Lostwave
Lostwave is a term for music with little to no information available about their origins, including song titles, names of associated musicians, and recording and release dates. Lostwave songs have been the subject of online crowdsourced efforts to uncover their origins.[1]
History[edit]
Lostwave and its origins date back to the mid-19th century, when audio recording began with the invention of the phonautograph and the phonograph by Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville and Thomas Edison, respectively. The preservation of early music recordings has presented significant challenges, as, according to the Library of Congress, many of these recordings, spanning from the late 19th to the early 20th century, have become lost over time. For instance, as of 2024, only two percent of the more than 3,000 wax cylinders produced by the North American Phonograph Company between 1889 and 1894 are preserved in the National Recording Preservation Board's sound recording library.[2]
The term "lostwave" originated from the search for The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet, recorded from the German radio station Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) in the mid-1980s, likely in or after 1984, by Darius S. In 2007, Darius’ sister, Lydia H., uploaded the song to best-of-80s.de and The Spirit of Radio, sparking widespread interest across various Internet forums.[3][4]
Notable examples[edit]
"Ready 'n' Steady"[edit]
"Ready 'n' Steady" is a song by American musicians Dennis Lucchesi and Jim Franks, credited as D.A, which was recorded in 1979. Despite never being publicly or commercially released, the song debuted on the Billboard's Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart at number 106, rising to number 102 before disappearing from the chart.[5] To date, the song is the only song without an official release to appear on a Billboard chart. The song's existence was in question for many years,[6] but was confirmed to be real in 2016. It was aired on KFAI in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, that same year, the only known instance of it being aired on radio.[7]
"The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet"[edit]
"The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet" was recorded by teenager Darius S. from a radio program that aired on the West German public radio station Norddeutscher Rundfunk.[8][9] The song was recorded to a cassette tape, which also included other songs by the bands XTC and The Cure. To get a clean copy of the songs, the DJ chatter was removed, which is possibly why the song's exact airplay date and title are unknown.[10]
The song was first posted online between 2004 and 2007, but the search for it did not gain traction until 2019, when Brazilian teenager Gabriel da Silva Vieira learned of it from Nicolás Zúñiga of Spanish independent record label Dead Wax Records. He uploaded the excerpt of the song to YouTube and several music-related Reddit communities, eventually founding r/TheMysteriousSong.[11]
On 27 May 2019, Australian music news website Tone Deaf wrote the earliest article focusing on the song, with author Tyler Jenke discussing the preliminary stages of the search and noting its similarities to the 2013 search for a song eventually identified as "On the Roof" by Swedish musician Johan Lindell.[12][13]
Also in 2019, DJ Paul Baskerville was thought to be related to the song, as it was believed to have been taped off of his program Musik für junge Leute ("music for young people").[14][15][16] He suspects that it was a demo recording that was played once by an NDR presenter and then discarded.[17]
"Ulterior Motives" / "Everyone Knows That"[edit]
In 2021, WatZatSong user carl92 uploaded a 17-second snippet of a song recorded between 1982 and 1999; they claimed to have found the recording amongst files in a DVD backup, and speculated that it was a leftover from when they were learning to record audio. They also claimed that the snippet was from 1999 and possibly from Spain, where they claimed to live.[18][19][20] Initially, users referred to the song as "Everyone Knows That" due to the lyrics of the snippet.
