Videogames may not have had the same impact on pop music as other areas of the arts - you are probably statistically more likely to hear a reference to Salman Rushdie in a song than Samus Aran. Pop songs, as throwaway as they often are, tend to concentrate on the big themes of life - love, loss, sex, recreational drugs - rather than the tiny guilty thrills attributed to opening up new characters in beat-'em-ups or smashing your best lap times in Gran Turismo. But once in a while, if you listen carefully, you catch the odd reference to gaming culture.
So what have been your favourite songs about videogames?
To get you started, here are ten that I like/remember. There's more out there, right?
Eiffel 65 - My Console The Italian bubblegum techno posse responsible for global mega-hit Blue (Da Be Dee), shoved this paean to PlayStation on their Europop album. "We're gonna play the game the PlayStation all day, with Metal Gear Solid to Tekken 3," they sang incomprehensibly.
Smut Peddlers - PlayStation Generation This might be a forgettable slice of formulaic skate punk but it does feature the immortal line "It wouldn't be the end-o If you smashed up your Nintendo"
Notorious BIG - Juicy In this autobiographical rap the late Biggie Smalls disses all the teachers who said he'd never amount to nuthin', while celebrating the trappings of his luxurious lifestyle. "Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis; When I was dead broke, man I couldn't picture this," he proclaims. Clearly he had modest ambitions compared to today's rappers who wouldn't aspire to owning a games console unless it was made out of solid gold and covered in polar bear fur.
Placebo - Big Mouth Strikes Again When Placebo covered this Smiths classic for the B-side of Nancy Boy, squealing Brian Molko changed the lyrics of the second chorus, removing the phrase 'hearing aid' and going with, "as the flames rose to her roman knows and her Mega Drive started to melt". You tiny impish Sega nut!
Audio Karate - Nintendo 89 The inventive pop punk outfit produced one off the unsung greatest hits of videogame-inspired music with this blistering break-up song, in which the end of a relationship is described in videogame terms. "Controlling 2 player situation will surely result in hesitation." All right, it doesn't make much sense taken out of context...
Barclay James Harvest - Spud-u-like "Don't want no Gameboy just a rock and roll" complained the grumpy old rockers on their anti-videogame tirade, Spud U Like, as featured on ponderous 1993 album, Caught in the Light. The opening shot is the best:
"Taking over all the kids you've ever seen Locked into the screen Jabbing at the buttons like they're in a dream Don't want a Mega drive Just give me spud-u-like"
It's true, the kids were much better off in the seventies when there was nothing to turn them into swaying docile zombies. Oh, apart from glue sniffing. And the music of Barclay James Harvest.
HORSE the Band - Birdo This experimental post-industrial five-piece virtually invented the musical sub-genre, Nintendocore, using a synthesizer to mimic the audio output of 8- and 16bit Nintendo games. Their (mostly puerile and unlistenable) songs are filled with references to characters from Mega Man, Super Mario Brothers and Zelda. Birdo, for example, is an androgynous dinosaur who first appeared in Super Mario 2.
Freezepop - I am not your Game Boy Fizzy electro-pop nonsense from 2004's Fancy Ultra Fresh album. The aggrieved singer might not be her lover's Gameboy ("don't play with me, I am not your toy"), but she's not short of classic videogame references:
"I don't have Spyhunter Galaga or burger time don't look here for Frogger Dig-Dug aint no friend of mine don't ask me, you'll cross the line"
Dr Dre - Forgot about Timmy Dre's ill-advised South Park novelty song contains the almost redeeming line, "ya'll are the reason Dre ain't been getting no Sega Dreamcast/So f**k ya'll all of ya'll" Is he referring to the public's indifference to the ill-fated 128bit console? I really think he is.
Del the Funky Homosapien - Proto Culture Del's a veteran gamer and peppers his tracks with references - Proto Culture being the defining example. This collaboration with Khaos Unique is essentially an enlightening videogame discussion covering cult titles like Macross, Rival Schools and Ninja Gaiden, as well as the odd allusion to industry politics:
"To anyone who knew me better Know I chose Saturn first Cause it's 2-D heaven Bernie Stolar dropped the ball with the RAM cartridge X-men Vs. Street Fighter could've expanded the market"
Bernie Stolar, ex-president of Sega of America: the only videogame exec to be name-checked in a rap song...
