There’s nothing we like more here at The Scientist than when music moguls take time out of their hectic schedules to devote entire albums to scientific concepts. Sure, geek rock stalwarts like They Might be Giants, Man or Astroman, and Weezer are quite comfortable nuzzling up to science, and in fact bands like those made doing so their primary shtick.
But it’s something truly special when artists like hip hop’s Dr. Dre go out on a limb and dabble in the intersection of music and science. Recently Dre told Vibe that he’s working on an instrumental concept album called The Planets, on which each heavenly body in our solar system gets its own track. My money’s on that being one sweet record (Dre said that the whole album will likely be recorded in surround sound because, “It
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Um, er… how about the ORIGINAL “The Planets”, by Gustav Holst? Or “Soil Festivities” by Vangelis (warning: I like Vangelis, but this album is absolutely awful). His “Albedo 0.39” is much, much better, and also rather science-y in bent.
I’m sure there are others…
If you’re interested, check out Del the Funky Homosapien’s “rap opera concept album” set in the year 3030. References to biochemistry, physics, computer viruses, and more.
There’s always Brian Eno’s Apollo and Yo La Tengo’s The Sounds of the Sounds of Science, among others, surely.
Will Dr Dre include Pluto?
How about Thomas Dolby’s “Blinded by Science” album or Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” to name a few?
“Atom Heart Mother” – Pink Floyd
“The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” – David Bowie
and, perhaps descriptive of the research funding environment,
“Beggars Banquet” and “Let It Bleed”