Planet Rock (song)
| "Planet Rock" | |||||||||
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| Single by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force | |||||||||
| from the album Planet Rock: The Album | |||||||||
| Released | April 17, 1982 | ||||||||
| Format | 12" | ||||||||
| Genre | Electro, hip hop, freestyle | ||||||||
| Length | 7:31 (original 12" version) | ||||||||
| Label | Tommy Boy/Warner Bros. Records 00823 |
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| Writer(s) | Arthur Baker John Robie Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force Ralf Hütter Florian Schneider |
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| Producer | Arthur Baker John Robie |
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| Afrika Bambaataa singles chronology | |||||||||
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"Planet Rock" is a 1982 song by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force. The background and hooks featured Marvella Murray, Yvette Murray, Melissa Johnson and Sandra Wheeler. Although it was only a minor hit in the United States, Canada, and UK, it helped change the foundations of hip-hop and dance music. It is credited with developing the electro style, building on the work of Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra,[1] and helped pave the way for other genres such as techno, house, and trance. In November 2004, the "Planet Rock" placed at #237 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and #10 in About.com's Top 100 Rap Songs.[2] "Planet Rock" peaked at number four on the soul chart and number forty-eight on the Hot 100,[3] and went to number three on the dance charts.[4]
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[edit] Background and recording
Produced by Arthur Baker, "Planet Rock" blends synthesizer and vocoder sounds with breakbeating. It was influenced by electropop pioneers Kraftwerk and Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO),[1] funk pioneer George Clinton, and artists such as Gary Numan.[5] In particular, its melody resembles Kraftwerk's "Trans Europe Express" (1977), while the beat resembles Kraftwerk's "Numbers" (1981) as well as YMO's "Riot in Lagos" (1980).
The record was recorded in the NYC upper eastside Intergalactic Studios, a popular site for NYC clubscene productions. Toward the end of the scheduled recording session, NYC music clubscene fixtures DJ David Azarc, soundman Jim Toth, and promoter Tom Goodkind—all from the Peppermint Lounge—asked Arthur to please hurry. The three had scheduled the next recording session for a band that would become the Washington Squares. Ever accommodating, Arthur told them that things would move faster if they assisted him with the backup vocals. The voices singing "rock it don't stop it" on Planet Rock are in fact those of the Washington Squares.
[edit] Composition
The main melody of "Planet Rock" is interpolated from the title track of Kraftwerk's influential album Trans-Europe Express, while the drum pattern resembles "Numbers" from the 1981 Kraftwerk album Computer World, another popular underground club record. The borrowings eventually resulted in an out-of-court settlement between Kraftwerk and Tommy Boy Records head Tom Silverman.
Afrika Bambaataa has acknowledged a debt to Kraftwerk, but has expressed that their contributions to his aesthetic have been over-emphasized. Bambaataa stated that "Kraftwerk was one part of a sound," while citing Yellow Magic Orchestra and Gary Numan as the other major influences on his work.[5] Yellow Magic Orchestra in particular was the first band to utilize the Roland TR-808 programmable drum machine in 1980,[6] and they anticipated the beats and sounds of electro music with "Riot in Lagos" that same year.[7] The influence of "Planet Rock" can still be heard in hip-hop sub-genres such G-funk and in the work of producers such as the Neptunes, which use electro-based sounds in its productions.
[edit] Track listings
- Planet Rock (Vocal)
- Planet Rock (Bonus Beats)
- Planet Rock (Instrumental)
[edit] Personnel
- Engineer - Bob Rosa, Jan D. Burnett
- Executive Producer - Tom Silverman
- Mastered By - Herb Powers Jr.
- Mixed by, Producer - Arthur Baker[8]
- Keyboards by John Robie
- 7" & 12" edits by Jellybean Benitez
- Video By - Video Mix Productions - Danny Cornyetz & Jessica Jason
[edit] Instruments
- Roland TR-808 drum machine
- Fairlight CMI Series II 8-bit sampler (orchestra hit "ORCH5"[9])
- Moog Micromoog and Prophet 5 (John Robie's keyboards as stated by Arthur Baker in Sound on Sound)
- Lexicon PCM41 for Bambaataa's "vocoder" sound (really tight delay setting)
[edit] Legacy
Since its release, "Planet Rock" has been a large influence on music and pop culture. In 2008, it was ranked number 21 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop. MC Common cited this song as a major influence for his latest album Universal Mind Control especially for the title track.
In the Black Star cover of Slick Rick's "Children's Story," Mos Def criticizes a fictitious DJ for the overuse of sampling the classics. He says, "Jacked the beat from Planet Rock", notably ironic given the controversy with the similarities between the Kraftwerk single.[clarification needed]
The song has been remixed by Paul Oakenfold in album "Swordfish (soundtrack)" and was sampled by LL Cool J in the song "Control Myself".
Additionally, the song has been featured in the 2002 film Ali G Indahouse in what might be the films most well known scene which features Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen), Ricky C (Martin Freeman) and Dangerous Dave (Tony Way) breaking into the Prime Minister's mansion and getting through a laser room by breakdancing to the room, and was used as the main theme of the 2006 basketball video game NBA 2K7 as well as in the Playstation 1 game Thrasher: Skate and Destroy.
[edit] References
- Ross, Sean (1992). In Street Jams: Electric Funk Part 1 [CD liner notes]. Burbank, CA: Rhino/Atlantic Records.
- ^ a b William Eric Perkins (1996), Droppin' science: critical essays on rap music and hip hop culture, Temple University Press, p. 12, ISBN 1566393620, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=zGC_ZNOrKDwC&pg=PA12, retrieved 2011-05-26
- ^ Top 100 Rap Songs
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 44.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003. Record Research. p. 28.
- ^ a b "Father Afrika Bombaataa", CMJ New Music Monthly (76): p. 72, December 1999, ISSN 1074-6978, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bCoEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA72, retrieved 2011-05-26
- ^ Jason Anderson (November 28, 2008). "Slaves to the rhythm: Kanye West is the latest to pay tribute to a classic drum machine". CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/music/story/2008/11/27/f-history-of-the-808.html. Retrieved 2011-05-29.
- ^ "The Wire, Volumes 143-148", The Wire: p. 21, 1996, http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Qtw4AQAAIAAJ, retrieved 2011-05-25
- ^ [1]
- ^ Topley, John (2009). "Thirty Years of the Fairlight: John Topley's Weblog 2009".
