Songs about the evils of television

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Bonus question: How come this subject matter has fallen out of fashion? Seems like every band had an anti-TV song way back when.

* Black Flag: TV Part
* Beatnigs/Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy: Television, The Drug of The Nation
* Joe Jackson: TV Age
* The Bongos: Video Eyes

― mike a (mike a), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Stooges: TV Eye.

Anti-TV, though? Hard to say.

― Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:35 (eighteen years ago) link

'video killed the radio star' the buggles? ?

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:36 (eighteen years ago) link

TV Party is probably Black Flag's worst song ever. That might explain the subject matter falling out of style.

― Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Bruce Springsteen-57 Channels
Jackson Browne-Lawyers In Love (sorta)

― Our Vikki Carr Club (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:37 (eighteen years ago) link

The "TV" in "TV Eye" does not stand for "television," according to Please Kill Me.

― mike a (mike a), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link

And of course:

Don Henley-Dirty Laundry

― Our Vikki Carr Club (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:38 (eighteen years ago) link

But really, it seems like the '80s were full of songs about television as Big Brother. Now no one has a problem with admitting to watching it. Has TV gotten better, or did we all figure out that we were overreacting?

― mike a (mike a), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:39 (eighteen years ago) link

People watch Ipods now.

― Our Vikki Carr Club (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:40 (eighteen years ago) link

the focus for hatred has shifted from TV to the Net, perhaps...TV isn't the feral young medium it once was

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:41 (eighteen years ago) link

there may just be more to wory about these days..."A Connie Chung Christmas" doesn't strike the same fear

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:42 (eighteen years ago) link

What does the TV in TV Eye stand for, then?

the focus for hatred has shifted from TV to the Net, perhaps...TV isn't the feral young medium it once was

I nominate Le Tigre's Get Off the Internet for first-post on the soon-to-arrive Songs About the Evils of the Internet thread.

― Shoes say, yeah, no hands clap your good bra. (goodbra), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:43 (eighteen years ago) link

for some reason i said this ..."A Connie Chung Christmas" doesn't strike the same fear

i apologize for not thinking about that

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:44 (eighteen years ago) link

"Twat Vision" eye. Band slang, apparently.

Are there other songs about the evils of the Internet?

― mike a (mike a), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:46 (eighteen years ago) link

The decline of the counter culture (be it hippie or punk)? Not entirely convinced by that... but hey...

― gekoppel (Gekoppel), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:46 (eighteen years ago) link

I'm the Slime - Frank Zappa

― DAVE's secret to fortu-Oh look! Shiny! (dave225.3), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:47 (eighteen years ago) link

evils of the internet: "21st Century Digital Boy" Bad Religion??...a bit of a stretch...more about the (arguable) evils of crass-consumerism

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Stand still by Gorilla Biscuits

― Marty Innerlogic (marty innerlogic), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:49 (eighteen years ago) link

Grandmaster Flash: "New York, New York." "What you watch on TV tells you what life is supposed to be..."

more anti-TV power pop:
Shoes: "The Tube"
The Cucumbers: "Don't Watch TV"

― mike a (mike a), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 16:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Television Man - Talking Heads

"In the Deep Space Homer episode of the Simpsons, NASA executives are shocked to learn that their recent space launch has received worse ratings than “A Connie Chung Christmas.”"

― vacasmagras (vacasmagras), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 19:19 (eighteen years ago) link

Best TV song of all time:

My Country by Randy Newman

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 19:23 (eighteen years ago) link

"Kicking Television" - Wilco
"Sunday Sports" - The Bottle Rockets

― Roy Kasten (Roy Kasten), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 19:26 (eighteen years ago) link

"Dad Threw the TV Out the Window," by Bill Harley, great Grammy-winning children's songwriter, from the RI/Mass. area.

― Jim M (jmcgaw), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 19:30 (eighteen years ago) link

i thought it was "twat vibe"?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 19:31 (eighteen years ago) link

Do I really have to be the one to mention Ned's Atomic Dustbin?

― Tripmaker (SDWitzm), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 19:46 (eighteen years ago) link

Public Enemy, She Watch Channel 0

― Fetchin Bones (Fetchin Bones), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 19:51 (eighteen years ago) link

The Dickies: "Tricia Toyota"
Roger Waters: "Amused To Death"

― Fsck Washing Ong's Hat (Chris Barrus), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 19:54 (eighteen years ago) link

Dwight Twilley Band "TV"

― Hatch (Hatch), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 20:05 (eighteen years ago) link

"In the Deep Space Homer episode of the Simpsons, NASA executives are shocked to learn that their recent space launch has received worse ratings than “A Connie Chung Christmas.”" -- vacasmagras

per my post mentioning "A Connie Chung Christmas," YOINK!

whenever i draw blanks for ideas, the ideas of Matt Groening & Co. fill my mind...good eye

― J. Grizzle (trainsmoke), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 20:10 (eighteen years ago) link

The Normal, "TVOD"

― Telephonething (Telephonething), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 20:11 (eighteen years ago) link

"i thought it was "twat vibe"?"

Yeah it was. It was a bit of slang from Ron & Scott Asheton's sister. They misintrepreted it as "TV" as in "Television" though.

― Our Vikki Carr Club (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 20:14 (eighteen years ago) link

From the 60s:

Jefferson Airplane-Plastic Fantastic Lover
Simon & Garfunkel-The Bright Green Pleasure Machine

― Our Vikki Carr Club (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 20:18 (eighteen years ago) link

The Misfits-"TV Casualty"

― xgurggleglgllg (xgurggleglgllg), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 20:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Twilley's song was pro-TV, though.

