Tape Spaghetti

• From Punk Disaster To Ad King: Moby’s Unlikely Comeback

  What if we told you that the biggest electronic album of all time started as a complete flop? In this episode of Tape Spaghetti, Scott and Blake tell the unbelievable story of how Moby’s Play went from career-killing failure to a global phenomenon thanks to the most shamelessly brilliant licensing plan ever executed. After alienating his fans with a hardcore punk passion project and getting dropped by his U.S. label, Moby was broke, discouraged, and convinced his next record would be his last. When Play arrived to almost no sales he figured he'd been right... until his team hatched a wild idea: say yes to EVERY licensing request. Coffee commercials? Yes. Car ads? Hell yeah. Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Where do we sign? Soon every track—every *single* track—from the album appeared somewhere, creating a slow-burn cultural takeover and eventually pushing Play to 12 million sales worldwide. It’s a one of a kind tale of artistic desperation, shrewd copyright strategy, and the moment Moby became the accidental king of commercial syncs.

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• Rolling Stones, Metallica, Kanye: When Album Covers Go Too Far

  Remember the feeling of being a kid and encountering an album cover that you just *knew* you weren’t supposed to be looking at? On this week’s Tape Spaghetti we’re turning that feeling up to 12 as Scott and Blake dive into the flat-out shocking world of controversial album art. From covers that got bands banned in department stores, to designs that sparked lawsuits, protests, and panicked parents, the guys explore infamous cases of musicians pushing the visual envelope (literally). Why have certain covers triggered outrage while others slipped under the radar? How do taboos shift from decade to decade? And why do artists take the risk of marketing shock value? Scott and Blake reflect on their own experiences discovering “forbidden” records and debate whether today’s digital music world has lost something by leaving provocative album art behind. This one’s not for the squeamish or easily icked….

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• How Muzak Brainwashed America (The Weird History of Elevator Music)

  Is elevator music... evil? In this week’s Tape Spaghetti, Scott and Blake go on a tour through the highly unlikely, slightly dystopian history of Muzak – the music nobody loves, but everyone hears. Born from military experimentation, electrical engineering breakthroughs, and a dream to make Americans more productive through calibrated background sound, Muzak might sound aimless, but it was designed to manipulate and control. Workers alternately found it calming or patronizing. Counterculture movements mocked it. Ted Nugent tried to destroy it. Yet, Muzak survived long enough to infiltrate elevators, the White House, NASA missions, and grocery stores everywhere. The guys trace its legacy all the way to modern lo-fi playlists and “music for airports,” proving blandness has a surprisingly colorful past.

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• Pearl Jam vs Ticketmaster: The 90s Battle That Still Matters

  What happens when one of the biggest bands in the world takes on its industry’s Death Star? In 1994, Pearl Jam was willing to find out. On this week’s Tape Spaghetti, Scott & Blake revisit the grunge-era showdown that pitted a group of scrappy rock idealists against Ticketmaster, the ultimate corporate monolith. Having locked down every major venue in America, Ticketmaster strangled fans with specious “service charges” and squeezed bands with exclusivity contracts. At the height of their popularity, Pearl Jam demanded fairer prices and more transparency. They even attempted to bypass Ticketmaster altogether by playing public spaces – but ultimately they had to put up with shady politics, convoluted permitting, and the reality that they were losing millions in revenue. How did Ticketmaster go from a scrappy Arizona startup to a money-printing monopoly? In a world where we *still* pay $45 in convenience fees, this one hits home.

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• Nazi Mind Control or Math? 440 vs 432 Hz

  We all know we have to tune our guitars… but we don’t usually think about *why* we tune the way we do. In this weeks’ Tape Spaghetti, Scott and Blake do just that, in a discussion fit for a tin-foil hat. For instance, what if we told you that tuning your guitar was actually part of a Nazi mind-control plot? Or that certain frequencies align us with the universe and balance our “water memory?” Or what if we told you…. that’s all nonsense, and that the real story might be even MORE interesting than any conspiracy theory. From 19th-century pitch wars and Verdi’s preferred frequencies to how A440 became the global norm, the guys trace how a simple standard turned into a cosmic conspiracy. Come for the mind control jokes, stay for the surprisingly nerdy and super relevant music history lesson.

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