The following is my collection of songs I personally chose for a dystopian playlist and a brief explanation about why I added each selection.
Mr. Roboto - Styx Domo arigatou Mr. Roboto. Himitsu o shiritai (I want to know your secret.) Mr. Roboto was one of the most popular songs on the rock opera album "Kilroy Was Here" that follows the saga of Robert Orin Charles Kilroy (ROCK) as he escapes from prison and leads a resistance movement against the authoritarian regime MMM. As a Japanese teacher I wanted to start my playist with this song since there are many nods to Japan and themes of uprising against a dystopian technocratic regime.
99 Luftballons - Nena This is a quintessential feel good 80s song about ushering in the end of the world via 99 year war after 99 balloons were mistaken for UFOs. The singer wanders a barren wasteland during the 80s-tacular music video, and releases a final balloon at the end of the song which, in my opinion, serves as a bittersweet tribute to humanity while also offering some hope that there's a chance things will get better.
The Day the World Went Away - Nine Inch Nails Trent Reznor's haunting, industrial sound incorporates themes of loss and societal collapse. The song depicts a crumbling world full of despair and raw emotion. The song stirs up intense emotions, but the lack of lyrics leaves things a little ambiguous.
Tough Luck - Svard The song has a rad alternative/indie vibe and lyrics that capture tough luck, but also encourage the listener to "keep your head down" and do your best to keep pushing through challenges. The grainy film depicting ruins from the bygone Soviet era alongside 1970s model Ladas and random stray dogs adds to the dystopian ambience of the song.
Hunter - Björk Björk (shoutout to Iceland) creates an unsettling yet beautiful soundscape with lyrics that capture the intensity of need and desperation related to "hunting." In the video, Björk transforms into a bear/lion and back into a human, embracing the idea of using avatars or cyborg-type organisms to experience life. People may need to massively adapt and change or even transform themselves to meet their own personal objectives. My personal interpretation of the song is related to hunting for meaning, purpose and connection to others. While these are some of the greatest existential topics to be explored in the human experience, human conclusions in 2025 will likely be very different from those in 2050 with advances in technology.
We Appreciate Power - Grimes - The "we" that appreciates power in this song is Grimes' K-pop like AI Girl Group that seeks to dominate over the human race. The song suggests that as people hand their power to AI, which seems inevitable when watching the video, society will transform drastically ushering in a superior way of living as a collective vs. individual human autonomy. "We" keep hearing that real communism has never been tried... Results may vary.
Paranoid Android - Radiohead - Paranoid Android's title was a nod to the android character Marvin from Terry Prachart's classic "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy." This song captures dystopia, despair and chaos with lyrics like “When I am king, you will be first against the wall / With your opinion which is of no consequence at all" and "God loves his children." The animation is vintage '90s and the video is worth watching for that alone.
Space Oddity - David Bowie David, you have been a guiding light for me in some very dark times so I had to include some of your music here. Space Oddity follows the brave Major Tom on his ill fated space adventure that captures the hearts and minds of the people. Because the hero dies in this one, it is bittersweet and illustrates the importance of putting the safety of humans before the need for progress for the sake of progress. The song serves as a warning to consider the safety of humanity before going exploring into places we've never been before. Fun fact about Space Oddity: You can hear two different versions of this song by turning the bass all the way up and the treble all the way down, and vice versa. I discovered this after a party in college one night while chilling and listening to music. The bass only version seems to be the more polished and offical narrative endorsed by the powers that be that will be written in the papers. The treble only version is Major Tom's side of the story. His mixed emotions are beautifully captured by Bowie in the vocals and in the melody. I recommend trying this sometime to hear both versions of the song.
