Intrigued by the possibility that extraterrestrial life, NASA compiled a record of sounds known as the Voyager’s Golden Record, to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

My curated playlist from the Voyager’s Golden Record has the following songs:

  1. El Cascabel performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México
  2. Flowing Streams performed by Kuan P’ing-hu
  3. Bach The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano
  4. Tchenhoukoumen recorded by Charles Duvelle
  5. Beethoven Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor
  6. Jaat Kahan Ho by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar
  7. Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry
  8. Tchakrulo collected by Radio Moscow
  9. The Fairie Round performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London
  10. Ugam Azerbaijan bagpipes recorded by Radio Moscow

While there seems to have been an attempt to showcase music representative of the richness of human life on Earth, it is clear that the record does not explore the geographic, cultural and racial diversity of this world, but rather attempts a compilation from a euro-centric perspective.

Nearly one third of the record has music from the Western world with several classical pieces, while nations like India and China just have a single song each. Further reading on the project and podcast reveals how the inclusion of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart is due to the underlying quantitative appeal of their intricate compositions. However, other cultures (or even aliens) may feel differently.

With the limited selection on the Golden Record, it was challenging to determine a selection criteria for an even smaller playlist. At first, I tried to be purposeful in my selection of songs and tried to have some measure of geographic and racial diversity represented in my list. I also debated having a list that showcased a variety of instruments and sounds. Later I abandoned specific selection criteria altogether and choose songs I enjoyed listening to. I had to listen 3 times in order to narrow down the list to 10 songs. I’m glad that my overall selection inadvertently ended up fairly diverse.