Voyager playlist

Posted by: Ebor on 04 December 2017

2017 is the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Voyager probes, both of which carried a golden disc which had recorded on it what has often been described as 'Humanity's Greatest Hits'. With this in mind, it might be an interesting exercise to look at the contents of (y)our collection(s) and see how many of Humanity's Greatest Hits we own recordings of.

Here's a list of Voyager's musical contents: https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/g...on-the-record/music/

I reckon I've got recordings of about 7 of these. What about you?

What (if any) tracks since 1977 would you include on an equivalent communication today?

Mark

Posted on: 04 December 2017 by Innocent Bystander

Without checking through all of my library, 5 I think for me, maybe 6, though likely not rhe same recording artists. I wonder what great minds sifted and came up with those? Clearly the variety of ethnicities is important, though I couldn’t help an eyebrow raising itself at the Pygmy girls initiation song, but considering just the ‘Western’ music, how on earth did they end up with and two pieces each by Bach and Beethoven, despite the huge selection from which to have chosen. It suggests a certain narrowness to the panel... Vivaldi and Puccini or Verdi should at least have been invluded (and what about Beatles, Who and Pink Floy....etc etc)

I hope the alien civilisation that recovers it hava a good enough system to play it on. Or did they send a full system with it, the best that was available in 1977? (But Linn & Naim wouldn’t have been included as It would undoubtedly have been an American system.)

Today they could send a solid state drive with many 1000s of pieces of music - but that would risk failure due to failure in intergalactic format standardisation:at least a physical analg recording has the potential for curious minds to investigate and discover a way to play.

Posted on: 04 December 2017 by TOBYJUG

Thats assuming the aliens have an orifice that's susceptible to atmospheric vibrations that has intelligible meaning. Much like us humans which lack that sensory organ that allows us to see the alien dark matter lizards doing their everyday business on the planets in "our" solar system.

Posted on: 04 December 2017 by Bf56

I have numerous of the classical recordings, and oddly i have the lp by Goro Yamaguchi , A Bell Ringing In The Empty Sky , which includes the track Cranes In Their Nest.

Japanese Shakuhachi music , not typical of what I was listening to in 1977. Maybe I was inspired by the launch of Voyager.

Bob F

Posted on: 04 December 2017 by hafler3o

TOBYJUG posted:
... dark matter ...

AC/DCs 'Back In Black' would have been a much better choice than that lot.

Posted on: 07 December 2017 by Dave***t

It turns out there's a playlist on Spotify of music on the golden record, and it's certainly got some interesting stuff on it. Though I'm not sure if it's actually the same recordings etc.

And apparently a small label called Ozma Records has put together some lovely looking box sets of the original tracks, remastered (at the behest of one of the original engineers, or so I read). It's a fascinating enough thing that I wouldn't mind buying it, but it's a bit pricy for me right now. Worth a google though.