The Exoplanet Playlist

Our S02E09 episode of The Science Hour on XpressionFM was focused on exoplanets and the work that is being done around the world to investigate these strange new worlds. And as such I enlisted the help of twitter to find us the playlist for the show. As everyone came up with so many suggestions I thought I would put together the exoplanet playlist for everyone.

EXOPLANETEERS PLAYLIST

Earthbound - Our own little planet has many, many songs written about it but these are two which I think were more radio show worthy, and I just really enjoy the title of the Foster the People song, not much room for interpretation on that one.

1. Jamiroquai - Planet Home
2. Foster the People -  A Beginners Guide to Destroying the Moon

Martian - There are a lot of songs with Mars in the title or related to the red planet but these were the ones chosen

1. Ash - Girl from Mars
2. Bowie - Life on Mars
3. Misfits - I Turned into a Martian

The Solar System - Again loads of songs to choose from here. The first thing that came to my mind was Drops of Jupiter by Train, but I was pleasantly surprised by the Hendrix - Valleys of Neptune to represent our outer solar system.

1. Train - Drops of Jupiter
2. Stevie wonder - Saturn
3. Jimi Hendrix - Valleys of Neptune
4. Tinie Tempah - Children of the Sun

Detection - The starlight we use to detect exoplanets can be interpreted from these song titles. That's the way I am taking them anyway. As pointed out by one suggestion on Twitter the song 'True Colors' could be used to signify the emission spectra of exoplanets where we are able to detect their true visible color spectrum.

1. Bruce Springsteen - Blinded by the Light
2. Kanye West - All of the Lights
3. Phantom Planet - One Ray of Sunlight
4. Phill colins - True Colors

Exolanets - This is slightly harder. The word exoplanets has not yet made it into song titles. But these ones can be used as a loose interpretation of alien worlds or planets themselves (though some I assume are referring to our solar system we can give them a broader context here).

1. Aladdin - A Whole New World
2. Stevie Nicks - Planets of the Universe
3. Avenged Sevenfold - Planets
4. Flaming Lips - Watching the Planets

Random - While the Beastie Boys song does start with the statement 'Intergalactic planetary' and repeats it over and over again for the 'chorus' it becomes a little more abstract on the subject from then on but still warrants a mention. Another song that nicely fits in here is Debutante by 65 Days of Static which was suggested by a friend on Twitter and is a beautiful instrumental track which certainly takes on a spacey quality to it.

1. Beastie Boys - Intergalactic
2. 65 Days of Static - Debutante (No Man's Sky)

What's on your Exoplanet playlist?

And if you want to listen to the whole show and hear the songs we selected and some truly atrocious segues then enjoy. (or try our Soundcloud link)

S02E09 - Exoplanets by The Science Hour - Xpressionfm on Mixcloud