It's official: software is the new rock 'n' roll, which is less a badge of hipness than a testimony to the greying of the original rock generation into corporate middle managers. The original and unlikely evangelist for this frightening perspective on popular culture was, of course, Arch Nerd Bill Gates, who four years ago forked out $40 million (€37 million) or so for the rights to play and replay, ad nauseum, the Rolling Stones's Start Me Up in the marketing blitz for Windows 95. Since then he's scooped up Bowie and Heroes as well.
Rather belatedly, Big Blue has joined the fold, or rather, IBM's software subsidiary, Lotus. Rolling out the latest release of its widely-used Lotus Notes program in the Berkeley Court in Dublin on Tuesday (Release 5, snappily nicknamed R5, and featuring an MTV-ish R5 logo), the company blasted the captive audience with REM's Superman. But the rock-a-thon didn't end there. This was not just an information day for Lotus's corporate clients but the "Super.Human.Software Tour 99". Lest the groovy verisimilitude end there, all participants also got a T-shirt - not the usual geekware but mock rock gear. On the front, great big letters spell out "I am super human". And on the back: "Super.Human.Software Tour 99" and - wait for it - the list of tour dates and places, just like on that REM shirt you bought back in 1985. The big question now is, will the greying middle managers wear them to work?