Life on Mars - David Bowie The new boundary humans are pushing toward in the space race is Mars colonization. I understand that many people do not like Elon Musk, but it is my hope that he succeeds in his quest to start a self-sustaining human settlement on Mars to help ensure the survival of our species, which will lead to the expansion of consciousness. The lyrics to the song aren't exactly about life on Mars, but they embrace dystopian themes like "Take a look at the lawman beating up the wrong guy” and “Mickey Mouse has grown up a cow,” which encourage independent thinking and rejection of the broken systems in society. Fun fact about Life on Mars: the song was actually David's response to Frank Sinatra's My Way. Thank you for everything, David. I'll see you on the other side.
Hyperlandia (Sleepless Intro Edit) - deadmau5 This song is a mashup of the deadmau5 songs Sleepless and Hyperlandia. Both of these songs have lyrics (unlike most deadmau5 songs) and both the melodies and lyrics capture the feeling of slowly losing your grip of control over life and inevitable surrender to less than ideal circumstances, ultimately walking away from what no longer serves you. This is one of Joel's better mashups and needed to be on this playlist.
The Veldt - deadmau5 The song and lyrics were inspired by Ray Bradbury's short story The Veldt, which I used to create my lesson plan and assessment for this project. The melody inspires a word created by imagination. The lyrics were actually a collaboration that happened because of social media, but they did such a great job of capturing the story of The Veldt that Joel decided to officially collaborate with the fan who wrote and recorded the lyrics. The rest is internet history. The video itself also does a good job capturing the vibe of the song as you can literally watch Peter and Wendy living their best Happy Life while the lions roam, feeding on remains.
Porter Robinson & Madeon - Shelter This song is likely on every dystopian playlist of anyone who has any sort of appreciation for anime. The story of the music video is one of a girl experiencing a virtual reality while her physical body is floating in space on some type of life support system created by her loving father. She experiences beautiful scenery and revisits memories of her life before the accident that seems to have destroyed the Earth. It is implied that she is alone, but she thanks her father in Japanese for the memories he gave her as they inspire her to keep on living.
Roads - Portishead As an angsty goth girl in high school, Portishead was one of my favorite bands ever during that time. I still appreciate their music, but I never listen to it anymore because it's too depressing, and I'm very selective with the content I expose my subconscious mind to, knowing it could have negative repercussions in my life. This song, however, is haunting, deep, dark, and beautiful. The lyrics "We've got a war to fight, never found our way" and "I've got nobody on my side and surely that ain't right" wrap up the dystopian sentiment of the song perfectly.
Light in the Darkness - Jonna Jinton The playlist and many of the topics covered in this course are dark and heavy, so I wanted to add this video from the lovely Jonna Jinton who is me on another timeline where I didn't stay at a corporate job I hated for most of my 20s and quit to live in the north, chill with my dog and create beautiful things. This video is from Jonna's St. Lucia celebration in the north of Sweden where it's not quite polar night, but most days are 20-22 hours of darkness. Her beautiful and haunting song fits perfectly with a message of hope for a beautiful spring as she lights candles to glow in the darkness. We all need light, beauty and hope in the dark times. This song is that content.
So Heavy I Fell Through The Earth - Grimes After Grimes became pregnant with her first child, she wrote this track to help her process the heavy emotions and massive life changes that come with embracing motherhood. While technology comes with many perks, it also requires a great deal or responsibility and being a good steward, much like parenting a child. The song is deep and emotional, and was a must-add to this playlist. I chose the visualizer version of the video for this song because it's a bit longer and dreamier, and features a space dragon.
Bleed - deadmau5 Joel wrote this song for a fan who died in a car accident on the way to see one of his shows. It's a subdued EDM track with dark undertones and a light ethereal theme that builds as the track progresses, like stars that appear brighter in the sky as the night gets darker. This track is a beautiful tribute to his fan and has the ability to open my heart and relax my nervous system. This song was another must add for some positive energy.
Come Sail Away - Styx It seemed appropriate to start and end the playlist with Styx. While I have some extremely unconventional views on UFOs, I love how the song ended with implications that angel sightings are actually those of UFOs. The invitation to "come sail away" is tempting and perhaps it's an invitation to humanity to move beyond the old paradigms no longer serving us and to rise in consciousness.