12 Oct 2022

Music: Cosmically great songs about space

From Nine To Noon, 11:05 am on 12 October 2022

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$Illustration of the green ice giant planet Uranus, seen from the surface of its innermost substantial moon, the fractured Miranda. Uranus is the seventh planet in order of distance from the Sun, orbiting at an average distance of 2.85 billion km. It is unusual in that it has a very pale, almost featureless atmosphere, and an axial tilt close to 100 degrees. Miranda’s odd surface, including the highest cliff in the known solar system, suggests that the world was broken apart in a collision and later reassembled. (Photo by MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRA / MGA / Science Photo Library via AFP)$

An illustration of the green ice giant planet Uranus, seen from the surface of its innermost substantial moon, the fractured Miranda. Photo: Science Photo Library via AFP

Today music correspondent Kirsten Zemke takes us out of this world, with a deep dive into songs about space.

Sure, she could talk about the great and iconic orchestral pieces (Space Odyssey, Star Trek, Holst, Dr Who), but today it's all about weird and wonderful space rock/pop.

Kirsten Zemke is an ethnomusicologist at the University of Auckland's School of Social Sciences.