Hidden Track: Difference between revisions

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It's been a good five minutes since the last song on the CD ended. By now you've kind of relaxed yourself (and by relaxing we most likely mean [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|planning on spending the next 3 hours looking for examples for all those YKTTWs]]), when, suddenly... is that... music?

Congratulations. You have just discovered a [[Hidden Track]], the trope where the [[Easter Egg]] and the [[Bonus Material]] make love inside a music album.

Congratulations. You have just discovered a '''Hidden Track''', the trope where the [[Easter Egg]] and the [[Bonus Material]] make love inside a music album.

At its most basic, the [[Hidden Track]] is just a song on the album that isn't on the playlist however musicians have sometimes played further tricks in order to play into the fact that they are rewards for faithful listeners who listen all the way through the album. Some have hidden it several minutes after the last listed song after some dead time and with Compact Discs and digital technology people have been able to play further tricks by hiding them in a Track 0 spot or making them only accesible by computer or only when playing all the way through continuously.

At its most basic, the '''Hidden Track''' is just a song on the album that isn't on the playlist however musicians have sometimes played further tricks in order to play into the fact that they are rewards for faithful listeners who listen all the way through the album. Some have hidden it several minutes after the last listed song after some dead time and with Compact Discs and digital technology people have been able to play further tricks by hiding them in a Track 0 spot or making them only accesible by computer or only when playing all the way through continuously.

The name harks back to when each song was a track running along the vinyl disc. It's still a very widely used term for individual music pieces. If you knew this already you should just roll your eyes at the lame squares who needed a widely used word explained to them, if you didn't then don't worry those other people are jerks.

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** The ''Digimon the Movie'' soundtrack, of all CDs, did this too. There was a small clue in the CD booklet about these hidden tracks to give the kiddies a chance to figure it out.

* Adam Sandler's "The Chanukkah Song 3" from the soundtrack CD for ''Eight Crazy Nights'' is the last track on the disc... and if you let it keep playing after it "finishes" you suddenly find that it starts up again with a radio-edit version (which replaces the lines "Jennifer Connelly is half-Jewish, too, and I'd like to put some more in her" with something a little safer for airplay).

* [[Counting Crows]] is fond of putting hidden tracks on their albums, usually by placing a long period of silence after the last song followed by the hidden one. This means that the track won't show up as an option when viewing the tracks on the ~~CD -- the~~ only way to hear it is to wait through or fast forward through the silent portion of the last track.

* [[Counting Crows]] is fond of putting hidden tracks on their albums, usually by placing a long period of silence after the last song followed by the hidden one. This means that the track won't show up as an option when viewing the tracks on the CD—the only way to hear it is to wait through or fast forward through the silent portion of the last track.

** One bonus track, a cover of [[Joni Mitchell]]'s "Big Yellow Taxi", now garners a lot of airplay.

* Armin Van Buuren's ''Shivers'' album has the hidden orchestral track "Hymne", about a minute after the end of "Serenity". This was later used as the intro for "Sail".

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* A list of pre-gap tracks (most of which are before the first song, sometimes called "track 0") can be found [[wikipedia:List of albums with tracks hidden in the pregap|here]] on [[The Other Wiki]]. Essentially, each track on a CD has Start and End markers; placing something before the Track 1 Start marker generates a pregap hidden track.

* [[They Might Be Giants]]' ''Factory Showroom'' album has the bonus track ("Token Back To Brooklyn") before' the first track of the CD. John Flansburg used the technique again for the second album of his side project, Mono Puff.

** The a capella "On Earth My Nina" uses the tune of "Thunderbird" reversed, and the lyrics are [[Mondegreen~~|Mondegreens~~]] of the [[Subliminal Seduction|backmasked vocals]]. Ironically, the backwards version was released five years before the original song.

** The a capella "On Earth My Nina" uses the tune of "Thunderbird" reversed, and the lyrics are [[Mondegreen]]s of the [[Subliminal Seduction|backmasked vocals]]. Ironically, the backwards version was released five years before the original song.

* The very first ''[[The X-Files|X-Files]]'' soundtrack (for the TV show) had a track 0. Since no CD players at the time could read track 0, the only way to access it was to rewind the first track beyond the beginning.

** The Soundtrack to ''[[X Files]]'''':Fight The Future'' includes a secret track where Chris Carter explains the whole backstory to the conspiracy. A pity he didn't do it through, you know, the plot of the movie itself!

* Another track 0 type example can be found on the ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' ''Reunion Files'' ~~soundtrack -- rewinding~~ the first track allows you to hear the iconic "[[One-Winged Angel]]" ''without'' the [[Ominous Latin Chanting]].

* Another track 0 type example can be found on the ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' ''Reunion Files'' soundtrack—rewinding the first track allows you to hear the iconic "[[One-Winged Angel]]" ''without'' the [[Ominous Latin Chanting]].

* And another one on (some editions of) [[Rammstein]]'s album ''Reise, Reise'': rewind the first song and you will hear the last moments of the black box recording for the [[wikipedia:JAL123|Japan Airlines Flight 123 disaster]] (currently the worst single-aircraft accident in history). It's a pretty horrifying listen. Unsurprisingly, it was removed from the Japanese editions of the album.

* The [[Sister Machine Gun]] album ''Burn'' contains a cover of "Strange Days" by [[The Doors]] in the pregap.

