What do you think of this fact?
If aliens ever find one of the two Voyager probes, they have something to look forward to: music. And not just classical, but some proper rock and roll too.
A record for the universe
In 1977, NASA launched its two probes, Voyager 1 and 2. Each one carries a gold-plated record, about 30 centimeters across, meant as a message to whoever might find it someday. According to NASA, a committee chaired by astronomer Carl Sagan of Cornell University chose what went on it.
And it’s quite a mix: 115 images, natural sounds like surf, wind, thunder, birds and whales, plus, according to NASA, a 90-minute selection of music with Eastern and Western classics.
Mozart meets rock and roll
According to the Smithsonian, Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” sits right next to Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” a shakuhachi piece from Japan and “Dark Was the Night” by Blind Willie Johnson. According to Gizmodo, that makes Berry the only American rock musician on the record, even though some people at the time considered his music “adolescent,” not exactly culture built for eternity.
Pop culture spotted the joke right away. According to Gizmodo, Steve Martin showed in a 1978 episode of “Saturday Night Live” what the aliens’ first reply would likely be: “Send more Chuck Berry.”
When Chuck Berry died in 2017 at age 90, his song had already been heading for the stars for 40 years.
Bonus fact: The record greets listeners in 55 languages, starting with Akkadian, which was spoken in Mesopotamia thousands of years ago.
Humanity got exactly one shot at a playlist for the universe. It picked rock and roll.