musical inspiration

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theScienceofPoetry's avatar
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music about scientific and mathematical themes is surprisingly abundant, and I've assembled a list of some of my favourites for your listening pleasure. I'd love to add to this list, so if you know of anything else that would fit this category, please let me know-- my iPod isn't quite overflowing enough yet. :heart:


Architecture

Cut & Coil: Cylab
Electronic
their hungry mouths
flexing teeth like splinters
devour architecture
the promises of nature

(this one also has elements of biology)


Astronomy

Stellar Alchemist: The Impossible Girl
Electronic
Born in a nebula, a ball of burning hydrogen
The gravity of my embrace, keeping all the tension...
I am a stellar alchemist, my heart is an iron fist,
It goes boom boom boom, it goes BOOM


What is a Shooting Star?: They Might Be Giants
Alternative rock
A shooting star is not a star
Why does it shine so bright?
The friction as it falls through air
Produces heat and light


Solstice: Björk
Electronic
the earth (like the heart) slopes in its seat
and like that it travels along an elliptical path
drawn in the darkness


Lunar Parks: Curl
Electro
Take a holiday to the moon
Fifty million
Plant your dirty seeds
And watch them grow


Cosmic Love: Florence + the Machine
Indie pop
The stars, the moon, they have all been blown out
You left me in the dark


I Don't Believe in the Sun: The Magnetic Fields
Indie pop
The moon to whom the poets croon
Has given up and died
Astronomy will have to be revised


How Many Planets?: They Might Be Giants
Alternative rock
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars...
(yes it's just a list of the planets but the music is SO COOL)

The Drake Equation: The Impossible Girl
Electronic
How many planets, how many moons?
Is there other life, will they get here soon?


Albedo 0.39: Vangelis
Electronic
Length of the tropical year: equinox equinox 365.24 days
Length of the sidereal year: fixed star fixed star 365.26 days
Length of the mean solar day: 24 hours and 3 minutes and 56.5555 seconds

(basically this entire album is astrophysics-based.)

Cosmogony: Björk
Electronic
heaven
heaven's bodies
whirl around me
a dance eternal


The Universe is Weird: Hank Green
Nerdfighter (shhh it's totally a genre)
Infinite unbounded sets and hadronizing gluon jets and
We'll never understand half of what we have at hand
At least that's what I fear
'cause the universe is weird


Why Does the Sun Shine?: They Might Be Giants
Alternative rock
The sun is mass of incandescent gas
A gigantic nuclear furnace
where hydrogen is built into helium
At a temperature of millions of degrees


And then, when that theory was amended:

Why Does the Sun Really Shine?: They Might Be Giants
Alternative rock
The sun is a miasma
Of incandescent plasma
The sun's not simply made out of gas


Space Crash: Curl
Electro
Drag me out of this space crash...
I'm just walking on the moon


For Science: They Might Be Giants
Alternative rock
There has been a spacecraft sighted
Flying high above the sky
Sirens declare there's one among us from Venus


The Sky is Calling: The Impossible Girl
Electronic
Planets spin across the sky,
around their suns like nuclei,
and we go, and we go


The Fermi Paradox: Hank Green
Nerdfighter
So that's the Fermi paradox
If they're out there, why don't they talk?
The galaxy just keeps on spinning
With 400 billion stars in it


N.E.O.: Thomas Dolby
New wave
Near-Earth Object
A solid body whose orbit lies within the orbit of Mars
Moons, asteroids, meteorites
And human debris



Biology

Cells: They Might Be Giants
Alternative rock
Inside of every cell is a twisted ladder
A recipe for life called DNA
The directions are written out in the ladder's rungs


Hollow: Björk
Electronic
the trunk of dna
now come forth
all species


Mammal: They Might Be Giants
Alternative rock
Standing in between extinction in the cold
and explosive radiating growth
So the warm blood flows
Through the large four-chambered heart
Maintaining the very high metabolism rate they have


Virus: Björk
Electronic
like a virus needs a body
as soft tissue feeds on blood
some day i'll find you -- one day i'm there


I Am a Paleontologist: They Might Be Giants
Alternative rock
Could it be an herbivore
Crushing plants with rounded teeth?
Or ferocious carnivore
Who moves so quickly on its feet?



