INQUIRER Readers' Top 10 Tech Tunes

MAN PROPOSES, INQ reader disposes. As ever, you trumped our list with your responses to The INQUIRER Top 12 Tech Songs.

So, after an open-source fashion and with nothing more in the way of a warm-up for the band, here are your top 10 tech tunes you can't get out of your heads.

10. Technologic by Daft Punk.
Sebastien mailed to say that Daft Punk's Technologic is the greatest tech song ever and linked to a vid to prove it.

The lyric is ceratinly spot on, though I don't know about “curl it”:

“Buy it, use it, break it, fix it,
Trash it, change it, melt - upgrade it,
Charge it, point it, zoom it, press it,
Snap it, work it, quick - erase it,
Write it, cut it, paste it, save it,
Load it, check it, quick - rewrite it,
Plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
Drag and drop it, zip - unzip it,
Lock it, fill it, curl it, find it,
View it, coat it, jam - unlock it,
Surf it, scroll it, pose it, click it,
Cross it, crack it, twitch - update it,
Name it, rate it, tune it, print it,
Scan it, send it, fax - rename it,
Touch it, bring it, Pay it, watch it,
Turn it, leave it, stop - format it.”

9. She Blinded Me With Science by Thomas Dolby.
A couple of you asked about this one, where we find these deathless lines:

“It's poetry in motion
And now she's making love to me
The spheres're in commotion
The elements in harmony
She blinded me with science
"She blinded me with science!"
And hit me with technology.”

“Hit me with technology?” Let's hope it was a nice, solid CRT monitor.

God knows I tried to forget but now it's bringing back the memory of that rubbish video with Magnus Pyke.

Dolby was a very annoying looking bloke and when not writing awful songs he helped others perform them.

Gratifyingly, a picture on Wikipedia shows Dolby has seemingly transformed into Buster Bloodvessel.

8. Integral by Pet Shop Boys.
This is about using technology for tracking, according to Andrew Hall:

“If you've done nothing wrong
You've got nothing to fear
If you've something to hide
You shouldn't even be here
You've had your chance
Now we've got the mandate
If you've changed your mind
I'm afraid it's too late
We're concerned
You're a threat
You're not integral
To the project”

Funnily enough, Neil Tennant was a neighbour where I grew up. Nice bloke by all accounts.

7. Slash Dot Slash by Fatboy Slim.
Fedor says my list is “garbage” and suggests Fatboy Slim's Slash Dot Slash:

“Slash Dot Dash Dot
Slash Dot Com
Slash Dot Dash Dot
Slash Dot Com
Slash Dot Dash Dot
Slash Dot Dash Dot
Dot Dot Dot Dot Com”

The lyric is certainly strong, I'll say that. Like Fatboy's wife, Zoe Ball, I'm all ears.

6. It's All About The Pentiums by Weird Al Jankovic.
In the original list, I mentioned that Weird Al is as funny as standing on the garden rake but several of you still voted for this. So I looked it up:

“Hey fella, I bet you're still livin' in your parents' cellar
Downloadin' pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar
And postin' "Me too!" like some brain-dead AOL-er
I should do the world a favor and cap you like Old Yeller
You're just about as useless as JPEGs to Helen Keller”

Charming. Let's just agree to disagree on this bloke, OK?

5. I Love My Computer by Bad Religion.
“love my computer
for all you give to me:
predictable errors and no identity”

Never heard it, or of it.

4. Yours Truly by ELO.
“You forgot a song so good it should be on the list if not in the number one positions,” says one reader. Well, they were a very forgettable band.

“I met a girl who looks a lot like you,
she does the things you do,
but she is an IBM.”

3. Make A Circuit For Me by The Polecats.
Bob says he “can't believe” we missed this. I can't believe he suggested it.

“A sweet romance is not for me
I need electricity
If you wanna make me flip
Hit me with a micro chip

[Chorus]
I'll be a diode, cathode, electrode
Overload, generator, oscillator
Make a circuit with me

Just plug in and go-go-go
I'll be a human dynamo
Signals in my power cord
Impuls on my circuit board

I'm an AC/DC man
You can read my circuit diagram
I feed on electric jolts
I need fifty-thousand volts

A sweet romance is not for me
I really need electricity
If you wanna make me flip
Come on and hit me with a micro chip”

2. White Collar Holler by Stan Rogers.
Curtis from Texas likes this one:

“Oh boys can't ya code it? program it right
Nothing ever happens in this life of mine
I'm hauling up the data on the xerox line.”

1. Money For Nothing by Dire Straits
“Money for nothing and your chicks for free”

Mike Magee, the boss in these parts, suggests this cynical take on the MTV generation with dodgy early example of computer-generated video. He's the boss and Mark Knopfler went to my school so this gets number one. µ