You start out in Earth's orbit, then push back through the cosmos with a running ticker of how many light-minutes, -hours, or -years you are from our planet. Depending on how far you are from Earth, you'll hear a chart-topping song from the corresponding month or year. You can either just kick back and enjoy the ride, scroll your mouse wheel to activate hyperdrive, or manually scrub through time and space using the timeline on the left of the site.
It may sound complicated, but calculating the reach of radio waves over time and space is really straightforward. Radio waves travel at the speed of light, so if you were one light year away from Earth—that's 5.9 trillion miles—you'd hear broadcasts from a year ago. And it may have taken New Horizons nearly a decade to get close to Pluto, but the dwarf planet is a mere five light-hours or so from Earth. Every known planet or former planet in our solar system would still be hearing contemporary jams broadcast in the last few hours.
Three of the members (writer Chris Baker, developer Mike Lacher, and designer Brian Moore) of Lightyear.fm's team have worked together before on independent creative projects. Lacher built the audio system for the site, Moore designed the site interface, and Baker made sure the tunes were legit.
So Gliese 86 is listening to the best metal guitar riff of all time.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday July 16 2015, @02:34AM
he he...there are so many great guitar riffs out there now. I kinda like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aCOMU6qpJI [youtube.com]
Or...how about these guys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMEzFgCLv8c [youtube.com]
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday July 16 2015, @03:44AM
Clapton is phenomenal. I saw him live at St. John of the Divine [stjohndivine.org] playing a private benefit for Bill Clinton a few years ago. He played "Layla," "Cocaine," and "Crossroads." Some musicians do fine in the studio but not so well live, but Clapton is 100% the real deal.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday July 16 2015, @04:30AM
So true. B.B. and J.J. weren't exactly chopped liver either. :-)
When life isn't going right, go left.
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Thursday July 16 2015, @04:44AM
Eric Clapton for several years every three years would put on the "Crossroads Guitar Festival". All the musicians here hand picked by Clapton. I think some of the best electric guitar music ever came out of that fest. Such as Carlos and Eric: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n2d1_OIHZ4 [youtube.com]
When life isn't going right, go left.