Earliest mention of the internet in a song or title

I was listening to Lung Leg today and they've got a song "Kung Fu On The Internet" from 1995 and it got me wondering what the earliest mention of the net in song or title was. I found Think Tank's "Hack One (The Internet Worm Mix)" from 1990, anything earlier?

not sure about mentions but Born Under Punches has some noise that sounds like.. that noise your PC used to make when connecting.
it's freaky!

I call this number
For a data date
I don't know what to do
I need a rendezvous

July '81

Related question: what is the earliest song that was a reasonable size hit that mentioned the internet? I'm having trouble thing of anything that isn't fairly recent.

Prince's "Emale" (from 1996) wasn't a hit, but I've always assumed it's the first tune by a big pop star that's specifically about the internet.

Anyway, what is the tune Albert Broccoli is citing?

Computer Love by Kraftwerk, yes?

Billy Idol's Cyberpunk?

Ah, yes. I don't see how the term "data date" makes it about the internet, though...

I'd always heard it as 'another date' until now, but listening again it is 'data date'

Hello there Tuomas my take is COMPUTER LOVE is about looking for love over a computer data connection.

What is your take on that song?

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/8718225/wwwthugcom.jpg

I'm finding a couple references to "dot com" from 1996:

JP & Taylor - Dot.com
Donuts N' Glory - Http://Mmouse.Albndy.Coolio.Myass.Dot.Com

1990:
Think Tank - Hack One (The Internet Worm Mix)

1994:
U V O I I - God's Picture In The Internet

1995:
KX Noizsystem - 303 Motor Lodge (Internet Obsession)
Sp@sms* - Prehistoric Internet
Lung Leg - Kung Fu On The Internet

I obviously didn't read the first post where two of these were included.

Nowhere near earliest, but I still love 'Shopping on the Internet' by Bette Davis & the Balconettes (1997).

Kate Bush - Deeper Understanding (1989)

Hello there Tuomas my take is COMPUTER LOVE is about looking for love over a computer data connection.

What is your take on that song?

I think so too, but since the song was made in 1981, I've always assumed the "computer love" it talks about is an imaginary sci-fi concept, not actual internet dating. (I doubt anyone was using the Internet in 1981 for dating purposes.)

"Horny" mousse-T?

"Get Here" Oleata Adams?

I'm finding a couple references to "dot com" from 1996

I wonder what the most recent album that uses 'dot com' or ref to the internet as a self conscious thing like www.thug.com is, like when it became common place enough that this would seem an odd thing to do.

The Who's aborted Lifehouse project (much of which was salvaged for Who's Next) prefigured the Internet in 1971...sorta...

In the album, pollution is so bad that the populace are forced to wear Lifesuits, suits that could simulate all experiences in a way that no one would have to leave home.

The suits are plugged into a huge mainframe called the Grid, similar to today's Internet, but which also contains tubes for sleeping gas, food, and entertainment; supposedly, someone could live out tens of thousands of lifetimes in a very short period within the Grid. The Grid is controlled by a man named Jumbo.

Menswear used to have their name appear as 'Menswe@r' on the mid 90s covers, I guess this counts as an internet reference?

i don't know the answer to thread title but i want to share this song which is hilarious + ridiculous:
http://www.amazon.com/Moshe-on-Line/dp/B0067EPK0S/

the preview gives enough of a taste, don't feel compelled to buy the track

omgz it's on spotify: http://open.spotify.com/track/6aDlnUckPj528uErVWlF1P

not sure about mentions but Born Under Punches has some noise that sounds like.. that noise your PC used to make when connecting. it's freaky!

throbbing gristle: http://youtu.be/GIPPcPzbOcI

1995: The Amps "Tipp City" calls out the "internet nation"

Clock DVA, 1988?

http://youtu.be/a5gxKXqkxbU

no mention of "internet" specifically there

since the song was made in 1981, I've always assumed the "computer love" it talks about is an imaginary sci-fi concept, not actual internet dating. (I doubt anyone was using the Internet in 1981 for dating purposes.)