The search for the song was initially slow to gain traction, but gained a dedicated following over time.[20] A subreddit dedicated to finding the song was created, with two of its members being interviewed by French commercial TV network TF1 on 7 January 2024.[21] Theorized sources for the song included a 1990s MTV broadcast, production music, or a commercial jingle.[22]
On 28 April 2024, the song was identified as "Ulterior Motives" by Christopher and Phillip Booth, from the 1980s pornographic film Angels of Passion.[23]
"On the Roof"[edit]
"On the Roof" is a song by Swedish musician Johan Lindell, under the name Stay (The Second Time Around). It remained unidentified until 2013 when a listener of Swedish radio station PP3, played the song in hopes that others would recognize it. Lindell had since abandoned music to pursue a career in painting, and was unaware of the search.[21][24]
D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L[edit]
In 2016, a 4chan user asked for help identifying a demo EP of D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L by Panchiko which he had found in a Oxfam shop in Britain. Despite the band name, album name, and cover art being visible, the band members, Owain, Andy, Shaun, and John, were identified only by their first names, and there was no information about the band or its members online. In 2020, the band members were identified by using metadata from the price sticker to geolocate the charity shop to Sherwood, Nottingham, and contacting Facebook users with the same first names in the Sherwood area.[25] The band has since reunited and gone on multiple international tours, as well as made a debut album.[26]
"How Long (Will It Take)"[edit]
"How Long (Will It Take)" is a song by Canadian musician Paula Toledo that was licensed for use in the TV film Secret Lives and the series 15/Love.[27] Snippets from the song were used on the menus of two Russian bootleg DVDs containing multiple movies each. The search for the song began when it was posted to a Ukrainian message board in August 2007, where it became known as "How Long Will It Take".[28] In December 2023, user the-arabara found the song after searching the database of Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada.[29] After Toledo learned of the search from her son, she uploaded it to Bandcamp and other streaming services, with the funds from the Bandcamp page being donated to the Music Heals Charitable Foundation.[27] Soon after, fake versions of the song began to appear on streaming services, which she suspected to be streaming fraud.[30]
"Try To Smile Again"[edit]
"Bravely" is a song by Estonian musician Sven Lõhmus that was lost to time for nearly two decades. The search originally started on website, Spirit Of Radio, by user Marek. For around 16-17 years, there hasn't been any much info other than getting missattributed to other songs. Only recently on Febuary 14th, 2024, which the community would refer as a Valentine's Miracle, a semi-full version of the song was posted on Youtube by user, Oskar. The song would be later identified as Martin Januus would comment that he believes that Beatboy / Sven Lõhmus had created the song along with his brother, which would be later proven true.
“Just A Game”[edit]
Just A Game is an unknown rock song posted to WatZatSong in December of 2018 by Gabor72, with no form of information on it. It contained a female and male singer. Gabor72 had posted 107 samples to WatZatSong, 106 being identified. The full song has yet to be found, and in May of 2024, it was discovered that Gabor had passed away in March of 2024. His daughter would later join in on the search.
“Cheer” / “Complex”[edit]
On September 2nd, 2015, a YouTube user by the name нет войне! would post a full mix containing several unknown songs. Later, in May of 2020, he would post every song that wasn’t identified in that mix and another one, into one video, and in those three videos, only two songs were still unidentified, one of those being a 7 second clip which the OP claimed was titled “Complex” and contained a male and female singer.
“Brighter Days” / “Back To Bed”[edit]
On April 29th, 2011, WatZatSong user daqva had uploaded a 30 second clip that was dubbed “Back To Bed.” Several theories and leads were established, but it never helped. It was taken from a radio station titled “Y-Rock” which went by that name between 2006 and 2010, leaving that as the time frame.
On May 19th, 2024, the song was identified as John Snow’s “Brighter Days” released 2011.
“Digital Girl”[edit]
On September 30th, 2023, WatZatSong user haditonvinyl uploaded a snippet from a song from between 2000 and 2003 from Track 14 on his uncle’s track mix. He uploaded a 44 second snippet on vocaroo, and the song was titled “Digital Girl.” He changed his dates twice, later becoming 2008, then 2012, where he claimed he found a list of demos from that year, with one titled “Lost In The Code.” On April 4th, 2024, a Reddit user had found an account titled “emails” and had asked him if he made the song. He confirmed it was him, and Digital Girl, was identified. However, on April 5th, 2024, due to people finding flaws in the story, haditonvinyl confessed to creating the song. “emails” and haditonvinyl were one and the same. It was later supposedly discovered that haditonvinyl had acted as a Reddit user who had passed away. He later would acknowledge the claim, but not confirm nor deny it.
“Tension Rising In The Air”[edit]
On October 31st, 2006, WatZatSong user LORRAIN would post a 15 second snippet from an unknown song. He gave no information. The same user would post 54 samples, with all but one being found. The song was a rock song, but was labelled in the post as “Classical.”
References[edit]
- ^ Dazed (27 February 2024). "Lostwave: how the internet became obsessed with lost songs". Dazed. Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ "Lost Recording List". National Recording Preservation Board. Library of Congress. n.d. Archived from the original on 19 October 2023.
