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Internet Sleuths Want to Track Down This Mystery Pop Song

Rolling Stone
Jason Tate

Rolling Stone:

The grainy recording, just 17 seconds long, captures what indeed sounds like the catchy hook to an upbeat 1980s New Wave tune, though most of the words are hard to make out. It didn’t attract much interest at first. Yet as the months passed without an identification, each proposal of a potential artist being ruled out one after another, a cultish fascination began to take hold. Two years later, it’s the most-commented thread in WatZatSong history, and there’s a 5,000-strong subreddit devoted to theories about the song. Fans have recorded remixes and covers imagining the missing verses, generated longer versions with AI, and perpetrated successful hoaxes about where the original came from. But the fact remains: no one knows the band behind “Everyone Knows That.”

SAG-AFTRA Approves Deal to End Historic Strike

Film
Jason Tate

Variety:

SAG-AFTRA negotiators have approved a tentative agreement that will end the longest actors strike against the film and TV studios in Hollywood history.

In an announcement Wednesday, the union said the 118-day strike would officially end at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday.

The union’s negotiating committee approved the deal on a unanimous vote. The agreement next goes to the SAG-AFTRA national board for approval on Friday.

Hayley Williams Talks With Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton
Jason Tate

Hayley Williams talked with Dolly Parton for a new Consequence feature:

Because I have so many friends in the rock business that would die to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – people that really spend their whole life doing that.

I’ll take anything you give me in country music because I feel like I will have earned it, because I’ve worked my whole life in it. But I felt like this was something they voted on and I did not want to take votes away from anybody, like a Pat Benatar. You know, the girls that were in the business.

I just said I did not want to do it. It caused a bit of a controversy, and I did not want to stir up controversy. I’m always trying to keep things as calm as I can.

So anyway, they went ahead and put me in it anyhow. [Laughs] They explained why they do it – it’s people’s music that had influenced other people’s music, or whatever. So I said, “If they put me in, I’ll accept it gracefully,” but I still didn’t feel like I’d earned it. And I had often talked about doing a rock album, and well, I’m also not one to miss timing. So I thought, if I’m ever gonna do it, I’m doing it now, so I can feel I earned it.

Brian Fallon Reviews Every Gaslight Anthem Album

Gaslight Anthem
Jason Tate

Brian Fallon of The Gaslight Anthem helped review all of the band’s albums:

Here’s something that nobody knows: Brendan was going to do that record. What happened was our label and the band was like, “No, we’re not going to do another record with Brendan.” Especially the label. They were like, “No, fuck Brendan, you can’t work with him again.” They had some beef with Brendan. And my band was like, “He didn’t listen to us. He only listened to you.” I was like, “Yeah, but I’m listening to you, so whatever I’m saying, he’s getting it from you, too.” There was a little divide there. I didn’t make the call that I probably should have made, which is to put my foot down and say, “No, we’re going to go with Brendan.” Instead I said, “All right, we’re going to fire Brendan.” And that was the biggest mistake, because Brendan is still pissed at me about that. That ended my friendship with Brendan. I don’t think he ever got over that. But I was like, “Dude, I want to make a record with you, but my band doesn’t. What am I supposed to do? I’m in a band, man.” At the same time, I was going through a divorce. I had just gotten a house and now I’m giving the house away. That shit is weird. It’s like you get to the mountain top and then your life falls apart.

Major Labels Trying to Stop Artists from Re-Recording Songs

Billboard
Jason Tate

Steve Knopper, writing for Billboard:

The major labels, Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, have recently overhauled contracts for new signees, according to top music attorneys, some demanding artists wait an unprecedented 10, 15 or even 30 years to re-record releases after departing their record companies. “The first time I saw it, I tried to get rid of it entirely,” says Josh Karp, a veteran attorney, who has viewed the new restrictions in UMG contracts. “I was just like, ‘What is this? This is strange. Why would we agree to further restrictions than we’ve agreed to in the past with the same label?’”

And:

Adds Dina LaPolt, a music attorney with a long history of grappling with labels over contracts: “Now, because of all this Taylor Swift stuff, we have an even new negotiation. It’s awful. We’re seeing a lot of ‘perpetuity.’ When we were negotiating deals with lawyers, before we would get the proposal, we’d get the phone call from the head of business affairs. We literally would say, ‘If you send that to me, it will be on Twitter in 10 minutes.’ It never showed up.”

Blink-182 Top the Charts

Blink-182
Jason Tate

Blink-182 have the number one album in the country.

Blink-182’s One More Time bows atop the Billboard 200 albums chart (dated Nov. 4), securing the rock trio its third chart-topping set. The new full-length studio album begins with 125,000 equivalent album units earned in the U.S. in the week ending Oct. 26, according to Luminate, largely powered by traditional album sales. 

One More Time is Blink-182’s first album with the group’s longtime lineup of drummer Travis Barker, vocalist/bassist Mark Hoppus and guitarist/vocalist Tom DeLonge since DeLonge departed the group in 2015 for seven years, and the first studio effort from that trio since 2012’s Dogs Eating Dogs EP.

You love to see it.

Tom DeLonge Talks UFOs, Bigfoot, and Blink-182

Box Car Racer
Jason Tate

Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 talked with Polygon:

So the spirit of Monsters of California is that ghosts are real, Bigfoot is real, UFOs are real, demonic possession is real, orbs of light are real — it’s all happening. And it’s not weird or unique or rare; it is a part of the fabric of existence. So if you go into the ocean, you’re gonna see a jellyfish, you’re gonna see a dolphin, you’re gonna see a whale, then you’re gonna see a boat. And then you’re gonna see a Coke can and some banana peels float by, and you’re gonna realize there’s an island somewhere.

