Skip to main content

Why is there no rock-n-roll on Star Trek?


Every time we see a recital given aboard any ship or star base, it's almost always a 'classical music' recital or performance, never a rock concert. The only exceptions to this musical bias are Riker's penchant for Jazz and Zefram Cochrane playing 'Magic Carpet Ride' during the 'First Contact' launch.



Answer



Roddenberry had a vision of an 'enlightened' humanity, and as a strict matter of keeping up appearances, it's a lot easier to sell people on a post-scarcity technologically affluent culture that listens to Chopin over Chuck Berry. It's a bit of an oversight in the long term, because a person's musical tastes aren't necessarily a pointer to their intelligence, but it's such a TV trope to assume intelligence begets classical taste in music that I suspect that has more to do with it than anything. It's a lot easier to sell the idea that music which has already withstood the test of time (Bizet and Berlioz were 19th century composers, both of which are name-dropped during First Contact) has "made it into space" with the rest of us than, like, Dion DiMucci. In fact, there's a brief quote attributed to the creators of Star Trek who state that it is "more believeable" that classical music continues forward whereas contemporary or popular music ebbs, flows, and eventually fades away.


More of an observation on my part -- I'm going out on a limb here, but I would hazard a guess that a utopian society is a lot less likely to identify with some of the darker tones of popular music from the last 70 years.


It's not as if people stop breaking up with each other or anything. But there are also certain socio-economic circumstances which are more easily expressed in the context of blues-inspired rock music than in a society where no one gets sick or loses their home because they got fired.



"Woke up this morning feeling exemplary --dun daaaa dun da dunt--



My car started right away because everything works perfectly --dun daaaa dun da dunt--


Still happily married because the hardship of financial difficulty never drove me or my spouse to seek the comfort of another person's embrace --dun daaa dun da dunt--...."



There are a handful of indicators towards such an attitude. The small talk between Jellico and Riker concerning the presence of a trombone in his quarters is a little telling of the remnants of 'snooty' early TNG's vision of humans -- we're all high-concept highfalutin brainiacs that immerse ourselves in the high points of art, philosophy, and use phrases like "Is it not the height of hubris..." (Really though, the reaction and body language Jellico employs when Riker says he's a jazz musician -- 'ohhhh ....jazz..... okaaay.')


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF