What is the twentieth century's signature sound?

You could have a debate about it. Some might say the slow drone of an aero engine. Maybe from a lone fighter crawling across an azure 1940s sky. Or the scream of a fast jet passing low overhead, shaking the ground. Or the wimp wimp whup of a helicopter. Or the roar of a laden 747 lifting off. Or the crump of bombs falling on a city. All of those would qualify. They're all uniquely twentieth-century noises. They were never heard before. Never, in all of history. Some crazy optimists might lobby for a Beatles' song. A yeah, yeah, yeah chorus fading under the screams of their audience. I would have sympathy for that choice. But a song and screaming could never qualify. Music and desire have been around since the dawn of time. They weren't invented after 1900.

No, the twentieth century's signature sound is the squeal and clatter of tank tracks on a paved street. That sound was heard in Warsaw, and Rotterdam, and Stalingrad, and Berlin. Then it was heard again in Budapest and Prague, and Seoul and Saigon. It's a brutal sound. It's the sound of fear. It speaks of a massive over-whelming advantage in power. And it speaks of remote, impersonal indifference. Tank treads squeal and clatter and the very noise they make tells you they can't be stopped. It tells you you're weak and powerless against the machine. Then one track stops and the other keeps on going and the tank wheels around and lurches straight towards you, roaring and squealing. That's the real twentieth-century sound.

...from "The Enemy" by Lee Child.

Is he right?

The Jackboot, marching on gravel.

and

The Wurzels.

The Jackboot, marching on gravel.

and

The Wurzels.

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...and the flop flop flop of their wellington boots through the cow patch?

This "crazy optimist" approach might even get you fully reinstated.

"What is the twentieth century's signature sound?"

The sound of the petrol engine...

followed by the sound of the keyboard tapping...

I think the sound of the century was the immortal words " That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" beamed down from so far.

A Concorde taking off ,a wall coming down and the death of a Starship.

The squack of a modem connecting a dial-up connection.

Phrases remembered:-

'Thats one small step .....'

and

'Houston, we have a problem'

and

'Obviously a major malfunction'

The sound that my ex-TGF made approximately 8 minutes into the act.

The sound she was still making a couple of hours later.

But above all,

The sound of silence after hours of performing the act.

The sound that my ex-TGF made approximately 8 minutes into the act.

The sound she was still making a couple of hours later.

But above all,

The sound of silence after hours of performing the act.

A couple hours?

She definitly buys good batteries.

cv

The sound that my ex-TGF made approximately 8 minutes into the act.

The sound she was still making a couple of hours later.

But above all,

The sound of silence after hours of performing the act.

Yeah, thats a 'slow puncture' that is.

<After 2 hours all the air will have escaped so the hissing stops>

What you need to do is half inflate 'her', then put 'her' in the bath and look for where the leaks are. Then using patches from a bicycle repair kit to fix it up

Happen to you alot does it?

cv

The sound that my ex-TGF made approximately 8 minutes into the act.

The sound she was still making a couple of hours later.

But above all,

The sound of silence after hours of performing the act.

Yeah, thats a 'slow puncture' that is.

<After 2 hours all the air will have escaped so the hissing stops>

What you need to do is half inflate 'her', then put 'her' in the bath and look for where the leaks are. Then using patches from a bicycle repair kit to fix it up

well...in the 20th century I turned 40 years old...and I was with some friends who are clinicaly schizophrenic. Someone said ' it's horrible to turn 40 years old...' she was nuts as well...and the king looney schiztz said 'when you turn 40 you hear the sound of your life falling into place...plop, plop,plop...'

a wise man...

well...in the 20th century I turned 40 years old...and I was with some friends who are clinicaly schizophrenic. Someone said ' it's horrible to turn 40 years old...' she was nuts as well...and the king looney schiztz said 'when you turn 40 you hear the sound of your life falling into place...plop, plop,plop...'

a wise man...

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I've heard something similar: when you are 40, you have the face you have earned.

White noise.

In all seriousness I have to say the sound of the 20th century is the roar/rattle of the internal combustion engine. Automobiles, aircraft, highways, easy international travel all stemmed from it.

The internet may have been the face of the end of the century, but the technology it piggybacks on came from the 1830s.

cv

I think the sound of the century was the immortal words " That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" beamed down from so far.

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shady lamp your grammer is incorrect

"was the immortal words"

If its words, then i'd nominate:-

"I've got a brand new combine harvester, i'll give you the key"

Ludwig Wittgenstein.

An electric guitar.

If its words, then i'd nominate:-

"I've got a brand new combine harvester, i'll give you the key"

Ludwig Wittgenstein.

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...don't forget:

"1.1 The world is all that is the case.

1.2 I am my world.

2.1 Get off my case.

2.2 Get off my world."

Frederick Wurzel

I think it would make more sense to divide the 20th Century into two. From the end of WW2 and onwards is clearly a very different period.

While the combustion engine or the ragtime piano track behind a silent movie may represent the first half, perhaps the jet engine would be most fitting to represent the final half - inexpensive mass jet travel happened in the second half of the century, and is arguably the major accelerator for globalization.

In all seriousness I have to say the sound of the 20th century is the roar/rattle of the internal combustion engine. cv

Errrm.....citizens of the 19th century also heard the sound of the internal combustion engine. That was the century it was invented.

I would say that the sound of the 20th century is from that machine that goes "ping".

The name of it escapes me at the moment.

In all seriousness I have to say the sound of the 20th century is the roar/rattle of the internal combustion engine. cv

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Errrm.....citizens of the 19th century also heard the sound of the internal combustion engine. That was the century it was invented.

I would say that the sound of the 20th century is from that machine that goes "ping".

The name of it escapes me at the moment.

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Is he right?

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I don't think so.

If I could be a bit more philosophical, then I think the sound or sounds of the 20th century were the sounds that "no one heard."

- hundreds of thousands of Armenians killed under Sultan Abdul Hamid

- millions of Jews killed in the camps under Hitler

- millions of Korean, Chinese, Philipino and Thai wiped out by invading Japanese armies

- millions of Russians killed in the gulags under Stalin

- millions of Cambodians dead in the killing fields under Pot

- hundreds of thousands of Kurds executed under Hussein

And those are just the ones that usually get the big headlines. There are millions and millions more:

http://www.genocidewatch.org/genocidetable.htm

Man's inhumanity to man. That's d*mn right! Here's to hoping things go better in the 21st century.