Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Stars

Tracy Howse

Fun is an indie pop band who released their album Some Nights on February 21, 2012. This album features ten songs, the most popular being Some Nights, We are Young, and Carry On. Stars is track ten on this album.

Stars starts with what sounds to be a recording of a concert. There are voices cheering and singing in the background of this track at that point. The song playing during this introduction is Some Nights. This introduction ends and the vocalist starts singing; the background consists of synth sounds that have a swelling affect, primal drums, and clapping. After this section, there is a horn-like interlude and the singer, bass, and clapping come back in. At 1:20, there is a combination of all of the parts of the song thus far. This continues until 2:01, where the feeling of the song switches dramatically into a more relaxed or groovy sound. During this section there are vocals, heavy bass, drums, strings, and the synth is scattered about. This section is highly repetitive and, as these sections repeat, the vocals become more and more mechanically affected and the layers increase. At 5:12 the altering of the voices peaks through a section where multiple voices are being altered as they repeat “no.” The fact that the voices are singing one word again and again makes it even easier to just listen to the pitch modulation. The song ends by the voices decay, slow down, and get lower in pitch.

The lyrics in this song are pertaining to family relationships, lovers, fans, and a relationship with oneself. The first section where the music is more upbeat discusses specifically the relationship that the lead vocal has with certain people. During this section, he narrows down all the relationships to specifically one person whom the second section is about. He discusses that this person holds onto stars because “no one is gonna save us.” This section is bringing up the robot esthetic of paranoia; the singer is making a general statement that they (him, the girl, or anyone else) are not going to be saved. This also brings up the esthetic of contrast because this very human concern is being communicated through an unnatural sounding song.

Another esthetic is the important sound of things falling apart. One example of this is at 5:12 in the song where the voices are singing “no” repeatedly. During this section, the “no”s start to speed up and fall out of strict time. This makes the music sound as if it is breaking or glitching and gives the listener a feeling of tension during this time. Another very prevalent example of this is the very ending. The voices that are singing “you’re always holding on to stars” are fading out, even past the point when the instrumentals have completely faded out. This is the sound of things falling apart because it creates a feeling as if the machine that is singing this is shutting down or dying. An example of this is the Deactivation of Hal 9000 (the core of which is imaged below) from the science fiction film Space Odyssey. At the end of this movie when Dave, the last surviving character, is trying to deactivate the super computer

Hal, the computer offers to sing him a song. Hal sings “Daisy,” which was the first song to be sung by a computer, to Dave while he is shutting down, and thus the song decays and gets lower, just as the end of Stars does.

This song displays contrast through a combination of the various and opposing aspects. The most obvious example of contrast is the fact that there are three different sections in which different moods are created. The first section seems to be a concert setting, the second section is an upbeat section, and the third is a slower and groovy section. The next contrast is in the second section; there is stark contrast between the metallic sounds and the primal sounds. In the background, there are metallic and unnatural sounding synth parts at the same time as very heavy drums that eventually become drums and clapping. These percussive sounds are very natural where as the swells of the synth give it the feeling of another world. This idea of natural versus unnatural is also evident in the vocals, because the singer begins to sound less natural as the song continues. This idea of contrast is mimicking the contrast of the human person. The vocalist is discussing his relation with another person, and yet in the same way he says he has “faded in the dark.” This is the idea of connectedness verses isolation is a very human reaction to something and thus the band is using these contrasts of mechanical and natural sounds to show this contrast one feels in the struggle of human relationships. David Byrne wrote an article, Machines of Joy: I Have Seen the Future and It Is Squiggly, about Northern European electronic and technological music and explains this idea of using technology to represent the human. “They have learned to think like machines and reflexively have developed machines that mimic the seemingly quirky randomness of the human mind” (Byrne 7). Byrne is saying that people can make machines that mimic themselves, which is how this contrast in the singer’s mind can be represented by the contrast in the music. Tompkins also comments on the very human aspects of Auto-Tune technology specifically. “Auto-Tune is better known for its imperfection, a quality more human than robotic… It’s not robotic. It is fickle and aflutter and it seems to be happening all at once” (Tompkins 303). He is saying that the technology we are using to perfect ourselves as humans is just as human as we are.

