Culture

This is space music???

by Rob Peters | March 7, 2008 at 03:22 pm

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For winning a competition, a 14-year-old got to choose a motivational MP3 playlist for astronauts to listen to in space.

Highlights include songs by Celine Dion, Elton John, and R. Kelly. Is the point to get them to do their work as fast as possible?

Music certainly is a medium that can affect everyone's behavior and personality — especially in the desolate regions of outer space. Astronauts being sent past the Earth's atmosphere are being given MP3 players filled with motivational music by the likes of Elton John, the Beatles and, er, R. Kelly — “I Believe I Can Fly,” not “Sex Planet.”

In fact all the music that have been loaded on to said MP3 players were hand picked by Therese Miljeteig, a 14-year-old Norwegian who participated in a competition held throughout ten countries by the European Space Agency. Entrants were instructed to send in playlists of ideal songs — obviously inspired by their grandmother’s CD collection — for a mission to launch a supply spacecraft on March 9.

The list that has been complied by Miljeteig has some interesting choices that are questionable for their motivational skills. How Babylon Zoo’s "Spaceman" missed the cut is beyond us.

The interstellar playlist:

The Beatles “Here Comes the Sun”

Frank Sinatra “Come Fly with Me”

Elton John “Rocket Man”

Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes “Up Where We Belong”

John Lennon “Imagine”

Irene Cara “Flashdance… What a Feeling”

Dire Straits “Walk of Life”

Celine Dion “Fly”

Status Quo “Rockin' All Over the World”

R. Kelly “I Believe I Can Fly”