Michael belongs to everyone
September 25, 2020 12:05 PM   Subscribe

In 2018, indie pop weirdos MGMT released "Me and Michael," which went on to be an instant chart-topping smash hit with licensed products galore: shampoos, pregnancy kits, bespoke pinkphones. Only it turned out the song was plagiarized from "Ako at si Michael," a classic track from True Faith, a band from Manila in the Philippines. The original track sparked a brief revival of OPM - original Pinoy music - which brought to light the blatant theft. Instead of bringing legal action against MGMT, True Faith reached out to the duo and proposed a collaboration on a new track titled "Me and Michael," a tribute to actor Michael Buscemi who stars in the video. CW: some graphic Cronenbergian body horror in the first link.
posted by Lonnrot (9 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
I apologize if anything I said above was actually true
posted by Lonnrot at 12:08 PM on September 25, 2020 [1 favorite]


I was going to say!
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:32 PM on September 25, 2020


There are a lot of avant/ indie-adjacent posts on the front page today that have left me, admittedly, feeling a little baffled and out of it. I love it.
posted by Think_Long at 12:40 PM on September 25, 2020 [2 favorites]


I am.....so confused.
posted by nevercalm at 1:09 PM on September 25, 2020 [2 favorites]


The Wikipedia entry for the song gives the game away, if you're not enjoying the confusion.
posted by pipeski at 2:48 PM on September 25, 2020


This is pretty great. I think I like the True Faith version better. LOVE existenz phone.
posted by snofoam at 7:55 PM on September 25, 2020


My brain is too messed up today to understand anything that's going on in this post, but anyway, the last MGMT album, from which the song Me and Michael comes from, is really excellent.
posted by sixohsix at 8:01 AM on September 26, 2020


Hold on there's also a... Russian... version?
posted by sixohsix at 8:06 AM on September 26, 2020


For anyone who is unsure: MGMT didn’t do anything bad or unethical here, it’s just an intentionally absurd pop narrative*. It’s a fun song with a fun backstory. I’m really digging the Cronenbergian vibes of the music video too!

*aka the BEST kind of pop narrative
posted by Doleful Creature at 8:50 AM on September 26, 2020 [2 favorites]


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