Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue? - io9 Comments

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

Hart — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:53:22 PST

@ideaman2020: Well, that was kinda my point. I'd like to think aliens would enjoy our music and vice-versa. Again, though music from all around the world varies tremendously, while one doesn't have to like everything, most people find SOMEthing from elsewhere in the world intriguing, if not sublime.
No, I don't know anything about unusual music, scales or anything. The point is someone can and often does like, say, a varied list like Philip Glass, Clint Black, Leontyne Price ... or far more unusual stuff than that. There seems to be a wide appreciation for an enormous range of music in our world. It's not hard for me to imagine an alien, while possibly being flummoxed by, appreciating something like Like A Virgin, even, not to mention The Queen of the Night aria from The Magic Flute.

Hart

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

dubqnp — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:34:56 PST

I made an update of the Pioneer 10+11 greetings the other day.
[dubqnp.dk]

dubqnp

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

ideaman2020 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 11:10:38 PST

@Hart: Well, just imagine how you might react to alien "music"...

We like to think of our music as "universal", but in fact, even different cultures on our own planet have very different ideas about how music should sound. Who knows what alien concepts of music might entail?

Have you ever listened to musique concrète? Quarter-tones? Polytonality?

Did you know that our Western musical scales have imperfection built into them? Suppose the aliens went with a more "perfect" scale? To our ears, which have been trained to enjoy the imperfection, a perfect scale sounds horrible.

Who knows? Aliens might enjoy our music. Or they might find it quaint and naive. Or they might think it sounds like fingernails-on-chalkboard...

ideaman2020

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

Hart — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 08:44:57 PST

@braak: I think that's probably true and maybe I'm just being totally ignorant, but I simply can't imagine a sentient being not responding to something like Mozart, Vivaldi, Rhapsody in Blue, Let It Be, Purple Rain, tango music, even tribal drums and many others, of course (btw, no, I'm not necessarily comparing Mozart and Prince, et al). It's difficult to imagine being so human as to be unable to understand not understanding/appreciating music - one of the few things that all humans, generally, thrive on.

Hart

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

ideaman2020 — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 07:58:12 PST

@ideaman2020: The thing is...

There was this format war back in the mid-seventies between U238ray and HD-Vinyl. Shortly after V'ger was launched, HD-Vinyl won.

So when the aliens get here looking for more discs, they're gonna be pissed to learn that they got stuck with an obsolete player with only one disc to play on it...

ideaman2020

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

jacques e loupe — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:36:02 PST

"send more Chuck Berry"

jacques e loupe

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

arachnophilia — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:28:35 PST

...and actually, i've been thinking about this post. any aliens that don't understand that radio travels faster than objects probably aren't ones we should bother talking to anyways.

arachnophilia

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

arachnophilia — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:27:43 PST

@Garrison Dean: agreed. mp3s and vinyl seem to be the double-whammy that will kill CD as a musical format. certainly, the record store in my area is just getting bigger and bigger.

arachnophilia

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

ideaman2020 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:10:19 PST

What I really want to know is which version did they send?

The Let It Be version with Phil's orchestra and choir moaning all over it?

The "WWF" version with the birds flapping and chirping?

The Anthology version which is pretty in a minimalist way?

The Nekkid version which is ... um... not as interesting as one of the other ones..?

ideaman2020

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

ideaman2020 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:05:51 PST

@EDread83: We did send a record player with it, along with instructions on how to play it.

ideaman2020

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

edosan — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:41:29 PST

So let me see if I get this right:

The alien civilization has the technology to hear the Beatles sons and play the record but they cant figure out that the speed of light is faster than the speed of Voyager 1?

edosan

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

JoshJasper — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:16:24 PST

that that particular song is one of the Beatles' worst.

Are you, in fact, an actual Beatles fan, or is this just another i09 being catty because that's some sort of posting template for gawker properties?

It's so hard to tell these days.

JoshJasper

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

EDread83 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:12:32 PST

@Gyrus: i dont know, anytime i find things of that nature i buy them. Thats the only way the big companies are going to catch on to the fact that these are things that we want. Like Wal-Mart including a digital copy for ipods, psps, and PCs of the new (and horrible) Resident Evil movie with the DVD. Yes i bought it for the reason i stated above but i have not opened it. Blue Harvest came with a digital copy also. If the only thing these people will listen to is money then i will allow my money to speak.

EDread83

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

Gyrus — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 11:52:55 PST

@Garrison Dean: And yeah. I see the future being mp3s and vinyl. The sooner record stores realize that the sooner they get to keep their physical presence by putting more vinyl in stores.

Or better yet, just slip a CD with an MP3 version already on it into the album sleeve. 2 for 1! I saw a printing of Wilco's Blue Sky Blue that did this and thought it was genius. Not quite genius enough to drop $40 but still.

Gyrus

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

EDread83 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:53:23 PST

@se7a7n7: but thats only assuming that they have an understanding of how our tech progressed. They could be like that planet in Hitchhikers where they were the only civilization to invent the aerosol can before the wheel.

