Planet Rock (song)  

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 +{| class="toccolours" style="float: left; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 2em; font-size: 85%; background:#c6dbf7; color:black; width:30em; max-width: 40%;" cellspacing="5"
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 +"In 1981, [[Afrika Bambaataa|Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force]], together with producer [[Arthur Baker (musician)|Arthur Baker]], paid tribute with [to [[Kraftwerk]] with] "[[Planet Rock (song)|Planet Rock]]," which used the melody from "[[Trans-Europe Express (song)|Trans-Europe Express]]" over the rhythm from "[[Numbers (Kraftwerk song)|Numbers]]." In the process they created [[electro (music)|electro]] and moved [[Hip hop music|rap]] out of the [[Sugar Hill Records|Sugarhill]] age." --"[[Machine Soul: A History Of Techno]]" (1993) by Jon Savage
 +<hr>
 +"In New York, the German band almost single-handedly sired the [[electro]] movement: Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force's 1982 smash "[[Planet Rock (song) |Planet Rock]]" stole its doomy melody from "[[Trans-Europe Express (song)|Trans-Europe Express]]" and its beatbox rhythm from Kraftwerk's 1981 track "[[Numbers (Kraftwerk song)|Numbers]].""--''[[Generation Ecstasy]]'' (1998) by Simon Reynolds
 +
 +|}
{{Template}} {{Template}}
-"'''Planet Rock'''" is a [[1982 in music|1982]] song by [[Afrika Bambaataa]] & the [[Soulsonic Force]]. It is widely regarded as one of the earliest and most influential [[rap]] songs. Although it was only a minor hit in the US and UK, it helped change the foundations of [[Hip hop music|hip-hop]] and [[dance music]]. It is credited with giving birth to the [[electro (music)|electro]] style and helped pave the way for other [[music genre|genre]]s such as [[techno]], [[House music|house]], and [[Trance (music)|trance]].+ 
 +{{Template}}
 + 
 +"'''Planet Rock'''" is a [[1982 in music|1982]] song by [[Afrika Bambaataa]] & the [[Soulsonic Force]]. It is widely regarded as one of the earliest and most influential [[rap]] songs. Although it was only a minor hit in the US and UK, it helped change the foundations of [[Hip hop music|hip-hop]] and [[dance music]]. It is credited with giving birth to the [[electro (music)|electro]] style and helped pave the way for other [[music genre|genre]]s such as [[techno]] and [[House music|house]].
[[Record producer|Produced]] by [[Arthur Baker (musician)|Arthur Baker]], "Planet Rock" blends [[synthesizer]] and [[vocoder]] sounds with [[breakbeat]]ing. It was influenced both by [[Electronic music|electronic]] artists such as [[Kraftwerk]] and the [[funk]] musician [[George Clinton (funk musician)|George Clinton]]. It was the first hip-hop recording to use a [[drum machine]]. [[Record producer|Produced]] by [[Arthur Baker (musician)|Arthur Baker]], "Planet Rock" blends [[synthesizer]] and [[vocoder]] sounds with [[breakbeat]]ing. It was influenced both by [[Electronic music|electronic]] artists such as [[Kraftwerk]] and the [[funk]] musician [[George Clinton (funk musician)|George Clinton]]. It was the first hip-hop recording to use a [[drum machine]].
- 
==Kraftwerk borrowings== ==Kraftwerk borrowings==
-The main [[melody]] of "Planet Rock" is borrowed from the title track of Kraftwerk's ''[[Trans Europe Express]]'', one of the most influential electronic albums of all time. Another part of the song contains elements of the song "Numbers" from the 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]].+The main [[melody]] of "Planet Rock" is borrowed from the title track of Kraftwerk's [[electronic art music|electronic album]] ''[[Trans Europe Express]]''. Another part of the song contains elements of the song "[[Numbers]]" from the Kraftwerk album ''[[Computer World]]'', another track which was popular on black music dancefloors in the UK and the US. The borrowings eventually resulted in an [[out-of-court settlement]] between Kraftwerk and [[Tommy Boy Records]] head [[Tom Silverman]].
 +==Legacy==
 +Since its release, "Planet Rock" has had a large influence on music and on popular culture. In 2008, it was ranked number 21 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of Hip Hop. MC [[Common (rapper)|Common]] cited this song as a major influence on his album ''[[Universal Mind Control]]'', especially in the [[Universal Mind Control (song)|title track]].
 +In the [[Black Star (group)|Black Star]] cover of [[Slick Rick|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.
-== ''When the Planet Rocked'' by Greg Wilson ==+The song was remixed by [[Paul Oakenfold]] on the album "[[Swordfish (soundtrack)]]" and was sampled by [[LL Cool J]] in the song "[[Control Myself]]."
-COMMEMORATING THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF A CLASSIC+
-By [[Greg Wilson]]+Jazz and neosoul vocalist Dwight Trible released a track on his 2005 album "[[Love is the Answer]]" entitled "[[I Was Born on Planet Rock]]" featuring rapper [[Scienz of Life]], a tribute to "Planet Rock" and its legacy on hip hop culture and music.
