“Computer World” by Kraftwerk

The title track of Kraftwerk's 1981 album Computerwelt belongs to a record built around a single subject: the computer's growing place in everyday life. Ralf Hütter and Karl Bartos wrote the music, and the words came from Hütter, Florian Schneider and Emil Schult. Hütter summed up the thinking in one plain line: they lived in a computer world, so they made a song about it.

Here's the twist. For a record fixated on home computers and digital communication, it was made on strictly analogue equipment, without a computer anywhere in the chain. The German electronic band's album plays as a cool-headed celebration of the new machines and, to a more nervous ear, a warning about surveillance and social control. It came out in German and English editions, and Kraftwerk carried the concept around the globe on an ambitious tour.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.