spacey style. I don't know much about music, but it sounds vaguely theremin like? And I'd realized I've heard this style all over the place in out space related contexts, like in this song (and maybe a few others) from Super Mario Galaxy.

So my question is: what is the history of this style (not sure what the correct term is) and its association with out space? Does it have its roots in some form of 20th century pop culture?

EDIT: sorry, not sure why this is tagged as "ecology". I tried deleting and reposting it but I can't figure out how to change it.