# Aliens in Music



## Ignis Fatuus (Nov 25, 2008)

Hello classical musicians. Sorry for the potential un-classicality of this post but would anyone like to guess at when extra-terrestrials as a subject matter entered music. I suppose a related questions would be: when did sci-fi take off (ber dum tsssh!), and when did aliens enter literature? I can hardly imagine a Strauss Star Wars tone poem but surely this was about the time that people would have been thinking beyond the atmosphere (the Zarathustra/2001 connection makes this a bit ironic).

Also would anyone like to suggest any 'pop' songs (of reasonable culture importance) with aliens as a subject matter? So far I have:

Radiohead: Subterranean Homesick Alien
Chris de Burgh: A Spaceman Came Travelling
Niel Young: After the Goldrush
John Stewart: Armstrong

Thanks for reading :]


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

Ha, asking classical people about pop songs? Can you hear the crickets?


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## Ignis Fatuus (Nov 25, 2008)

We do live in the real world!
Besides Radiohead are classical (by which I mean, Idioteque samples (indirectly) Tristan und Isolde).

Update: I'm suddenly inspired to write a Straussian tone-poem, Don Vadero...
... we'll see how that turns out.


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## Rondo (Jul 11, 2007)

Pop music references aside...

The only example of classical music with themes pertaining to what you mentioned (that I can think of) is Holst's _Planets Suite_ (which influenced Williams' score for _Star Wars_). As for when it first entered into music and literature, I'm not quite sure. There were a number of sci-fi films made on this topic during the late forties to 1950s (McCarthy Era), so maybe around that time period?

Perhaps someone here will know of more examples of classical music composed around that time period which have sci-fi themes/influences.


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## LvB (Nov 21, 2008)

There aren't any aliens in it, but Karl-Birger Blomdahl's 1959 opera _Aniara_ is about a space voyage and features a computer which sings (almost a full decade before HAL). The opera was widely performed, and has been recorded, though it does not appear to be currently available. The score is a mix of electronic and orchestral elements, with some massive sounds.


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

I've always thought the "Neptune" movement of the Planets Suite sounded very "alien." I kind of picture being out beyond the farthest planet (remember, Pluto was demoted!) and when the wordless choir comes in, I've always thought of it as some strange alien or angelic choir...voices from a different dimension or something like that. Not human, in other words. Chilling, really.


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## Ignis Fatuus (Nov 25, 2008)

Initially I was suprised when I thought about how little "futuristic" content was to be found in the music of such a progressive age. But I guess it could just show the dominance of the Stravinsky "music expresses nothing" idea which pushed out all literary content from music, futuristic or otherwise.

I'm really not sure where to look for more info in alien songs/music...!?


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## nickgray (Sep 28, 2008)

There's Hyprocrisy, a swedish melodic death metal, almost entirely dedicated to the subject of extraterrestrials. But I'm much more curious to hear some music composed by real aliens - would sell my soul to hear it


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## Margaret (Mar 16, 2009)

Ignis Fatuus said:


> Hello classical musicians. Sorry for the potential un-classicality of this post but would anyone like to guess at when extra-terrestrials as a subject matter entered music.


Absolutely no idea.



Ignis Fatuus said:


> I suppose a related questions would be: when did sci-fi take off (ber dum tsssh!), and when did aliens enter literature?


Are you ever asking on the wrong forum. To the best of my knowledge the earliest true science fiction writer was Jules Verne. But none of the Verne stories that I've read have aliens in them.

First novel I can think of with real aliens is H.G. Wells' "War of the Worlds" published in 1898.

First science fiction series I know of with aliens is Edgar Rice Burroughs (yes, he of the "Tarzan" fame) John Carter of Mars series. First book in that series published in 1912.

This is going by what's still in print. Don't know how much deservedly forgotten dreck was published at the time. But what I read is the stuff that's lasted the century.

I would say that science fiction exploded, truly exploded, in the 1930s. That's when the pulp novels and magazines were published. Many of the greatest science fiction writers got their start in them.



Ignis Fatuus said:


> Also would anyone like to suggest any 'pop' songs (of reasonable culture importance) with aliens as a subject matter? So far I have:
> 
> Radiohead: Subterranean Homesick Alien
> Chris de Burgh: A Spaceman Came Travelling
> ...


Blondie's "Rapture" is probably one of the most important in that it was one of the very first rap songs.

First pop song I can think of about aliens is Sheb Wooley's 1958 novelty song "Flying Purple People Eater" (Oh great, now I have an earworm of that chorus. "One eyed, one horned, flying purple people eater" is now going round and around in my head.") But I'm unaware of it having any cultural significance.


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## Mark Harwood (Mar 5, 2007)

David Bowie: Starman.
Hawkwind/Motorhead: The Watcher.
Genesis: Watcher of the Skies.


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## JoeGreen (Nov 17, 2008)

Jacques Offenbach wrote an operetta based on Jules Verne's _Voyage to the Moon_, and in it there was a king of the moon, moon maidens and a host of other moon creatures, so as far as I can tell that has been the only time that "Aliens" are involved in Classical Music.

LvB, i'll have to check out that _Aniara_, sounds highly interesting. Singing computers, who knew?


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