ROBOT101

Hardly a deep meditation on robots, but we might well ask, what the heck is going on here?  And what was it about the 1980s? Comments welcome.

• Kraftwerk – The Robots (Live, Club Lido, Venice October 1978)
• Styx – Mr. Roboto (1983).
  • “The problem’s plain to see, too much technology / Machines to save our lives, machines dehumanize.”
  • Actually part of a rock-opera, “Kilroy was here” – see Dennis DeYoung explaining the story here.

• Herbie Hancock – Rockit (1984). Features some animatronic bodies…

  • (see also a live version that is interesting for a mixture of the animatronics and humans actiing robots)

• Beastie Boys – Intergalactic (1998). Robots attack!

• Daft Punk – Robot Rock (2005)
• Compressorhead – Ace of Spades (2013). Song is by Motorhead, but this was at Robocross in Berlin.
• [NSFW?] Bjork – “All Is Full of Love” (1997). Technically nothing NSFW in there, but suggestive. Also surprisingly impressive CGI for 25 years ago.
• [not quite a music video, but…] “Mechanical Man Song” from the movie “Cinderella 2000” (1977) [IMDB]. And stay for the obligatory disco-cize part at 2:40!
• [not actually a video, but a song anyway] Connie Francis – Robot Man (1960).
• [and from ways back when] “Mechanical Man Song” from the play Gold Diggers (1929)
  • [and who doesn’t love a good robot dance?] Robot Boys doing “Poppin John” (2013)