10 Songs I chose from the Golden Record:

1. Flowing Streams performed by Kuan P’ing-hu | China
2. Jaat Kahan Ho – sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerka | India
3. Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry | USA
4. Morning Star and Devil Bird recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes | Australia
5. Tchenhoukoumen recorded by Charles Duvelle | Senegal, Africa
6. Panpipes and drum song collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima | Peru
7. The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. by Mozart, Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor
8. Tchakrulo collected by Radio Moscow | Georgian S.S.R
9. The Fairie Round – performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London
10. Kinds of Flowers recorded by Robert Brown | Java, Indonesia

I tried to pick songs that were spread out across the globe to make sure there was at least some diversity in my choices (similar to how the Golden Record was curated). For example, I chose Tchenhoukoumen because it was the only song that represented the continent of Africa. I did find that most of the songs that were curated for the Golden Record were skewed more Eurocentric. It gave the sense that the people in charge had a strong bias (3 songs composed by Bach were put in!). This made me curious to know how these songs were chosen. Some of the choices seemed a bit arbitrary but I can see that there was at least some effort to include more traditional or Indigenous sounds into the mix with the inclusion of Morning Star and Devil Bird and Navajo Night Chant in the list.

I then narrowed them down according to how different they sounded from each other – such as what primary instruments were used (voice/choir, string, percussion, pipes, etc.). Afterwards, to further narrow down my choices I  chose songs according to how the songs made me feel. For example, I avoided some songs such as Cranes in the Nest since it made me feel anxious listening to it; and I chose The Fairie Round since it was a bright and happy sounding song to me. I also chose songs based on if it reminded me of places I’ve visited (Kinds of Flowers) or my friends (Jaat Kahan Ho).

I think that creating and sending out the Golden Record is mainly seen as a romantic thing (based on the many comments I’ve read). I also view it as a very human product and act (because it’s pretty self-centered). To be honest, I don’t really see the point in it. Would Extraterrestrials actually do anything with it if they got a hold of it? Would they even care about us? According to Abbey Smith (2017), memories and the past are what creates context for how we feel about things. Thus we won’t know if Extraterrestrials would think and feel the same as us when they listen to the songs because meaning is created by the listeners. Maybe they would be more interested in the fact that it’s made of gold instead of the songs or maybe they don’t even communicate using sound waves!