While it’s a Flash video and not a published song, I feel this deserves a mention: Robots Are Our Friends
Robots would probably dance to just about anything by Devo.
Humanoid Boogie by the Bonzo Dog Band. To find a version, got to Neilinnes.org and look in the “Innes Book of Records” box.
Beat you to it, RealityChuck.
Mister Lacey by Fairport Convention contains a robot solo (actually the sound of three toy robots buzzing around on the studio floor).
Bjork’s All is Full of Love video has robots making love.
Check out the video here.
Yowza!
2095 by ELO sure seems to be about someone loving either a robot or a computer. Hard to tell exactly which.
Robot Blues, by the Incredible String Band, was purportedly Matt Groening inspiration for Futurama.
Number 1 come by, he give my work to me
Oil the flowers, fix the showers, clean the electronic trees
Shine the light, fix it right, now listen carefully
Don’t you go romancing with that pretty Number Three
and that’s why, why I got the Robot Blues,
Down in my heart compartment
Down in my old magnetic sole shoes
Electronic Malfunction by DJ Ton T.B.
There is an entire genre of electronia dance music that consists of robotic raps, spacey,mechanical sounds, computer effects, etc. Google “electro” or “electro breaks” or “electro bass”
Electro breaks are the mentioned effects laid down over break beats(old school breakdancing beats) and electro bass is laid down over the Miami bass sound.
Not surprisingly, this type of music is popular is the underground Florida club scene(from experience). I’m not sure where else it is heard.
www.vocode.com is a good place to start.
Dynamix II started producing this type of music back in the 70-80s,and are still popular to this day.
Oh jeez, how could I forget Buckethead’s album Giant Robot? Something of a reoccuring theme with him I think.
“Jed the Humanoid” by Grandaddy, and then there’s “Jed’s Other Poem.”
“One More Robot / Sympathy 3000,” from Yoshimi Battles the Giant Pink Robots by the Flaming Lips. The album as a whole is arguably anti-robot, but this track is about a robot learning how to feel emotion.
“Yours Truly, 2095” is about a man in love with an android who looks like his former love.
What was that song by the Polecats? “Make a Circuit with Me”?
I’ll be your electrode, diode
capcitator, oscillator - make a circuit with me…
Something like that.
Anyway,
I nominate Alan Moore from his series Top Ten. There is a storyline where Dust Devil has to go to his mom’s house to help her with an infestation of Ultramice (you really should read it if you haven’t - overall it is a great series, with this as a sidebar of humor). It turns out that robots live above her and listen to “Scrap” - featuring boasting robot raps such as:
Yo! Listen up, clickers,
this is Ice Machine
with message here for M.C. Chuck Fifteen:
Ohms, you ain’t so drastic - y’ain’t metal, yer plastic!
I’m clanging your glitch and she says I’m fantastic
and as for your mom - the chute that your from
I had her on the blocks and she thinks I’m the bomb!
Pretty funny stuff.
And then Yoshimi battles him in “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robot Part 1”, but the robot falls in love with her (because he’s learned how to feel) and lets her beat him in part 2.
Perhaps “Machine Messiah” by Yes.
A friend of mine’s recording company’s slogan is: Noise for People. Music For Robots.
For a robot feeling they were better than people it could listen to “Robots” by The Golden Republic. A hyper robot could listen to “Machinehead” by Bush.
There’s a music blog called Music for Robots.
You have the title, and the name of the band exactly right. They are available here.