Electric Surfin' Go Go

Tracy Howse

Polysics is a Japanese rock band from Tokyo, named after a Korg PolySix synthesizer. Polysics was highly influential to Japanese rock in their abilities to expand their music around the world. Their outfits were also very iconic; the members wore orange or yellow suits and very sharp and futuristic looking glasses. The band released Electric Surfin’ Go Go as their 6th single in June of 2006.

Electric Surfin' Go Go starts with various rhythmic beeps. Some of these beeps are low and oscillate between two pitches, which the other beeps are less frequent stay on one high pitch. The low beat speeds up and ends up sounding almost like a trill; this is followed by the song breaking down into a combination of synthetic sounds that lead into the synth melody. This synth melody is accompanied by guitar, drums, and the beep noises which become unnoticeable due to their repetition. The singer enters with the same accompaniment, except for the synth melody. Although there are less beeps in this section, there are various unnatural and stinging noises throughout. The synth creates an interlude that breaks up the repetition of the voice. This repeated section leads into another vocal part that is interrupted by a repetitive “ning” sound that happens on every eight note. These two alternate until the music hits a break in the flow; it sounds as if a record is breaking and a combinations of squeaks and sounds that might relate to that. The next section is a collection of voices which are saying “everybody go go,” and this leads into another voice part. These two sections also exchange until the synth melody reenters and there is an instrumental bridge, which leads into the “ning”ing noise again alternating with the lead singer. This creates a combination of all the sections of the songs, because the “everybody go go” and the synth sounds all bounce off of each other until the synth melody takes over the song with the original accompaniment. It continues until the end, where the synth falls out of the melody and literally the pitch glissandos down until the song concludes with the final drum hit.

Only a portion of the music video can be found online, and it shows the video before it was altered with graphics and different effects (top) and after it was altered with these affects (bottom). This video switches between animated images of the singers or instruments a more natural image of them. This affect gives the characters in the story a synthetic feel to them and makes them feel more detached. This is clearly the effect that Polysics is trying to achieve, considering their sterile outfits and glasses that make it impossible to see their eyes.

This song exemplifies the robot esthetic through mechanical sounds. Throughout this song there are beeps, some of which are consistent throughout. What this does is create an industrialized sound throughout it that also fades into the background. At 2:05, the beeps stop when the hand-clapping sound stars and this clearly shows how accustomed one can get to this sound. Another esthetic is the contrast between the background and the main singer. Although the main singer does look robotic in the music video, it is clear that he is a human and his voice and singing sounds natural. All of the members in the band, aside from the keyboardist, are very natural in their motions. This brings up the contrast of the industrial music and the humanness of the people. This stark contrast with the background voices and instrumentals as well as the members who are dancing verses the keyboardist draws the listeners’ attention to how human the vocals are, even if they do sound somewhat robotic on their own. The members are also exemplifying the idea of the recording being a proxy for the original people who are in the band. Although we can hear the singer and see them in the video, it is harder to connect with them because their eyes are covered and they are in outfits that are not conducive with our image of natural people.

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Violet Stars, Happy Hunting

Tracy Howse

Janelle Monáe is an R&B musician who, in her music, claims to be Cindi Mayweather. In her line notes Monáe says that Cindi Mayweather is an android with “a rock-star proficiency package and a working soul” who has to abide to the rules of the robots (Monáe 2008). Monáe uses Cindi as an aide to discussing issues of our modern world.

Violet Stars, Happy Hunting starts out with Monáe singing “I-I-I-I’m an alien from outer space,” during which two guitars enter. There are background voices that repeat and add to what she is saying, as well as ambient noise in the voice that hits a pitch and somewhat falls. As these continue, bass and snare enter and give the song a heavier sound. The verse continues with this instrumentation, background singing, and ambient noise. During chorus Monáe and the backup singers continue singing with this instrumentation and ambient noises, which become less noticeable. The song continues in this general form with some added synth which glissandos down during and creates a mystic sound. At 1:39 there is a bridge which has voices whispering, apparently searching for Cindi Mayweather and at 2:02 there is a rap-like section which leads into a development of the chorus. At 3:07 there is an outro which consists of sharp repetitive noises and the song abruptly ends. This section does connect into the next song Many Moons.

