20240118-digital_music_obscurity.txt
I was recently looking for a YT video of a song I really enjoyed. It's
called "Goin' Off" or "We're Goin' Off" by Laughing Us. I wasn't able
to find the video again.

The weird part? This is expected. This track was in Smallville S01E19
Crush's opening[0] as well as in Zoolander. These aren't rinky-dink
independent films. We're talking major productions. And this song as
well as band has almost no information available for it online. The
best results are probably going to be found by searching for the album
"Foxy Universe," and even then you'll probably only find an e-commerce
listing. This is a band that had music since the turn of the century
that is just a phantom.

Another song that is rarer by most Hollywood standards but is much
easier to find is "Hold Me Up" by Live[1]. It was a B-side, I think, and
was added to the soundtrack of "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." It's
utilized well, too. But for years after the 2008 movie, it was
unreleased and only available on YT. Tal Bachman's "Aeroplane"[2] that
was a focal point of American Pie (4): Band Camp was also, AFAIK, only
available on an expensive album either from Bachman or the movie
soundtrack. No digital download. I believe Wheatus' original,
uncensored version of "Teenage Dirtbag"[3] is also difficult to find,
but that's mere conjecture based off a few YT comments.

The craziest thing to me about this is that these songs' obscurity is
almost entirely due to licensing and band issues. I guess it's the
same with lots of songs, but most of the time if I want to buy a song,
it's right there in MP3 format off A2Z. But "We're Goin' Off" has to
be the best example I know. The most info I ever found for it was from
this video[4]. It's just wild to me to see something with prominence
like that in the internet era just be blotted out.

0. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0702944/soundtrack/?ref_=tt_trv_snd
1. https://yewtu.be/watch?v=mzQUwxlWpJs
2. https://yewtu.be/watch?v=rC1VcEZiBqw
3. https://yewtu.be/watch?v=FC3y9llDXuM
4. https://yewtu.be/watch?v=mx-2e9KRup8