Nineteen Eighty-Four（１９８４）by George Orwell: 5

Television

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  • "1984 ", an Apple Macintosh commercial depicting an Orwellian dystopia
  • Babylon 5 , J. Michael Straczynski 's science fiction epic which features an intentionally Orwellian Earth government, as well as many homages to Nineteen Eighty-Four
  • Blake's 7 , also does this, with themes borrowed from Brave New World .
  • "Chain of Command ", an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation in which Jean-Luc Picard is tortured in a fashion similar to that of Winston. Just as Smith is repeatedly shown a hand with four fingers and tortured until he agrees that he sees five, Picard is tortured by a Cardassian sadist and is as much told as asked to see five lights when there are only four.
  • "Treehouse of Horror V ", an episode of The Simpsons , in one segment, Homer builds a time machine, alters the past and creates a dystopic future where Ned Flanders is the totalitarian lord of the world.
  • The Prisoner
  • Big Brother , the world-wide reality television show takes its name from the novel.
  • Room 101 , a British television programme which takes its name from the novel.
  • "Chalkzone ", in an episode, Rudy is subjected to a series of slides distinguishing between cartoons and realistic art by a forceful art teacher. By use of the terms "good" and "ungood" he is to distinguish between the two, similar to Winston's torture scene, until he falls to his captor's persuasion.
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Recordings

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  • David Bowie released the album Diamond Dogs (1974) which contains the songs: "Rebel Rebel", "1984," "We Are the Dead," ";Sweet Thing/Candidate/Sweet Thing (Reprise)," and "Big Brother". The project was originally conceived as a full length theatrical production but Bowie was denied the rights by George Orwell's widow.
  • In John Lennon 's 1973 quasi-protest song "Only People", he repeatedly sings the line "We don't want no Big Brother..."
  • In their song "WWIII", industrial rock band KMFDM declares war on perversions of society. One verse containes the lyric "I declare war on Big Brother."
  • Radiohead 's album Hail to the Thief contains the song "2 + 2 = 5 (The Lukewarm)", where not only the title refers to Nineteen Eighty-Four but the first lines of the song seem to be referring to the hopelessness of Winston's struggle:
"Are you such a dreamer
to put the world to rights?"
  • Jimi Hendrix 's album Electric Ladyland includes a song titled "1983 ... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)" in which the narrator flees a war torn world to live in the ocean with his lover. The lyrics include, "Oh say, can you see it's really such a mess, every inch of Earth is a fighting nest. Giant pencil and lipstick tube shaped things, continue to rain and cause screaming pain, and the arctic stains from silver blue to bloody red as our feet find the sand." The song is rather abstract, but it is difficult not to view the title as a hint at the subject matter.
  • Rick Wakeman , from Yes released the album 1984 in 1981 , to lyrics by Tim Rice . This is a concept album directly based on the novel.
  • Subhumans released the album The Day The Country Died in 1982 , which appears to be influenced by Nineteen Eighty-Four. One of the songs is called "Big Brother", with lyrics like "There's a TV in my front room and it's screwing up my head", referring to the telescreen of the novel. Much like the novel, the album is largely dystopian , with songs like "Dying World" and "All Gone Dead", the latter of which contains lyrics like "It's 1984 and it's gonna be a war". According to Dick Lucas , the song "Subvert City" is based on the ideas of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley
  • "Nineteen Eighty Bore" is a song from the anarcho-punk band Crass , focusing on the alleged mind-numbing affects of television.
  • 1984 (For The Love of Big Brother) is the title of an album by the Eurythmics which was originally released in November 1984 as a partial soundtrack for the film adaptation. It contains the following tracks:
(3:28) "I did it just the same"; (3:59) "Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)"; (5:05) "For the love of big brother"; (1:22) "Winston's diary"; (6:13) "Greetings from a dead man"; (6:40) "Julia" (4:40) "Doubleplusgood"; (3:48) "Ministry of love"; (3:50) "Room 101".
  • Oingo Boingo released a song called "Wake up (It's 1984)" on their 1983 album Good For Your Soul . Taking heavily from the movie as well as the book, it serves as commentary to current society.
  • Rage Against the Machine released the album called The Battle of Los Angeles in 1999 featuring the track "Testify" containing the phrase "Who Controls the Past Now, Controls the Future, Who controls the Present Now, Controls the Past...", a slogan used by the Party. The entire track "Testify" is arguably an indirect reference to the novel. Also on the same album, the song "Voice of the Voiceless" contains the lyrics "Orwell's hell a terror era coming through, but this little brother is watching you too".
  • Bad Religion released the album called The Empire Strikes First in 2004 featuring the track "Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever" with the title of the song being a direct reference to the Nineteen Eighty-Four novel. In the novel, O'Brien suggests the image of a boot stamping on a human face forever as a picture of the future. The song seems to be referring to the hopelessness of rebellion against the Party. The lyrics of the title track also states "You don't need to be afraid, you deserve Two Minutes Hate". The lyric book art style is Orwellian themed. During live shows at the time of the release of "The Empire Strikes First," they used a banner with the words "Two Minutes Hate." In their album Suffer , The song "Part II (The Numbers Game)" makes references to the book, with lines such as "Big Brother schemes to rule the nation" and "The government observes with their own electric eye".
