As I scrolled through headlines on my smart phone, I noticed one about a new development from the Mars rover, Curiosity. Much to my dismay, this news was that hip hop artist Will.i.am of The Black Eyed Peas fame had successfully broadcast his new single "Reach for the Stars" from the Curiosity rover. This is exciting news in the fact that it was the first song broadcast from the surface of another planet. However, my disappointment lies in the song choice and the overall content of the lyrics. Will.i.am, a self proclaimed science enthusiast attempted to tailor his lyrics to the topic of space exploration, but he created nothing more than a worthless pop tune that will fade into oblivion after a few months of radio airplay. To me, this is a great opportunity missed to present an example of mankind's capacity for incredible music composition. Such a monumental broadcast should have been served by a piece that is much more timeless, and one that requires no lyrics to express the emotion of it. What better piece to express the cathartic experience of the successful landing than Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra," made famous by Stanley Kubrick's
2001: A Space Odyssey.
The space man himself: Will.i.am
On the other hand, this broadcast presents an interesting idea to me. In today's pop culture, bad music is constantly being churned out, inexplicably receiving radio air time for a couple months or weeks, then fading into musical irrelevancy, like I predict Will.i.am's single will. In order to properly see a pop song off and ensure that we never have to suffer through it again, once a song falls off the charts, NASA can purchase the rights and broadcast it from space, where no one will ever hear it.
With the recent death of Neil Armstrong, I just hope that the lines, "And I know that Mars might be far, but baby it ain't really that far. So let's reach for the stars" will never go down in history with the same respect and regard as the quote, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
