1. Kid Cudi – Pursuit of Happiness ft. MGMT & RATATAT (Music)

“Pursuit of Happiness” is a song by American recording artist Kid Cudi aka. Scott Mescudi. Released on September 15th, 2009 as the third single from his debut studio album, “Man on the Moon: The End of Day”. Produced by American electronic rock duo RATATAT and American neo-psychedelic duo MGMT, the 4:55 minute long song discusses the lowlights of fame and fortune as well as the problems that haunted Cudi following his father’s death.

2. Queen – Bohemian Rhapsody (Music)

“Bohemian Rhapsody” is a song by British rock band Queen. Written by Freddie Mercury and recorded one month before the release of their their 1975 album “A Night at the Opera”, the 5:55 minute long song consists of several sections without chorus: intro, ballad section, Brian May’s’ guitar solo, operatic verse, hard-rock verse, coda. Regarded as the very first rock song to incorporate opera, the narrative of the song is based on the “Faust legend” although there are many other theories. However, like all art, it is open to interpretation.

3. Nature (Sound)

The natural world consists of many different sounds that make up our planets identity. These sounds consist of, but are not limited to: booming thunder, rain colliding with the ground, wind bending the trees, birds singing, leaves being swept up, water rushing, waves crashing along the shoreline, other animal calls etc.

 

These three examples consist of two music pieces and one sound piece should be included on the Golden Record Project. I chose these two songs because they both represent famous songs of different generations. “Pursuit of Happiness”, released in 2009 is associated with fixing broken youth of the early 21st century and inspired many artists to pursue their dreams. “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the other hand encapsulates a different time period where rock music was at its peak. Both songs introduced something new to the music world, and with that left a lasting impact on the generations that followed. The third example, nature is perhaps the most important one of the three, It should be included because it consists of the finest examples of raw sound from our world and it is the origin of where sounds of music were originally derived from; therefore it is very important that it has a place on the Golden Record Project. These examples would make for a very interesting listening experience for alien life. Although it is unclear what they would do with these examples of music and sound, at least they represent a miniscule portion of our planets sounds and the popular likes of two distinct generations.