No hang-ups - Blondie made not one, but two classic songs about the telephone. Photograph: David Sillitoe
The internet gains all the headlines when there are discussions about technology shaping the world we live in, but as far as popular songs are concerned it's mobile telecommunication that gets the props.
Perhaps it's because of spam, but gauging your popularity by the number of emails you get is a non-starter. Voicemail messages on the other hand are a different story. Razorlight's Golden Touch discusses a popular girl with a "thousand messages on her phone" while the Rakes' current album Ten New Messages begins with the feel-good factor associated with a full inbox. Although just like Johnny Borrell who "can never get through", later on in the album "the network was down".
This appears to be a common thread in songs about mobiles - The Streets' Mike Skinner nears a panic state caused by lack of a decent reception and inability to arrange a meeting place at the night club he's in during Blinded by the Lights. Meanwhile, Brett Anderson's new solo album features a torturous track (To the Winter) where he leaves messages but receives no reply. Poor lad. Not reaching someone you love or worse them not replying now appears to be just about the worst thing you can do to an indie kid (or 39-year-old man, in Brett's case).
It's not just songwriters of the indie firmament who are struggling with their phones. In rap too, where the expenditure for a decent handset is, you'd imagine, more substantial, it happens too. On Wouldn't You Like to Ride, Kanye West complains "We can talk on your cell, but not Nokia/It be goin' in and out, that's why I barely hear ya". Great advert for Nokia.
What is it with all this phone psychosis? Songs about phones used to be sexy - Call Me by Blondie, Love On The Telephone by Foreigner, Wichita Lineman or even Meri Wilson's Telephone Man which if memory serves involved some pervy goings on with an engineer.
What's your favourite phone song? Anyone know of any examples of contemporary tracks that ignore the torment of not being able to get through and celebrate the advantages of pay-as-you-go?