  • Marilyn Manson 's album Holy Wood includes a song called "Disposable Teens " in which he sings that he's "a rebel from the waist down". This is a direct reference to Orwell's book, when Winston accuses Julia of being "only a rebel from the waist downwards".
  • Incubus 's album A Crow Left of the Murder includes the song "Talk Show On Mute", about how one day, the television might be watching us instead of us watching them, showing a world where humans are monitored at all times. Among its lyrics is the line
"Come one, come all, into 1984"
  • Manic Street Preachers released the album The Holy Bible in 1994 which contains the song "Faster". At the beginning of the song a voice (John Hurt, sampled from the movie version of 1984) quotes a line from the book, although not word for word: "I hate purity. I hate goodness. I don't want virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone corrupt." They also had a track called "1985", in which they make various references to the novel, such as "In 1985, Orwell was proved right"
  • Benzene Jag , an obscure punk band formed in Hamilton, Ontario , Canada released a 45 rpm single called "Fuck off 1984" in 1983.
  • Anaal Nathrakh 's album Domine Non Es Dignus includes a song called "Do Not Speak" that opens with a sample of "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot, stamping on a human face, for ever." Due to Anaal Nathrakh's lyrics being unpublished, the exact influence of 1984 is unknown. However the words "pain, frustration, faded memories" are intelligible, and 1984 certainly fits with the apocalyptic, despairing, anti human themes of the band.
  • In the song "George Orwell Must Be Laughing His Ass Off" by Mea Culpa , the second verse begins with "If 2 plus 2 don't equal 5 I guess I'm just no fun".
  • Singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke published a song called "When Two and Two are Five" with Jennifer Kimball (as The Story ).
  • The Pet Shop Boys have a song called "One and One Make Five" on their 1993 album Very .
  • The song "The Panama Deception" by Anti-Flag begins with the text "Their two plus two does not equal four. Their two plus two equals whatever they want us to die for".
  • Open Hand released a song called "Newspeak" on their 2005 album You and Me. The song title and lyrics deal heavily with the ideas of newspeak and being thought controlled.
  • The Rare Earth hit single "Hey Big Brother", released in 1971 , sings of the future arrival of Big Brother, first addressing this future Big Brother directly and then finishing by expressing a rebellious defiance against his arrival.
  • The Dead Kennedys ' 1979 single "California Über Alles " contains the lyrics "Big Bro on white horse is near", and also "Now it is 1984 / Knock knock at your front door / It's the suede-denim secret police / They've come for your uncool niece" in reference to the thought police of the novel.
  • The Dutch synthesizer musician Ed Starink composed and recorded a "Big Brother Suite" in 1983. He remixed that suite in July 1991 in his new digital studio and released it with the album "Retrospection" under his own Star Inc. label. In the liner notes of this album, he explains that "1984" by Orwell inspired him to create a work that was a mixture of the 12-tone system and rhythmical pop influences. The suite contains the following tracks: (8:08) "Big Brother"; (0:52) "Two and two make five"; (4:09) "Minitrue"; (1:25); "Lunatic"; (5:46) "Julia"; (0:41) "The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism" (3:50); "The Ministry of Love, Including Room 101".
  • The album Vistoron , released in 2004 by Japanese electronic musician Susumu Hirasawa under the name KAKU P-MODEL , contains a track titled "Big Brother". Hirasawa has offered Big Brother as a free download in MP3 file format .
  • Van Halen released the album "1984 " that year.
  • New Zealand band Shihad start off their debut album Churn in the song "Factory" with the quote "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever".
  • The Romantics released the single Talking in Your Sleep in 1983. It includes the lyrics "I hear the secrets that you keep / When you're talking in your sleep," alluding to the Winston Smith's fear of revealing his anti-Party beliefs while sleeping.
  • Rock singer Darais Kemp released two songs on his album Sweet Sweet ("Room 101" and "Two Minutes Hate") that explicitly alluded to the novel.
  • Sage Francis references "Big Brotherly love" and declares "don't forget what two plus two equals" in the political song "Hey Bobby".
  • Anti-Flag released a song called "1984", in which the band talks about the book in various ways, such as, "Mr. Orwell from the grave, adding fresh ink to the page" and "The double talk is past surreal".
  • German band BAP referred to Orwell and 1984 in their live recording of the song "Ne schöne Jrooß" on their 1983 live album "Bess demnähx": "Leven Orwell, vierunachzig ess noh, ess mittlerweile nur noch een läppsch Johr" (Cologne dialect for "Dear Orwell, '84 is near, meanwhile it's only one more shabby year to go"). In concerts after 1984, they replaced the second verse with: "Ess mittlerweile leider vill ze vill wohr" ("Unfortunately, much too much has meanwhile become reality").
