Shock to the System

"Shock to the System" is a single by English musician Billy Idol, released to promote his 1993 album, Cyberpunk. It became a top-40 hit in six countries, including Idol's native United Kingdom, but did not make it onto the US Billboard Hot 100. The song was inspired by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The 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, that he had originally created the song with an entirely different set of lyrics, but upon witnessing the Los Angeles riots of 1992 on television, he immediately rewrote and recorded them that day. Speaking to Melody Maker in 1993, Idol commented, Critical reception Upon its release as a single, Terry Staunton of NME described "Shock to the System" as being "essentially 'White Wedding' for the Terminator 2 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, in his 2005 book, The Souls of Cyberfolk.