Science Fiction-Music Interconnections: Listening in the 1990s

Hi-Fi: Heading to the Digital Age

How was the music of the 1990s experienced as home entertainment? On traditional stereo ‘systems’ via the analogue formats of vinyl and cassette, with the future looming in the shape of compact discs, and the brave new world of Digital Audio Tape about to revolutionise the music industry… 

 

 

On the Move

Anyone storing their entire music collection on a phone or iPod should spare a thought for the 90s mobile listening experience. Developed over the previous decade, surprisingly bulky Minidisc and Walkman players allowed you to enjoy your favourite discs and tapes (one at a time) if you were on the move – until the batteries ran out… 

 

 

Cassette Culture: Home Taping is Killing Music

The cassette remained thriving throughout the first half of the decade (in my experience at least), both in commercial form and for exchanging music via the ubiquitous mix-tape – there was even a market for the cassette single… 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Among the more notable discoveries was the ‘outer space’ design of Memorex’s Sound Invasion tape – this particular example found at Music Zone, Salford Shopping City in 1993/94…

 

A number of ‘lo-fi’ musicians made an art form of the humble cassette, while magazines were still happily advertising blank tapes for sale, compatible with glossy home stereo and portable players…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the Future

Meanwhile, German researchers had been working since 1987 on developing digital audio files, a project which eventually resulted in the MP3. It was patented in the US in 1996 and, rather than a cutting-edge electronic label, the independent Seattle-based Sub Pop (the first home of Nirvana and ‘grunge’) is credited as the first to release music in the MP3 format. The file-sharing network Napster was launched in 1999, and the transformation of the record industry was underway. Music in the twenty-first century was to be consumed in different ways than any previous listening experience…

 

Day in the Life of a Tech Hub Librarian

I was going through some old files the other day, when I came across a speculative writing exercise I did for the Dream of a Low Carbon Future project back in 2014. The brief was to use the model of the future envisaged by the project (based on people, societies, and the human and physical environment) and write a 'day in the life' of someone from 2150. Reading it back now, some of these ideas already seem out of date (!) but anyway this is what I came up with... 

The Tech Hub Librarian

Let me describe for you the conditions of my life in 2150AD. I live a fairly solitary existence. I’m not exactly a social pariah but my position in my community is a precarious one. Now at 60 years of age, with no close family, it hardly seems to matter much, although loneliness sets in from time to time. I should be grateful, at least I’m never cold; a side-effect of living in the hub is the abundance of surplus heat generated in powering the knowledge servers. My job title ‘librarian’ is somewhat deceptive. The general understanding of such a role was for many years closely associated with books and written papers, and it was those things that initially drew me to the profession. I was always attached to the romantic idea of preserving material culture - caring for the books and artefacts accumulated over centuries and so treasured by 20th and 21st century societies - that old-fashioned notion of the ‘authentic’. The reality, of course, is vastly different. The hubs constitute a digital cultural record, made up of 0s and 1s. It’s not much to look at; rows and rows of servers punctuated by the odd terminal. There’s a popular myth that these hubs still hold and protect the original treasures. In fact, most of them were sold off long ago into private collections; no one really noticed, what with all the flooding and famine. And goodness knows what happened to them after that! 

Long-held prejudices persist, however, the old ‘knowledge is power’ stereotype... Naturally, it gives us librarians a bad reputation. We’re treated with general suspicion, subject to occasional threats and one extremist group is out to prove we’re a sect of information overlords, who control the inner workings of society. Par for the course, I suppose. Perhaps once there was some grounding for this conspiracy theory. Back in the 21st century, huge server warehouses (probably resembling the hubs of today) used to guide the investment of trillions of assets all over the world, prolonging the boom years and delaying the inevitable financial collapse of world economies by almost 100 years. Sinister stuff. Now, the economy is relatively transparent, although the Citizen’s Income allocation gets more farcical every year. Yes, gone are the ‘knowledge societies’ of the 21st century. A popular, widely held view is that culture is dormant and we’ve returned to the Dark Ages. Odd time to be a librarian, eh? 

It’s all nonsense though! The concept of high culture may be dead but a different kind of cultural value has taken centre stage: know-how, as opposed to Knowledge with a capital ‘K’. There’s still an appetite for heritage in my community but more in the form of family history, which has always been popular. That’s what the majority of the hub’s visitors come for. In the 21st century, there were companies that compiled huge databases of information, digitized from written records: birth, death and marriage certificates, newspapers etc. The floods wiped most of them out but there are still records, saved from the Amazon servers, of individuals’ purchasing history. An odd kind of family history if you ask me but people seem to be fascinated to learn that on the 23 May 2050 great great grandad bought a new birdfeeder. They obviously find all that consumerism rather quaint.

Reciprocal Dialogues: Researching Digital Culture and Science Fiction

It feels like a very long time ago now, but back in January 2020 (pre-the first UK lockdown), I gave a talk at the University of Birmingham in the Centre for Digital Cultures. The theme 'Researching Digital Culture and Science Fiction' gave me the opportunity to draw together the threads of my research over the last few years, and speak about many topics I've covered in the blog in one form or another, including J.G. Ballard's invisible literature, Computational Economies in History and Science Fiction, and the Transcultural Fantastic.

Niall Gallen - who invited me to Birmingham - produced a write-up of the talk here, which includes some great critical reflections and insights. Niall is a doctoral researcher in the department of English Literature (Birmingham), whose thesis explores Eduardo Paolozzi, J.G. Ballard and contemporary responses to technological acceleration. He is also a committee member of Research/Curate, a network for postgraduate students researching curation, art, or objects within an academic context. His recent projects include co-editing a special issue of Alluvium journal on 'Futurity in Crisis'.