Hm, Minitel (later notorious for its Minitel rose chat-up pages) was only a local pilot in 1981, so I'm guessing the dating section hadn't really started yet. Germany didn't get an equivalent until '83. Curious to know if it was purely imaginary sci-fi or not, but it's certainly more pleasing to imagine it is.

I wonder if Kraftwerk had heard this - she was pretty popular in Germany at the time, as far as I can find out, but this didn't make it through to be the German Eurovision entry:
http://youtu.be/7Rtdb_zgqdQ
(France Gall - "Der Computer Nr. 3", 1968)

I remember seeing a documentary about Timothy Leary that talked about his involvement in the 'cyberdelic' techno utopian movement in the late 80s/early 90s- is there much music that came out this scene? The only thing I can seem to find is Billy Idol's Cyberpunk album from 1993, this seemed to be regarded as bandwagon jumping by self-defined cyberpunks according to wikipedia.

refuse to believe kleeer's 'intimate connection' isnt a typo

survivor by destiny's child (2001) is a hit that mentions the internet

Denim, "Internet Curtains" (1996)

Computer World seems to predict the internet more astutely than Computer Love, no?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hChTqeiKsus

'Talking Univac Blues', promotional record for UNIVAC from 1974. I'm not technical enough to say if any of the lyrics are specifically realted to the internet, but it's odd hearing references to broadband data in a song from the mid 70s

Re: the discussion about "Computer Love" - those lyrics may have been partially inspired by the then recently-developing technology of Bulletin Board Systems. First known BBS was in 1978, though didn't start properly taking off until 1980/1981.

That Univac song's amazing. Likewise I've no idea whether it 'counts' as an internet song, but it makes a data transfer sound bloody impressive.

Presumably the original record sounded better than this upload? (Or were they imitating "faulty '30s gramophone" quality?)

I know that Snake People are not likely to remember this, but "Computer Dating" meant a rather different thing in the late 60s and 70s than it does in the post-internet age.

There was this idea that one would fill in a series of questions (the pre-cursor to OKC questions and the like) in one of those data entry forms, the results would all be fed into a computer, and some algorithm would match potential dates based on the affinity of their answers.

It's described here:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/02/old-weird-tech-computer-dating-of-the-1960s/71217/

And also it's the basis for a hilarious scene in Harold and Maude (1971) whereby Harold's mother fills in his punchcard for him.

So given that this is the meaning that "Computer Dating" had for most of the 70s, I'm pretty sure that something like this is what Ralf was describing in Computer Love - rather than what we consider "Internet Dating" now.

So no, I don't think we can call Computer Love the earliest example of the Internet in song lyrics. Computer World, however, especially the full German lyrics, has a much better claim, conceptually, to be about ~the Internet~ since it is about computerised data networks. So not that specific song, but definitely Kraftwerk.

Maybe more specific, what's the first mention of email?

Snake People

Uh, what?

I guess Prince must be one of the first, back in 1995:

"Welcome, you've got mail"
It was Sunday night, instead of doing what I usually do, I

I scan my computer looking for a site
Somebody to talk to, funny and bright
I scan my computer looking for a site
Make believe it's a better world, a better life

2 Unlimited have their Info Superhighway from 1994 although it doesn't specifically mention the word internet:

Technology, virtual society
Info superhighway interaction
Into the future, into the future, technology

See the world progressing all around us, it's a virtual society
Info superhighway interaction, computer pal or enemy
So communicate with me won't you interact with me?

Technicians, technique, technology
It's the most important thing in the industry
It's going further nowadays, 'cause they wanna get paid
Every day new discovery and plans to be made

Now get connected like an electric wire
Look out for the shock, look out for the fire
Just imagine how it would be
Without the thing they call technology

I find those lyrics difficult to reduce to a single lucid and coherent thought

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7OuzAxM2uA&index=5&list=PLWfGw2maX1M7bFF9YNS0w59Q8c672-774

(1986, btw)

Snake People

Uh, what?

― Demeraray & Essequebo (Tom D.),

http://www.buzzfeed.com/sapna/replace-millennial-with-snake-people

1995: momus - virtual valerie "Went surfing down the Internet"

also that year: bowie - algeria touchshriek "A reject from the world wide Internet"

It doesn't literally mention the Internet, but there's Level 42, Micro Kid.