Space Rock, the Popular Music Inspired by the Stars Above Us
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SPACE ROCK, THE POPULAR MUSIC INSPIRED BY THE STARS ABOVE US JARKKO MATIAS MERISALO 79222N ASTRONOMICAL VIEW OF THE WORLD PART B S-92.3299AALTO UNIVERSITY 0 TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of contents ................................................................................................................. 1 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 2 2. What is space rock and how it was born? ..................................................................... 3 3. The Golden era ............................................................................................................. 5 3.1. Significant artists and songs to remember ................................................................ 5 3.2. Masks and Glitter – Spacemen and rock characters ................................................. 7 4. Modern times .............................................................................................................. 10 5. Conclusions ................................................................................................................. 12 6. References .................................................................................................................. 13 7. Appendices ................................................................................................................. 14 1. INTRODUCTION When the Soviets managed to launch “Sputnik 1”, the first man-made object to the Earth’s orbit in November 1957, they started a space-mania that expanded to the western world giving inspiration to books, movies, TV-series, fashion and of course, music. This report introduces you to the world of space-inspired popular music, or “space rock”, as it will be referred, from the 1960’s and 1970’s to the new Millennium. [1] Space activity was a leading spirit of the media during the 1960's, and had a massive influence on popular and musical scene. Since then the public interest in the international space program may have somewhat lost its edge, but our fascination with space itself hasn't. This space spirit can be seen by looking at many of the top films in the last quarter of the century and of course at the vital genre of space rock of today. [2] Space has inspired a lot of composers and musicians throughout the history. There are lots of different “space-fads” in history and in different cultures, so it was just a matter of time when space begun to inspire modern people of the 20th century. Eventually in the 1960’s it found it’s way to inspire popular musicians in the era of hippies, psychedelia and rock n’ roll. Time has shaped the term as we approach today's space rock bands, but the main idea remains. Read more about modern space rock from chapter 4 of this report. This report takes you back to the 1960's and introduces you to the fascinating world of space rock music. 2 2. WHAT IS SPACE ROCK AND HOW IT WAS BORN? Space inspired music dates back to the Space Age, a period of time that took place between October 1957, with the launching of ”Sputnik-1”, culminating in the moon landing with American astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in July 1969. Originally the term ”space rock” dates back to the late1960's and early 1970's describing psychedelic music played by certain rock bands of that time period. Most famous of those bands were Hawkwind and Pink Floyd. [1] [2] FIGURE 1. THE FAMOUS MOON LANDING FROM 1969. Space rock has it's roots in 1960's psychedelia and progressive rock music. Typical space rock is calm, slow and hypnotic, airy and surreal. It contains time-bending musical explorations, exceptional song structures and usually vocals don't play the biggest role as it usualy does in rock or pop music. The long instrumental parts slowly buid up the faint, sometimes hard-to-figure-out frame of the song. Many space rock bands have had their share of narcotics, which can often be heard in the music; it rolls over your mind with reverbed guitars, gentle minimalist drumming, dreamy organs or keyboards and vague, languid singing. [1] [2] The first space-inspired rock music hit was, depending in the point of view, the song “Telstar” by the Tornados. It reached top 1 place in charts in 1962-1963. The song itself was named after one of the first communication satellites. After that, several songs were written in the early 1960's to honor the brave American astronauts. There were big names among these artists, like Duke Ellington, The Byrds and John Stewart. Mr. Stewart told about his inspiration he got from the astronauts: "We could for one moment sit there and watch one of our kind walk on the moon." The new era of music was born. [2] 4 3. THE GOLDEN ERA In ”the Golden Era” of space rock, most of the popular music groups had their own pieces of space related music, even though those bands weren't necessarily referred as ”space rock”- bands. The 1960's were changing to the 1970's and artists like The Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Frank Zappa all had their hands on the space theme. This strengthens the view that space rock and psychedelia were indeed a big deal on the early 1970's music genre. 