For this task, I was listening to a playlist of the Golden Record music while reading the quote by Apple (1985) about how the knowledge that is considered legitimate by those in power becomes the taught curriculum, which can lead to power imbalance. With that idea in mind, I decided to try and curate this collection in a manner that did not reflect my personal preference and rather created a simple collection of diverse musical pieces.
Most modern music pieces run approximately 2:30-4:00 in time and I decided to start narrowing down the collection based on a similar time. I selected 3 minutes and thirty seconds as the dividing line and used a random number generator to decide to use those longer or shorter than my selected time. I ended up using songs under the length of 3:30. I had previously decided to look for the greatest geographic diversity, so I again used my random number generator to eliminate any tracks from the same location. I continued this process, attempting to select one track from each region of the world, using the random number generator to eliminate tracks from similar regions.
My Curated Golden Record Playlist
- Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
- “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
- New Guinea, men’s house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan. 1:20
- Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
- Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
- Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
- “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
- Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30
- Solomon Islands, panpipes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service. 1:12
- India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30
References
Apple, M. W. (1985). Teaching and. Teachers College Record, 86(3), 455-73