what's the clumsiest expression of technological anxiety in popular music?

I believe Win Butler walks this with the line
We're still connected, but are we even friends?
from Reflektor, but I'm happy to hear your suggestions

as much as I love St. Vincent I also have to say that
Digital witnesses, what's the point of even sleeping?
If I can't show it, if you can't see me
was maybe not the most elegant way of expressing concern with contemporary use of social media

we are everyday robots on our phones, bruv

also, Porcupine Tree's Fear Of A Blank Planet is fairly staggering in this regard. 'Xbox is a god to me'

that is impressive

googled it and first result was a RYM thread titled "What Are The Worst Lyrics In The History Of Music?"

The Cass McCombs song that includes the phrase "Netflix and die."

My computer thinks I'm gay
I threw that piece of junk away
On the Champs-Élysées as I was walking home

This is my last communiqué
Down the superhighway
All that I have left to say in a single tome

I got too many friends
Too many people that I'll never meet
And I'll never be there for
I'll never be there for
Cause I'll never be there

If I could give it all away
Will it come back to me someday?
Like a needle in the hay or an expensive stone

I got a reason to declaim
The applications are to blame
For all my sorrow and my pain, a feeling so alone

wow!

There are a lot of potential excerpts from Moxy Fruvous's "Stuck in the 90s" but I'll start with

Soon I'll be 30, I don't want to be 30
I've got some big plans, Goodwill has some big hands
With each new computer screen, the world tells me I'm more green
Buy a new Game Boy!
For the fun and the fashion... just for the passion

I know Miranda Lambert is critic-proof but all of "Automatic" qualifies

If you had something to say
You'd write it on a piece of paper
Then you put a stamp on it
And they'd get it three days later
Boys would call the girls
And girls would turn them down
Staying married was the only way to work your problems out

Hey what ever happened to waiting your turn
Doing it all by hand, 'cause when everything is handed to you
It's only worth as much as the time put in
It all just seems so good the way we had it
Back before everything became automatic
Automatic

yup

it's basically a song version of those poor nostalgia memes

Always great to hear this "back in my day" schtick from someone born in 1983.

wow!

― niels, Saturday, December 10, 2016 5:22 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It generated quite a fair bit of laughter across the internet when it first came out, iirc. As well as a lot of remarks along the lines of "are Placebo still going?"

it's basically a song version of those poor nostalgia memes

Pro tip: Don't come to country music seeking lyrics that favor the present over the past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHbCK3ETweQ

And all I do is check the screen
To see if you're okay
You don't answer when I phone
Guess you want to be left alone

;_______;

I'm told the new moby track is one of these

/it's basically a song version of those poor nostalgia memes/

Pro tip: Don't come to country music seeking lyrics that favor the present over the past.

Brad Paisley's "Welcome to the Future" is exactly that

I've championed her as loudly as anyone, but I thought it was a consensus view that, despite a couple of award wins, "Automatic" isn't a good song at all. Give or take "Over You" and "Somethin' Bad," it's pretty clearly Miranda'a worst. I mean, does anyone in the world legitimately feel nostalgia about having hand-cranked windows in their cars instead of power windows? And, not on topic for this thread obvs, the gender politics of the song are regressive and gross and at-odds with the feminist streak that runs through the rest of her work...

I wanna have some fun
I’m looking for adventure
We wanna say hello to all our friends so far away

I go to my PC (Computer, computer)
And step into the magic screen
The world is in our hands
We’ll do Europe in one day

An e-mail to Berlin, Vienna and Slovenia
An e-mail to a boy in London Town ’bout who I am
An e-mail to Paris, to Oslo and Croatia
We send them all our love in a few lines:
Hello from Amsterdam

Is Cyprus near to Malta?
How is life in Ankara?
Is anybody there from Reykjavik or Warszawa?

Is Copenhagen cute? (København, København)
Is Stockholm still in Waterloo?
Can anybody tell me what goes on in Jerusalem?
(Yerushalayim, Yerushalayim, Yerushalayim, shalom)

An e-mail to Berlin, to Brussels and Estonia
An e-mail to this boy in London Town ’bout who I am
An e-mail to Madrid, Lisbon, Lithuania
We send them all our love in a few lines

An e-mail to Berlin, to Dublin and to Bosnia
We send you all our love in a few lines:
Hello from Amsterdam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCBmuxH0XJw

(Worst Dutch ESF contendants ever. Obviously it's gained a cult status ever since)

The singers not being able to keep a single vocal in key makes this a very anxious listening experience

Do you wanna go and see a movie?
Do you wanna take a walk outside?
Does your snow white skin ever see the sunshine?
Do you ever think that its a waste of time?

You and your 28,000 friends
(I'm talking about)
Youtube, Facebook, Myspace, IM
(Get out of the house)
Can't you try to find some room for me in your life?
You and your 28,000 friends

We've got no chance if you are always
Preoccupied with your second life
Don't send an email, let me touch your face
Go see a shrink about it, it's not right

Brad Paisley's "Welcome to the Future" is exactly that

What's that phrase? The exception that proves...something something?

That newscaster interlude in Outkast's "Synthesizer" is pretty rough.

I'm trying to remember what the song about having some kind of chatbot girlfriend was but failing. So in the meantime, though it's not exactly "technological angst", here are the lyrics to 'Cheeka Bow Bow (That Computer Song' by the Vengaboys:

I saw you in the disco
Last night in San Francisco
The way you used your joystick
It really makes my mouse click

Come sit down on my laptop
Lets do a little hiphop
Let's go into a chatroom
And do a little boom boom

I saw you in the disco
Last week in San Francisco
The way you used your joystick
Has really made me feel sick

The doctor checked my harddrive
A virus in my archive
My disc was not protected
And now I am infected

is the chatbot girlfriend song basshunter - boten anna?

It may well have been, yeah!

xpost:

That last verse, tho!

Cheeka Bow Wow also has one of the worst music videos ever made.

I am still hoping for Britney to revisit technology themes, "Snapchat My Heart" or something.

Hüsker Dü "data control" (although this has become "portion control" in my tiny mind.)
also nomeansno's "dark ages" sounds like grandpa not understanding how to work netflix in 2016

My friend played in a terrible band circa 1996 that had a song with the killer line "there's no sex on the email'

Strangelove, Spiders & Flies (1996)

"Like a spider's web just above your head,
It's a spider's web just above your head,
It's the telephone dead on the internet!"

I know it was twenty years ago when the internet was still new and frightening, but even then that line was a bit like "Uh, really?"

Neil Young on MP3s:

When you hear my song now
You only get five percent
You used to get it all
You used to get it all