In this blog, you can post a discussion of why you selected your particular song for the Close Encounters contest. Explanations can be as long (I'm looking at you Shvedbarilescu) or as short as you please; alternatively, you may choose to not provide any explanation.
Everyone can respond in the comments section of this post anonymously. Please try not to identify yourself in your post. Be clear about which song you have nominated. I will collate any responses on this blog and post them on TF for people to read every 24 hours or so, and people may read them all here as well.
Caroline Wozniacki - Oxygen
ReplyDeleteThanks to the sheer amount of autotune invested in this song, Karolina's voice is endowed with a robotic and high-pitched quality that will prove to be irresistible to the aliens. Because this track features a tennis champion cum prodigious songbird, it is also a brilliant representation of how multi-talented and multi-facetted us earthlings are. There's also a pedagogic dimension to this hit, since Karolina teaches spelling ("O-X-Y-G-E-N, oxygen") and science ("I'm breathing you in") at the same time.
If all else fails, at least the cathartic effect of this ditty cannot be contested. Surely the expression "laughter is the best medicine" applies to extra-terrestrials as well.
Khia - My Neck, My Back (Durrrrrrty Version)
ReplyDeleteWell, I like to pop mah pussy, so the aliens should know how to pop they pussy too. The best head does come from a thug. Get in the gig!
The Carpenters - Calling Occupants Of Interplanetary Craft
ReplyDeleteThis was the song that immediately came to my mind when the theme was announced.
Karen Carpenter's voice is just perfect and this ballad is a masterpiece, one of the best female voices ever sadly no longer with is the ideal choice to show these aliens what we're capable of.
Plus, should they be unsure about us, this song also lets them know that we're a decent bunch on this planet.
Katzenjammer -A Bar In Amsterdam
ReplyDeleteI choose this song for you alien creatures because I think one of the best way's to enjoy yourself on this planet is going to a bar in Amsterdam and getting into some drunk earthly shennanigans. Not to mention the band themselves also posses some of the highest earthly talent as they play up to 29 instruments including the accordian, mandolin, guitar, piano, balaika bass, xylophone, trumpet, kazoo, melodica, drums and banjo. I feel there is no better song that embodies the spirit of adventure I wish for you to explore as well as the intent of friendship btwn our species. So what's say you my alien friends ready for a pint?
Lucienne Boyer - Parlez-moi d'amour
ReplyDeleteIf Aliens don't like this they don't have soul and I'm not interested to meet them. Good old Earth wouldn't be for them either. After all has ended on the planet, after everything is dead, will be found a sweet little song in a museum or in a box lost somewhere, sung by an old fashioned and charming lady whispering "tell me about love", endlessly, tenderly, like a lullaby.
Meanwhile this world may never die, and lullabies will be forever blue.
Def Leppard - Photograph
ReplyDeleteWe don't know these aliens and they don't know us. We have to at least show them we can't be messed with. The song has a nice tune and harmonies, demonstrating we're mostly a reasonable bunch but at the same time the aggressive guitar of the song demonstrates the 'don't mess with us' side of us earthlings. It may or may not work but if you ask me if we send a song to extra-terrestrials, it can't be some soft song that makes no statement or else they'll just think we're a bunch of pushovers.
The Axis Of Awesome – 4 Chords
ReplyDeleteWhen I thought about which song should better tell aliens what's the music like on earth I thought about classical music, but then I realised this is TF and it wouldn't have worked.
It was very hard to think of a single song, so then I realised, well, why not having a song that combines many of them at the same time?
In other words, let's not create too much hopes for our alien-friends as most of the music is basically alike, at least they will know it from the beginning.
Wavin' flag - K'naan
ReplyDeleteThis song sends a message to the aliens. This song was originally written for Somalia and it's aspiration for its peoples freedom. This song gives this message to the aliens sand shows why we should be left alone and the kind heartedness if our people.
Marschmellows - Soulpower (Jazzanova Remix)
ReplyDeleteI must confess, I am an alien and I chose this song because it was one that conviced me to stay in planet Earth. So smooth, so silky, so easy-listening. This song invited me to stay here and know more about humans, about what they like, about some wonderful places built by humans and built by mother Earth.
