Humanoid Hardware

I was just watching, for the first time in many years, that 1999 music video by Iceland's queen of weird, Bjork... All is Full of Love. I've never been very interested in Bjork's music, but her videos certainly are unusual and intriguing. The All is Full of Love video shows us two highly realistic female-shaped robots, one first undergoing a tune-up, then they break into song. Finally, the two of them sort of get entangled, kissing and caressing. Yep, strange - yet hypnotic. 

Bjork's music video precursor to Ava the A.I. in the

film Ex Machina

And that got me to thinking of songs about robots (though the Bjork song wasn't explicitly about robots; the video was). I couldn't think of all that many at first, but after I scanned my music collection, I began to get more ideas. There are innumerable Top 10's online, but I didn't want to pad my own list with entries I wasn't even familiar with. Anyway, the stuff that readily came to mind (a few needed a memory jump-start with a quick web search) are:

Robot Girl, by Was (Not Was)
Mr. Roboto, by Styx
Slaughter in Robot Village, by FM
Are Friends Electric, by Tubeway Army (featuring Gary Numan)
The Body Electric, by Rush
Robot Parade, by They Might Be Giants
Robot Rock, by Daft Punk
The Robots, by Kraftwerk
Iron Man, by Black Sabbath
Psychotron, by Megadeth
I Robot, by Alan Parsons Project

I remember a friend playing the Robot Girl song for me back in the late 80's, and I ended up getting that particular Was (Not Was) album... which is still in my collection, but I haven't listened to it in many years. A silly little ditty, really.

Mr. Roboto is a classic Styx tune, not exactly one of my favourites, but still pretty memorable and fun with lyrics that sound like they were made in Japan. 

Few people will know the band FM, let alone their song Slaughter in Robot Village. A Canadian act most active during the 70's and 80's, FM were cutting edge progressive rock. Their Black Noise album made the biggest statement with its futuristic jazz-rock fusion... with NO guitars. Slaughter in Robot Village is all instrumental, yet by pushing the boundaries of the art form, the band tells a compelling and frightening story through electronic music alone. 

Daft Punk robot rawks out

Are Friends Electric is one of those early synth classics that never goes out of style. Gary Numan often sang about futuristic concepts, and the accompanying music always supported the subject matter perfectly. Pop techno, sort of. 

The Body Electric was one of the cooler songs off the dystopian-themed Rush album, Grace Under Pressure. The plot parallels that of the runaway chased by android police in THX-1138, an early George Lucas film. And the song borrows its title from a Ray Bradbury short story. Quite cool prog rock for the thinking man (and woman). 

Robot Rock was written and performed by the droid-ish duo Daft Punk. The song itself is instrumental and there are no lyrical references to androids or anything of the kind, but the title alone says it all. It's electric music, guitars and synths raging up a storm. And the video will blow your face off... it's performed by the band in shiny new robot suits. 

The Robots, by electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk, was a vague memory for me, but a glance on Youtube brought it all back. Very mechanized-looking German men plinking on their odd little electro instruments. Very minimalist - some might say primitive music, but paired with the kind of creepy visuals, it's a full-on Kraftwerk experience. 

Iron Man. Need I say more? Well, maybe a lot of people, even the ones who've heard this song a zillion times, never really thought about the meaning of the words they were drunkenly singing along with. It's possible that the song is technically about a cyborg, a human with robotic parts or vice versa. Those heavy boots of lead may just be footwear for that poor dude who passed through the great magnetic field,though we learn in the song that he was turned to steel. So I think it's safe to say that man who traveled time was transformed into something inhuman - mechanoid even, returning to smash planet Earth. Yay!

Megadeth's latest album cover shows a creepy

futuristic version of band mascot Vic Rattlehead

Psychotron is among my fave Megadeth tracks, lyrically rivaling the story of Iron Man. Seemingly part flesh and part bionics, yet not a cyborg we are told, our dear Psychotron is a killing machine programmed to act as a RoboCop or Universal Soldier in our dystopian future. The instrumentation mimics machinery in an Industrial Music sort of way. Very effective in creating a scary sci-fi atmosphere. 

And finally, of course, there is I Robot, by none other than science fiction rockers Alan Parsons Project. Maybe less rock and more progressive pop, the song is equal parts funky groove and 70's synthesizers. An odd mix sometimes, but Parson made it work, achieving both artistic and commercial success. I Robot, the song, is both futuristic and rooted in Earth-y soulfulness. 

It seems the idea of Terminators and Chappies (the movie extremes of evil and good robots) is sort of popular in songs of the rock genre. Metal and progressive bands are more likely to approach the topic of humanoid hardware, though we've heard some playful and friendly depictions in pop, too. 

Release the droids....