"Shock to the System" is a single by English musician

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is an English singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Idol achieved fame in the 1970s on the London punk rock scene as the lead singer of Generation X ...

, released to promote his fifth album, ''

Cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...

'' (1993). Released in June 1993 by

Chrysalis Records Chrysalis Records () is a British independent record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ell ...

, it became a top-40 hit in six countries, including Idol's native United Kingdom, but did not make it onto the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), o ...

. The song was inspired by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The accompanying music video, set in a dystopian future, features a man who becomes a cyborg after witnessing Cyber-cops brutally beating another individual. Idol aimed to capture the political and economic conflict of the LA Riots, using the camcorder as a metaphor for technology in rebellion. The video, which used special effects supervised by Stan Winston, was nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards in 1993. The song and video have been analyzed for their themes of racial, sexual, and physical trauma. Several singles of the song were released worldwide, featuring various remixes and additional tracks.

Conception

Idol explained for

MTV News MTV News was the news production division of MTV. The service was available in the US with localized versions on MTV's global network and an online news team. In 2016, MTV refreshed the MTV News brand to compete with the likes of BuzzFeed and ...

, that he had originally created the song with an entirely different set of lyrics, but upon witnessing the

Los Angeles riots of 1992 The 1992 Los Angeles riots were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, United States, during April and May 1992. Unrest began in South Central Los Angeles on April 29, after a jury acquitted fo ...

on television, he immediately rewrote and recorded them that day.''MTV News: Billy Idol "Cyberpunk" Disk'' (VIDEO). CABLE TV: MTV. May 1993. Speaking to ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. In January 2001, it was merged into "long-standing rival" (and IPC Media sister publicatio ...

'' in 1993, Idol commented,

Critical reception

Upon its release as a single, Terry Staunton of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' described "Shock to the System" as being "essentially '

White Wedding A white wedding is a traditional formal wear, formal or semi-formal wear, semi-formal wedding originating in Great Britain. The term originates from the white colour of the wedding dress, popularised by Victorian era elites after Queen Victoria ...

' for the ''

Terminator 2 ''Terminator 2: Judgment Day'' is a 1991 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the script with William Wisher. Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Robert Patrick, it is the sequel to ''Th ...

'' generation" and noted the "embarrassing lyrics". Both the video and song were heavily analyzed for the overtones of racial, sexual, and physical trauma presented within them by Thomas Foster, associate professor at

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...

, in his 2005 book, ''The Souls of Cyberfolk''.

Music video

A music video was created for the song, and was set in a dystopian future controlled by Cyber-cops (referred to as such by director

Brett Leonard Brett Leonard (born May 14, 1959) is an American film director, producer and music video Music video director, director specializing in the science fiction and Horror (genre), horror genres. A few of his films such as ''The Lawnmower Man (film ...

). It depicted an individual who records the Cyber-cops beating a man, only to be noticed and attacked himself. His camera is destroyed and the Cyber-cops leave him unconscious on the ground, as they are busy trying to put down a riot elsewhere in the city. Alone, his camera equipment lands on him and is absorbed into his body, causing him to dramatically morph into a cyborg. The cyborg then joins the riot, leading the rebels to victory. Idol explained that he was trying to capture the political and economic conflict that had created the LA Riots, and that the

camcorder A camcorder is a self-contained portable electronic device with video and recording as its primary function. It is typically equipped with an articulating screen mounted on the left side, a belt to facilitate holding on the right side, hot-sw ...

– as displayed in the witnessing of the Rodney King beating – was a "potent way of conveying ideas" and an important metaphor for technology used in rebellion.''Cyberpunk: Shock to the System''. Brett Leonard. Billy Idol. ERG Video & Chrysalis Group. 29 June 1993 The make-up effects were achieved through

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

, with Billy Idol moving in slow stages during points of the filming.

Stan Winston Stanley Winston (April 7, 1946 – June 15, 2008) was an American television and film special make-up effects artist, best known for his work in the ''Terminator'' series, the first three '' Jurassic Park'' films, '' Aliens'', '' The Thing'', ...

, who had previously worked on the '' Terminator'' series and ''

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of De-extinction#Cloning, cloned dinosaurs. It bega ...

'', supervised and created the special effects for the video. The music video for "Shock to the System" was nominated for "Best Special Effects in a Video" and "Best Editing in a Video" at the

1993 MTV Video Music Awards The 1993 MTV Video Music Awards aired live on September 2, 1993, honoring the best music videos from June 16, 1992, to June 15, 1993. The show was hosted by Christian Slater at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. This would be Kurt Coba ...

, losing both times to Peter Gabriel's video for "

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

". The video was later released on NTSC VHS along with a making-of documentary and a remix, as well as a video for Idol's previous single "Heroin".

Track listings

Several singles for "Shock to the System" were released to various countries. Several included various remixes of "Heroin", a cover of

The Velvet Underground The Velvet Underground were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1964. Its classic lineup consisted of singer and guitarist Lou Reed, Welsh multi-instrumentalist John Cale, guitarist Sterling Morrison, and percussionis ...

's song of the same name, composed and written by

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

. The cover of "Heroin" also included the lyric "Jesus died for somebody's sins/But not mine", written by

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter, author, and photographer. Her 1975 debut album '' Horses'' made her an influential member of the New York City-based punk rock movement. Smith has fu ...

for her cover of " Gloria". The Australian, Japan, Netherlands, and U.S. releases included the track "Aftershock", which was not included in the ''Cyberpunk'' CD. U.K. double CD release

Charts

Release history

References

External links

*
Shock to the System
, on the Clipland database. *
Shock to the System
,

Chrysalis A pupa (; : pupae) is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their life cycle, the stages the ...

, ''

Yahoo! Music Yahoo Music was a brand under which Yahoo provided music services including Internet radio, a digital music store, music streaming service, media player software, and original programming. Yahoo Music was sold to Rhapsody in early 2008. Pro ...

'', 2008. * ,

EMI America Records EMI America Records was launched in 1978 by EMI as their second label in the United States after Capitol Records, relying on Capitol only for pressing, distribution, and international liaison. In 1987, EMI America merged with Manhattan Records ...

, 26 June 2008.
"Shock to the System"

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a British multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company EMI in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succes ...

, ''SingingFool''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Shock To The System (Billy Idol Song) 1993 songs 1993 singles Billy Idol songs Chrysalis Records singles Protest songs Songs about racism and xenophobia Songs based on actual events Songs written by Billy Idol