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== Unlisted independent track ==

* [[The Beatles]] did this twice. "Inner Groove" on British editions of ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,'' was made by having an endless loop of laughter and gibberish right at the end, designed to play forever if your turntable didn't have an automatic return function for the needle. "Her Majesty" was an actual song on the ''Abbey Road'' album, and arguably the [[Trope Maker]]. It was supposed to be cut from the album, but EMI's policy was to never throw away anything that The Beatles recorded. So the engineer stuck it on the end of the master tape, preceded by 14 seconds of silence. It made its way into the final version when they played it back and the Beatles liked the effect. "Her Majesty" isn't hidden anymore, ~~though--later~~ prints of ''Abbey Road'' include it on the track listing.

* [[The Beatles]] did this twice. "Inner Groove" on British editions of ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,'' was made by having an endless loop of laughter and gibberish right at the end, designed to play forever if your turntable didn't have an automatic return function for the needle. "Her Majesty" was an actual song on the ''Abbey Road'' album, and arguably the [[Trope Maker]]. It was supposed to be cut from the album, but EMI's policy was to never throw away anything that The Beatles recorded. So the engineer stuck it on the end of the master tape, preceded by 14 seconds of silence. It made its way into the final version when they played it back and the Beatles liked the effect. "Her Majesty" isn't hidden anymore, though—later prints of ''Abbey Road'' include it on the track listing.

* The [[Keith Urban]] song "You're Not My God" (about getting over drug addiction) has a hidden track after it.

* [[Bloodhound Gang]] went nuts with this, putting ''40-odd'' blank tracks at the end of their Hooray For Boobies CD, with [[Easter Egg]] s hidden at random among them. It played merry hell with your enjoyment when you put the CD on random.

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* The Benjamin Gate's album ''[Untitled]'', has ''over 60'' tracks of silence following the final listed song, and then the song "True (I Love You)".

* [[Los Campesinos]]!' debut album, ''Hold On Now, Youngster...'' contains an unlisted track, the largely instrumental "2007: The Year Punk Broke (My Heart)" as its 12th song. The band claims its supposed to be an epilogue and not an actual song on the album, hence it being an unlisted, separate track and not hidden after the 11th song.

* [[Oasis]]' greatest hits album ''Time Flies'' features "Sunday Morning Call" ~~-- the~~ only UK single not on the main ~~tracklisting -- as~~ a hidden track after "Falling Down". The reason for this is unknown. In fact, the American version of the album drops the unlisted "Sunday Morning Call" for "Champagne Supernova" and the Japanese version puts it after "Don't Go Away" (both were released as a retail singles in those countries) instead of "Falling Down", so some fans might not even know that "Sunday Morning Call" was supposed to be there ''at all''.

* [[Oasis]]' greatest hits album ''Time Flies'' features "Sunday Morning Call"—the only UK single not on the main tracklisting—as a hidden track after "Falling Down". The reason for this is unknown. In fact, the American version of the album drops the unlisted "Sunday Morning Call" for "Champagne Supernova" and the Japanese version puts it after "Don't Go Away" (both were released as a retail singles in those countries) instead of "Falling Down", so some fans might not even know that "Sunday Morning Call" was supposed to be there ''at all''.

* [[Covenant]]'s latest album, ''Modern Ruin'', has a hidden [[Drone of Dread|drone/dark ambient]] track titled "Modern Ruin Part II"; this is only on the CD and not the digital releases. Ironically, the digital version still has the two minutes of silence at the end of "The Road".

* [[Bowling for Soup]] has an album called ''A Hangover You Don't Deserve'' which has about 30 or so extra tracks at the end that are just a few seconds of silence. There are two bonuses on the last two unlisted tracks just before the album ends.

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== Accessible by other technology ==

* When you put The Dillinger Escape Plan And [[Mike Patton]]'s ''Irony Is A Dead Scene'' in your computer's cd player, a video file appears in the ~~directory -- it~~'s a short montage of behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the album, mainly Patton recording vocal tracks. There is nothing on the packaging indicating this cd-rom material is there.

* When you put The Dillinger Escape Plan And [[Mike Patton]]'s ''Irony Is A Dead Scene'' in your computer's cd player, a video file appears in the directory—it's a short montage of behind-the-scenes footage of the making of the album, mainly Patton recording vocal tracks. There is nothing on the packaging indicating this cd-rom material is there.

* ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]]'' has a hidden track ''Alucard's Vengeance'' on the [[PlayStation]] version which can be heard by playing it on an audio CD player.

* [[Information Society]] has a track at the end of ''Peace and Love Incorporated'' that was meant to be placed into a dial-up modem of the time in order to decode it. It's the band's lead singer talking about a surreal experience he had in Brazil.

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* [[Marilyn Manson]]'s ''Antichrist Superstar'' has a hidden "Track 99", and putting ''Mechanical Animals'' on a PC triggers a video with the 15th track.

* In addition to the above listed Secret Song, the CD of''[[Homestar Runner|Strong Bad Sings and Other Type Hits]]'' includes a movie file containing a music video for "These Peoples Try to Fade Me".

* [[Sound Horizon]] often includes ~~[[Hidden Track|~~Hidden Tracks]] on their albums, some of which are damn near impossible to discover; Nobody's managed to find the alleged hidden track of ''Seisen no Iberia'', for example.

* [[Sound Horizon]] often includes Hidden Tracks on their albums, some of which are damn near impossible to discover; Nobody's managed to find the alleged hidden track of ''Seisen no Iberia'', for example.