  • Five for Fighting has a song called 2+2 makes five on the bonus CD to his album The Battle for Everything .
  • British Oi! band Combat 84 chose their name based on 1984.
  • The song '1977' by British punk band, the Clash , includes imagery of civil disorder on the streets of London , similar to that described in Orwell's explanation of the Party's rise to power, and a coda that consists of a lyrical count-up from the year 1977 that ends on 1984.
  • The second album, What Will the Neighbours Say? by British band Girls Aloud contained the track "Big Brother" which features the line "Big Brother's watching me and I don't really mind".
  • The 2003 song, "All That's Left," by the band Thrice , includes a chorus with direct reference to 1984. ("A Ghost is all that's left, of everything we swore we never would forget. We tried to bleed the sickness, but we drained our hearts instead. We are, we are the dead.")
  • The song "Freedom" from the 1987 album Raise Your Fist and Yell by Alice Cooper includes the lyrics "You want to rule us with an iron hand, You change the lyrics and become Big Brother."
  • The song "Head? Chest? or Foot?" from Canadian punk rockers Propagandhi contains the lyric "I'd rather be in prison in a George Orwellian world, than your pacified society of happy boys and girls/ i'd rather know my enemies and let you know the same/ whose windows to smash and whose tires to slash, I want to point the f**king blame."
  • The band Antiba recorded a song called "Destroyed Reputation", in which they say, "In Orwell's hell, your soul you'd sell now falling, stalling,"
  • The song "The Machine" by the group Darkwell talks about, "A virtual admission of guilt, confession/Orwell's future tense, libertcidal/the species enslaved, the will is broken/to avert doom - obnoxious."
  • ApologetiX does the song "Look Yourself", which contains the lyric, "As he moves forward it's true George Orwell/The moral of the story is truth's ignored, emotion's most important"
  • The band called Skyclad has recorded a song, which makes reference to 1985: "We've made tommorows world - could George Orwell be correct?"
  • Another song, "Into The Fire", by the group Burning Point , says, "Into the Fire You put me through hell/Twisted Desire in the world of Orwell/Total Control of body and mind/...into the fire"
  • Million Dead did a song called "Charlie And The Propaganda Myth Machine", which notes, "And the BFG a propagandist for an unaccountable regime,/Orwell’s vision with a wrinkled face./Hold out the arm and quiet the voice."
  • In their song "Who Makes The Nazis?", the band Fall answers their own question with, "Bad-bias TV/Arena badges/BBC, George Orwell, Burmese police/Who Makes the Nazis?"
  • The group Oi Polloi has a song called "Fuck Everybody That Voted Tory", in which they claim, "Machine gun toting police on our streets/TV cameras watching your every move/George Orwell's '1984' is here and now"
  • The Rutles recorded the parodical, albeit fictional, song Please Hold My Hand, that includes the line "I'm not the type of guy who likes to play 'Big Brother'."
  • Our Lady Peace 's album Spiritual Machines contained a track entitled "R.K. 1949" where the narrator states "The year is 1949, George Orwell portrays the chilling world in which computers are used by large beaurocracies to monitor and enslave the population in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four."
  • UK rap artist Jehst makes a number of references to 1984 in his lyrics "2004, its more like 1984 right here right now" and "Its 1984!” in songs with a strong political edge, he also makes reference to "Orwellian Prophecies", Thought Police and Big Brother.
  • The title track on the Supertramp album "Brother Where You Bound" is a 16 and a half minute piece with a definite Orwellian feel to it - including some 1984 passages spoken at the beginning of the piece.
  • Alternative jazz artist Bobby Previte released "Coalition of the Willing" in 2006 with songs such as "The Ministry of Truth", "Airstrip One", "Ministry of Love", "Oceania", "The Inner Party" and "Memory Hole" inspired by 1984.
  • The band Project 86 's 2002 album Truthless Heroes contains many lyrical references to 1984, including the line "These thought police coming for me" on the track Know What it Means.
  • Utopia 's album Oblivion contained a track entitled "Winston Smith Takes It On The Jaw" based on novel main character which includes the line I have found us a place where there's no telescreen and there's no hidden mikes and it's not too unclean.
  • Coldplay 's song "Spies" depicts the general society illustrated in 1984 as well as the concept of thoughtcrime (with references to the Thought Police) and lack of freedom.It includes lines such as "I awake to see that no one is free. We're all fugitives, look at the way we live. Down here, I cannot sleep from fear, no. I said, which way do I turn? I forget everything I learn." and "And if we don't hide here, they're going to find us, and if we don't hide now, they're going to catch us when we sleep, and if we don't hide here, they're going to find us." .
  • Arctic Monkeys song 'I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor' released in 2005 includes a small reference to the book with the line "Dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984".
  • Cog: Australian progressive rock band Cog use lines from 1984 in their song 1010011010 referenceing room 101.
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