Cyberpunk (album)

(1990)
(1993)
(2005)

"**Cyberpunk**" is the fifth studio album by English rock musician Billy Idol, released on 29 June 1993 by Chrysalis Records. A concept album, it was inspired by his personal interest in technology and his first attempts to use computers in the creation of his music. Idol based the album on the cyberdelic subculture of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Heavily experimental in its style, the album was an attempt to take control of the creative process in the production of his albums, while simultaneously introducing Idol's fans and other musicians to the opportunities presented by digital media.

## Background

During the release of 1990s *Charmed Life*, Idol suffered a broken leg in a motorcycle accident. While in recovery, he was interviewed by Legs McNeil. McNeil noticed the electronic muscle stimulator on Idol's leg and referred to him as a "cyberpunk", citing the cyborg qualities of his appearance. This led to Idol taking a serious interest in the works of William Gibson for the first time, although he had read *Neuromancer* in the mid-'80s. In the following months, Idol continued to investigate cyberpunk fiction and technology. He also read Neal Stephenson's *Snow Crash*, works by Robert Anton Wilson, and others.

At approximately the same time, he began to work with Trevor Rabin to create his music, having parted ways with his former producer, Keith Forsey. Rabin introduced Idol to his home studio, which was centralised around Rabin's Macintosh computer and music software. The ability to personally produce music from his home, rather than at a professional studio, appealed to Idol's "do it yourself" ethic. He felt that working through a team of producers and sound engineers cut into his personal vision for previous albums, and was interested in being more directly in control of his future work. Idol asked his producer, Robin Hancock, to educate himself and his guitarist, Mark Younger-Smith, on the use of software for musical production.

With his increasing exposure to technology and science fiction, Idol decided to base his upcoming album on the cyberpunk genre, and quickly set about educating himself in Cyberdelic counter culture. Idol saw the convergence of affordable technology with the music industry and anticipated its impact on a new era for DIY punk music. "It's 1993," Idol said during a *New York Times* interview. "I better wake up and be part of it. I'm sitting there, a 1977 punk watching Courtney Love talk about punk, watching Nirvana talk about punk, and this is my reply."

Reading *Mondo 2000* and Gareth Branwyn's 1992 manifesto, "Is There a Cyberpunk Movement?", Idol resolved to base an opening sequence on Branwyn's essay, contacting the writer for permission. He also read Branwyn's *Beyond Cyberpunk!* HyperCard stack, a collection of essays based on fanzines, political tracts, conspiracy theories, and which referred to itself as "a do-it-yourself guide to the future." Idol proceeded to consult with various writers familiar with the computer related magazines, such as *Mondo 2000*, and *Boing Boing*. Idol also hosted a "cyber-meeting" attended by the likes of Timothy Leary, famed counterculture guru; Jaime Levy, author of books published on disks under the "Electronic Hollywood" imprint; R. U. Sirius, co-founder of *Mondo 2000*; and Brett Leonard, director of *The Lawnmower Man*.

Asked by Idol about how he could become further involved in cyberculture, Branwyn and Mark Frauenfelder advised him to investigate The WELL, one of the oldest online communities. Idol did so, discussing the album project online with WELL users, and creating a personal e-mail account which he released on printed advertisements for the upcoming album, so that fans could communicate with him. Idol also made occasional postings to alt.cyberpunk, a Usenet newsgroup. Later in an interview for MTV News promoting the album, Idol expressed excitement over the medium. "This means I can be in touch with millions of people, but on my own terms."

## Recording

*Cyberpunk* was created in Idol's home studio in Los Angeles, centred around his Macintosh computer and accompanying software. Programs used in the production included *Studio Vision*, by Opcode Systems, and Pro Tools, by Digidesign. Idol later recalled that the beginning of the recording sessions coincided with the onset of the 1992 Los Angeles riots. "We'd just installed the computer in my music room, and there was a window above it overlooking the whole city. And there was a fire raging. There was smoke just pouring across the whole of LA. It was LA burning. And so I just straight quickly wrote the lyrics and sang them three times. What you're hearing on the single 'Shock to the System' is my news reportage of what I'm seeing." Idol recalled for a German broadcast. "We started the album with a riot. So that's really rock and roll."

Excited by the DIY aspects of the production process, Idol took only ten months to record the album, which he often contrasted with the combined period of eight years it took to create his two previous albums. Working with his computer over time also gave him the sense that the computer was itself an instrument, and that the performer's style was also presented by the technology. Its versatility also allowed him to switch roles with Mark Younger-Smith and Robin Hancock, allowing each to experiment with their different talents and blurring the lines of their specialised roles, leading Idol to repeatedly compare the production process to that of being in a garage band. Keyboards were also used to drive much of the music through the album. Together, the trio comprised what Idol considered to be the "core" production group, although a number of artists contributed to a various tracks. In particular, he credited his drummer Tal Bergman and bassist Doug Wimbish for their contributions to numerous tracks. Wimbish had recorded his work from a studio in New York City, and sent it to Los Angeles for use in the production.

## Themes

*Cyberpunk* was a departure from Idol's previous style of pop-rock music. Several spoken or sound-effect segues were placed between the album tracks to create a linear narrative. The effect of these segues caused the album to become a concept album. Karen Schoemer, of the New York Times, commented that "[w]ith its booming techno beats, screeching guitar riffs, sampled computer voices and songs like 'Power Junkie' ('I feel tonight we're bought and sold/Ah yeah, I think I'll overload'), the album functions as Mr. Idol's interpretation of cyber culture."

