Code Monkey Want Music

May 12, 2006 6:08 AM

Songs about coding/programming?

After getting hooked on Code Monkey, I was wondering if there are any other good songs about that most personal of things that we do when no one else is around. And by that I mean writing code. I'd like to put together a playlist for all my coding needs. Please hope me!

posted by blue_beetle to media & arts (22 answers total)

Barcelona - Shell Account.
posted by hooray at 6:18 AM on May 12, 2006 [1 favorite]

It's not considered by many to be proper coding, but one of my favorite IT-themed songs has been "Finnegan the Folk Hero of HTML."
posted by BigLankyBastard at 6:18 AM on May 12, 2006

I'm not sure if one of the nerdcore artists has a song about programming, but I think chances are good. Have a look at MC Lars, MC Chris or MC Frontalot.
posted by donut at 6:37 AM on May 12, 2006

The Free Software Song

Oh wait, you said good songs.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 6:42 AM on May 12, 2006

Barcelona has a bunch. "Bugs" on Zero One Infinity is directly about writing code. "Paging System Operator," "C64" and "Paging System Operator" are all plenty nerdy and computer related.
posted by Lazlo Hollyfeld at 6:44 AM on May 12, 2006

The Model-View-Controller song.
posted by BaxterG4 at 6:45 AM on May 12, 2006

White Collar Holler
posted by Chuckles at 6:45 AM on May 12, 2006

And the White Collar Holler is definately good!
posted by Chuckles at 6:48 AM on May 12, 2006

Pick up a copy of Computer World (Kraftwerk, of course) !
posted by rfs at 6:59 AM on May 12, 2006

Not as good as Fontalot (whom I get to see tonight), but MC Plus+ is all about the programming.
posted by ewagoner at 7:06 AM on May 12, 2006

Fontalot might be the hero of the typesetter set, but it's actually MC Frontalot I'm seeing tonight.
posted by ewagoner at 7:16 AM on May 12, 2006

There's a long tradition of computer filk songs; here's a list, suffering badly from linkrot but still demonstrating the breadth of the field.

S-100 Bus
(tune: Bonnie Ship the Diamond)
(Frank Hayes)

When I was young, my friends all worked like fools to get their share
Of an S-100 system, like an Imsai or Altair;
Well the S-100's still around, I'm very glad to say
But friends, I'm here to tell you that it's not the same today.

chorus: And it's cheer up, my lads, let your hearts never fuss
When you're integrating systems for the S-100 bus.

To tell the truth, the source of all our troubles seems to be
A committee on computers of the I of triple E;
They settled on a standard spec, 696 by name
Now everything is standardized, but nothing works the same.

They say the 80 boards are way too slow - it's enough to give you fits
If the 09 isn't fast enough, then go to 16 bits.
68 and z8000 and an 86 as well,
And code compatability goes straight to bloody hell

Then add a board for the modem line and one for every port
and a printer board and a keyboard board, and as a last resort
For every problem we will add a board that has the cure,
It's not too damned efficient, but it's a mother, that's for sure.

And when it's all assembled there's computer to your collar,
It's nice to have a micro but a mainframe would be smaller.
And when they turn the power on, it's sure to dim the lamps
With plus or minus sixteen volts and fourteen hundred amps.
posted by jellicle at 7:18 AM on May 12, 2006

OpenBSD release songs?
posted by gi_wrighty at 7:31 AM on May 12, 2006

No recordings, but here's a great collection of computer-related song parody lyrics. Some of my favorites are Berkelian Rhapsody, Sendmail and The Longest Path (mp3).
posted by mbrubeck at 7:50 AM on May 12, 2006

And of course there's Weird Al's All About The Pentiums (YouTube video).
posted by mbrubeck at 7:53 AM on May 12, 2006

Why The Lucky Stiff's Ruby related songs performed at OSCON 2005.
posted by voidcontext at 8:15 AM on May 12, 2006

Hands to Boag, a love song about web standards.

"Tonight I need your CSS, coding in the darkness. From now on no more tables nest; you will meet web standards."
posted by geeky at 10:07 AM on May 12, 2006

Every OS Sucks
posted by normy at 10:55 AM on May 12, 2006

How about the old css descramble song.
posted by lemhuxley at 11:12 AM on May 12, 2006

Similar vein, Daft Punk's "Techonologic".
posted by lundman at 2:41 AM on May 13, 2006

I laughed so hard at the Finnegan tune - thanks BLB!

Although it isn't really code minded, I enjoy Bad Religion's "I Love My Computer" 30 sec. sample
posted by spacelux at 11:58 PM on May 13, 2006

Zeroes and Ones?
posted by pompomtom at 4:24 PM on May 23, 2006