Sleeping Satellite

"Sleeping Satellite" was the debut single by the British singer-songwriter Tasmin Archer, released in 1992. The song was a number one in the UK, and was also an international hit.

Lyrics and music

Although first released in 1992, Archer and her co-writers wrote the song in the late 1980s, but it was only when Archer got a record deal that the song saw the light of day.

Four instruments were used in the recording of "Sleeping Satellite", John Hughes and Robbie McIntosh provided the guitars in the song, and John Beck and Paul Wickens were keyboard players. The drummer was Graham Broadhead whilst Gary Maughan played Fairlight.

Archer sings backing vocals on the track along with Tessa Niles and Carol Kenyon.

The lyrics of the song reference the Apollo Missions of the 1960s, characterised as "man's greatest adventure"; the sleeping satellite of the title being The Moon.

Chart performances

"Sleeping Satellite" was released to the UK on 31 August 1992 and swiftly rose up the UK charts to the number one spot, replacing "Ebeneezer Goode" by The Shamen. It stayed there for two weeks, before being dethroned by Boyz II Men’s "End of the Road".

Tasmin Archer

Tasmin Archer (born 3 August 1963) is an English pop singer. Her first album, Great Expectations, spawned the hit "Sleeping Satellite", which reached #1 in the United Kingdom and Ireland. She won a BRIT Award in 1993 and went on to release other albums.

Early life

Archer was born in Bradford, Yorkshire. She attended Grange Upper School and after graduating, first worked as a sewing machine operator. She attended Bradford College in 1980 to study typing, and then became a clerk at Leeds Magistrates' Court.

Archer joined a group called Dignity as a backing vocalist, and played with different bands around the Bradford area. She helped out at a recording studio in Bradford called Flexible Response, and subsequently began working with musicians John Hughes and John Beck as The Archers. During this time, Tasmin Archer developed skills in the music business.

Musical career

Great Expectations

Archer signed to EMI in 1990, and released her first single, "Sleeping Satellite" in August 1992, which went to #1 in the UK Singles Chart. The single also enjoyed minor success in the U.S. where it peaked at #32 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album Great Expectations followed in October 1992. It reached #8 in the UK Albums Chart, and achieved gold disc status by December for sales of more than 100,000 copies. Further singles from the album followed, and although they were Top 40 hits in the UK, they did not achieve the same level of success as her début.

House music

House music is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in Chicago in the early 1980s. It was initially popularized in Chicago, circa 1984. House music quickly spread to other American cities such as Detroit, New York City, and Newark – all of which developed their own regional scenes. In the mid-to-late 1980s, house music became popular in Europe as well as major cities in South America, and Australia. Early house music commercial success in Europe saw songs such as "Pump Up The Volume" by MARRS (1987), "House Nation" by House Master Boyz and the Rude Boy of House (1987), "Theme from S'Express" by S'Express (1988) and "Doctorin' the House" by Coldcut (1988) in the pop charts. Since the early to mid-1990s, house music has been infused in mainstream pop and dance music worldwide.

Early house music was generally dance-based music characterized by repetitive 4/4 beats, rhythms mainly provided by drum machines, off-beat hi-hat cymbals, and synthesized basslines. While house displayed several characteristics similar to disco music, it was more electronic and minimalistic, and the repetitive rhythm of house was more important than the song itself. House music in the 2010s, while keeping several of these core elements, notably the prominent kick drum on every beat, varies widely in style and influence, ranging from the soulful and atmospheric deep house to the more minimalistic microhouse. House music has also fused with several other genres creating fusion subgenres, such as euro house, tech house, electro house and jump house.

Sleep

Sleep is a naturally recurring state of mind characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, inhibition of nearly all voluntary muscles, and reduced interactions with surroundings. It is distinguished from wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli, but is more easily reversed than the state of hibernation or of being comatose. Mammalian sleep occurs in repeating periods, in which the body alternates between two highly distinct modes known as non-REM and REM sleep. REM stands for "rapid eye movement" but involves many other aspects including virtual paralysis of the body.

During sleep, most systems in an animal are in an anabolic state, building up the immune, nervous, skeletal, and muscular systems. Sleep in non-human animals is observed in mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and, in some form, in insects and even in simpler animals such as nematodes. The internal circadian clock promotes sleep daily at night in diurnal species (such as humans) and in the day in nocturnal organisms (such as rodents). However, sleep patterns vary widely among animals and among different individual humans. Industrialization and artificial light have substantially altered human sleep habits in the last 100 years.

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an artificial object which has been intentionally placed into orbit. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as Earth's Moon.

The world's first artificial satellite, the Sputnik 1, was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Since then, thousands of satellites have been launched into orbit around the Earth. Some satellites, notably space stations, have been launched in parts and assembled in orbit. Artificial satellites originate from more than 40 countries and have used the satellite launching capabilities of ten nations. About a thousand satellites are currently operational, whereas thousands of unused satellites and satellite fragments orbit the Earth as space debris. A few space probes have been placed into orbit around other bodies and become artificial satellites to the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Vesta, Eros, Ceres, and the Sun.

Satellites are used for a large number of purposes. Common types include military and civilian Earth observation satellites, communications satellites, navigation satellites, weather satellites, and research satellites. Space stations and human spacecraft in orbit are also satellites. Satellite orbits vary greatly, depending on the purpose of the satellite, and are classified in a number of ways. Well-known (overlapping) classes include low Earth orbit, polar orbit, and geostationary orbit.