- ^ Browne, David (24 September 2019). "The Unsolved Case of the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
- ^ Jones, Alexandra Mae (18 November 2019). "Help solve a decades-long mystery: What is the name of this mysterious 80s song?". CTVNews. Archived from the original on 24 May 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
- ^ "Billboard". Nielsen Business Media, Inc. 30 June 1979 – via Google Books.
- ^ Cofer, Jim (20 June 2013). "The Record That (Apparently) Doesn't Exist". jimcofer.com. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
- ^ "Crap From The Past - July 8, 2016: Paul Haney presents a world premiere of D.A.'s Ready 'N' Steady from 1979!". 8 July 2016 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Browne, David (24 September 2019). "The Unsolved Case of the Most Mysterious Song on the Internet". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
- ^ Jones, Alexandra Mae (18 November 2019). "Help solve a decades-long mystery: What is the name of this mysterious 80s song?". CTVNews. Archived from the original on 24 May 2023. Retrieved 24 May 2023.
- ^ Reeve, Tanja (30 May 2020). "Die Jagd nach dem Most Mysterious Song on the Internet". Braunschweiger Zeitung. Archived from the original on 3 July 2020. Retrieved 3 July 2020.
- ^ "This Mysterious Three-Minute Song Has The Internet Baffled". 2 Ocean's Vibe News. 29 July 2021. Archived from the original on 26 December 2021. Retrieved 25 December 2021.
- ^ Jenke, Tyler (27 May 2019). "Can you help some internet sleuths identify a mysterious song?". Tone Deaf. Archived from the original on 31 May 2023. Retrieved 1 June 2023.
- ^ Newstead, Al (23 September 2013). "The 30 Year Puzzle Of The Mystery Song Finally Solved". Tone Deaf. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
- ^ Knörer, Ekkehard (27 September 2019). "Wer kennt diesen Song?". www.zeit.de. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
- ^ "80er-Song lässt User verzweifeln: "Most mysterious song on the internet"? Spuren nach Deutschland". www.rotenburger-rundschau.de (in German). 4 June 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
- ^ Ulrich, Viola (11 September 2019). "Mysteriöser Song: Wer kennt dieses Lied aus den 80er-Jahren?". DIE WELT. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
- ^ "Hamburg Journal: Der geheimnisvolle Song aus dem NDR Archiv | ARD Mediathek". www.ardmediathek.de (in German). Archived from the original on 15 November 2020. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
- ^ às 09:00, Bárbara Castro Publicado 24 de Fevereiro de 2024 (24 February 2024). "Mistério! Conheça a música "perdida" dos anos 1980 que intriga a internet". IGN Brasil (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 25 February 2024.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ carl92. "Can you help me name this tune?". WatZatSong. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ a b Klee, Miles (12 November 2023). "Internet Sleuths Want to Track Down This Mystery Pop Song. They Only Have 17 Seconds of It". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
- ^ a b morromocoduto (7 January 2024). ""Everyone Knows That" on Journal de 13 heures (TF1, 7 January 2024) \". YouTube.
- ^ Holliday, Laura (27 February 2024). "Lostwave: how the internet became obsessed with identifying lost songs". Dazed.
- ^ Robinson, Ellie (29 April 2024). "Viral Lost Song 'Ulterior Motives' Found In Obscure '80s Porn Flick". The Music (Australia). Retrieved 29 April 2024.
- ^ Newstead, Al (23 September 2013). "The 30 Year Puzzle Of The Mystery Song Finally Solved". Tone Deaf. Retrieved 13 December 2023.
- ^ "Panchiko Reflect on "D>E>A>T>H>M>E>T>A>L," Lost Y2K Demo Turned Internet Cult Hit". Bandcamp Daily. 18 May 2020. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
- ^ Curran, Caitlin (16 August 2022). "'We didn't even know they were there': the little-known bands finding fans years later". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
- ^ a b Derdeyn, Stuart (20 December 2023). "Global online search for the author of a 16-year-old song comes to a close in Vancouver". Vancouver Sun.
- ^ Wells, V. S. (19 December 2023). "Internet sleuths spent a decade trying to find a mystery song—and turns out it's from a Vancouver musician". The Georgia Straight.
- ^ Azpiri, Jon (19 December 2023). "Internet sleuths looked for the singer of a mystery song for 16 years. They found her in Vancouver". CBC.
- ^ Azpiri, Jon (8 February 2024). "Fate of Vancouver musician's long-lost song highlights growing problem of streaming fraud". CBC.