Dis You On The Internet

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Pop songs that mention or involve the Internet - have any been successful? How do they do it? Do they get it right? And of course the worst examples....

― Tom, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

apart from the destiny's child one. i can't actually think of any offhand. i definitely like the idea of the internet being mentioned in pop, but only if it mentions it as something 'normal/day to day' like tv or radio. i wouldn't be into the idea of referencing it as some big novel thing. that horrible band 'co.uk' comes to mind here (or e-male, hah!) where the online style name quickly grates and dates.

― gareth, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't like it when it's done for pop-culture-referencing effect alone, like in, say "Booty Man" - "Click off, click on, www.cd.com" - especially when it's not even his website.

A recent one that I like is Evidence's lyric in Dilated Peoples' "Search 4 Bobby Fisher":

"...Dis my crew? Yo, you won't go far The truth is I'm about as much from Detroit as you are I'm rackin up points, shit cat I'm scorin' You ain't a true tiger, liar, you from Warren A trailer-trash town where Daddy stuck it to you That's why you hate your mother cause she never tried to stop it Twenty years later you're still out of luck I met this chick you took home on tour, but couldn't get it up Alert! Alert! You internet geeks, Eminem is just like you: weak between the sheets..."

I think what I'm basically saying is I like anti-internet references.

― Greg, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Other ones I can think of -

Morrissey - Wide To Receive: a bit icky.

Britney - E-Mail My Heart: this I think falls into the novelty category, except that the lyrics are fairly true-to-life.

That cockfarming Barcelona song. Not strictly about the 'net I don't think.

The actually rather funny Kirsty MacColl song about anonymous cybersex. Can't remember its name.

― Tom, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Um, Tom, you *didn't* think of the one that spawned that nice article? I'm not going to name it though, I'm afraid it might have that Candyman effect.

― Nicole, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

there's a song by a canadian pop band called prozzak that is called 'www.nevergetoveryou' [sic] and i believe it is the first song ever to sample the icq 'new message' sound.

oh and that url (with a dot com at the end) *does* work.

― maura, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hate Internet songs purely on the basis of Aaron Carter's Internet Girl. I mean, arrrgh. We were trapped at work listening to his CD one Saturday, because one of my coworkers brought his daughter. It was pure evil. Dean sang the song all day after that.

― Ally, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well, that's Dean for you.

― Ad, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Kate Bush did "Deeper Understanding" something like 11 years ago I think. Scary then, scary now.

― Tim, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was gonna form a punk band called the "webshites"...and write songs about the 'net! Doesn't count does it? Will go and sit in the corner.

― jel, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

― Joel, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

songs that are explicitly about the internet don't really seem to work, especially since they all seem to involve e-mailing hearts and love online and the like. prince's "my computer" with kate bush, which featured the first sampling of the aol guy, wasn't so bad mostly because it strayed from the above conceits.

"survivor" works because it sticks the line in from out of left field. as i believe mike said, they are surely the most cognizant of all of the electronic trends out there. when do they give a shout out to all of the laydeez with pdas?

― fred solinger, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Le Tigre - Get off the internet

OK song

― OK Computer, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In the prelapsarian days of the 80s, they didn't have the internet but they did have The Village People's delightful "Sex On the Phone"

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

figurine have a song called 'electronic address' it is lovely, about checking your email address ten times a day to see if he/she has written.

― keith, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Deltron 3030 - Virus. Internet related, but not excactly about online smooching.

― Kim, Friday, 23 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Two good ones:-

"Internet Curtains" (Denim)

and "Shopping On The Internet" (Bette Davis & The Balconettes)

― -, Saturday, 24 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the first song on the last alkaholiks album. "if you want the bomb, press tash.com, and i'll be on your screen with a beer in palm" or something like that.

― mac., Sunday, 25 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Another good one by Prince (also from _Emancipation_) is "Emale". Gotta love that bassline. I'm also surprised that no one's mentioned "Empty" by Janet Jackson, which may be my favorite description of cyberlove, particularly with those shimmery beats.

― Dan Perry, Tuesday, 27 March 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eleven months pass...

Last Prince Paul album (which I haven't heard in a while and only have a taped copy of) somebody says "WW-I'm-the-shit-dot-com". Yes, 2 'w's, allowing it to fit into the rhyme. Really must find out who the rapper is cuz that is a line of genius.

That's Chubb Rock, and the best song on that record, I think (tho the rest of it is great). Only took a year to answer...

― adam, Monday, 4 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

What's funny is that soon mentioning the internet in a song will be as weird and out of place as mentioning t.v. or the telephone (which is to say not at all)

― Cunga (Cunga), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 01:51 (twenty years ago)

talib kweli: my rhymes are blowing up chatrooms all over the internet

― biz, Tuesday, 19 July 2005 02:05 (twenty years ago)

I GOT THE INTERNET GOIN NUTS

― James.Cobo (jamescobo), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 05:17 (twenty years ago)

Chubb Rock is totally underrated.

― deej.., Tuesday, 19 July 2005 05:23 (twenty years ago)

Wasn't there an awful song on Rush's Test For Echo album about boys and girls emailing each other? I haven't listened to it in so long that I can't remember the exact lyrics, but I certainly remember the urge to cringe when I heard them.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 06:34 (twenty years ago)

its a good idea, though

― nicholas de jong (nicholas de jong), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 07:01 (twenty years ago)

Mousse T feat. Hot 'n' Juicy, Horny:
"I sent a message on the internet but it rejected"
rofl

― ledge (ledge), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 10:22 (twenty years ago)

just waiting for someone to sing 'interweb' now

― Sociah T Azzahole (blueski), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 10:42 (twenty years ago)

WWW.THUG.COM - Classic of all classics!

― Mickey (modestmickey), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 14:30 (twenty years ago)

"Leave The Driving" - Neil Young

Meanwhile across the ocean
Living in the internet
Is the cause of an explosion
No one has heard yet

― Tigerstyle Shamanic Vision Quester (sexyDancer), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 14:59 (twenty years ago)

Usher's "Dot Com" to thread

― Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 15:38 (twenty years ago)

DIGITAL GET-DOWN

creepy. real creepy.

― Zack Richardson (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 16:58 (twenty years ago)

that Todd Rundgren song "I hate my friggin' ISP". awful/awe-inspiring.

― La Monte (La Monte), Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

clea, people

― Enrique, naked in an unfamiliar future where corporations run the world... (Enri, Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:53 (twenty years ago)

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