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Other than Unnus Annus, does there exist any other form of INTENTIONAL lost media?

Last posted Jan 01, 2021 at 11:03PM EST. Added Dec 29, 2020 at 09:23PM EST
16 posts from 14 users

Lost media is always a fascinating topic and it's obvious it's quite a popular one online. Whenever it's discovered some piece of media may have become lost to the annuls of time people will try and see if they can find any way of recovering it, be it because the media in question holds some kind of value, or human curiosity gets the better of us and we just simply want to find out if said media was even worth finding after some people made a bit of a big deal over not being able to find it anymore.

Unnus Annus by YouTubers Markpiler and Ethan (aka CrankGameplays) is one of the only examples I can think of that can be called "intentionally lost media" as the channel was an experiment to create lasting memories even when the physical (or digital) forms of something are gone. Now yes the fact Mark and Ethan made it clear from the beginning the channel would stop existing after one year means it's highly likely some people backed up every video they made, even if that goes against the intended purpose of the channel, but fact remains Unnus Annus as it was is gone and will never return. I think Mark and Ethan also said they do not want people re-uploading to YouTube (I could also swear I recall Mark said that if re-uploads are made he will have no choice but to issue a takedown). As such this is media that is intended to stay "lost" on purpose.

So yeah this got me thinking, do there exist any forms of media out there that are considered intentionally lost? Like did a famous musician ever make only one CD of an entire album, play it once at a party, and then destroy the CD and erase and/or burn all the master records right after? (I know there was that whole controversy where that scumbag pharmaceutical CEO bought the only copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album just to have it all for himself, but there's still a possibility the recordings may exist elsewhere or one day someone richer than him buys it off him and finally just leaks the music online) Did Banksy ever announce somewhere that they made and destroyed a large painting before anyone ever had the chance to see it? (I could see that happening as remember Banksy did that whole thing where they purposefully shredded a painting they made right after it was sold at an auction) Just super curious now.

Not so much "lost" as it is "you'll never see it in your lifetime", but I'm sure John Malkovich helped produce a film that was supposed to be released a century after it was done, only for someone to leak it onto torrent sites (a cognac company sponsored it, and it takes a century for their product to be ready).

For that matter, would time capsules count for a given definition of "intentionally lost" media?

Speaking of, would the ET Atari games count? Even if they got found years later, it was intended for them to be hidden away and/or destroyed out of embarrassment. Then again, not everybody returned the game despite the recall. What about Multiplayer games when their servers permanently shut down? Does that count? What about the Nixon Tapes?

Last edited Dec 30, 2020 at 01:14AM EST

*The Day the Clown Cried" by Jerry Lewis was purposely prevented from ever being seen in large part that Lewis was embarrassed about it. A few years before Lewis died, he gave a incomplete print of the film to Library of Congress on the order that it not be screened until 2025.

The only other example of "intentionally lost" media I can think of is Jean-Michel Jarre's album Music for Supermarkets.
tl;dr only one copy of the album was ever pressed, and played in its entirety once on radio before being auctioned off. Its master plates were then set on fire, meaning that only that copy exists.
I should note it's not technically lost since there are bootleg recordings of the one broadcast available on YouTube (Jarre had actually encouraged listeners to bootleg it).

Last edited Dec 30, 2020 at 02:27PM EST

Seems I just found out another one. There's an anime that's been on air in Japan since the 60s and is the longest lasting ongoing animated show. The show is called "Sazae-san" and it's been on air and in production since 1969. As it turns out a lot of episodes are lost media and a reason for this is because the show's own creator refuses to do home media releases of the series and apparently episodes are never re-ran, so it's a show where you have to catch episodes when they air.

IIRC, some metal band did an album that had it's vinyl lacquer deliberately scratched with pentagrams so when it was pressed, it would sound garbled and scratched. Pretty sure they deleted the master recordings afterwards, so the only way to hear the album was with all the scratches and skips.

Arguably the Star Wars Holiday Special. In the 42 years since the original airings it's never had an official rerelease, and George Lucas has stated he would like every copy of it destroyed. The only known official copy of it that exists, as far as I am aware, belonged to Carrie Fisher.

One part of it was released on it's own, however. The Boba Fett cartoon part has been released as a bonus on a couple of DVD releases. It was also Boba's first appearance funnily enough.

I don't whether it truly counts as "lost" since it can still be found in an unofficial capacity, but since it was never re-aired or released and the franchise creator wanted it gone completely, I'd say it counts.

The original Superman comic
https://lostmediaarchive.fandom.com/wiki/Superman_(Missing_1933_Original_1st_Appearance)

The creators burned every copy after publishers refused to pick it up from this first issue

The Basement Tapes the Columbine shooters made. Sheriff behind the scenes ordered all known copies of the tapes destroyed in early 2011, and that they are all gone. The tapes have never been released, or leaked, even in part. But they were documented.

Smol Nozomi wrote:

The Basement Tapes the Columbine shooters made. Sheriff behind the scenes ordered all known copies of the tapes destroyed in early 2011, and that they are all gone. The tapes have never been released, or leaked, even in part. But they were documented.

Possibly related, but whatever Doom WADs Eric Harris made aside from his infamous "UAC Labs" WAD are likely never going to see the light of day as they existed only on his hard drive and like hell any authorities would release them to the public. Only reason "UAC Labs" is still available to the public is because of the "Top Ten Infamous Doom WADs" list created back in 2003 which contains links to all the infamous WADs in question (and UAC Labs was only on the list due to the fact Eric Harris is the one who made it, if you didn't know who made it it'd otherwise be viewed as a pretty average WAD).

Mistress Fortune wrote:

Seems I just found out another one. There's an anime that's been on air in Japan since the 60s and is the longest lasting ongoing animated show. The show is called "Sazae-san" and it's been on air and in production since 1969. As it turns out a lot of episodes are lost media and a reason for this is because the show's own creator refuses to do home media releases of the series and apparently episodes are never re-ran, so it's a show where you have to catch episodes when they air.

Skeletor-sm

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