Oddbean new post about login | logout If aliens came and said "Earthlings, send us your best bands/groups to perform in an intergalactic music festival" Who would you choose?
@2a70c54d Tom Waits would blow some alien minds…
@2a70c54d Aurelio Voltaire
@2a70c54d Prince
@2a70c54d I feel like a lot of these responses are musicians that a lot of people like (and that I mostly like) but that aliens probably won't understand. Like maybe they'd get Tinariwen on sheer virtuosity, but Tom Waits would do nothing for them, they don't know anything about being drunk and alone and heartbroken at a piano bar or whatever. We only like Tom Waits because we do know what that's like I think the aliens might like Steve Reich
@2a70c54d Chip tunes versions of J S Bach pieces. Gives many of the fundamentals of both human psychoacoustics and Western music in a form (simple waveforms) that admits abstract mathematical analysis that doesn’t rely on human perception. In other words, crash course in “how do humans hear are what are some common building blocks of their music?”
@2a70c54d straight flamenco, baby! This is a truly interstellar performance. https://youtu.be/nlaCZ106b5w?si=5LXpVI8IaMtUrZnD
@2a70c54d Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan has to be in there. https://youtu.be/BmETaQwosj8?si=YUCm1OaRAUO-pGxz