HackerTubewatch
Surprise me
Frame from Kraftwerk - Pocket Calculator Plays via YouTube's privacy-enhanced embed

Kraftwerk - Pocket Calculator

scatmanjohn3001
Music
YouTube
Cited on HN 3 times, 2020–2025, never outright recommended score 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Posted as a favorite Kraftwerk song or an obligatory link in threads about Kraftwerk and calculators.

Kraftwerk's 'Pocket Calculator' from the album Computer World, a synth-pop track built around a handheld calculator as an instrument.

“One of my favorite Kraftwerk songs is probably “pocket calculator.” (HN, 2020)

3 citations · Music

3 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@gdubs May 2020 Cites it
on HN thread Florian Schneider has died
Legend. I saw Kraftwerk live years ago and it was one of the most overwhelming performances I’ve ever seen in my life. Beneath the bouncy, poppy hooks there was a massive darkness — the pairing of visuals with the music really drove that home. (The only other live musical performance that I recall giving me a similar feeling was the band ‘Godspeed You Black Emperor‘, who also made use of projected imagery in such a tightly-coupled fashion.) One of my favorite Kraftwerk songs is probably “pocket calculator.” [1] 1: [this video]
Favorite Kraftwerk song
@AfterHIA Sep 2025 Cites it
on HN thread Samsung now owns Denon, Bowers and Wilkins, Marantz, Polk, and more audio brands
Read more
I really don't think so. Punk had exploded after the Summer of Hate and in its wake we got Talking Heads, The B-52's, and Blondie at CBGB's. In parallel we have early Joy Division in Manchester which is going to inspire U2 to eventually become the biggest band in the world for the next 20 or something years. Martin Hannett is going to be a key figure in the development of EDM with his use of samplers and, "using the studio as an instrument." Check out the beginning of, "Transmission." He'll later go on to produce The Happy Mondays who are, "the" seminal Manchester dance group in the early 90's in lieu of an army of Stone Roses fans throwing lemons at me. [link] If you look at how Johnny Rotten was listening to Neu! and X-Ray Spex (as well as The Monkees and Herman Hermits) and what Bowie was doing after he moved to Berlin with Iggy Pop it's not outlandish to say that Electronic Music wouldn't have existed without being preempted by Punk, Glam, and the emergent, "not progressive" guitar music of the 1970's especially in how it paralleled the development of Krautrock. Disco didn't evolve into EDM; Disco gave DJ Kool Herc a set of turntables to invent Hip Hop with. Techno literally came out of, "a certain guy who might be called Gerald" listening to Kraftwerk; Afrika Bammbatta's, "Planet Rock" samples Kraftwerk directly. "I'm the operator with mine pocket calculator." [this video]
Lyric quoted in music history argument

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Search
j k
Next / previous video
r
Surprise me
l
Like (video page)
w
Watch later (video page)
?
This help
Esc
Close