Salaryman robots...a cultural diversion

As most of the people reading this blog know me in real life or in other various internet incarnations, I think most of you know that while I love science fiction, I also love many aspects of Japan and Japanese culture.  I lived in Japan for a couple of years and did my graduate work at Cornell on Japanese Literature, so some of that is bound to seep through, here and elsewhere.

In that light, please enjoy this somewhat sci-fi lookin' Japanese music video from World Order, called Mind Shift:




More interestingly (to me, anyway), after doing some quick googling, I discovered two great blog posts about this song.  Kogibbq.com talks about the lead singer, Genki Sudo, and his Mixed Martial Arts career before he got into J-Pop.  It also discusses some of the larger themes in the song itself, which is fairly important to the music video.  This blog over at globalpost.com sheds some light on the actual lyrics.  The TL;DR version seems to be that it's about a salary-man feeling out of touch with the spiritual, creative side of life, leaving him feeling like a mechanical, robotic part of society.

I love that on the surface this looks like a slightly goofy musical video of businessmen doing silly things in Japan...but that underneath, this has got a rather important message about life in Japan (and for workers in most places, I reckon).  Rather like Genki Sudo himself, there's a lot more than meets the eye.

Also?  It's pretty darn catchy.

Music Post: Robots!

Today's music post celebrates robots, or at least works as a guide through the different stages of budding robot-icity: denial, anger, acceptance, and finally violent retribution on their human creators.  Now with 100% less Uncanny Valley effect.

Let's work with denial first.  Marina and the Diamonds: I Am Not a Robot

Anger.  The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots



Acceptance, via Robyn: Fembot



Retribution, Flight of the Conchords style: the Humans Are Dead



I realize there's a lot of other robot-related music that could have gone on this round-up, so I'll probably do another robot-themed music post sooner or later.

Finally, here's an informal poll: who, or what, is your favorite robot (cylons, terminators, fembots, etc - all valid)?  I'm partial to Marvin from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I think my favorite is R2D2.