So far, I have...
Sleeparchive - Research
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Pl__i9CdRA
and,Half man half biscuit - national shite day ('poor sods conducting polls')
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FR842KUaOw
― neilasimpson, Saturday, 8 October 2016 16:08 (seven years ago) link
Not sure if this is what you have in mind but Th' Flaming Lips "Race For The Prize" immediately came to mind
― Al Moon Faced Poon (Moodles), Saturday, 8 October 2016 16:24 (seven years ago) link
Depeche Mode - The Meaning Of Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEoU0pgnFNc
― soref, Saturday, 8 October 2016 16:25 (seven years ago) link
great! thanks for these, very much. One thing I'd like to politely ask - if the reference to research isn't immediately obvious, it would be great if you could specify what it is. Thanks!
― neilasimpson, Saturday, 8 October 2016 17:04 (seven years ago) link
Tom Verlaine - "The Scientist Writes A Letter"
― look at the morning people (Jon not Jon), Saturday, 8 October 2016 19:41 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTrmUDlydac
"Roger's in the archives, looking up Casement..."
― fat fingered algorithm (rushomancy), Saturday, 8 October 2016 20:02 (seven years ago) link
Kate Bush - Experiment IV
― Noel Emits, Saturday, 8 October 2016 20:08 (seven years ago) link
Camera Obscura, French Navy
"Spent a week in a dusty library..."
― dancing jarman by derek (ledge), Saturday, 8 October 2016 20:38 (seven years ago) link
Monolake - Cern-LHC
― Sharkie, Sunday, 9 October 2016 19:40 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4itzHRpltQ
― I know hoes that know Ali Farka Toure (voodoo chili), Sunday, 9 October 2016 20:33 (seven years ago) link
Pram - The City Surveyor
― Ross, Sunday, 9 October 2016 20:37 (seven years ago) link
The Fall - "Wings"
"Hovered in air outside a studyAn academic kneaded his chinSat in the dust of some cheap magazinesHis academic rust could not burn them up"
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Sunday, 9 October 2016 20:51 (seven years ago) link
Helloween - Dr. Stein
― Siegbran, Sunday, 9 October 2016 21:07 (seven years ago) link
They Might Be Giants - "For Science"
I will kiss the girl from Venus...for science!"
― Hideous Lump, Sunday, 9 October 2016 23:41 (seven years ago) link
fat lady of limbourg
― home organ, Monday, 10 October 2016 03:55 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAwt44FcQn8
― doug watson, Monday, 10 October 2016 04:09 (seven years ago) link
Iggy Pop - "Funtime"Last night I was down in the lab/Talking to Dracula and his crew
― willem, Monday, 10 October 2016 07:31 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GWsdqCYvgw
Have you ever heard about the Higgs Boson Blues?I'm going down to Geneva, babyGonna teach it to youWho cares? Who cares what the future brings?
― the tightening is plateauing (Le Bateau Ivre), Monday, 10 October 2016 09:40 (seven years ago) link
There are probably plenty of horror-themed novelty songs that reference research of some kind, most famously "Monster Mash."
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Monday, 10 October 2016 09:46 (seven years ago) link
Cerrone - Supernature (kind of fits that bill ^).
― Noel Emits, Monday, 10 October 2016 09:56 (seven years ago) link
Genesis - "The Chamber of 32 Doors":
The priest and the magician,Singing all the chants that they have ever heard;They're all calling out my name,Even academics, searching printed word.
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Monday, 10 October 2016 13:01 (seven years ago) link
Also, Rael researches sex in "Counting Out Time":
The day of judgment's come,And you can bet that I've been resting,for this testing,Digesting every word the experts say.Erogenous zones I love you.Without you, what would a poor boy do?Found a girl I wanted to date,Thought I'd better get it straight.Went to buy a book before it's too late.Don't leave nothing to fate.And I have studied every line, every page in the book,And now I've got the real thing here, I'm gonna take a look, take a look.
Found a girl I wanted to date,Thought I'd better get it straight.Went to buy a book before it's too late.Don't leave nothing to fate.And I have studied every line, every page in the book,And now I've got the real thing here, I'm gonna take a look, take a look.
