Songs of the IBM(robweir.com)
robweir.com
Songs of the IBM
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2011/06/songs-of-the-ibm.html
20 comments
A favorite of mine is the Sametime song!
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/stwiki.nsf/dx/Sametime_Song
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/stwiki.nsf/dx/Sametime_Song
As an IBM intern, nothing has made me happier than reading this.
Now I just wish HN had a downvote button so I could get it off the front page and make sure I'm the only one on my team who knows about it, haha
Now I just wish HN had a downvote button so I could get it off the front page and make sure I'm the only one on my team who knows about it, haha
You can downvote once you reach 500 karma. Now get cracking!
It's been 2 years....I don't think it's going to happen.
Here's a little more (well sort of) modern corporate anthem, from Sun.
http://anthems.zdnet.co.uk/anthems/sun.mp3
Lyrics here: http://www.zdnet.com/it-anthems-the-power-of-sun-3002133207/
http://anthems.zdnet.co.uk/anthems/sun.mp3
Lyrics here: http://www.zdnet.com/it-anthems-the-power-of-sun-3002133207/
Huey Lewis rocked! I heard the opening bars and I couldn't help grinning.
There is a common pattern here: Leaderships like CEOs or presidents set up an inanimate conceptual objects such as companies or countries to symbolize their ideals. The primary objective seems to motivate rank and file to work for these symbols and indirectly for them by having rank and file believe that they represents those symbols. It's funny how subtly of leadership has common patterns across small startup to large countries to activists groups.
This practice is still common in China. If you walk early in the morning you can often see groups of employees in uniform singing or dancing.
I was in Beijing until a few days ago. One morning, I saw some of the hotel's staff lined up in front of their manager, reciting something in one voice. Later on, I asked a girl at the reception desk what that was but she couldn't understand me. Now I know. Thanks :)
I worked at a startup purchased by IBM and they had everyone sing a few of these songs during the first indoc session (year: 2010).
There goes my favorite trivia question. There are really few people at IBM who know about this past tradition. Actually, I don't know if there is still an IBM chorus, perhaps it is still being kept alive.
The docudrama 'The pirates of Silicon Valley' has a small clip with some IBM employees singing some song. I thought it was a one off thing.
Came here to post the same. Interesting bit of history, to know that it was actually a thing.
Wow ! These songs remind me of "traditional school songs" that a lot of universities have.
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Dude, that's pretty f~-d up right here! (c) Stan Marsh
And explanatory text: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/music/music_intro...