“I really had chills”: the most pirated song of 2010
While the digital age has certainly exacerbated music piracy, with the proliferation of MP3 downloading, the access to streaming services and the multitude of devices with which to listen to such music, the practice has a longstanding history.
Music piracy dates back centuries, coinciding with the introduction of copyright laws and the invention of physical media and its subsequent forms of distribution. The internet, however, brought forth a proliferation of privacy that was both immediate and staggering. With a shocking immediacy, any music you could think of could be downloaded and preserved, at no cost, but this illegal activity brought forth a multitude of issues for record executives and distributors and, of course, the artists themselves.
As it persists today, an exact count of the songs pirated throughout history is near impossible, given the nature of pirated music being unchronicled in certain numbers, Alfitude compiled a list of the top ten songs believed to be the most downloaded in 2010, a culminating year when the United States’ recorded music revenue decreased by nearly 62%, as reported by Water and Music.
On Alfitude’s list, hits by Rihanna, Kesha and Lady Gaga feature, but the number one spot is claimed by the Princess of Pop herself, Britney Spears – intriguingly, with a song that never saw an official release.
Spears recorded a song called ‘Telephone’, initially for her sixth album, 2008’s Circus, considered her “comeback” record after her previous, 2007’s Blackout. The latter coincided with her personal struggles that were cruelly sensationalised in the media and thus overshadowed the album’s successes. Circus, then, heard Spears once again reclaiming her narrative, as she co-wrote four of the songs included in the final collection and worked to refine the “lighter” tone, as she described, of its pop and dance-centred sound, in contrast to its predecessor.
“The process was cool, because I got to write a lot of the songs, and in the beginning, I really took part in that,” Spears said, in an interview on her website. “I experimented with a lot of the pop producers that I worked with on my earliest albums. I went all the way back old-school, which is a lot of fun to do.”
‘Telephone,’ however, was brought to Spears for consideration on Circus while recording in 2008, written and produced by Rodney Jerkins – who worked with Spears on 2001’s Britney – with additional writing from Lady Gaga, who explained that she and Jerkins wrote the song while working with the Pussycat Dolls.
“Then Rodney played it for [Britney’s manager] Larry Rudolph, who was in the studio,” Gaga recalled to HX Magazine. “Rodney called me later and was like, ‘Britney’s people are freaking out about this song.’ Ultimately, she makes the decisions, so when I found out that she loved it and was going to record it, it was amazing. I actually heard it yesterday with her on it for the first time, and I really had chills.”
The song was considered first as a bonus track on Circus and then, as a possible duet with Gaga for Spears’ 2009 compilation The Singles Collection, but ultimately, Spears’ version was rejected in favour of another phone-themed song, ‘Phonography’.
‘Telephone’ was later recorded and released by Lady Gaga for the reissue of her debut album, 2009’s The Fame Monster, featuring Beyoncé, becoming a sensational hit and accompanied by its Kill Bill and Thelma and Louise-inspired music video. However, Spears’ version, an autotuned demo, was supposedly leaked online on May 3rd, 2010, followed by two other versions: ‘Mix 3’, as it was titled, and a non-autotuned snippet. Thus, the song is believed to be the most pirated of the year.