During this song, the robotic elements are evident in the music, especially the ambient background noises. These noises are the esthetic of The Important Sound of Things Falling Apart. The setting for this song is explained in The March of The Wolfmasters. At this point of the story, Cindi is explaining her position in society and is seemingly interrupted by the Wolfmasters. The ambient noises and the violent sounds heard in the bridge exemplify this idea because the sounds in the song make the audience think that the robot and world are falling apart. Another robotic esthetic shown in this song is Paranoia. During this verse she says “I’m a product of the man” three times and says “they’ve come to destroy me” three times as well. By repeating these, Monáe is giving the image of Cindi being concerned for her life. These paranoid fears are fueled by the industrialized and terrifying world that Monáe has painted for us.

Cindi Mayweather is also example of the Blurring of Man and Machine and how this leads to an Uncanny Valley. On the cover of the album, we see Monáe in her “Cindi Mayweather” form as part human and part robot. This cyborg appearance gives the audience an uneasy feeling due to the fact that it is difficult to place this character in one category. Monáe adds to this uneasy feeling in her line notes by claiming that Cindi has a working soul, which is even more unnerving when you consider the ending of the play Rossum's Universal Robots. In RUR, the robots are eventually given a soul and, with this soul, have the ability to overpower the humans. In that way, this explores the esthetic of the uncanny valley because it gives the listener a concern about how “mechanical” this creation really is.

When asked about Cindi Mayweather, Monáe said to MTV, "Cindy is an android and I love speaking about the android because they are the new “other" (Monáe 2010). Through Cindi, Monáe is discussing issues about being an “outsider” or unaccepted culture. In Violet Stars, Happy Hunting, Monáe continues to address modern race issues by comparing them to the dilemmas of Cindi. One of these dilemmas Monáe wants to bring up is that of race. In the song, we hear “I’m a slave girl without a race” and says that they are chasing and uprooting her kind. This statement can be linked to the fact that African Americans in America today were uprooted from their homes through The Middle Passage, or the crossing of Africans to the Americans. During this transfer, these people were taken from their culture and placed in a new culture. Just as Cindi discusses the fact that she is “without a race,” she is discussing that she has been taken from her alien planet and brought to a culture in which she does not belong. Monáe’s feeling about the African Americans who were taken from their culture; they were removed from their culture and placed into one in which they do not have roots. Thus, they must create their own history and future.

Human After All

Tracy Howse

Daft Punkis duo of French musicians who make electronic house music. The members are

Guy-Manuel de Homenem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter. Human After All was released on October 31, 2005.

Human After All starts with a very sharp percussion beat that consists of heavy bass and tightly gaited snares. This continues until a vocoder enters and creates a somewhat melodic pattern with rising and falling intervals. The vocoder, although generally constant, has variation to it and has an almost glitch-y sound to it. Next a very unnatural sounding guitar enters and acts as a counter melody to the vocoder. The guitar swells as it plays in an almost too perfect way, giving it a mechanical sound. As the song continues, a synth occasionally adds to the texture through a small, lingering melodic pattern which fades in and out. A bridge-like section occurs where every part drops out except for a guitar-like sound that plays a brief melody. Everything but the guitar comes back in and this sound then morphs into voices singing the lyrics. The guitar reenters and acts as a counter melody again. The voices again morph into the melodic sound, which continues over top of the layers. This pattern continues and the bass and vocoder sound hypnotic. This layering basically repeats again until 3:38, where the song becomes completely silent for a second. This is a stark contrast because it allows the listener to realize just how hypnotic each individual part becomes. The percussion and vocoder come back in with the voice continuously saying “human” and eventually the guitar comes in as well. At 4:35 the bass drops out for the first time, other than the silent second, which gives the song a much lighter feeling. The beat drops from 4:49 until the end with all the parts working together as the voice continues to sound less and less natural as it says “human.”

