The first breakthrough in years came in May, when a user on the Reddit community r/TheMysteriousSong found a reference at Hörfest, a competition for amateur groups that the radio station organizes each year in Hamburg, Germany. “It was a very likely way to solve our puzzle,” says Arne, a moderator of the subreddit who posts under the handle LordElend (Arne declined to give his last name, citing privacy concerns), “since it was a good explanation as to why an amateur band tape would have been broadcast on NDR, which generally had high standards.

A search of local government archives revealed thousands of pages about Hörfest, but it would not be easy to sift through them. “We realized that 800 groups, the most obscure and not listed on Google, would require a larger group of researchers,” says Arne.

Soon, hundreds of people across multiple platforms were collaborating on many spreadsheetslisting the band members, sounds, songs and anything else they could find. One such investigator, posting using the handle marijn1412, discovered that a member of a group featured on the spreadsheets, Phret, had joined another group called FEX. By contacting former FEX members, they confirmed the origin of the song. They waited to publicly announce the discovery until the band was able to sign and provide a clearer recording of the song.

“The Subways of Your Mind” isn’t the only lost media mystery to be solved recently. In September, an image taken from a fabric pattern was goes back to its source. In June, another Lostwave song known as “Everyone knows it” was found after he became a viral sound on TikTok. This may have been helped by a song from a popular YouTube video identified in November 2023.

These searches tend to be much less specific and focused than the Hörfest data, but they are no less organized or collaborative, because whether they find the song or not, people find kindred spirits. “Lost media searches share community values,” says Chapdelaine, adding that they are “amplified by the dynamics of social media platforms.” Platforms encourage engagement. Lost media searches promote interactivity and participation.

This is why the story is not over, even if the so-called “Lostwave final boss» fell. Since other research communities found what they were looking for, they have been integrated into the larger Lostwave and Lost-Media community. As Baskerville saw it, it’s not really about the song, it’s about the research, about feeling part of a project that adds to the cultural heritage – and perhaps finding songs so exclusive that They haven’t been heard for decades.