The Sound-Sweep

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"The Sound-Sweep" is a short story by J.G. Ballard in which the title character, a mute boy vacuuming up stray music in a world without it, befriends an opera singer living in an abandoned recording studio. As all music has been rendered obsolete thanks to advances in ulrasound, the opera singer is destitute. Trevor Horn has said that his lyrics of "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles were inspired by this story of a world without music.[1] Irish Band "Band on an Island" named their debut album after the short story, and the inlay sleeve features a picture of an old theatre inspired by its opera singing character. It was first published in Science Fantasy, Volume 13, Number 39, February 1960 and was reprinted in the collection, The Four-Dimensional Nightmare.[2]

References

  1. Hodgkinson, Will (5 November 2004). "Horn of plenty". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 September 2008. 
  2. "JG Ballard Book Cover Scans: 1960–61". The Terminal Collection. Retrieved 6 January 2009. 


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