Chemistry

Meet the Elements: They Might Be Giants
May I introduce you to our friends, the elements?
Like a box of paints that are mixed to make every shade
They either combine to make a chemical compound
Or stand alone as they are



Earth Science

Crystalline: Björk
Electronic
crystalline
internal nebula
rocks growing slomo
i conquer claustrophobia
and demand the light


Mutual Core: Björk
Electronic
"i shuffle around
the tectonic plates in my chest
you know i gave it all
try to match our continents



Mathematics

Chaos - Theory: Aϊboforcen
Electro-industrial
Chaos theory states that in a series of completely random and chaotic events, patterns will begin to form
Building structures that, in turn, create further patterns and structures."


Möbius Strip Tease: Doctor Popular
Electronic
Is this a date or am I walking on a Möbius Strip?
Cause one minute y'r cool, the next you flip
You've always gotta make everything so dramatic
Simply talking to you requires use of higher mathematics


Solving for X: Dream Forecast
Indietronica
Add to or subtract from both sides?
Or divide? Multiply, still
Solving for X, hidden in
This cryptic labyrinth of an equation


Counting to Zero: Collide
Darkwave
and i'll be counting to zero
under a million stars



Medical Science

Leechwife: Rasputina
Cello rock
It's surgery, but with no knife
She'll make a great leech wife



Physics

In the Frequency: Collide
Darkwave
here in the frequency
inside of me...
i'm stepping in stars
forwards and backwards
pure distraction


Speed and Velocity: They Might Be Giants
Alternative rock
I've got speed (that's how fast I am moving)
I've got velocity (that's my speed and direction)


Sex, Drugs & Nuclear Physics: The Impossible Girl
Alternative rock
sex, drugs, and the theory of relativity
sex, drugs, particle accelerators by the sea
sex, and drugs, and quantum calculations...........for me


The 2nd Law: Unsustainable: Muse
Electronic rock
All natural and technological processes proceed in such a way that the availability of the remaining energy decreases.

Satellites: Cylab
Electronic
Transmitted sight
I satellite
I'm found in waves
Electromagnetic rays


Crushed: Collide
Darkwave
and all your satellites
are fragments here
i feel a little crushed
and out of control
and all your gravity
it's meant to bring you down


The Scientist: Coldplay
Alternative rock
I was just guessing at numbers and figures
Pulling your puzzles apart
Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart


Make A Curcuit With Me: The Polecats
Rockabilly
I'll be a diode, cathode, electrode
Overload, generator, oscillator
Make a circuit with me


Strange Charm: Hank Green
Nerdfighter
Oh, up, down, strange, charm, top, bottom
If you don't know what a quark is, it don't matter you still got 'em.
And with leptons and bosons, unless something's amiss,
They make up everything that we can see and that we know exists.



Technology

Space Oddity: David Bowie
Glam rock
Commencing countdown,
engines on
Check ignition


Grand Junction: Computer Magic
Electronic
I don't need your sympathy for free
I can live without malfunction


The Young Machines: Her Space Holiday
Indietronica
Inside your point and clicking industry
You overlooked the heart in me


Nikola Tesla: 8in8
Alternative rock
Nikola Tesla
I wish you’d invent a
Current that could activate my heart
Mysterious Jester
I do not expect you
Come back from 1932
I’ll always burn a light for you


Animal: The Impossible Girl
Electronic
I made myself a robot
gave her extra g-spots
she's my sweet A.I.
I fill her up with hard drives


Machine: Regina Spektor
Anti-folk
My eyes are bifocal
My hands are sub jointed
I live in the future



And finally, one of my favourites that covers all the scientific bases:

Science is Real: They Might Be Giants
Alternative rock
A scientific theory
Isn't just a hunch or guess
It's more like a question
That's been put through a lot of tests
© 2013 - 2024 theScienceofPoetry
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Examples of -entire- albums about science and technology. There is so much more ...