This song features many of the robot esthetics, one of which being the important sound of things falling apart. The vocoder throughout the song exemplifies the important sound of things falling apart. When the vocoder sounds like it glitched or sounds like it skips, this esthetic is revealed. This noise is a constant background and becomes very normal sounding to us through repetition, and, when it changes or slightly alters from what it was, the listener realizes this and receives an almost shocking feeling about this.

Another robot esthetic is contrast, which is prevalent in the difference between the lyrics and the sound of the music. The lyrics are saying “We are human after all. Much in common after all.” The message the lyrics are giving has very natural connotations; it is saying that we are all the same. However, this is being said by a voice that is not very human. This shows sharp contrast between the message and the way the message is being presented. In And the Beat Goes on: An Introduction to French Techno Culture, Smith says, “When vocals are included in techno music, their function is usually phonetic or aesthetic rather than semiotic. The voice, often electronically distorted or reproduced, becomes just another instrument rather than a means of conveying a verbal message” (Smith 734). This is showing that the voice and vocals, although conveying a message, are not the main point of the song.

This stress on the music rather than the lyrics is very important in all techno music in France as well as the rest of the world. Smith also says, “Whereas the word, by definition, is rap's raison d'etre, techno rejects lyricism and narrative, and relies almost exclusively on ambiance or beats per minute for its effect” (733-734). This shows that the beats and the sounds are the real focus of this song. The fact that techno music of all types is related to this shows the fact that these songs have an international undertone.

The idea of using music to represent daily life of any culture is not new. Russolo said in his Art of Noise: Futurist Manifesto, “As soon as we will have found the mechanical principle which produces a certain noise, we will be able to graduate its pitch according to the laws of acoustics” (Russolo 11). He is explaining the push from classical instruments and vocals to something new and different. This idea is very prevalent in the electronic-based techno music. However, techno has gone beyond these ideas. It is a type of genera that not only incorporates daily technology into the music, but it does this to create a getaway. “In other words, by dancing to techno music with a large group of people one can escape momentarily the problems of the real world” (Smith 737).” Techno as a cultural element is taking society and using its tools to create an escape from the very same society.

Further Readings:

Works Cited

Smith, Nigel. "And the Beat Goes on: An Introduction to French Techno Culture." French Review Vol. 77.No. 4 (2004): 730-741. JSTOR. Database. 10 Apr 2013.

Mansell, James. "Luigi Russolo's Art of Noises." The Senses and Society 2.3 (2007): 391-95.

When the Machines Rock

Tracy Howse

When the Machines Rock , by Gary Numan, is the 9th track on his CD Replicas. This song features synthesizer and many of the robotic esthetics. Through a song composed of many unnatural sounds and contrasting melodies.

The beginning of When the Machines Rock is unnatural; rather than an introduction or smooth transition into the song, the noise automatically starts. There is a basic drum patter or 2 weak hits and one strong beat. There is also a funky bass compiled of different skips and repetition. The melody overtop is a combination of choppy skips. These aspects starting at the exact same time in the beginning makes the song seem as if it had been going like this long before the audience started listening. This “Section A” is then contrasted by “Section B,” which is different in style. The melody, as opposed to the beginning melody, is smooth and has various rises and falls. Section B also starts with a glissando down by a synthesizer, which then sustains as a droning noise throughout. This synth sound changes timbres and pitches throughout this section. As the synth rises in pitch, it creates a sort of oscillating sound. The drum varies a bit from the last section and the bass stays the same.

When Section A comes back, it also starts with a glissando down and the droning synth continues through this section, unlike the first time we heard this section. Another contrast from the beginning is the fact that the funky bass also has two sounds to it; there is the original bass, as well as a sharp noise that continues with it. This metallic sound hits every eighth note and increases the texture. The melody, drum variation, and overall structure are the same, which makes these changes, namely the metallic sound and the synth noise, stick out even more. During the second occurrence of the B section, the components stay generally the same, however it starts with a glissando up, which is the first time a section is started that way. Also, the synthesizer rises and falls less while having timbre that sounds grittier. These more biting sounds contrast with the simple components of the beginning.

