Janet Jackson Song Had the Power to Crash Laptops

A Janet Jackson song from 1989 apparently had the power to crash some models of Windows laptops.

According to a blog post from Windows developer Raymond Chen, a major computer manufacturer discovered the defect.

“Rhythm Nation” contains natural resonant frequencies that wreaked havoc with 5400 rpm laptops from several manufacturers.

As Gizmodo puts it, frequencies within the song can cause certain laptop hard drives to “vibrate to the point of failure.”

The manufacturer discovered that playing “Rhythm Nation” on one laptop could cause nearby laptops to crash as well.

To fix the problem, a custom audio filter was added to detect and remove the frequency during playback.

But Chen worried that “in the many years since the workaround was added, nobody remembers why it’s there.”