Future Shock - Broad Cultural Impact

Broad Cultural Impact

Curtis Mayfield's song "Future Shock" on the album "Back to the World" took its name from this book, and was in turn covered by Herbie Hancock as the title track for his 1983 recording Future Shock. That album was considered groundbreaking for fusing jazz and funk with electronic music.

The American pop group Hello People opened their 1974 release "The Handsome Devils" with a track titled "Future Shock". The song was a minor hit, peaking on Billboard's Hot 100 at #71. The album was produced by Todd Rundgren.

Darren Hayes name checks the phrase many times in his song "Me Myself And I". At least two more releases have been named for the book, a 1981 album by Gillan and a 1988 single by Stratovarius.

Other works taking their title from the book include: the Futurama episode "Future Stock"; a segment on The Daily Show starring Samantha Bee; Kevin Goldstein's recurring column on the Baseball Prospectus website; a Magic: The Gathering pre-constructed deck; and the National Wrestling Alliance's 1989 Starrcade event.

UK Comic 2000 AD ran a series of short stories called Future Shocks based on this concept, some of which were written by Alan Moore. The abbreviated derogatory term Futzies was applied to citizens in 2000 AD stories (mainly in the Judge Dredd universe) who had been driven insane by Future Shock.

Voiceworks #62 (Summer 2005), edited by Tom Doig, was themed Future Shock: 'The future is here. Are you ready for it? Increasing computing power and nanotechnology will usher in an era of artificial intelligence, electronic telepathy and virtual immortality within a matter of years...'

Works deriving themes and elements from Future Shock include the science fiction novels The Forever War (1974) by Joe Haldeman, The Shockwave Rider (1975) by John Brunner, the RPG Transhuman Space (2002) by Steve Jackson Games, and the indie RPG Shock: Social Science Fiction (2006) by designer Joshua A.C. Newman.

Doomtree recording artist Sims referenced the phenomenon of future shock with a song named after it on his album Bad Time Zoo (2011).

In 2011, a song titled "Future Shock" by Darwin, Obie, and Mr-E appeared on the album Nu Nrg 100, the final installment of the world-renowned label Nu Energy, while Brooklyn-based band TV on the Radio included a song titled "No Future Shock" on their album Nine Types of Light. The same year, the Unsound Music Festival in Krakow, Poland took the concept of 'future shock' as its theme.

The sense of future shock is an integral aspect of cyberpunk.

The Canadian band Oromocto Diamond named their first album Le Choc Du Futur (2009) in direct reference to the book.