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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Music Carl Sagan's Space Playlist Sucks: What Tracks Would You Send Into the Void?

Posted by Jonny Diamond on Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 3:53 PM

"Send me to space, please."

Ugh. I didn't know this but way back in 1977, when the two Voyager deep-space probes launched, NASA had noted musical expert Carl Sagan chair a committee to select the music that would represent the human race to all of space and time, forever. Lapham's Quarterly has the whole tracklist, but I'll sum up: world folk music from five continents plus dead white classical composers. I CAN'T BELIEVE THERE'S NO BOWIE.

If the Earth was dying and a deep-space culture ark was launching today, what tracks would you include? (For the record, I would also include Bach and Beethoven, and maybe the gamelan, but probably not the Pygmy girls' initiation song.)

Tags: Carl Sagan, playlists, space, Voyager, Lapham's Quarterly, the human race, David Bowie, we are all dust

        
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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Music Carl Sagan's Space Playlist Sucks: What Tracks Would You Send Into the Void?

Posted by Jonny Diamond on Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 3:53 PM

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