When I arrived to planet Earth, I didn't know any human-like language, so I didn't really understand the message that relied underneath the song. In fact, the whole song, the whole combination music + voice was a unique language for me and that's what captivated me. Then I started to differentiate between what was music and what was voice in a song. But if we're sending a message to other worlds, we must take in account that they won't understand a word we're saying so the overall feel of the song must be the most important thing. It happened to me...
El UFO Cayo - Ry Cooder (vocals Juliette Commagere)
ReplyDeleteIn the 50s aliens visited the Chavez Ravine neighbourhood in LA, inviting the (mainly Mexican American) locals, who were in danger of being evicted to make way for the new Brooklyn Dodgers baseball stadium, to join them on their home planet. The offer was turned down because the naive residents didn't believe that the authorities would treat them so shabbily. They were wrong. This song should be sent, to ensure them that the offer was appreciated, and that they are welcome to revisit us any time as well.
Therapy? - Unbeliever
ReplyDeleteAs it's been a long time since the last time aliens visited Earth I thought we should tell them how we feel about that. That we're starting to doubt their existence, but crave for their recognition. That we're hoping we won't be alone forever.
Perfume Genius - Mr Peterson
ReplyDeleteFor me this song is the epitome of beauty and pain going together, which is basically what life is all about. The song tells the story of a student who had a pedophiliac relation with his teacher who killed himself. Some tough shit, but the simplicity of the music and lyrics make it incredibly touching and beautiful to me.
Madonna - Live To Tell
ReplyDeleteWe couldn't possibly share our music with other life-forces, without letting them hear Madonna.
I chose this as it is IMO a very underrated Madonna track. Aliens also need to be aware of the fact that Man are capable of telling a thousand lies, and they need to be very wary if they decide to make contact with us :P
This one is one of my favourite songs from Madonna. It will surely get high points from me.
DeleteJaakko Eino Kalevi - No End
ReplyDeleteThis song starts off as a dreampop song for humans but then veers off into alien territory. As we all know, the aliens communicate by synths and find human voice unintelligible. Sending this song into outer space will help aliens see that we Earthlings can speak other languages as well and encourage them to find a way to reach us by creative means.
Ilid Kaolo - My Carefree Life
ReplyDeleteIlid is a Taiwanese aboriginal singer from the Amis tribe. Aside from singing, she is an organic rice farmer and her farming experiences often influence her songwriting. In My Carefree Life, Ilid sings in her native Amis tongue and celebrates a pastoral lifestyle and Mother Nature. Who better to sing about it than someone with indgenous blood and such an unembellished voice? And surely the aliens won't be able to resist the images of rice fields, flowers and valleys.
No reviews for my song :(
ReplyDelete[CENTER][COLOR="Indigo"][SIZE="3"][B]Empty Sky[/B] by Bruce Springsteen[/SIZE][/COLOR][/CENTER]
ReplyDelete[b]CAUTION[/b]: The following post contains sensitive information which has never been released to the public before.
[B]Back Story:[/B]
There once was an 18 year-old kid named Bruce, Bruce Springs. He belonged to a weird community of humans that appended suffixes to peoples names. Bruce had been given the suffix "teen" by the old men and women of his town which made him Bruce Springs[I]teen[/I]. Being 18, he was close to manhood and graduating to Springs[I]man[/I]. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, this graduation was postponed, indefinitely. This song was sung by him to express his lament on those tragic events which also took the two most important things in his life away from him: his girlfriend and the view of the sky he had from his bedroom window.
Bruce's girlfriend was no ordinary human. In fact, she wasn't human at all. She is what we commonly refer to as an alien. She was part of an alien team that had come to Earth for alientific exploration purposes. During her stay, she met and fell in love with Bruce. So, when it came time for her team to leave, she defied her superiors and AlienToEarth Rule #1 and secretly stayed back. She also stole one of the spaceships, because why not, which she parked outside Bruce's window. The Alien Mafia were furious when they found out what happened. They had a strong no inter-species dating policy. So, the mafia gathered up their goons and went to earth to retrieve Bruce's girlfriend. The young couple had managed to put up a defence team, so a battle ensued. The aliens had a thumping victory and took girlfriend and the stray spaceship back to Alien land.