― Spiritual Hat Minimalism (Sund4r), Monday, 10 October 2016 13:04 (seven years ago) link
The Wolfhounds - Cruelty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq8pqVN4ITk
"well he's a scientist in research..."
― Rae Kwoniff (NickB), Monday, 10 October 2016 13:10 (seven years ago) link
Guided By Voices - I am A Scientist
"...I seek to understand me."
― nicky lo-fi, Monday, 10 October 2016 18:21 (seven years ago) link
Dr Heckyl & Mr Jive by Men At Work totally fits the bill, and it has the greatest/oddest chorus.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoqlJsV6Bsc
― MaresNest, Monday, 10 October 2016 18:26 (seven years ago) link
husker du "books about ufos"
walking down a sunny street to the librarychecking out the latest books about outer spacegoing to the fruit stand to buy a dozen orangesthen she and the books and the oranges go back to her placeshe's telling the same old story to everyone that she knowsshe's just sitting in her room reading books about ufos
― fact checking cuz, Monday, 10 October 2016 18:36 (seven years ago) link
Joan was quizzicalStudied pataphysicalscience in the homeLate nights alone with a test tube,Oh, oh oh oh
― DOCTOR CAISNO, BYCREATIVELABBUS (Doctor Casino), Monday, 10 October 2016 18:37 (seven years ago) link
John K. Samson - "When I Write My Master's Thesis"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S5UpGx6470
― fits, Monday, 10 October 2016 21:00 (seven years ago) link
peter Gabriel, shock the monkey, regarding animal research
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Tuesday, 11 October 2016 09:15 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lefMGj7-NM
charlemagne palestine - 7 organism study
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 11 October 2016 10:39 (seven years ago) link
rush - manhattan projectmogwai - atomic ostcan - quantum physics
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 11 October 2016 10:53 (seven years ago) link
Hermann Love Pauline by SFA is about Gruff picking up those little pocket history books in service stations whilst on tour iirc.
― MaresNest, Tuesday, 11 October 2016 11:01 (seven years ago) link
Semisonic - All About Chemistry, in the reference/metaphor category. Whole song.
Also surely a fair number of 50s/60s novelty songs about mad scientists and the like, which tend to have at least the suggestion of a research/laboratory setting, e.g. Jimmy Troy's wonderful "The Brain."
― DOCTOR CAISNO, BYCREATIVELABBUS (Doctor Casino), Tuesday, 11 October 2016 17:03 (seven years ago) link
What's that one Flaming Lips song, "Search For The Prize"?
― Easy, Spooky Action! (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 11 October 2016 17:12 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwbhVjUcono
― paolo, Tuesday, 11 October 2016 17:13 (seven years ago) link
Sorry, "Race For The Prize."
― Easy, Spooky Action! (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 12 October 2016 15:54 (seven years ago) link
every breath you take - the police
― hunangarage, Wednesday, 12 October 2016 16:01 (seven years ago) link
Can, "Below This Level (Patient's Song)"
"This time the experiment you’ve madeHas turned to some kind of lemonade"
― (SNIFFING AND INDISTINCT SOBBING) (Tom D.), Wednesday, 12 October 2016 16:16 (seven years ago) link
"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" - "Joan was quizzical, studied pataphysical science in the home."
― GUNSHOW POOPHOLE (Phil D.), Wednesday, 12 October 2016 16:19 (seven years ago) link
Submitted for your approval, the mysterious second verse of Brian Eno's Fat Lady of Limbourg. She appears to be a human CSI lab.
The Fat Lady of LimbourgLooked at the samples that we sentAnd furrowed her brow.You would never believe thatShe'd tasted royalty and fameIf you saw her now.But her sense of taste is such that she'll distinguish with her tongueThe subtleties a spectrograph would miss,And announce her decision,While demanding her reward:The jellyfish kiss.
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 12 October 2016 18:12 (seven years ago) link
Oh geez, someone beat me to Fat Lady of Limbourg. Sorry home organ, I searched by "eno"
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 12 October 2016 18:14 (seven years ago) link
more about *not* doing research, but:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4csr6pLZLg
― a self-reinforcing downward spiral of male-centric indie (katherine), Wednesday, 12 October 2016 22:31 (seven years ago) link