As section A comes back for the first time, it is clear that the contrast from the beginning is still increasing. The drums in this section have heavy hits on the beat that is the and of 3 and 4. This paired with the still biting metallic bass line makes this section heavier than before. The melodic pattern here also changes during this section; it sounds almost swung, which makes it sound more unnatural. These sounds, in conjunction with the synthesizer add to the building of this song. Right between this 3^rd section A and the 3^rd section B is a sort of bridge. This bridge is a slow two chord progression in which all of the aspects of this song come together to hit two strong beats, both of which have little pick-ups by the drums. This section stops the flow of the song momentarily, and then the song picks up with the 3^rd round of section B, which stays generally the same except for added robotic sounds. This bridge creates a strong downbeat for the revamp of section B, which now has added noises such as laser beam sounds and something that sounds like rushing air. The synthesizer in this section also seems to be oscillating and making an almost trill noise while it continues in the background.

The song approaches the end, there is one last verse. This melodic pattern is increasing the swinging idea and becomes less and less natural as the speed between the notes increases. Also, during the third time this verse pattern repeats, the drums drop out for four beats, which makes the song sound almost empty for that brief time. However, the beat picks back up and resolves the tension. There is another type of bridge, which is basically a repetition of the previous section. This then brings the song to the outro, which has no drums and no bass. The melodic pattern is the same as the one in the chorus, but only occurs once. The synthesizer and the melody then fall in pitch and volume until they fade out.

“When the Machines Rock” exemplifies many of the elements of the robot esthetics. One of these is the obsession with technological progress or obsession with perfection. During the B sections, the melody becomes more and more distorted from the original concept. This distortion comes with a sort of swing in the beat, however it is clearly mechanical. This mechanic swing relates to the title by giving the image of robots and machines dancing, but in a static and “too perfect” manner. This concept was explained by David Byrne in his essay “Machines of Joy: I Have Seen the Future and It Is Squiggly.” “Machines of Joy: I Have Seen the Future and It Is Squiggly.” He discusses the mechanical music as something that resembles humans. “They have learned to think like machines and reflexively have developed machines that mimic the seeming quirky randomness of the human mind” (Byrne 7). This discusses that, although these mechanical sounds do not seem human, they actually represent us.

Another robot esthetic is the idea of stark contrast. The melody compared to the harsh background sounds, specifically the bass later in the song and the synth as it has a grittier timbre. There is also obvious contrast between the beginning of the song and the end of the song, due to the layering of the sounds as the song progresses. This contrast is also discussed in Byrne’s essay. “I would further propose that the Northern Europeans are in fact laughing at themselves, that their own obsessions, psychological hang-ups and complexes, at the same time as they are indulging in these obsessions” (Byrne 8). This contrast between two seemingly opposite positions or sounds makes each one sound more specific and interesting. It is also giving the proposition that the music is itself a statement as well as a type of artifice. This idea of music and further meaning is clearly a part of Numan’s musical goal.

“I told the set designers I didn’t want any of their flashing, coloured lights, I just wanted white light, and a lot of it, on the floor to make the presentation stark and different. I wanted everything about the way we presented the song to express its theme and atmosphere… The cold, alienated stare was as much nerves as image. Whether people loved it or hated it, we did look different” (Numan, CD insert pg 1).

Numan is exemplifying the idea of contrast and of “making fun” in his work. He is taking his music, which is against the grain, and trying to make it even more contrasted from what is expected by the public.

