In Task #8, we were asked to narrow down a 27-track “Golden Record” into 10 tracks based on criteria of our choosing. The two “Golden Records” were included with the Voyager 1 and 2 space probe with the hope that it would one day be encountered by extra-terrestrial life forms to introduce them to Earth and to mankind.

I found this task to be challenging for a few reasons:

• First of all, I do not have a strong musical background. Outside of 2 piano lessons I had when I was a kid, I cannot read music, identify the instruments being played, or even note some of the subtle differences between the tracks. For example, I noticed that the record had several classical pieces by Bach, Stravisnky, and Mozart. I ended up grouping all of these together under the category of “classical music” and selecting only one. I am certain a musician or music teacher would be dissatisfied with my oversimplification of genres.
• Secondly, the task instructions appeared fairly vague. I was asked to pick “10 pieces” but the instructions did not provide specific criteria or guidelines that I had to follow. Am I picking my 10 favourite? Are these 10 meant to be most reflective of human culture? Do we want to ensure each of the 10 songs is from a different country or that they rely on a different instrument?
• I found some tracks difficult to listen to. In fact, while I was going through the record, my wife found some of the tracks to be so annoying that she came by to close my office door. While I realize this may be a bias, I found it fairly easy to eliminate “difficult to listen to” tracks, even if they provided a different perspective of human culture.
• Will extra-terrestrial life forms know how to play the records? Today, we can get music with a push of a button. I personally find the extraterrestrial instructions confusing. I think they’d have better luck figuring out an iPod if they have never seen a record before.
• Is this music truly reflective of what humans listen to today? The records lacks modern pop, for example. Would a record, produced today, include bands such as BTS or Justin Bieber?

Method

I started this task by identifying some criteria to assess the songs against, even before opening the YouTube playlist.

The creators of the “Golden Record” highlight that a goal of the records is to show diversity so I wanted to make sure that my 10-track sample was diverse. To me, diversity is obtained by showing variety in gender (having male and female artists), geography (having songs from each continent and a variety of countries), genres (having folk songs, rock songs, jazz songs, etc.), and instruments (not just all guitar-based songs, but others as well). My playlist features vocal tracks, instrumentals (no vocals), male voices, and female voices. My playlist has songs from every continent (except Antarctica), thus demonstrating geographic diversity. Lastly, my songs feature a variety of genres and instruments. I have everything from Mexican mariachi to American rock to Peruvian panpipes to Azerbaijian bagpipes.

I then listened to each of the tracks twice. On the first pass, I identified 14 tracks. On the second pass, I identified 12 tracks. I then scanned the various countries of origin to come to my final list of 10 tracks:

1. Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
2. Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26
3. Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
4. USA, “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
5. Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
6. Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
7. “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
8. Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30
9. Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
10. India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30

I put together this Nearpod interaction so that one can see the different continents represented and review the audio clips.

Upon completion of this task, I wanted to highlight a few closing points of reflection:

• Music preferences are subjective for each person. I would not be surprised to find other students, eliminating tracks that I have chosen due to their preferences or biases.
• It is unclear what extra-terrestrial life will think of our music. Will they connect with the male or female voices? Will they find the sounds of rock or jazz unpleasant? Can they even hear? There is mention of including a visual hand-written note, but perhaps we should also ensure that the capsule carries a few timeless written pieces, pictures, or an e-reader, in case the extra-terrestrial life can read but not see.
• Would a “Golden Record” of today be produced in a different format and have more songs? Today’s electronic devices can store thousands of songs. Perhaps space does not matter as much anymore. Per Smith (1999), next to no loss of information occurs in making a digital copy. Perhaps we can also have better ways of categorizing and sorting similar songs.

References

Smith, A. (1999). Why digitize? Council on Library and Information Resources. https://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub80-smith/pub80-2/