Thanks to Niall for this piece and the original invite to speak. I really enjoyed the conversation with other researchers and students affiliated with the Centre.

Science Fiction-Music Interconnections: The Indie 90s

Whilst researching the various SF-related 90s topics which have informed recent posts, I began to explore the connections with one of my formative influences of the decade: Indie Rock. As a fan of all things ‘indie’ around the first half of the 90s (when I was a late-teenager and student), I had various memories and favourites from the genre’s heyday in that pre-Internet age. The affiliation is less immediate than with the ambient and rave scenes of the era, but various connections can be found. 

The associated English artists Spacemen 3, Sonic Boom/Spectrum, and Spiritualized (the best-known/most commercially successful of the trio) all explored otherworldly imagery and themes, often pharmacologically inspired. The Spiritualized albums Lazer Guided Melodies (1992) and especially Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Now Floating in Space (1997) epitomise these qualities. Among their contemporaries categorised as ‘shoegazers’, the band Slowdive ventured into similar territory with their second album, 1993’s Souvlaki, including collaborations with Brian Eno and the ambient-inspired ‘Souvlaki Space Station’. 

Stereolab, with French vocalist Laetitia Sadier, offered a combination of easy-listening sensibilities and avant-pop epitomised in the 1993 EP Space Age Batchelor Pad Music – a nod to the hi-fi test records and ‘space age pop’ of an earlier era. The following year’s Mars Audiac Quintet expanded on the formula, with ‘The Stars Our Destination’ a reference to Alfred Bester’s 1956 novel (itself seen as a precursor of Cyberpunk). Meanwhile ‘International Colouring Contest’ was a tribute to outsider musician Lucia Pamela, whose 1969 album Into Outer Space reports a trip to the moon. 

Northern Irish band Ash kicked off a series of successful singles with 1995’s ‘Girl from Mars’, and a later compilation, Intergalactic Sonic 7″s, reinforced their sci-fi influences. Less likely artists also touched on sf themes; the title and artwork of Suede’s B-sides collection, Sci-Fi Lullabies (lifted from an earlier lyric). A song by Swedish outfit the Cardigans, ‘Daddy’s car’, imagines a carefree European road trip turned cosmic: “From Luxembourg to Rome, From Berlin to the moon / From Paris to Lausanne, From Athens to the sun / Our car became a spacecraft, flashing through the world – Crashed down in Amsterdam.” 

The ongoing rise of MTV in North America saw an expansion of indie content, notably 120 Minutes. Videos by artists drew on sci-fi themes, even where they were apparently unrelated to the song. The Smashing Pumpkins produced ‘Tonight, tonight’, directly influenced by Georges Méliès’ 1902 pioneering silent film A Trip to the Moon. Also in 1995, Norfolk band Catherine Wheel collaborated with Tanya Donelly (one of the decade’s most influential indie figures with Throwing Muses, the Breeders, Belly and as a solo artist) on ‘Judy Staring at the Sun’, with its kitsch sf imagery. 

The growth of US alternative/college rock music through the 1980s saw a spate of bands emerge in the Boston/Massachusetts area. Galaxie 500 produced a psychedelia-influenced sound with space-rock references. I continued to associate them with sci-fi even after discovering they were actually named after a car! Singer and lead guitarist Dean Wareham continued to explore this ‘dream pop’ territory with his next band, Luna, formed in 1991. The better-known Pixies also sprang from the Boston area, led by Black Francis and gaining acclaim by the late 80s for their combining an abrasive style with melody, and the quiet/loud dynamics which would influence Nirvana among others. Their early 90s albums Bossanova and Trompe le Monde saw Francis delve into sf-inspired lyrics, which developed further in his solo career as Frank Black. His 1997 album The Cult of Ray paid homage to writer Ray Bradbury (who Black also interviewed).

 

Finally, a song that stands alone: Pop Will Eat Itself’s ‘X, Y and Zee’, 1991’s slice of ‘intergalactic punk rock hip hop’. Singer Clint Mansell later became a film composer, with credits including the soundtrack to Moon, directed by Duncan Jones in 2009.

Art & Design Credits:

Ash, ‘Girl from Mars’ (1995): Design – Carnage; Other [Girl from Mars] – Sarah From Islington; Photography – Roger Sargent
Luna, Lunapark (1992): Art Direction – Laurie Henzel; Studio Photography – Macioce
Pixies, Bossanova (1990): Art Direction, Design – Vaughan Oliver / v23; Artwork [Globe] – Pirate Design; Photography – Simon Larbastier; Design Assistance – Chris Bigg
Sonic Boom, Spectrum (1990): Artwork [Commercial Art] – Sonic, T + CP London; Lacquer Cut By – Porky; Photography [Sonic] – Steve Double; Photography– Andy Earl
Spiritualized, Lazer Guided Melodies (1992): Original Artwork – Mr Ugly; Logo Design – Albert Tupelo; Design – Andrew Sutton for Blue Source; Model Maker – Gavin Lindsay; Photography – Pete Gardner
Stereolab, Space Age Bachelor Pad Music (1993): Design – Magic Glue
Stereolab, Mars Audiac Quintet (1994): Layout – Trouble; Photography – Peter Morris 

Suede, Sci-Fi Lullabies (1997): Image ‘Hidden’ by John Kippin; Art Direction – Peter Saville; Design – Howard Wakefield