[B]The Song:[/B]
Bruce sings this song the morning after this happened. He laments that his girlfriend is not beside him when he wakes up: "Just an empty impression in the bed" left by the heavy-boned alien. But, like a typical teenage guy, he finds it tough to express his true feelings. He hence focuses on the lack of the spaceship outside his window. He wakes up to an "Empty sky, empty sky", He woke up that morning to an empty sky. His song further comments on the loss of life of his friends in the battle: "Blood on the streets, Yeah blood flowing down." The background of the song has a distinct "woooo, woooo" which is a direct reference to alien noises.
[B]The Aftermath:[/B]
Since everybody liked Bruce, the humans tried their best to find his girlfriend. They even sent their Strong-est man, Neil Arm, to go fight the aliens. Mr. Arm sadly failed and had to return unsuccessfully. He did however take a selfie of himself planting a flag on Alien-land. As a precautionary measure, the Alien Intelligence Agency spread a whole bunch of propaganda claiming that Mr. Neil never reached their land.
So, Bruce Springs never became Bruce Springs[I]man[/I]. He even sang a song called [I]18 till I die[/I] about this under the pseudonym Adams.
[B]Why I Submitted This Song:[/B]
I am sending this song to the aliens as a reminder of that incident. Even a warning. Neil's arm may not be strong any more, but when I grow older I will make sure that we have justice. I even had a friend sing a song about that: "When I grow older, I will be stronger... just like a waving flag" which refers to Mr. Arm's seflie. I even pulled enough strings to make someone nominate [I]Waving Flag[/I]. Sadly, my strings were not strong enough to have [I]18 till I die[/I] nominated. I blame the GreyGreek for that.
[B]Why you should vote for my song:[/B]
Do it for old Brucy :rocker2:
For more juicy details of the story, and trust me when I say there are many of those, you must make this song win.
I bet this is Chris, don't ask me why. LOL
DeleteGreyGreek. LOL.
DeleteMmmh, not sure it's Chris, could be salmon pants also.
DeleteJust to clarify, my pants do not, I repeat, DO NOT stink of salmon. :nerner:
Delete(Hope someone reads this)
If Chris submitted Bruce Springsteen then he'd surely have been possessed by aliens first....
DeleteHow do they smell then?:p
DeleteWell Silver Persian DID provoke him;)
ReplyDeleteEinstürzende Neubauten - Sabrina
ReplyDeleteThis song is just unreal (as all the songs from Einstürzende...) They considerate their music as "noise"
When i read the theme here i thought, that would be the perfect song to hear lost in translation in middle of the universe
Antonin Dvorak - Slavonic Dance No.2
ReplyDeleteWho needs words who you can represent everything with just the sound of music? To me, this wonderful piece by Dvorak perfectly represents the divinity and diversity of Earth. The violin and cello's music bond so well together and just fly above everything. Many different moods are shown in this piece, but mostly, the beauty and playfulness of this piece makes it one of my all time favorite classical pieces. People may find it boring, but I believe it really represents the beauty and mysteriousness of Earth :)
I hope that didn't sound too stupid lol
Test, 1, 2, 1, 2 Planet Earth to outer space
ReplyDeleteDear Aliens,
ReplyDeleteAt the end of what we called October 1957, you planted an extra-terrestrial egg within Mrs Hannah Bush née Daly’s womb. (You got the idea from an old book from earth about a virgin mother you found floating in space). Your Oracle had indeed foreseen that “a Kid of Bush” would one day rule the world. You had not counted on earth’s complications and the fact that, unlike within your civilization, a name was not a unique string of symbols that couldn’t be repeated.
On July, 30th 1958 of our era, Kate Bush was born, apparently a normal child amongst others. She did quickly show some unearthly reactions, but her true nature was only to be revealed once her musical career would start.
Thanks to her alien-ated memory, she studied all the literature she could lay her hands on, and decided that making a song about this was good (yes she also read that same book as you about a guy who does something and decides it's good). She therefore went with the somewhat popular but yet posh novel by Emily Brontë called “Wuthering Heights”.
