Everyone Knows That (partially found full version of unidentified song; date unknown)

The pink boombox commonly associated with the song.

Status: Partially Found

"Everyone Knows That" or "Ulterior Motives" are both placeholder names for a snippet of an unknown song that was uploaded on watzatsong.com back in 2021, resulting in an elusive yet extensive internet search to not just seek the title and author of the unknown song but yet track down the song in its entirety.

Backstory

On October 7th, 2021, carl92 posted a query on watzatsong.com for a song that was unknown to them.^[1] People then commented and gave suggestions of what the song is, but to no avail. But then carl92 responded to the comments with the quote being, "Thanks. Sorry that's all I have. I don't remember its origin. I rediscover this sample between a bunch of very old files in a DVD backup. Probably I was simply learning how to capture audio and this was a left over. The thing is it sounds somewhat familiar to me (or maybe I'm mistaken with a similar song) and I though it wasn't going to be a too obscure one. I tried in www.aha-music.com, and also tried searching the lyrics but my english is not good enough for that, I only understand something like: "everyone knows that, you can't [...] tell me the truth".

YouTuber Jay Kay would upload carl92's watzatsong's snippet onto YouTube with a photo of a purple boombox before being terminated. This photo would eventually be associated and commonly matched with the song's existence via reuploads and in conversations.

Presumed Lyrics

The 17-second recorded snippet of the song linked was not in the best quality and with the fact that there has been no official copy of the lyrics of the unknown song, people had to presume what the lyrics were. The most common lyrics people heard was:

^{*Lyrics are based on common denominators of comments and post presuming what the lyrics were, so it is entirely inaccurate that this is the official set of lyrics for the song as it is entirely based on subjective views.}

"You're counting all the sheep in the sky
Caught up in a world of lies
Everyone knows that (You’ve got)
Ulterior motives
Tell me the truth
Every move shows"

There are other variations in the lyrics of the song that are commonly used as well such as:

"You're counting on the shifts in the tides" or "You carry all your shame in disguise."
"You can't only shoot in disguise, colors in a world of light" or "You're counting on a shot in the dark, caught up in a world of love."
”Everyone knows that, you've got, theory of motives" or "Everyone knows that, she's got, the theory of motion."

Theories

TV Theory

Lost Media Poster for EKT, kindly made by Discord User blackpepp.

One prominent theory, dubbed by many as the "TV Theory," suggested that the song was only used as a one-time thing for an unknown commercial, and said song was never commercially released elsewhere. Some theorized that the song could’ve been used for a makeup commercial while others theorized it was in an unused Saleen car commercial which was found to be a hoax. This, in theory, does make sense due to the fact that the audio recording was recorded with a 15.734 kHz pilot tone that was only present in MTS broadcasts exclusively used in very few countries. 15.734 is also the horizontal frequency of NTSC CRT TVs, meaning that the recording can be captured from a CRT TV tuned to a North American TV station. The recording was also likely captured via a computer microphone.

The TV theory, however, has been attacked by Reddit user Square_pies on r/EverybodyKnowsThat. Square_pies states that the 15.374 Hz signal present in the clip does not mean it indicates Multichannel Television Usage or MTS, but the signal in question could still have originated from any TV or Monitor that uses 15.374 Hz which makes the theory still possible but being a bit inaccurate.

Originated in Another Country Theory

Another well-known theory is that the song had likely originated in a different country that is not the United States, but specifically in regions of Asia. While entirely unconfirmed, this theory had been accepted by people to be likely due to the fact that certain pronunciations of English words in the lyrics have been linked to how people in the area pronounce English words, but this theory can be entirely and plausibly inaccurate.

Savage Garden

Another theory is that the band Savage Garden was behind the song. This would be further ignited when Darren Hayes makes a now-deleted Twitter post simply saying “Everyone Knows That”. Some think that Savage Garden did make the song and that a full release could be imminent, while others think that Hayes is just trolling.

Debunked Rumor

The McDonald’s Lead

In an r/lostmedia post about EKT, user Alex2237 comments:

"Hi mates! I'm from Poland and I swear I heard this song on the in-store radio at McDonalds around 2012. At that time, McD in Poland played many unknown songs in his restaurants, stylized in the 80s, and maybe even originally recorded at that time. believe it or not, I remember in this song the singer hummed a simple "mmm" to the main melody played on the synthesizer/bells. I'm sure it happened, but I don't remember at what point. I have no idea where the song comes from, but I can 100% confirm that it is real. It's definitely not a famous song and wasn't when I heard it. It's something recorded for in-store music and commercials."

u/97chris1 then made a post on the subject which got Alex to give some more info stating that the playlist they used was from Mood Media. The file includes a list named "log.txt" which has a song named ".008 Nichion sound library Japan -Fear Of Your Emotions.ogg" which was in two albums, Ear Candy and Vintage Era. User annabelsnd on the EverybodyKnowsThat Subreddit has contacted Mood Media which they said "they couldn’t find any titles of that name" but they cannot say if it is real or not so the Nichion sound library Japan is still sounded like a possible and promising lead on the song. But it was debunked because Mood Media does not remember having the list out, because it never existed. They had no records of the playlist, and two of the songs in the playlist was made in 2018, even being confirmed by one of the producers.

Annabelsnd states:

"There's Emails proving that these songs were produced in 2018 and never existed prior to 2018. This is IMPORTANT because the original OP of this list (u/Alan2237) showed a screenshot of the logs.txt having a filedate of 2012(!). It's extremely EASY to FAKE filedates (https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/filedatech.html). Additionally to all this, the original OP of the (most likely fake) list has "instinctively deleted" his alleged Email conversation with the "polish Mood Media correspondent". Now, my dilemma: Obviously, OP's story doesn't add up and is completely disproven by both the company itself and the list. BUT - The list is way too niche to be fake. Songs like "Nichion Sound Library Japan - My Old Blue Car" were actually Nichion Library songs at that time but aren't anymore. This requires a lot of special inside niche knowledge to fake. So this list isn't 10000% useless, but I heavily doubt it will help us in the EKT search. At best, this list is from somewhere else and has nothing to do with OP's story or EKT. You decide what to believe - I for my part will keep talking to Nichion as I've already made an extensive effort to reach them; but I'm very sure it won't lead us anywhere."

The D-Project Theory

A popular theory from Reddit at the time was the D-Project Theory. where the song is either Joe Rinoie recorded going solo or was an early version of "Stuck. The theory was then debunked by Joe himself.

AI Theory

Another theory was that AI tools were used to make the song. This has been since debunked as carl92’s post was in 2021, years before any sort of AI tools had become popular. There have also been many attempts to extend the song using AI, which resulted with the song sounding nothing like the original.

Availability

The only known recording of the song is the one that carl92 had posted on their initial query, and as of today, the full version of the song is still partially found.