CY8ERPUNKS

Prior art · MUSIC

Music

Era 0 · 1948–1974

Ground

cybernetics meets the counterculture

  1. 1974

    Kraftwerk, Autobahn

    Begins the machine-music line (see §5).

Era 1 · 1975–1982

Proto-cyberpunk

the term exists before the label

  1. 1977

    Kraftwerk, Trans-Europe Express

    Suicide s/t; Throbbing Gristle.

  2. 1978

    The Normal, "Warm Leatherette"

    A J.G. Ballard Crash adaptation as synth single. The Ballard→music pipeline in one record.

  3. 1978

    Yellow Magic Orchestra

    Debut. Japan's techno-pop; Solid State Survivor (1979).

  4. 1979

    Gary Numan, Replicas / The Pleasure Principle

    ("Are 'Friends' Electric?", "Cars"). The man-machine alienation single.

  5. 1981

    MTV launches

    (Aug 1, 1981). Music video as a visual grammar for the decade; the movement's aesthetic spreads through it.

  6. 1981

    Kraftwerk, Computer World

    (May 1981). The pivot record.

  7. 1981

    Laurie Anderson, "O Superman."

    Performance/tech art crossover.

  8. 1982

    Afrika Bambaataa, "Planet Rock."

    Kraftwerk + TR-808 → hip-hop and electro. The machine-music lineage forks.

  9. 1982

    Cybotron, "Clear" / Enter

    (Juan Atkins, Rik Davis). Detroit techno's origin point — and it's literally named cyber.

Era 2 · 1983–1986

The term & the wave

  1. 1983

    New Order, "Blue Monday"

    (1983). The best-selling 12-inch single ever; Peter Saville's die-cut sleeve is a design landmark. Also and Art of Noise — the Fairlight era.

  2. 1983

    Cybotron, Enter

    The album (1983).

  3. 1984

    Decoder

    (1984, Muscha) — Genesis P-Orridge, William Burroughs, FM Einheit. Industrial film about muzak as control.

  4. 1985

    Max Headroom

    Character debuts (1985; TV series 1987).

  5. 1986

    Kraftwerk, Electric Café

    Ministry, Twitch (industrial turns to dance); (EBM).

Era 3 · 1987–1991

Cyberculture & cryptography

  1. 1988

    Rudy Rucker, Wetware

    (novel); industrial/EBM peak.

  2. 1989

    Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine; Underground Resistance founded (Detroit, 1989)

    Techno as explicit political resistance.

Era 4 · 1992–1996

Cypherpunks, Wired, the Declaration

  1. 1992

    Aphex Twin, Selected Ambient Works; Atari Teenage Riot founded (Berlin)

    "digital hardcore," anti-fascist, Delete Yourself.

  2. 1993

    Billy Idol, Cyberpunk

    The mainstream's arrival, and a useful marker of the exact moment the word became a product.

Era 5 · 1997–2004

Network culture & the critique

  1. 1997

    Radiohead, OK Computer (1997)

    The mainstreaming of tech anxiety. (1998) — the single best book on the mystical/religious underside of cyberculture; strongly recommended for the editorial register.