A Non-Comprehensive Ranking of Songs About J.G. Ballard

J.G. Ballard was a British sci-fi and satire writer of the ’60s and ’70s whose provocative works have inspired a surprisingly large amount of music. Ballard is probably best known for Crash, a novel about an underground network of car crash fetishists, which was adapted into a film in 1996 by the immortal David Cronenberg. Other notable entries in his oeuvre include “Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan” and “The Assassination of John F. Kennedy Considered as a Downhill Motor Race,” which should give you an idea of what he’s all about. Ballard’s works generally focus on the dark side of modern life, using the false promises of technology to explore human alienation. A similar sense of disillusionment was expressed in sonic form across various up-and-coming musical movements throughout the late ’70s and beyond, as many artists drew upon Ballard’s work thematically. 

This article is ripped from a set I did over two years ago on my now-dormant KRRC show, which I can both shamelessly and uselessly self-promote now that I am not on the Reed stomping grounds. Go listen to all the other brilliant minds on the air instead. I have a lot of respect for Ballard as a thinker, so I will now proceed to assess whether these musical interpretations do his vision justice by rating them with a score out of ten cars in a bizarrely arousing highway pileup.

“Warm Leatherette” by The Normal (8)

Here is proof that a song can be both incredibly influential and also not entirely listenable. This is an early synth classic which inspired a lot of innovation in what would become the new wave genre in the early ’80s. It is also incredibly repetitive in a way that is just short of being danceable. A hard listen, but interesting nonetheless. “Warm Leatherette” takes the cake in terms of loyalty to its source material, loosely narrating the general outlines of Crash, or at least the idea of car crash kinks. The lyrics themselves are less than subtle: “Quick. Let’s make love /  Before we die.” Poetry in motion, that. There is something to be said for its deceptive simplicity.

“Mausoleum” by the Manic Street Preachers (7)

Like many depressed high schoolers, I had an intense Manic Street Preachers phase back in the day. Although I have left those dark times in the past, I’ll still put on The Holy Bible for my morning commute when I really don’t want to give the day a chance. In terms of Ballard-related content, the connection is admittedly rather weak, but the song itself is solid, if only because the entire album is incredible. Ballard makes a brief sampled cameo in the middle of the song to say, “I wanted to rub the human face in its own vomit and force it to look in the mirror.” Nice!

“Chrome Injury” by The Church (7)

This song is purported to be about Crash, but apart from references to the concept of car crashes and transportation in general, I have no clue what it’s about. (“Poor tormented auto man / giant pincers for a hand”?) Tenuous connection to Ballard’s works aside, it’s a decently catchy ’80s indie rock song, which I actually like more than some of The Church’s bigger hits.

“Miss The Girl” by the Creatures (7)

The Creatures was an early project involving goth legend Siouxsie Sioux, of later Banshees fame. This is another song loosely inspired by Crash which sticks to its automotive lyrical themes pretty consistently. Something about the repetitive melody bothers me more than the industrial monotony of something like “Warm Leatherette,” but I don’t know why and I think this is a personal foible. Altogether, a solid entry.

Various songs from Metamatic by John Foxx (6)

John Foxx made some lesser-known synthpop songs in the late ’70s and early ’80s after leaving the new wave band Ultravox (best known for “Enola Gay”). The entire album Metamatic is vaguely inspired by Ballard’s aesthetics of modern industrial despair, with multiple songs (“Underpass,” “No One Driving,” and “Burning Car,” to name a few) focusing on cars.

“Video Killed the Radio Star” by the Buggles (6)

The verses of this song are actually quite good, in between the ear-splitting chorus. The concept supposedly comes from Ballard’s early sci-fi story “The Sound-Sweep,” about a world where music is replaced by its “ultrasonic” counterpart, although the Buggles describe real life well enough in hindsight.

“Terminal Beach” by Yacht (6)

I'm nearly certain that so many songs are named after J.G. Ballard’s work because his works always have such sick titles. This is the only explanation I have for this song, which otherwise has next to nothing to do with the story from which it takes its name. It’s a cool, catchy pop song. No notes.

“Down in the Park” by Gary Numan (5)

I love Gary Numan: his iconic one hit, his failed ’80s pop career, his corny ’90s Nine Inch Nails knockoff industrial metal career, the awesome live performance I caught in San Francisco right after my high school graduation. This song seems to be pretty standard Numan sci-fi dystopia without much specifically tying it to Ballard, despite whatever Wikipedia says. I love Gary Numan, but he’s done better.

“Atrocity Exhibition” by Joy Division (4)

I’m going to lose my goth card, but I’m not that crazy about Joy Division. The classics are classic, sure, but I never feel too moved to get into the deep cuts. Named after Ballard’s book of the same name, this song reflects industrial malaise in its lyrics, which are typical bleak Joy Division fare with about as much thematic relation as Gary Numan’s entry. As a less than avid fan, I don’t really hear anything that stands out here.

“Cult Boyfriend” by Jeffrey Lewis (2)

I’ll be honest, I only listened to this because it is listed on Ballard’s Wikipedia page and I turned it off before I got to the part where his name is supposedly dropped. I can stand—and often enjoy—the typical indie boy talk-singing of Neutral Milk Hotel, Belle and Sebastian, and the Magnetic Fields alike, but this one beat me. The Ballard connection is also very feeble, justifying my low rating. 

“4JG” by The Human League (1)

The Human League are best known for their ’80s pop hits like “Don’t You Want Me,” but in their early days they were making much more weird experimental synth music, like this odd instrumental track. The Ballard connection is limited to the title “for J.G. (Ballard).” There is really no reason to listen to this, as there’s better early synth music and also better songs for J.G. Ballard. 

Bonus: Anything by Nagamatzu 

Experimental ’80s electronic duo Nagamatzu took their name from a character in Ballard’s Atrocity Exhibition and made music left-of-the-dial enough for me to include them on this list, albeit without a rating. Sacred Islands of the Mad is a great album of mostly instrumental tracks. Shoutout to my dad for putting me on!

There are definitely more examples of music inspired by the works of J.G. Ballard, but I once heard from renowned authority/teenage heartthrob Spencer Reid on the hit show Criminal Minds that your music taste stops developing at age 14 and I’m quickly realizing that he may be right. I fear that the world will not gain much from me forcing myself to listen to random drum and bass music. I don’t like change, just give me my soul-destroying modern convenience.