'Most mysterious song on the internet' finally solved after 17 years—the band had no idea
Internet detectives help reunite the band 40 years after their mystery tune was created.
It all started with a cassette tape back in 1984.
Who doesn't love a good solved mystery story?
For 17 years, internet sleuths have tried to uncover the origins of a catchy New Wave tune that played on an unknown radio station and was transferred onto a cassette tape by a brother and sister in Germany sometime in the 1980s.
As the well documented story goes, most of the songs on this mixed tape were solved within a couple of days since many radio DJs tend to play their favorite songs multiple times.
One song, however, remained an enigma. In 2007, the sister, aka u/bluuely on Reddit, shared snippets of it to the online forum to outsource some research. Little did she know the subreddit dedicated to "The Mysterious Song" would amass nearly 60,000 members. Even with a cult-like following online and a full length version of the tune eventually procured, the trail ran cold for many years.
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Interest ignited again in 2019, when Rolling Stone covered the story and Youtuber Justin Whang uploaded a video titled "The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet - Tales From the Internet ,” both of which thrust the search out of the dark corner of Reddit and into the mainstream.
Cut to 2024, when u/marijn1412 shares his big breakthrough: the song is titled "Subways of Your Mind,” by a band called FEX.
u/marijn1412 explained that they came across their lead after looking through old newspaper archives. They spotted an 1984 article about FEX where the band described their music as “rock with wave and pop influences.” Sound familiar?
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u/marijn1412 reached out to one of the band members, who had since joined a different band, and asked if he had any old materials from his FEX days. u/marijn1412 got what they asked for, and along with it the answer to a decades-long puzzle.
u/marijn1412 also had the pleasure of informing the former FEX member, identified by CNN as Haedrich, just how famous this lost song was. Shocked, Haedrich spoke with his FEX bandmates, and they unanimously agreed to let a new recording of the song, along with its long lost title, be shared. After they picked their jaw up off the floor, that is.
Now that the song origins have been found, interest in FEX has surged, with people sharing other FEX songs, logos, even ideas for merch. Forty years later, this band has a bona fide fan club—an internet mystery turned wholesome moment.
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A little less than a year ago, internet detectives uncovered the truth behind another mysterious song, this one from a fan favorite episode of The X Files. When the popular song finding app Shazaam failed to offer a song title, a woman sought the help of other X-Files aficionados to help find it, which became a viral online saga. Eventually the composer was found, who not only told the forgotten story of creating a tune “that would fit both an alien and a human being”, but re-recorded a new version of it for fans to enjoy.
In a time when just about everything created is instantly traceable, pieces of lost media feel fascinating and foreign. And we become modern day anthropologists working to unravel their origins. Whenever we succeed, it’s a palpable win that reminds us of what’s possible when people are together…and that you never truly know when something you create will find its time to shine.
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Kurt Cobain, the patron saint of Gen X. 
Communications expert shares the 7-word phrase to shoot down anyone being disrespectful
Try this method next time someone says something rude.
A woman can't believe what she just heard.
Getting caught off guard by a rude comment from a coworker, family member, or total stranger can throw you for a loop. You immediately start wondering how you should respond. Should I insult the person right back or play it cool without stooping to their level? Everyone is going to be thrown by a disrespectful comment at some point, so it’s good to have a response in your back pocket for that moment when it comes.
Communications expert Jefferson Fisher provided a great response that we can all use recently on the Mel Robbins Podcast. Fisher is a Texas board-certified personal injury attorney and one of the most respected voices on argumentation and communication in the world. He is also the bestselling author of The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More.
How to respond to a rude or disrespectful comment
Fisher told Robbins that the first step in responding to the comment is nonverbal. You say nothing. “A lot of silence. So often, if you just wait 10 seconds that you're gonna add distance between what they said and how you're going to respond,” Fisher said. “They're saying this to get something out of you, cause in that moment, they're feeling something, whether it's a fear or an insecurity, whatever it is, you're not going to deliver on that same plane that they are.”
The next step is to let the rude person know that their behavior will not be tolerated in a confident manner.
“So somebody says something disrespectful, you give enough silence to make sure that it's a little awkward, and then you're going to say something to the effect of, ‘That's below my standard for a response.’ All of a sudden, you're now making it clear that what you just said was beneath me. And I don't respond to things that are beneath me in that way.”
Throw it back on them
If you prefer to put someone back on their heels instead of squelching the situation as Fisher recommends, John Bowe, a speech trainer, award-winning journalist, and author of I Have Something to Say: Mastering the Art of Public Speaking in the Age of DisconnectionI Have Something to Say: Mastering the Art of Public Speaking in the Age of Disconnection, says that you should respond with a question: “Do you really mean that?”
“Say it with outrage or dripping sarcasm, with raised eyebrows or deadpan calm. It doesn’t matter. This phrase is quietly disarming and deceptively powerful,” Bowe writes for CNBC. Bowe says the response does two great things for you. First, it gives them a chance to reconsider their words because most rude comments are said without thinking. “By responding with curiosity instead of defensiveness, you’re holding up a mirror. Often, that’s all it takes for the other person to walk back their offense,” he writes.
After the person is asked if they meant what they said, they can double down on their rude comment, but they are probably more likely to backpedal or apologize.
Unfortunately, it’s a fact of life that, unless you live under a rock, you’ll have to deal with people making rude comments. But the best thing you can do is to prepare yourself to confidently put someone in their place so they’ll think twice about ever being rude to you again.