History Music / Powerman5000

* ThatManIsDead: The first lyric on ''Transform'' is Spider declaring that '''"I'm not a spaceman!"'''

** "A Swim With the Sharks" includes the lyrics "you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing" and "I'll find 'im for three, and catch 'im and kill 'im for ten": Both are taken from a monologue the character Quint gives in ''Film/{{Jaws}}''

Powerman 5000 are a slightly unorthodox industrial rock band based out of Boston, Massachusetts, fronted by vocalist Spider One and a revolving door lineup of musicians. Making their major label debut with ''Mega Kung-Fu Radio,'' a rerelease from their original independent album ''The Blood Splat Rating System,'' the band soon emerged with their trademark high-energy sound, used to good effect on the follow-up and their most famous album, ''Tonight The Stars Revolt!'' These albums established their obsession with themes of ScienceFiction, and the band were even known for performing in space suits.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: ''Tonight The Stars Revolt'' was actually a slicker, more energetic revamp of their earlier sound, which was closer to FunkMetal.

* HiddenTrack: ''Tonight The Stars Revolt'' and its weird techno freakout.

* NewSoundAlbum: ''Transform'' was obviously supposed to be this, as was ''Destroy What You Enjoy.''
''Tonight The Stars Revolt!'' is this to their prior rap/funk metal style, including a far more overt science fiction theme than previous works and costumes to boot.
* PrecisionFStrike: ''Tonight The Stars Revolt!'' has one, and only one, curse word, on "System 11:11."

* {{Rap Metal}}: Those who only know them from "Tonight the Stars Revolt!" may be shocked to hear that their debut EP and record had little to no industrial elements what so ever. Rather, they had a mixture of hip hop and metal so smooth that they nearly won "Best Rap" and "Best Metal" album awards in their home city in 1995.

* ShoutOut: The very first line in their song "Nobody's Real," is, "[[Music/DavidBowie Scary monsters and super peeps.]]"

** "A Swim With The Sharks" includes the lyrics "you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing" and "I'll find 'im for three, and catch 'im and kill 'im for ten": Both are taken from a monologue the character Quint gives in ''{{Film/Jaws}}''
* SpokenWordInMusic: Actor and voiceover artist Malachi Throne provides narration on the ''Tonight The Stars Revolt!'' AlbumIntroTrack "An Eye Is Upon You", as quoted in the article header - elsewhere on the album he provides similar introductions to "Blast Off To Nowhere" and "Watch The Sky For Me".

* {{Supervillain}}: "Super Villain" (with Doctor Doom being name-checked).

* TitleTrack: ''Tonight The Stars Revolt!, Transform, Destroy What You Enjoy, Somewhere On The Other Side Of Nowhere'' '''and''' ''Builders Of The Future'' all have one of these.
** The only album that didn't have a title track was ''The Blood-Splat Rating System''....until it was rereleased as as ''Mega!! Kung Fu Radio''

* SpokenWordInMusic: Actor and voiceover artist Malachi Throne provides narration on the ''Tonight The Stars Revolt!'' AlbumIntroTrack "An Eye Is Upon You", as quoted in the intro - elsewhere on the album he provides similar introductions to "Blast Off To Nowhere" and "Watch The Sky For Me".

* SpokenWordInMusic: On ''Tonight The Stars Revolt!'', actor and voiceover artist Malachi Throne provides narration on AlbumIntroTrack "An Eye Is Upon You", as well as the songs "Blast Off To Nowhere" and "Watch The Sky For Me".

** Elsewhere on the same album, they also do a synth-pop version of a song that wasn't in that genre originally: They slow down [[Music/TheClash "Should I Stay Or Should I Go"]] considerably, play it in a minor key, and use synths as the lead instrument, turning it from punk/garage rock to the darker side of synth pop.

** The studio version of "Horror Show" is a bit too based around synthesizers to qualify for the "metal" half of the genre... but at live shows it's performed as more of a rap metal song, and tends to turn into a medley where they "tease" some of their early songs and/or partially cover well-known rap rock / rap metal songs like [[Music/BeastieBoys "Sabotage"]] or [[Music/RageAgainstTheMachine "Bulls On Parade"]].

** The studio version of "Horror Show" is a bit too based around synthesizers to qualify for the "rock" half of the genre... At live shows it's performed as more of a rap rock song, and tends to even involve the band "teasing" some of their early rap-rock songs and/or partially covering things like [[Music/BeastieBoys "Sabotage"]] or [[Music/RageAgainstTheMachine "Bulls On Parade"]].

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Piano ballad "Watch The Sky For Me." "Piano" and "ballad" are words that are ''never'' usually associated with Powerman 5000. If you're wondering who in the band knew how to play piano, you'd be wrong. It was guest musician [[Music/MarilynManson Ginger Fish]]. On top of this, the production of the song is deliberately tinny and {{retraux}}-1950's, as opposed to the more "futuristic" sound of the rest of ''Tonight The Stars Revolt!''.