EDread83

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

zackie777 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:52:58 PST

@codydog: plus one gazillion points for referencing, "Space Opera."

zackie777

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

se7a7n7 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:50:11 PST

I think any advanced world would recognize that it was primitive technology from is obviously very old.

So... they should conclude that the place it came from is much more advanced by the time it reached them.

se7a7n7

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

EDread83 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:42:52 PST

@Garrison Dean: YES!! More vinyl in stores!!

EDread83

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

EDread83 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:41:46 PST

@Tiwa: i think it would only be viewed as an attack if it caused destruction or harm to a living being. I think first and foremost they would be confused then if they had the "everyone is out to get me" mentality they would see it as a sign of aggression. Then again we could just be sending this out to a planet full of krill

EDread83

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

Garrison Dean, Mr. Privilege — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:39:30 PST

@arachnophilia: I did not know that. Thanks. I have plenty of albums that get a little fuzzy towards the middle and I thought it was my turntable, and now I know. Very interesting.

And yeah. I see the future being mp3s and vinyl. The sooner record stores realize that the sooner they get to keep their physical presence by putting more vinyl in stores.

Garrison Dean, Mr. Privilege

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

jonathan29 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:39:03 PST

@DeeJayQueue: Thank you, merci. Borghese might have "used math" to form her argument, but she pitched basic logic straight out the window.

jonathan29

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

Garrison Dean, Mr. Privilege — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:24:36 PST

If it wasn't written by Ringo, it isn't their worst.

Garrison Dean, Mr. Privilege

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

Tiwa — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 09:12:35 PST

Enough with all this shooting songs into space business. If anything does manage to reach aliens, wouldn't it be seen first and foremost as an aggressive act? That's what worries me.

Tiwa

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

arachnophilia — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:51:34 PST

the sample rate of a vinyl record is NOT infinite. it's measured in linear velocity, and actually decreases towards the center of the record by a factor of pi. (geometry, think about it for a second)

this is why old records typically put the singles or heavier songs as the first or second song on each side, and the quieter or less important tracks towards the middle -- there's more resolution on the outside.

as for vinyl records coming AFTER digital recordings from an alien's perspective, they might anyways. sale of vinyl is up. sale of cds is down.

arachnophilia

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

joemono — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:40:07 PST

"And it's got nothing to do with the fact that that particular song is one of the Beatles' worst."

When did the writers here decide to start trolling? :)

joemono

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

codydog — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:39:10 PST

Seriously, although musical notes are based on math, the actual conventions of music are so ethno-centric that one could expect any aliens, even if they can perceive atmospheric vibrations 20 -20,000 cps, to understand the concept of "music."

However, they might perceive a very complex coded artifact. That would be a start.

BTW, Vance's "Space Opera" is a fun take on playing music to aliens and alien humans.

codydog

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

PVIII — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:27:13 PST

Big fan of Wainright's version of the Across the Universe as well...

PVIII

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

braak — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:22:43 PST

Isn't the appreciation of music in large part cultural? And the other parts are tied directly into our own particular biology?

I feel like no matter what we sent, there's a good chance the aliens are just going to hear Finnish ambient-noise rock.

braak

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

Project Thanatos — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:15:35 PST

Might as well blast some Yellow Submarine while we're at it.

Project Thanatos

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

Hekkashesh — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:14:59 PST

@EDread83:

Agreed. It'll probably read like an open invitation for an invasion... "Hey, we're PRIMATIVE! EAT HERE!!!"

Hekkashesh

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

qbrad — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:13:16 PST

Vinyl records ARE superior to digital recordings. What's the sampling rate of an LP? infinity!!!! Can't do that on digital. Nuh Uh!

qbrad

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

DeeJayQueue — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:13:02 PST

how about this:
Any aliens with technology to intercept and interpret our radio signals would feasibly be as advanced (more or less) as we are, and could just as easily as we did figure out that radio waves travel faster than physical spacecraft.

DeeJayQueue

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

Discrete-Daniel — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:07:37 PST

Actually, I'd recommend broadcasting Weird Al Yankovic to the aliens at some point or another. Convicing aliens that some of us don't take our culture very seriously might prove to be an important step in getting them to not burn our planet to a cinder.

Discrete-Daniel

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

ManchuCandidate — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:02:22 PST

Pity us when it reaches the "ears" of a race of alien Simon Cowells who then decide to destroy us for our musical tastes.

ManchuCandidate

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

Gyrus — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:47:25 PST

Across The Universe is a fantastic song! And a damn fine Musical as well. We should just beam the films of Julie Tamor on a laser into space. That way, the aliens will think we're artsy and smart.

Wait, are we trying to make first contact or pick up chicks at a bar?

Gyrus

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

EDread83 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:43:30 PST

Yes send all the emo bands to space but in the direction of the sun. Also unless we sent them a record player how are they going to listen to that 12 inch?

EDread83

Are We Sending Aliens The Wrong Musical Cue?

Macloserboy — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:39:05 PST

Eat me. Everyone knows "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is the worst.

Macloserboy