Finally, this track uses the robotic esthetic of “The Art of Noise.” This is the idea of taking noises from daily life and incorporating them into music (See Typewriter ). In Russolo’s 1913 futurist manifesto, he discusses “The Art of Noise.” “To excite our sensibility, music has developed into a search for more complex polyphony and a greater variety of instrumental tones and colorings” (Russolo 5). Russolo later concludes that the music should include the sounds of daily life, since they can add these new textures and colors to the music. This esthetic is evident in this track because of Numan’s use of sounds, such as the laser beam sound or the metallic sound which is created in the bass line. These sounds, which are similar to things we would hear daily, add to the idea of machines dancing, since they are machine like sounds mixed into music. Russolo’s concept creates a wider opportunity to show concepts like machines dancing.

Die Mensch-Maschine: Universal Man

Die Mensch-Maschine: Universal Man

Tracy Howse

Die Mensch-Maschine, or The Man Machine, by Kraftwerk was released on their seventh album, The Man Machine, in May of 1978. Kraftwerk's minimal music had a widespread impact on German and international music of the 70s. The song Man Machine was the title song on this album and portrays many of the esthetics of Kraftwerk as well as robots in general.

The song starts with an introduction of clicking noises on the beats; these sounds are not strong hits and have a lot of reverb. The light melody is added and it is clearly an unnatural instrumental sound. A bass, too, is added, which increases the layering through its sparse rhythm. This layering is built even more when percussion enters the mix. The hits are soft but have a lot of impact because they hit on the beats. More layering comes in through artificial sounding noises that sound more like pitches wavering, rather than actual pitches. This combination of noises creates a sterile and mechanical sound. The “chorus” starts when the lyrics “Man Machine” enter. The voices have the same sort of reverb as the noises in the beginning and are clearly unnatural. Their strictness and repetition only amplifies their robotic sound. During the verse-like section, some of the layers drop out and the minimal sounds create a contrast from the chorus. This part, once again rebuilds, however it introduces a sort of “boing” or “clanging” noises. The song is then structured as chorus, verse, chorus, outro.

The title, “Man Machine,” relates to this song because the parts in this song are clearly artificial. The lyrics say “Man Machine, pseudo human being,” which means a false or fake human being. This is explaining the machine as being a fake human being; clearly robotic in nature. The clicking noises in the beginning have an echo effect and sound as if they are the moving parts of a robot. These melodies and harmonies also are mechanical due to their strictness and repetition. The layering creates a combination of moving parts that work together in a very rigid and structured way, just as a robot does. Ralf, a member of the band, was quoted in an interview: “Machines dance, so to speak,’ Ralf muses, ‘and repetition, rhythm, builds. But that’s more an artistic fiction” (Toop 202). Ralf is saying that us taking repetition or rhythm and using it to personify machines is a figment of our imaginative minds. We do this because of the robotic esthetics that these noises portray.

One of the robotic esthetics this piece encompasses is the “obsession with perfection.” This is evident through the structure of the song as a whole as well as the alteration of the sounds. Aside from this song, the band itself also had an obsession with perfection. “The subject matter was the philosophy but deeper still was the obsession with pure sound” (Toop 202). This idea of the “pure sound” creates a song, like Man Machine, that is precise, structured, and rigid sounding. Another robotic esthetic this piece has is “the important sound of things falling apart,” which is the part of a song or piece when the music seems to have glitched or broken. This is evident through the “boing” noises during the verses of this song. These noises give the impression of sprockets breaking or a glitch occurring in this “Man Machine” we are apparently listening to. The esthetic of “replacing humans with technological substitutes” is also prevalent in the lyrics of “Man Machine.” The voice refers to the Man Machine as a pseudo or fake human being, but then calls it a “super human being.” This idea of machine being better than the humans invokes the fear that humans will be replaced or ruled by these machines. The esthetic “the blurring of man and machine,” or the “Uncanny Valley ” is also displayed in this song. This uncanny valley is the idea that there is a category between robot and human where the object or creature is neither, and both at the same time. This unnerving middle ground can be seen in Figure 1 below. The voices in this song seem to hit that uncanny valley, because the voice is clearly not natural but also is not 100% robotic. Another example of this uncanny valley is the pictures inside the booklet cover art for “The Man Machine” (See Figure 2 below.)