How about Gil Scott-Heron - "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised"

― nickn (nickn), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 21:14 (eighteen years ago) link

Where is the love for the Nick Lowe composition "Television," recorded by Dave Edmunds?

― Ruud Haarvest (Ken L), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 21:28 (eighteen years ago) link

And the Cramps "TV Set." Not so much about the evils of TV, but close enough.

― nickn (nickn), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 21:33 (eighteen years ago) link

The goats - television, the drug of the nation.
(one nation under god has turned into one nation under the infleunce of one drug...)

― emekars (emekars), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 21:37 (eighteen years ago) link

"I'm the Slime" rulez. The only Zappa song I listen to these days...

― hot doorknobs (hot doorknobs), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 22:14 (eighteen years ago) link

tool - vicarious

― yours fondly, harshaw. (mrgn), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 22:37 (eighteen years ago) link

I always assumed that Twilley song was incredibly sarcastic. But you might be right.

― Hatch (Hatch), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 22:38 (eighteen years ago) link

The goats - television, the drug of the nation.
(one nation under god has turned into one nation under the infleunce of one drug...)

That's The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy - mentioned in the first post of the thread.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 19 July 2006 22:39 (eighteen years ago) link

Talking Heads also had "Found a Job", pro- making TV (as a sort of couples therapy) and implicitly anti- just watching it.

― scriblerus (mike lynch), Thursday, 20 July 2006 00:12 (eighteen years ago) link

"television addict" by the victims, you chumps

― electric sound of jim [and why not] (electricsound), Thursday, 20 July 2006 00:13 (eighteen years ago) link

The Tubes from Remote Control

Turn Me On
TV Is King
Prime Time
I Want It All Now
No Way Out
Telecide

I really like this album.

― jim wentworth (wench), Thursday, 20 July 2006 00:37 (eighteen years ago) link

xpost: so do I...another great Todd Rundgren production

but were those songs anti-TV?...The Tubes loved the boob tube...(they even appeared on "Hollywood Squares" back in the day, recreating the back cover photo from that record...

― hank (hank s), Thursday, 20 July 2006 01:19 (eighteen years ago) link

How about Wire "ex lion tamer".
I second Victims; my favourite in this list so far.

― chad (chad), Thursday, 20 July 2006 05:11 (eighteen years ago) link

Crass - Nineteen Eighty Bore

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Thursday, 20 July 2006 05:43 (eighteen years ago) link

"I Hate the TV" Violent Femmes

― Todd Kuethe (ToddK), Thursday, 20 July 2006 14:55 (eighteen years ago) link

Replacements- Seen Your Video

― Neil Stewart (Neil Stewart), Thursday, 20 July 2006 15:30 (eighteen years ago) link

Gang Of Four "5:45"

"watching the red spot on the egg that looks like all the blood you don't see on the television."

― sleeve (sleeve), Friday, 21 July 2006 03:42 (eighteen years ago) link

rose tattoo - TV

― GOD PUNCH TO HAWKWIND (yournullfame), Friday, 21 July 2006 06:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Bow Wow Wow: "I'm A TV Savage" (though this may have just been McLaren wordplay).

― mike a (mike a), Friday, 21 July 2006 13:32 (eighteen years ago) link

Bonus question: How come this subject matter has fallen out of fashion? Seems like every band had an anti-TV song way back when.

well perhaps because it is to a greater degree "in fashion" and therefore, its no longer edgy and controversial as it used to be. perhaps because it became so trendy, there is now a backlash.

― marbles (marbles), Friday, 21 July 2006 14:16 (eighteen years ago) link

Hooters, Satellite Man - TV evangelists, close enough

― ledge (ledge), Friday, 21 July 2006 14:33 (eighteen years ago) link

perhaps a bit too obvious, but... "throw away your television" by red hot chili peppers.

― ryborg3k (Badarts), Saturday, 22 July 2006 07:44 (eighteen years ago) link

Terrible Australian hip-hop outfit 1200 Techniques, who aspire to be terrible hip-hop artist Michael Franti, had a track called "Eye of the Storm", which spouted some bullshit about the evils of television and the teh interweb. Also, terrible Australian surfie-folk outfit John Butler Trio, who aspire to be terrible surfie-folk artist Ben Harper, had a track called "Media", which was the lamest "I've just Media Studies at university and now I have to tell everyone how bad it all is" nonsense I've ever heard.

― cnwb (cnwb), Saturday, 22 July 2006 08:21 (eighteen years ago) link

How quickly you have forgotten the definitive rage against a TV controlled world that was "Teenage Turtles" by Back to the Planet.

"I blame the telly with adverts, cool / I blame the Turtles / an influence bad / All the little children / brain dead, it's sad".

― David Orton (scarlet), Saturday, 22 July 2006 12:08 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh. My. God. I *own* a copy of that. And yet, somehow, its very existence had slipped my mind. Funny that.

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 22 July 2006 12:14 (eighteen years ago) link

four years pass...

The Cheepskates - cathode prison

― meisenfek, Tuesday, 24 May 2011 06:05 (thirteen years ago) link

husker du - "turn on the news"

― contenderizer, Tuesday, 24 May 2011 06:13 (thirteen years ago) link

buggles - "on TV"

― contenderizer, Tuesday, 24 May 2011 06:20 (thirteen years ago) link

treepeople - feed me

― mookieproof, Tuesday, 24 May 2011 06:21 (thirteen years ago) link

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