3.1. SIGNIFICANT ARTISTS AND SONGS TO REMEMBER In the 1960's certain bands adopted the space and psychedelia and refined it to the music we know today as space rock. These bands are for example Hawkwind, Pink Floyd and David Bowie. Nowadays Hawkwind might be ”the band” when talking about space rock. Hawkwind's space rock meets the traditional definition of the genre. Formed in 1969, the British band Hawkwind made it's FIGURE 2. PINK FLOYD'S PSYCHEDELIC breakthrough in 1972 with the top hit ”Silver GIG POSTER FROM 1966. Machine”. A year earlier Hawkwind had recorded it's second album ”In Search Of Space” which can be regarded as the cornerstone album of space rock. Hawkwind's music contains a lot of different effects on guitar and drums, and lots of synthesizers. Hawkwind can also be considered as the creator of electronic rock music. [4] FIGURE 3. HAWKWIND'S ALBUM COVER ART ON ”IN SEARCH FOR SPACE” FROM 1972. Allthough Pink Floyd was formed much earlier than Hawkwind, the Floyd made it's real breakthrough only in 1972. In its earlier years, Pink Floyd was heavily experimenting with psychedelia in their music. Especially the early guitarist/songwriter/bandleader Syd Barrett was reaching the stars with his music, although his inspiration came from heavy abuse of heroin, which eventually claimed him his place in the band and in the end, his life. Mr. Barrett forged Pink Floyd to be the band as we still know it today. Pink Floyd is the biggest band in the psychedelic rock genre, but not until 1973 and the publishing of Floyd's ”Dark Side Of The Moon”- album were they considered as a space rock band, although they had already recorded many space related songs, such as “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”, “A Saucerful of Secrets”, “Astronomy Domine” and “Echoes”. The full DSOTM-album consists of themes like life and death, but it also had celestial themes, for example in songs ”The Great Gig In The Sky”, ”Eclipse” and ”Brain Damage”. Also Floyd's song ”Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, which was a song written for Syd Barret after he left the band is a marvelous masterpiece including several symbols linked to the night sky. [5] 6 FIGURE 4. PINK FLOYD PERFORMING IN 1977. One of the most famous space musicians of the 1970's was no doubt David Bowie when he created his ”Ziggy Stardust” character in 1972. Bowie had released his hit song ”Space Oddity” already in 1969, five days before the famous launch of the Apollo 11 and it reached top 5 in british charts. This was the time when he poked the space theme and the results could be seen only couple of years afterwards. Bowie wrote several amazing space-related songs that can be found from his fift album, ”The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars”. [6] 3.2. MASKS AND GLITTER – SPACEMEN AND ROCK CHARACTERS Several spacemen could have been found on stage in the 1970’s. When space rock had secured its position as a 1970’s music genre, some artists wanted to take the space mania a little bit further by adding the space theme to their on-stage costumes. Pink Floyd had stars and celestial symbols in their outfits and gig posters already in the 1960’s but maybe the first actual “spaceman” was David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust, the alien who had come to visit Earth as a rock star to tell Earthlings about the end of the World. Ziggy acts through his music, singing the news about the lack of natural resources that will cost us the Earth, and through dreams as he does in his probably most well-known song “Starman”. Bowie’s Ziggy costumes were designed by the Japanese fashion-guru Kansai Yamamoto. The costumes contain often graphic fabrics, silver and glitter and Ziggy’s trademark red hair. Bowie gave up his Ziggy Stardust character in 1973, in order to try a new stage persona as he was a true cameleon of the rock world. [5], [6] FIGURE 5. DAVID BOWIE PERFORMING AS ZIGGY STARDUST IN 1973. Ziggy’s heritage lived on, as KISS’s Ace Frehley created his stage persona. Frehley had always been interested in space related themes, so when it was the time to create a character to perform with KISS, he naturally chose the role of “The Spaceman” or “Space- Ace”. Ace Frehley is without a doubt the most well-known space character of the late 1970’s rock genre. Frehley’s Spaceman costume consisted of his silver star- eyed mask, spacesuit and platform boots. He had a couple of different spaceman costumes for a couple of different eras, but all his costumes had silver and black fabrics and a guitar with smoking and sparkling gadgets he made himself. [7] The space mania of the 1970’s wasn’t just for the American and British bands, but also in Europe, especially in Germany and France.