The Data Stream

The Data Stream is a song released on 18 June 2021 by The Stupendium. It features Cami-Cat.

Description
In CD Projekt Red's Cyberpunk 2077 you take on the role of V, a gun for hire in the dystopian metropolis known as Night City. Choose your life path; Corpo, Nomad or Street Kid and embark on a quest to uncover the secrets and conspiracies of the city and the Arasaka corporation all the while dodging magical teleporting police officers and hoping your car doesn't sink through the asphalt.

It goes without saying that the much anticipated Cyberpunk has had a... rocky... first 6 months of life.

The nature of my videos means they take months to make and most of the time I need to work ahead, start making them long before a game releases. Sometimes that means a game releases in a poor state and I already have a song prepared. It happened with Fallout 76 and it's happened again here!

Late last year I had this song ready, the props and costumes bought and the video planed all on schedule to be ready for the game's release. Then Among Us happened and I decided 'Cyberpunk is big enough to wait an extra month, I'll squeeze in an Among Us video first!'

...Then Cyberpunk released. In the firestorm of response to the game I opted to shelve the project to return to at a later date in the hopes things would calm down and the game might improve. Well here we are! Has the game improved? Possibly. But I had a free slot in my schedule and all of the props and costumes ready and waiting to go so I decided it was time to make this thing happen! I already have too many other projects in long-term limbo to let this one wait any more!

This song focuses on the 'Corpo' world of Arasaka. (Are you surprised I took the corporate corruption approach?) My initial concept for the song was more about the world of corporate espionage, but as I wrote about this interconnected digital corporate world the idea shifted into the themes of data collection and privacy and how these issues that we are already facing today might take form in a world where the corporations so keen to know everything about you have direct unfettered access to the inside of your head.

It's another 'this is a song about the world of the game and using that world to explore a real world theme' kind of song. Sorry if you were hoping for a song about shooting folks with laser guns and Keanu Reeves. ;)

A huge thank you to Cami-Cat for lending her stunning vocals to this track! I've wanted to work with her again ever since she joined me for 'Slide Into the Void' and I'm stoked to have her on this track. This might be one of my favourite choruses I've ever had and it's in no small part thanks to her!

Another huge thanks to DefendTheHouse for generously allowing me to use their gorgeous Night City footage in this video. Link to their channel below for more awesome game captures!

Verse 1:
Eventually all walls meet demolition

So Wall Street had to keep the tradition

Their financial systems resigned to ignition

And out of the ashes, we have arisen

An empire is forged in the fire of ambition

In business there isn't a time for attrition

Invest to suppress then ingest competition

Then each acquisition is new ammunition

When governments crumble and fall to the floor

That was paved with the graves of a corporate war

A fundament funded for founding our covenant - born

Of a need for control of societal entropy

Enterprise at the price of your indemnity

Chart out the course and of course you were meant to be

Bent to the will of a corporate entity

Pre-Chorus 1:
Arasaka Security. You're in safe hands

Chorus
We’re the light in your screens, we’re the lead in your veins

Then you wake from your dreams so we can sell them again

In the light we distract with the shiny and new

So you’re blind to the fact that the product is you

So let your brain dance and replay the dream

But don’t drown in the data stream

‘Cause we see where you are and we see where you go

‘Cause we know what you own and we own what you know

Verse 2:
From the top of all our towers, the corridors of power clearly need rewiring Arasaka saw the spark and then embarked upon the path to turn that spark to lightning

There’s no autonomous megalopolis so populous or prosperous you could reside in

And every citizen that’s living in this city is a digit on the charts we’re climbing

Political systems are too inefficient

They split like the atom and burned in the fission

Now every department and every decision

Defer to the herds of our corporate divisions

If you don’t remember the ballot you cast It’s printed on every receipt you were passed

Each time you selected our products and services

We were elected in each of your purchases What’s left to do when you’ve got the monopoly?

Turn the consumer into the commodity

It isn’t hard where you’ve hardware neurology Honestly, do read the company policy

Take information and trade it for wealth

You pay it in each augmentation we sell

It’s easy to cut out the middleman

When he’s cut out most of himself

Pre-Chorus 2:
Arasaka Finance. Investing in your future

Chorus
We’re the light in your screens, we’re the lead in your veins

Then you wake from your dreams so we can sell them again

In the light we distract with the shiny and new

So you’re blind to the fact that the product is you

So let your brain dance and replay the dream

But don’t drown in the data stream

‘Cause we see where you are and we see where you go

‘Cause we know what you own and we own what you know

Verse 3:
All that you say on the net we composite

To maps that go straight from your head to your pocket

Complain if you want, you’re still making deposits

Of data - each day you log on is a profit

Society currently lists electronic

So isn’t conducting resistance ironic?

We’ve plenty of skeletons locked in our closets

But yours are assembled from old-stock hydraulics

So lucky we know just the pieces you need

All plucked from your social media feeds

The places you go and the posts that you read

All snatched for a new algorithm to feed

Now holding our gold isn’t par for the brand

Our silver is sat in the palm of your hand

Quit whining and sign on the line in the sand

The supply does not get to make the demands

Pre-Bridge:
Arasaka Manufacturing. Building a better tomorrow

Bridge:
Name, Age, Qualifications

Race, Faith, Career aspirations

Political leaning, Daily commute

Marital status, Favorite Fruit

Family, Browser, Medical history

Hobbies, interests, Brand affinity

Fashion, style, your occupation

Gender identity, orientation

Lifestyle choices, dietary needs

The marketing contact you choose to receive

Posts, likes, employers, friends

Social bias, exploitable trends

Tastes, culture, phone of choice

Facial structure, the tone of your voice

If it’s inside your head we know

You can’t escape the ebb and flow

Verse 4:
(In the light we distract with the shiny and new)

When guiding the hand of the market

If it’s holding a cheque or a gun

The fingers go deep in your pockets

And you can live under the thumb

(So you’re blind to the fact that the product is you)

You seem so surprised

What did you expect?

We’re thinking outside of that box that you checked

The terms were presented in full to inspect

You scrolled to the end just to get to ‘Accept’

Outro:
(In the light we distract with the shiny and new)

Arasaka would like to know your location

Arasaka would like to know your location

(So you’re blind to the fact that the product is you)

Arasaka would like to know your location

Arasaka would like to know your location