Nobody's Real by Powerman 5000

Album: Tonight the Stars Revolt! (1999)

License This Song

lyrics

Songfacts®:

The lyrics to this one are pretty opaque. Tonight the Stars Revolt!, as with Powerman 5000 as a whole, were built around a science fiction and comic book aesthetic. This song fits into that.

The other hit to come off this album, "When Worlds Collide," clearly references an old science fiction film, but "Nobody's Real" has no such obvious connection. It seems to reference the notion of genre fiction in general, judging by the opening verse:

Scary monsters
And super peeps
The more you dream the less you sleep
Life as you know it
This song was popular during the post-grunge period when industrial music was a popular flavor on "alternative" and "modern rock" radio stations. The Tonight the Stars Revolt! album went platinum, but the band never came close to those sales figures again.
The song was featured on the soundtrack of the 1999 Arnold Schwarzenegger film End of Days.
Like all of Tonight the Stars Revolt!, the video for this song was built around the theme of science fiction and superheroes, featuring a boy who gets powers through a robotic mask. In a 1999 interview with Hip Online, Powerman 5000 frontman Spider One said he was heavily involved in the making of the video. He's listed as co-director, along with David Meyers, who also directed the video for "When Worlds Collide."

Comments: 1

Luna Loud from Royal Woods, MichiganI always thought he said, "Scary monsters and superBEASTS", and that he was referencing his brother, Rob Zombie's song, "Superbeast". That would've been cool. BTW, these lyrics are missing the second verse.

see more comments

More Songfacts:

Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)Will Glahe

In 1939, a polka craze swept America thanks to "Beer Barrel Polka (Roll Out The Barrel)."

BloodstreamEd Sheeran

Ed Sheeran's "Bloodstream" was written after an experience taking MDMA during a wedding celebration in Ibiza; it's basically about all the feelings that he got from that time.

"Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who is about a revolution, but it doesn't have a happy ending, since in the end the new regime becomes just like the old one. Pete Townshend thought that whoever was in power was destined to become corrupt.

Good TimesChic

The disco song "Good Tmes" by Chic was a huge influence on early rap, providing the bassline for "Rapper's Delight."

Dancing QueenABBA

ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson conceived "Dancing Queen" as a dance song with the working title "Boogaloo," drawing inspiration from the 1974 George McCrae disco hit "Rock Your Baby." Their manager Stig Anderson came up with the title "Dancing Queen."

Uptown FunkMark Ronson

The actress Michelle Pfeiffer gets namechecked in the 2014 megahit "Uptown Funk" ("Michelle Pfeiffer, that white gold"). When it was released, "Riptide" by Vance Joy was on the charts; that song also mentions her ("Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you've ever seen").