Arturo Toscanini conducts "The Internationale"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OPvWFDz...

Billy Bragg's modern English lyrics are now an accepted version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmHePb-r...

Rand might have liked this one. It's one of the few popular numbers that uses the names of great historical achievers in its lyrics:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpcEhFlwY...
Ella Fitzgerald
"They All Laughed"
(George & Ira Gershwin)

The odds were a hundred to one against me
The world thought the heights were too high to climb

But people from Missouri never incensed me
Oh, I wasn't a bit concerned
For from hist'ry I had learned
How many, many times the worm had turned. . .

They all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the world was round
They all laughed when Edison recorded sound
They all laughed at Wilbur and his brother when they said that man could fly
They told Marconi wireless was a phony, it's the same old cry

They laughed at me wanting you,
said I was reaching for the moon
But oh, you came through,
now they'll have to change their tune
They all said we never could be happy,
they laughed at us and how!
But ho, ho, ho! Who's got the last laugh now?

They all laughed at Rockefeller Center,
now they're fighting to get in
They all laughed at Whitney and his cotton gin
They all laughed Fulton and his steamboat, Hershey and his chocolate bar
Ford and his Lizzie, kept the laughers busy, that's how people are

They laughed at me wanting you,
said it would be, "Hello, Goodbye."
But oh, you came through, now they're eating humble pie

They all said we'd never get together,
darling, let's take a bow
For ho, ho, ho! Who's got the last laugh?
Hee, hee, hee! Let's at the past laugh,
Ha, ha, ha! Who's got the last laugh now?

Rand was very explicit about her musical preferences. She considered Wagner crude, a street-corner organ grinder. Beethoven and Mozart both presented negative, anti-life themes. You will find many students of Objectivism who feel differently. Feelings matter. They are the summation of your ideas. Overall, Rand's favorite genre was operetta or light opera: plays with a lot of songs. She detested rock 'n' roll and had no appreciation for jazz. She never mentioned blues or swing. However, she did engage in ballroom dancing, so that would require Big Band sound.

Note: 'Had to delete and re-post to fix a URL - again. TinyURL for all this time...]

You have to perform a kind of "suspension of disbelief" or qualify it as "If she could be pursuaded to listen to pop-rock in the first place," but... The first two songs that spring to mind that **I think** Rand might've absolutely loved - for their spectacular sense-of-life, are both by Japanese artists:

- "Sampomichi" ("Walking-Track") by the '90s band Judy And Mary. It's just a song about taking a walk with one's favorite person on one's favorite walking path in each of the four seasons, but singer Yuki Isoya's melodic exuberance is irrepressible to the point of explosive in this song. YMMV, but it's one of the most powerful expressions of sheer joie de vivre I've ever heard. Somebody on YouTube took a bunch of video footage from his walks through different areas of Tokyo in 1999, edited it together and sped it up a bit, and used "Sampomichi" as the audio, for a stunning effect:
http://tinyurl.com/3kxvk4n

I think Miss Rand would've stood up and cheered at the lyrics too. A translation:
http://tinyurl.com/3f6lwbd

The other one is something I stumbled onto more recently, "Merrily High Go Round" by the band Doll$Boxx, which was a one-off CD collaboration that was basically the band Gacharic Spin with singer Fuki from the "power metal" band Light Bringer on vocals. Again, one of the most explosively exuberant songs I've ever heard, at least in the choruses and bridge. [I don't have a handy lyric translation for this one and my Nihongo is still in the "Where is the beer? Where is the toilet? I love you" stage, so I'm no help and the lyrical content is gravy anyway.]

It's a pop band but with stunning instrumental chops - shades of Rush, Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment - from an all-girl band in Lolita getups who do indeed play all of their instruments, and play them well. To my ears, what really makes this band is Koga's phenomenal bass playing - she's heavy on the "slap" style, but... a great bassist is a great bassist, says Aristotle (indirectly, at least,) and there is a bass groove going on here to make Geddy weep. 8^]

Anyhow, "Tiddlywinks Music" has just blasted into space...
http://tinyurl.com/lyl3vwf

[Honorable mention: "Loud Twin Stars"...whoa! http://tinyurl.com/mletw24 ]

I could come up with a lot more, but this is already a book so I'll stop. (I try and try for brevity but it's mostly useless. When discussing music, doubly so. 8^)

I´m pretty sure she would have liked Tchaicovsky and, today; King Crimson in rock, lots of Debussy and probably Piazzolla and the Bossa Nova movement.