How a producer could think that a song about the ghost of Cathy singing “Heathcliffe It’s Me I’m Cathy and I’m home now” in a high-pitched voice would be successful, we cannot explain, again we’re thinking about an “external” intervention from your part, even though at this point we don't have solid evidence about this.
Now that you’re back on our planet earth and want to hear something that we call music, we found it only natural to go with a member of your community who managed to become successful amongst ours. (as per our criterias at least, with whch you may or may not agree).
We hope you will enjoy this and decide not to blow us all up after all.
P.S. : There’s a never ending debate about the Red Dress version, made for human viewers, and the white dress version, made for outerspacers, that has been going on ever since the song was released. Even though, as earth people, prefer the red dress version, we thought the white dress one, that was addressed to you, was more suitable.
I bet this is Chris, don't ask me why. LOL
DeleteOh Anonymous, you said that already for another comment, how consistent are you ??
Deletered dress
DeleteThis Anonymous is another Anonymous. I'm another Anonymous, the Anonymous that posted the same thing as Anonymous in the other post.
DeleteThe Cure - "Friday I'm in love"
ReplyDeleteThis classic song is a great representation of the best of human feelings and why living in Earth is still so worth and fun despite how much effort we usually put in complicate our existence.
The lyrics are more smart and deep than what it seems at first sight, they can actually been quite accurate of how many of us can feel sometimes throughout the week and how we forget our daily problems for few days when weekend starts and are ready for partying, dedicate some spare time for ourselves, get along with loved ones and just enjoy life doing things we couldn't do monday to thursday.
:)
Josh Pyke - Memories and Dust
ReplyDeleteThis song seems like a slightly off-beat choice alongside some of the other nominations. It was my intention to use this piece to convey something about what it means to “be human” to potentially non-carbon based life forms. Much of the song is devoted to spelling out the “life course trajectory” of humans (using the metaphor of a chicken), and suggesting (to me) both the hope for growth, change and improvement, alongside a sense of existential nihilism and fragility. Underlying this, the beautiful and simple melody and accompaniment conveys a yearning nostalgia – perhaps suggesting that even if life seems futile or tragic at times, things are not too bad being an Earthling :-(
I will not tell you why I picked my song. If you like it vote for it, if not who cares.
ReplyDeleteAlso does SilverPersian see our ip address? He can figure out who sent which song :lol:
This is true, I refrain to post my reasoning until he gives us an answer!
DeleteAnd sell the information to the highest bidder! There are surely illegal betting syndicates that would pay a fortune ofr this information:eek:
DeleteOn a side note: really funny that so many of us are using the same smilie shorthand as on the forum, even though it doesn't work here:facepalm::oh::hysteric:
I say we let the GreyGreek see what he desires :shrug:
DeleteI can promise you all that I have neither the inclination nor the know how to track down your IP addresses :P
ReplyDeleteThat's what they all say Julian;)
Delete[img]http://38.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5rxmfw6Gu1qfez62o1_r1_500.gif[/img]
Good that you don't. Else you would have realized that all the explanations have been posted by the same user :oh:
DeleteTranslation of Lucienne Boyer's "Parlez-moi d'amour":
ReplyDeletePlease tell me about love
Tell me again those tender words
Your lovely speech my heart isn't sick of it
As long as you repeat forever those supreme words:
"I love you"
You know of course that I don't believe you
But I still want nonetheless
Listen to these words I adore
The sweet sound of your voice
whispering them with thrills
delude me with a lovely story
and despite my will I want to believe it
So please tell me about love
Tell me again those tender words
Your lovely speech my heart isn't sick of it
As long as you repeat those supreme words:
"I love you"
It is so sweet, my dear, to be a little crazy
Life is sometime so bitter
if we don't believe to dreams and fancies
Pain is quickly appeased
and finds comfort with a kiss
We soothe a wounded heart
with a reassuring pledge
so... please tell me about love
tell me again those tender words
your lovely speech my heart isn't sick of it
as long as you repeat forever those supreme words...
"I love you"