-Exactly a quarter of a century ago, in May [[1982]], I bought a record that would become truly historic, the type of record which splits the musical atom, provoking either love or hate but never indifference. This was the seminal ‘Planet Rock’ by Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force, hot out of New York as an import on the now legendary [[Tommy Boy]] label. My first thought on hearing it was the obvious one, it sounded remarkably like a speeded-up cover of [[Kraftwerk]]’s ‘Trans-Europe Express’ (it had also drawn its inspiration from another Kraftwerk track, [[‘Numbers’]], as well as [[Captain Sky]]’s ‘[[Super Sporm]]’). The [[haunting]] keyboard line was definitely there, but instead of a monotone Germanic voice this had a rap over the top of it, enticing us with its now+Additionally, the song has been featured in the 2002 film ''[[Ali G Indahouse]]'' in what might be the film’s best-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 through the room and was used as the main theme of the 2006 [[basketball]] [[video game]] ''[[NBA 2K]]7'' as well as in the [[Playstation 1]] game [[Thrasher: Skate and Destroy]].
-immortal call ‘party people, party people, can y’all get funky?’, before the full weight of this electronic [[oddity]] kicked-in. +
-We had no real conception of what was going on in the [[Bronx]] at the time, and how the Hip-Hop scene was beginning to gain recognition within the wider New York community - it would be another six months before the penny finally began to drop once all was revealed in [[Malcolm McLaren]]’s ‘[[Buffalo Gal]]’s’ video. We could only view this track in complete isolation, and pretty much everyone who was anyone on the black music scene instantly dismissed it as the worst possible kind of junk. I could almost feel the laughter behind my back as I walked out of Spin Inn in Manchester having purchased a copy. A fool wasting his money, or so they must have mused.+== Essays ==
 +*''[[When the Planet Rocked]]'' by [[Greg Wilson]]
 +*"[[Party People]]"
 +*"[[Yo Yo Get Funky]]")
-‘Planet Rock’ sounded amazing over the big systems at the venues in which I worked, [[The Pier]] in [[Wigan]] and [[Legend]] in [[Manchester]], but it outraged some of the old [[Jazz-Funk]] crowd who’d been+{{GFDL}}
-regulars at the Pier for as long as I could remember - the Peech Boys might have eventually filtered through with the old guard, but this was all a step too far and it was worrying when I became aware+
-that a number of them were beginning to drift away around this time. However, it was a case of swings and roundabouts, with an increasing amount of travellers heading in, most notably from the Midlands and West Yorkshire, and also for the first time, in force, from Manchester. What was particularly noticeable was that the new faces were mainly black, replacing the absent white ones. Electro, on its arrival, found its audience in the black community – it almost always happened to be white people making the now thoroughly preposterous pronouncement that this ‘wasn’t black music’.+
-Despite the initial ridicule, I continued play the dreaded ‘Planet Rock’ and, whilst I was berated behind my back and even sometimes to my face for what they perceived to be my extreme bad+[[Category:WMC]]
-taste, the kids danced on and, as George Clinton would later observe in his single ‘Loopzilla’, it drove people nuts! Clinton must have been having a wry smile at all the kafuffle surrounding this record, a million seller in the US, for it was he and his P Funkonauts who’d first launched black music into space some years earlier. Electro-Funk was the natural successor to P Funk, and having been inspired by this Bambaataa would, in turn, inspire Clinton to create some Electro-Funk gems of his own, most notably ‘Loopzilla’ and ‘Atomic Dog’.+
- +
-Apart from confirming Bambaataa’s phenomenal arrival, ‘Planet Rock’ would also be the 12” that provided the big breakthrough for Electro-Funk’s greatest producer, Arthur Baker. Its use of the now legendary Roland TR-808 drum machine would instigate a whole new approach to rhythm, heralding the age of the beatbox. Along with Arthur Baker and Soul Sonic Force, the track was written by John Robie, whose pioneering use of the first+
-digital samplers, the Emulator and Fairlight, would ensure he was in great demand during the years to come, including a number of co-production credits on subsequent Baker projects.+
- +
-‘Planet Rock’ marks the end of one era in the history of dance music and the beginning of another – it well and truly lit the blue touch paper for what was to follow, with Hip-Hop, House, and Techno all indebted to this electronic wonder. It’s difficult now, with two and a half further decades of dance behind us, to fully appreciate just how radically different this record was back then, it might as well have come from Mars - that was how they wanted it to sound and that’s exactly how it sounded, hole in one and a quantum leap in the evolution of dance music.+
- +
- +
-Copyright Greg Wilson – May 2007+
- +
-Further Information: www.electrofunkroots.co.uk+
-Email: href="mailto:greg@electrofunkroots.co.uk">greg@electrofunkroots.co.uk+
- +
-* for the full lowdown on ‘Planet Rock’ I highly recommend Mark McCords feature on the record in Wax Poetics #21: http://waxpoetics.com+
- +
- +
-http://www.electrofunkroots.co.uk+
-http://www.myspace.com/djgregwilson+
-{{GFDL}}+