My Way sung by Sinatra

I remember reading that she liked what she called "Tiddlywink music," and that she and her husband and friends would march around the room to it, while she conducted with a baton. Here is some information, and a collection of recordings of songs she reportedly liked: http://dismuke.org/aynrand/selections.ht...

When Rand talked about Halley's missing 5th Concerto, I have always imagined it to be Keith Emerson's Piano Concerto No. 1 (from ELP's Works Vol 1.). There is a simple, up lifting melody that winds its way through the piece that is mostly carried by individual instruments which to me reinforced the importance of an individual's achievement against the backdrop of a supporting orchestra. This melody is then dropped into chaotic and dischordant movements, against which it fights and struggles until finally emerging as the dominant and heroic theme.
The music was released toward the very end of Rand's life and I've seen no indication that she was aware of it or commented on it. But that is the beauty of the written word. Lacking explicit references, one can interpret things as one sees fit. And so, for me, this is my 5th Concerto.
It's not too hard to find streaming sources for this. Be sure to listen to all 3 movements.

"Hope Eyrie" by Leslie Fish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cVOOXQo...

Jan

Ms. Rand's taste in music was rather narrow. Music can express all the emotions, and except for songs and aria can be enjoyed for their sound alone. I can compare music to food -- it's a matter of taste. Some will prefer French cooking with its sauces and multiple flavorings, others are happy with a chili dog. Some like exotic foods, some, the simpler the better, and some, like me, like almost all and is willing to try it before rejecting it. That means I can pick and choose from any musical genre. There is one exception, for me, which is Rap/Hip-Hop. So far, everything I've heard is not, strictly speaking, music at all.

How about, "It's my party and I'll do as I want to"? At least that should be one of our presidents favorites.

Anything by RUSH

I'd be surprised if "Rhapsody In Blue " was not one of her favorites. It is very uplifting, capturing the throbbing vitality of a country she admired.

years ago, I heard that Rand liked Saint-Saens piano concerto 2 (g minor), so I bought a copy. it's a wonderful imaginative sparkling triumphant thing with all kinds of melodies buried in it -- check it out (the 3rd -- presto -- is all Richard Halley):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sentB_7U7...

Maybe Oingo Boingo: http://youtu.be/yqwUSaZZy08

I think you might be making more of a political point with this post, but there is an excellent essay on point. Have you read We The Living yet j? Music is one of the themes in that story and here is an essay on point:
http://objectivish.blogspot.mx/2009/03/m...

Rand would have loved the entire career of Eminem, whether or not she would have particularly enjoyed listening to the music. Had she lived long enough, she might have had to face the tough conclusion that rap can be musically amazing. Even if she didn't agree with John and Yoko politically, it's hard for me to believe that Rand never spent a moment of her life privately admiring some of the things they did. "God" by Lennon is one of the most Objectivist songs I've ever heard in my life. In it, he goes on and on about how he no longer believes in anything but himself and the woman he loves while mentioning a litany of concepts/cultural institutions Rand openly disapproved of, and finally, he says "God is a concept by which we measure our pain." It's hard for me to imagine, no pun intended that Lennon, who read voraciously, never would have picked up a single Rand novel in his life. I think he would have quite liked The Fountainhead if he ever read it. Even if she couldn't have stood listening to an actual song by NWA, she would have admired their hard-line support of freedom of speech. She would have loved Ice-Cube's commitment to his work and Dre's ability to package the musical Howard Roarks of the world so that they could have such a lasting effect on culture. I'm going to cheat a little here and include much of what is played on the piano in the show, House MD because not only would she have loved Greg House, but Hugh Laurie is also an extremely talented musician.

And nobody listed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRTHdC7k...

or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTSLRbm8...

?!

"The Last Waltz" recorded by Webb Pierce/ Mira Freeman. !953 Wiki.

I hadn't heard this one before even though I listened to Glenn once in a while. Glenn has played some big brotherish theme music a few times that reminded me of Ayn Rand.

I am glad to have entertained everyone with this stimulating question. I knew that she wasn't a Beatles fan. Rand cared about the beat and the violence of the music, but where there were words, they mattered, too.

here you go..

Kino, they were a Russian band back just before the collapse. Since they were not officially sanctioned by the government there was a lot of stuff they could not do. Yet, at one point they were pretty much the most popular band in the soviet union. Even today when Zvezda Po Imeni Solntse gets covered the whole audience will sing along because they all know the song.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jmmHB3K...

Rock the Casbah!
https://www.google.com/search?q=rock+the...