You’d have no idea the ocean is a lot bigger than the jellyfish. It’s got everything in it, and things in it that make no sense that are left over from somewhere else. That’s kind of the point, is that “paranormal” just means “more than normal.” But pretty soon, it will be just normal. Frequencies of life are intersecting, and in certain locations in certain places, we will see the echoes of that. And we will interact with that. And we will understand that. We won’t call it weird. We are at a point now where it’s an inflection point on our understanding of consciousness.

And:

No, Blink is gonna continue. This thing’s a monster. I mean, the band’s bigger than it’s ever been, by miles. On paper, I guess it makes sense, but in my heart, it doesn’t, because I feel like a skateboarder from East County, San Diego. I don’t know how I got this position. Looking at old videos of us, I’m like, Have I really been doing this shit for, like, 27 years? But it’s bigger than it’s ever been. Somehow it’s relevant.

I get it on paper — the songs are catchy, there’s a lot of energy, so it’s fun. The humor and friendship and brotherhood, everyone can relate to. Maybe that’s all you need. But I know that exists in other bands, too, so I’m not quite sure why it’s all working the way it is. But I am so grateful. It’s weird, because for so long, people were annoyed by these dumb skateboarder kids that would tell dick jokes on stage, singing pop songs. They would say we were like the Beach Boys on meth. But, fuck, the Beach Boys are fucking good — I wish I was that good! But here we are still doing it

Brian Fallon Talks New Gaslight Album

Gaslight Anthem
Jason Tate

Brian Fallon talked with Kerrang about The Gaslight Anthem’s new album:

“Yeah, Autumn. It kicked my butt! Man… I had that opening riff and I had the first line for, like, a year. It was just sitting there, and even before I was gonna get the band back, I had one line and a riff, and I was like, ‘I know this is good, but I just can’t finish it.’ But the only reason I had the first line, god bless her, my little daughter was really frustrated one day, and she goes, ‘Mom! There’s too much traffic in my head!’ And I was like, ‘I’ll be having that!’ I heard it from my room here, and I wrote it down (laughs).”

The End of iTunes?

Jason Tate

Kirk McElhearn:

Soon, all that will be left of the iTunes brand is the iTunes Store for music. And people buy much less music [than] in the past, having mostly shifted to streaming. Will the iTunes name finally fade away as music sales dwindle? It’s hard to imagine Apple stopping digital music sales entirely; even if fewer people buy digital music, the market isn’t dead, not by a long shot. Global digital music sales peaked in 2012 at around $4.4 billion, and in 2021 they had dropped to $1.1 billion. That’s a decline of about 75%, but Apple still earns a hefty amount of money from selling digital music.

Spotify Is Changing How It Pays Artists

Jason Tate

Billboard:

A new threshold of minimum annual streams that a track must meet before it starts to generate royalties. The threshold, according to MBW, will de-monetize tracks that had previously received 0.5% of Spotify’s royalty pool.

Financial penalties for music distributors and labels when fraudulent activity on tracks they have uploaded to Spotify has been detected.

A minimum play-time length that non-music noise tracks, such as bird sounds or white noise, must reach to generate royalties.

Hayley Williams Talks With Rolling Stone

Hayley Williams
Jason Tate

Hayley Williams of Paramore talked with Rolling Stone:

Making This Is Why was not a comfortable experience for any of us. There was already anxiety about getting back in the groove of creating stuff together after some time apart. We were hanging out plenty, but we weren’t making things. Zac was doing Half Noise and I made a couple projects, one with Taylor which Zac played on. Being like, “Okay, we’re gonna go for Paramore,” that was anxiety inducing. And then also the world was still scary and nothing ever feels certain anymore, really. 

I felt a lot of anxiety about being around people again, that weren’t just in my bubble. And knowing that on the other side of finishing the record I was going to enter the world again was really scary. Not because I thought, “I’m gonna catch COVID.” I didn’t get COVID until we started touring again. It was more about what that did to me in my mind. Part of me had gotten really used to just seeing the people that I know, personally, and that I have all this context for — my family, my bandmates, whatever. And now I have to go be around all sorts of people. People that probably don’t feel the same way, or we don’t align politically. I just don’t know how I’m gonna feel. I don’t know what that’s gonna look like. I don’t know if people are gonna like this version of me and/or Paramore. 

YouTube Negotiating With Labels Over AI

YouTube
Jason Tate

Lucas Sha, writing for Bloomberg, details the record labels and YouTube negotiating an AI tool that would let people create content using major musicians’ voices:

When YouTube hosted an event for creators in late September, the company unveiled a bunch of new AI-powered tools, including ones for video backgrounds and dubbing.

YouTube had hoped to unveil a tool that would let users perform using the voices of major musicians. Imagine you are an amateur creator uploading a video or a song, and you could sound like Dua Lipa.

Just one problem: None of the major music companies have agreed to participate — at least not yet. Music companies have some questions, and YouTube is still working to supply the answers.

This could be a pivotal moment for the use of AI in the creative industries. For all the fuss about the potential of AI, many of the most-hyped new tools have yet to establish meaningful commercial relationships with artists (aka rights holders). That’s why there are so many lawsuits; nobody has decided how copyright law is going to work in this new(ish) field.

While this is just a test — YouTube wants to try the feature with a little more than a dozen artists — it is still a negotiation between the largest music service in the world and the largest music companies that could result in artists consenting to the use of their work.

Look, I get it, I’m old and not cool and am probably yelling at clouds, but I can’t put into words how much I hate this idea.