Song · Pop Will Eat Itself
“Def.Con.One” by Pop Will Eat Itself
From the album This Is the Day… This Is the Hour… This Is This! (1989)
“Def.Con.One” by Pop Will Eat Itself appears on 8 radio countdowns from 6 stations between 1988 and 2003. It was first released in 1989 on the album This Is the Day… This Is the Hour… This Is This!. Its best result is #25 on the Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1988. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #67 alternative song of 1988, #3,452 alternative song of all time and #401 of the '80s.
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Video from YouTube (PopWillEatItselfVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
"Def.Con.One" is Pop Will Eat Itself at full magpie tilt: a single from July 1988 that turned up again, in yet another version, on their 1989 album This Is the Day... This Is the Hour... This Is This!. The band called it grebo, but it's really a glorious pile-up of hip-hop, punk, pop and alternative rock, stitched together from samples: the Stooges' "I Wanna Be Your Dog", Lipps Inc.'s "Funkytown", the Osmonds' "Crazy Horses" and The Twilight Zone theme all go into the grinder, with Winston Hazel on turntables. Robert Gordon produced and Flood mixed.
The title borrows DEFCON 1, the American military's readiness level for imminent war, and the track has that same giddy, end-of-the-world rush. Graham Crabb, Clint Mansell, Richard March and Adam Mole share the writing credit. The video freezes and smears the band several times a second in front of the album's cover art.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 88 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1988 | 107 |
| 1988 | 25 | Live 105 San Francisco, CA | Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1988 | 106 |
| 1988 | 91 | WLIR / WDRE Long Island, NY | WLIR Top 100 Songs of 1988 | 100 |
| 1989 | 85 | 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana | 91X Top 91 Songs of 1989 | 90 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 284 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1991) | 302 |
| 1991 | 931 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition) | 1002 |
| 2002 | 165 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 924 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
Also listed as: Def Con One.
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