Top 5 Music Industry Conspiracy Theories

Article written by Lauren Johnston.

We all love a good conspiracy theory; I have long been obsessed with them. It seems that these days you can basically find a conspiracy theory on practically everything. So, this week, I set out on a mission to find the top 10 most outrageous music industry related conspiracy theories I could. Little to my surprise, there were hundreds! From downright weird and completely unbelievable, to absolutely hilarious and could have the potential of having some truth, and everything in between. I have condensed it down to the top 5, trying to give you a bit of everything. Keep in mind that these are my personal top 5. Enjoy!

5: The Foo Fighters

Memorably, in 2015 at a Foo Fighters concert in June, Dave Grohl jumped off the stage and broke his leg. It didn’t take long for a quickly spreading rumor to emerge that he didn’t break his leg, that he faked breaking his leg to boost ticket sales, that he continued to do the tour with some form of custom built throne. Three months later, Dave spoke out about the accusations in September when they had stopped over in Portland.

“I’m really into the idea of a conspiracy theory,” Dave said.

“I think it’s f**kin’ rad. What if – What if I didn’t break my f**kin’ leg? What if I jumped off stage and I fell on the ground, and I made it all look like it was a f**kin’ emergency? And then they dragged me off to the side, and the band keeps playing, and then 10 minutes later, I magically f**kin’ reappear onstage? And then I get somebody else’s X-Ray of a broken leg, and I make it into a T-Shirt, and we make millions of f**kin’ dollars, and I design this f**king awesome throne, so I don’t have to f**king stand up any more. Imagine that!”

4: Is Katy Perry a beauty pageant queen who died in 1997 as a child?

In 1997, a young female child by the name of JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered in a boulder in Colorado on Christmas night. Being the child of millionaire parents, the police immediately started the search for her and set out on a major investigation to find her killer. Apparently, one YouTuber is convinced that JonBenet, in fact, isn’t dead. They claim that her parents had come up with a plan to fake her murder, then perform some form of masonic ritual that would promise and ensure that she grew up to become famous, which apparently means that JonBenet grew up to become Katy Perry. This is clearly one of the more bizarre and twisted conspiracy theories, as there is no evidence apart from some similarities of photos.

3: Tupac is still alive

We all have heard how Tupac died in a drive-by shooting in 1996 but, since the year 2001, many alleged sightings have put fuel to the conspiracy flame that Tupac could possibly still be alive. People have claimed to see Tupac in Cuba, New York, Sweden, California, Boston, Somalia and New Jersey. Not only that, but one conspiracy theorist found lines in multiple songs by another rapper who went by a false name that had similarities to Tupac’s style of rapping. That rapper's name; Kasinova. Kasinova wrote a song, and the lyrics in it are uncanny to the whole Tupac situation. When this song was released, it was 16 years after Tupac died in September 7th 1996.

The lyrics go like this: “It’s been sixteen years, still stuck in a dark cage, living in my mind of that fateful day, 9-7-96 I remember it like it was yesterday…”

Two lines later, Kasinova continues: “How the media said that I died but I’m still breathing…” “We were in Vegas getting faded, in the city of sin, I had a bad feeling that night, after the fight at the MGM, can ya feel me.”

Kasinova describes the incident, and one bit really struck me: “Over my head, I couldn’t believe what I happened to see, a n**ga who looked just like me, dressed like me, in the passenger seat, but it can’t be me.”

There is still no final say or anything to prove that these sightings are really Tupac, or if Kasinova has anything to do with Tupac.

2: Is Avril Dead?

This theory surfaced several years after the alleged date in this theory, and that’s that Avril Lavigne died in 2003 at the height of her fame and was replaced by a look alike named Melissa. Many people have claimed many differences between Avril then and Avril now, including changes in her handwriting, her vocal tone and her nose and, to top it off, the shape of her eyes. Many theorists have also looked at and pointed at her music changes. Avril in 2003 was a pop singer who had pop rock vibes with hit songs like ‘Sk8r Boi’ and ‘Girlfriend’. After the alleged death, Avril came out with songs like ‘Hello Kitty’ and was more poppy and dancing, and less pop rock, which theorists claim “is unlike Avril’s nature.”

1: Lady Gaga a Murderer?

Lou Reed was a musical icon who died in 2013 due to liver disease, or did he? Lou Reed had previously said that he didn’t like Gaga’s album ‘Artpop’. Lou Reed was brought in to oversee the album's musical direction, which Lady Gaga envisioned being a homage of Velvet Underground. To the surprise of Gaga and her management team and practically everyone in the studio, Lou Reed was so unimpressed that he left the project and didn’t look back. It was rumored from then that Lady Gaga was so furious that she had conspired of killing Lou Reed with the help of head of the label Jimmy Lovine, and her then manager Troy Carter. Of course, it’s well-known that Lou Reed was actually injected with the toxic substance Polonium while he was recovering at the Cleveland Clinic, and that there is no actual evidence at all that Gaga was involved in any way with Lou Reed’s death, nor did she actually kill him.