When asked why he was pursuing such a shift in his musical style by adopting electronic music, Idol responded that he had attempted to incorporate technology in his older work, but found the equipment of the late '70s and early '80s too limiting and gave up. With the computers of the '90s, Idol finally felt that the technology was able to quickly and easily make changes as he saw fit. Idol came to expound on his belief in their future importance for the music industry, and quoting Gareth Branwyn, referred to the computer as "the new cool tool".

However, he rejected the idea of referring to the music as "computerized", on the grounds that nothing was done for the album that couldn't have been done with standard recording equipment, and that the computer had simply sped up and simplified the creative process. Placing emphasis on the contribution of the performers over the computer tools they used, Idol felt the album achieved a "garage band" spirit, that had captured the "Sturm und Drang" he found in rock and roll, and had simply modified it digitally. Idol thus felt that the album could be best identified as a rock album, rather than a techno album. Idol later agreed with an interviewer who commented that the album's digital production and themes were ahead of their time.

## Release

A press pack was distributed to the media prior to its release to promote the album. The centerpiece of the pack was a copy of the *Billy Idol's Cyberpunk* custom stickered 3½" floppy disk, which was housed in a custom multi-coloured folder with artist and title logo on the front and contact information on the back. The pack included a 5-page version of the biography in the diskette, for the benefit of any journalist who lacked the equipment to operate the floppy disk. Also included in the pack were three black-and-white publicity photographs. Two pictures of Idol were taken by Peter Gravelle and the other was a digitally edited image of Idol as he appeared in the blendo video, "Heroin".

As part of press junkets promoting the album, Idol reportedly insisted attending journalists be familiar with cyberpunk fiction. It was also revealed that Idol was not entirely as familiar with the genre as he had proclaimed. William Gibson reported in an interview, "A London journalist told me when Billy did his 'Cyberpunk' press junket over there, he made it a condition of getting an interview with him, that every journalist had to have read *Neuromancer*...Anyway, they all did but when they met with Billy, the first thing that became really apparent was that Billy hadn't read it. So they called him on it, and he said he didn't need to..he just absorbed it through a kinda osmosis."

Upon release, the album did not fare well, failing to make the top 20 in either the UK or United States. Instead, the album debuted at No. 48 on the *Billboard* 200 on 17 July 1993, and quickly plummeted to No. 192 in seven weeks before falling off the chart completely. The album saw slightly better chart placings in Europe, where it peaked at No. 5 in Austria, and No. 15 in Switzerland.

The first two singles fared slightly better. "Heroin", a cover of The Velvet Underground's "Heroin", peaked at No. 16 on the Hot Dance Club Play chart. "Shock to the System" peaked at No. 7 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, No. 23 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart, and No. 5 on Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. The last two singles, "Adam in Chains" and "Wasteland", both failed to achieve any chart ratings within the United States, but did in other countries.

## Credits

**"Core" personnel**

* Billy Idol – vocals; keyboards; programming; arranger
* Mark Younger-Smith – guitars; sitars; keyboards; programming; arranger
* Robin Hancock – arrangement; mixing; engineer; producer; programming; keyboards

**Additional personnel**

* Doug Wimbish – bass guitar
* Larry Seymour – bass guitar
* Tal Bergman – drums
* Durga McBroom – vocals (background)
* Carnie Wilson – vocals (background)
* Wendy Wilson – vocals (background)
* Jamie Muhoberac – organ; keyboards
* Stephen Marcussen – audio mastering
* Ed Korengo – mixing; mixing assistant
* Mike Baumgartner – audio engineering assistant; mixing; mixing assistant
* Ross Donaldson – audio engineering
* Ron Donaldson – audio engineering
* Robert Farago – voices; speech/speaker/speaking part; spoken word
* London Jo Henwood – speech/speaker/speaking part
* David Weiss – percussion, saw
* Henry Marquez – art direction
* Michael Diehl – design
* Greg Gorman – photography
* Elisabeth Sunday – photography
* Brett Leonard – photography
* Gwen Mullen – rendering
* Scott Hampton – rendering

**Uncredited**

* Gareth Branwyn – consultation, lyrics (Untitled (Opening Manifesto)), text (diskette)
* Mark Frauenfelder – consultation; graphic design (cover art and logo for album, singles, and VHS cassette)
* Timothy Leary – consultation; spoken word (album track No. 15 segue)
* Jaime Levy – Interactive Producer

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 https://web.archive.org/web/20071009124523/http://www.chaoscontrol.com/content\_article.php?article=billyidol
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5D71030F93BA3575BC0A965958260
3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20071210004730/http://www.etext.org/Politics/RAD/rad-05
4. ↑ http://www.streettech.com/bcp/BCPgraf/CyberCulture/idolware.htm
5. ↑ https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5D71030F93BA3575BC0A965958260
6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20071210004730/http://www.etext.org/Politics/RAD/rad-05
7. ↑ http://www.quickdfw.com/sharedcontent/dws/quick3/bandfeatures/stories/DN-music\_billyidol\_0819ick.State.Edition1.4df9da2.html
8. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20071210004730/http://www.etext.org/Politics/RAD/rad-05
9. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1993/08/08/style/seriously-wired.html
10. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20071210004730/http://www.etext.org/Politics/RAD/rad-05
11. ↑ https://archive.today/20130414194812/http://cyber.eserver.org/gibson/ottawa.txt
12. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130630173451/http://www.billboard.com/charts/1993-07-17/billboard-200
13. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130630173451/http://www.billboard.com/charts/1993-07-17/billboard-200
14. ↑ http://austriancharts.at/showitem.asp?interpret=Billy+Idol&titel=Cyberpunk&cat=a
15. ↑ http://hitparade.ch/showitem.asp?interpret=Billy+Idol&titel=Cyberpunk&cat=a
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 https://www.billboard.com/music/billy-idol/chart-history/
17. ↑ http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/frauenfelder.html