->''"Spinning complacently in the darkness, covered and blinded by a blanket of little lives, false security has lulled the madness of this world into a slumber. Wake up! An eye is upon you, staring straight down and keenly through, seeing all that you are and everything that you can never be. Yes, an eye is upon you, an eye ready to blink. So face forward, with arms wide open and mind reeling. Your future has arrived..."''

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Usually at least a 6.

The band had a new album, ''Anyone For Doomsday?'' primed for release in 2001 but Spider One, afraid of being pigeonholed in this sound, aborted it just before its release (also due to some band members jumping ship at the time). The eventual new album finally arrived in 2003 and was entitled ''Transform,'' which was released to mixed reviews due to the band ditching their sci-fi gimmick and adopting a slightly punky flavor, as well as a new focus on social commentary. The band have continued to mine their energetic trademark sound to the present day, with the albums ''Destroy What You Enjoy'' and ''Somewhere On The Other Side Of Nowhere.'' ''Copies, Clones & Replicants,'' a covers album, appeared in August of 2011. Their latest albums, ''Builders Of The Future'' and ''New Wave'' were released in May of 2014 and October of 2017, respectively.

** ''Copies, Clones & Replicants'' is entirely a covers album, of bands such as Music/TwistedSister, Music/{{Devo}}, [[Music/MarcBolan T-Rex,]] Music/VanHalen, Music/DavidBowie, Music/{{INXS}}, and Music/TheClash.

* InTheStyleOf: The band toy with SynthPop on their covers album, ''Copies, Clones & Replicants'' to at least somewhat emulate the original version of M's "Pop Muzik."

->''Spinning complacently in the darkness, covered and blinded by a blanket of little lives, false security has lulled the madness of this world into a slumber. Wake up! An eye is upon you, staring straight down and keenly through, seeing all that you are and everything that you can never be. Yes, an eye is upon you, an eye ready to blink. So face forward, with arms wide open and mind reeling. Your future has arrived.....''

->''Are you ready to go?''

[[caption-width-right:281:Spider One and his cohorts.]]Powerman 5000 are a slightly unorthodox industrial rock band based out of Boston, Massachusetts, fronted by vocalist Spider One and a revolving door lineup of musicians. Making their major label debut with ''Mega Kung-Fu Radio,'' a rerelease from their original independent album ''The Blood Splat Rating System,'' the band soon emerged with their trademark high-energy sound, used to good effect on the follow-up and their most famous album, ''Tonight The Stars Revolt!'' These albums established their obsession with themes of ScienceFiction, and the band were even known for performing in space suits.

** And also the song "Make Us Insane" which was inspired by the SpiderMan villain ComicBook/{{Venom}}

** The studio version of "Horror Show" is a bit too based around synthesizers to qualify for the "rock" half of the genre... At live shows it's performed as more of a rap rock song, and tends to even involve the band "teasing" their early rap-rock songs or partially covering things like [[Music/BeastieBoys "Sabotage"]] or [[Music/RageAgainstTheMachine "Bulls On Parade"]].

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Piano ballad "Watch The Sky For Me." "Piano" and "ballad" are words that are ''never'' usually associated with Powerman 5000. If you're wondering who in the band knew how to play piano, you'd be wrong. It was guest musician [[Music/MarilynManson Ginger Fish]].

-->''Spinning complacently in the darkness, covered and blinded by a blanket of little lives, false security has lulled the madness of this world into a slumber. Wake up! An eye is upon you, staring straight down and keenly through, seeing all that you are and everything that you can never be. Yes, an eye is upon you, an eye ready to blink. So face forward, with arms wide open and mind reeling. Your future has arrived.....

-->Are you ready to go?''

The band had a new album, ''Anyone For Doomsday?'' primed for release in 2001 but Spider One, afraid of being pigeonholed in this sound, aborted it just before its release (also due to some band members jumping ship at the time). The eventual new album finally arrived in 2003 and was entitled ''Transform,'' which was released to mixed reviews due to the band ditching their sci-fi gimmick and adopting a slightly punky flavor, as well as a new focus on social commentary. The band have continued to mine their energetic trademark sound to the present day, with the albums ''Destroy What You Enjoy'' and ''Somewhere On The Other Side Of Nowhere.'' ''Copies, Clones & Replicants,'' a covers album, appeared in August of 2011. Their latest, ''Builders Of The Future'' was released in May of 2014.

Spider One's older brother is involved in heavy metal. [[Music/RobZombie You might have heard of him.]]

* NewSoundAlbum: ''Transform'' was obviously supposed to be this.
** As was ''Destroy what you Enjoy''

* {{Rap Metal}}: Those who only know them from "Tonight the Stars Revolt!" may be shocked to hear that their debut EP and record had little to no industrial elements what so ever. Rather, they had a mixture of hip hop and metal so smooth that they nearly won "Best Rap" and "best Metal" album awards in their home city in 1995

* {{Sampling}}: This band ''loves'' sampling old horror movies.

* StageNames: Everyone on the band. (current line-up is Spider One, Velkro, X51, and Ad7)