Current revision

"In 1981, Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force, together with producer Arthur Baker, paid tribute with [to Kraftwerk with] "Planet Rock," which used the melody from "Trans-Europe Express" over the rhythm from "Numbers." In the process they created electro and moved rap out of the Sugarhill age." --"Machine Soul: A History Of Techno" (1993) by Jon Savage


"In New York, the German band almost single-handedly sired the electro movement: Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force's 1982 smash "Planet Rock" stole its doomy melody from "Trans-Europe Express" and its beatbox rhythm from Kraftwerk's 1981 track "Numbers.""--Generation Ecstasy (1998) by Simon Reynolds

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"Planet Rock" is a 1982 song by Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force. It is widely regarded as one of the earliest and most influential rap songs. Although it was only a minor hit in the US and UK, it helped change the foundations of hip-hop and dance music. It is credited with giving birth to the electro style and helped pave the way for other genres such as techno and house.

Produced by Arthur Baker, "Planet Rock" blends synthesizer and vocoder sounds with breakbeating. It was influenced both by electronic artists such as Kraftwerk and the funk musician George Clinton. It was the first hip-hop recording to use a drum machine.

Kraftwerk borrowings

The main melody of "Planet Rock" is borrowed from the title track of Kraftwerk's electronic album Trans Europe Express. Another part of the song contains elements of the song "Numbers" from the Kraftwerk album Computer World, another track which was popular on black music dancefloors in the UK and the US. The borrowings eventually resulted in an out-of-court settlement between Kraftwerk and Tommy Boy Records head Tom Silverman.

Legacy

Since its release, "Planet Rock" has had a large influence on music and on popular 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 on his album Universal Mind Control, especially in 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.

The song was remixed by Paul Oakenfold on the album "Swordfish (soundtrack)" and was sampled by LL Cool J in the song "Control Myself."

Jazz and neosoul vocalist Dwight Trible released a track on his 2005 album "Love is the Answer" entitled "I Was Born on Planet Rock" featuring rapper Scienz of Life, a tribute to "Planet Rock" and its legacy on hip hop culture and music.

Additionally, the song has been featured in the 2002 film Ali G Indahouse in what might be the film’s best-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 through 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.

Essays




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Planet Rock (song)" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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