Figure 1

Figure 2

Kraftwerk in general has songs that are very multinational. The mechanical and industrial sounding songs make them accessible to other nations while also spreading the influences of Germany. “’Industrial societies are today worldwide,’ says Ralf. The ideal, he suggests, is to have ‘artistic presence also. Not just big corporations, business, numbers, money, people, but art, music” (Toop 204). Ralf is saying that they wanted the technology to be a part of the every day lives in every aspect. Toop refers to this as a “new Volksmusik,” or a new music for the people (Toop 204). This multinational view is also explained by Redmond during his explanation of Evangelion:

“What distinguishes Evangelion from the run-of-the-mill mecha or giant robot cartoon is not simply its ground-breaking animation, sparkling editing, and world-class sequences; rather, Anno sublated the mecha as a form, transforming the latter into the basis for a new kind of multinational aesthetics… transformed Western European auteur cinema and Eastern European theatrical and musical forms into the field of Eurovideo” (Redmond).

What Redmond calls “Eurovido” is sort of the parallel of Volksmusik. It is the action of taking esthetics from various cultures and combining them into an art form, making the multinational concept as a whole accessible. The song The Man Machine encompasses in terms of actual languages of societies because of how many languages it was released in. Also, however, the song as a whole reaches this multinational concept. It takes a man, who has no specific nationality, and combines it with a robot. Therefore, this Man Machine is symbol of Germany, its origin, as well as all of the nations together.

Works Cited

Toop, David. Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds. London:

Serpent's Tail, 1995. 200-07. Print.

Tiny Little Robots

Tracy Howse

The alternative rock group Cage the Elephant released their debut album on June 23^,2008 in Europe and March 24, 2009 in the USA ( Cage the Elephant ). Track 4 on their album is Tiny Little Robots. This song focuses mainly on the robotic esthetic of fear or paranoia, which is prevalent through the music and the Lyrics (there are discrepancies about the actual lyrics.)

The song immediately starts with the lead singer screaming “when you get fired up” or something along those lines (there is discrepancy on what he actually says.) This gives the song a feeling of anguish and fear from the start. The guitars and high hat starts immediately after this. The high hat initially hits right on the beat, however, once the singer starts, the high hat switches to the off beats. Throughout the song, the high hat switches between the on and off beats, which causes a feeling of instability. This parallels the unstable society which this song is portraying.

Another aspect that has robotic esthetics is when there are back up voices joining in to say “You’re a robot, they designed your life” and “You can join us on the other side” during the chorus. These words said in unison gives the image of the people being brainwashed, especially when they say “you can join us.” The band also directly addresses the listener when they repeat “are you scared” three times. This part builds because it starts with just clapping, then the percussion and instrumentals build through the third “are you scared,” especially the second time this happens. This resembles the paranoid feeling and the sensation that the fear grows continuously.

The intensity of the songs slows as it takes a more mesmerizing approach for the last verse and chorus. The bridge continues this style and gives a sort of trance or brainwashing feeling. This trance state the song takes seems to be analogous with the kind of messages that society is sending the people. During the outro, the voice talks about the “zombies” that pave the streets, which he explains as “a lost generation, generically made.” This Idea of the following generation lacking individuality combined with the breaking down of the music exemplifies the robotic esthetic of things falling apart.

Throughout this song, the lyrics amplify the lack of individualism and the society’s denial of information and free thought. The lyrics “Crucify free thinkers” and “Mass deception altered our perception, sold it to the children, made a new connection” illustrate the idea that the people will be given thoughts to think. The concept of feeding information to children is especially unnerving because if they are taught something at an early age, it could be all they ever know.

This idea ties into the fear of being denied information, which is another theme in this song. “They’ll keep you so amused, you’ll never taste the truth” gives way to the same concept that Google uses (See Google: The Bias of Searches or Eli Pariser's Filter Bubble ). This is the fear that people will be so amused by repetitive stimulations that they will no longer seek new concepts or goals. In the outro, however, the singer explains that there is some hope; “When amidst all the madness I saw a flower. A dream that was creepin’ I kept in my sight.” This is the hope that an individual mind could save the generations that have been brainwashed.