Whether you believe in some, most, or none of the conspiracy theories you encounter, they are undeniably entertaining. We’re going to discuss various types of musical conspiracies, some of which will leave you wondering who even thought of them. Enjoy!
Dead or Alive
In this section, we’re going to discuss a set of theories that can be summarised thusly: some dead musicians are presumed alive, while some living musicians are presumed dead. This is the most popular type of musical conspiracies, and we picked the best-known ones.
Elvis Presley
This is probably the most famous ‘alive dead man’ theory. Although the King of Rock died in 1977 and his body was laid in an open casket, this didn’t stop people from claiming otherwise. It’s speculated that Elvis was a secret FBI agent tasked with infiltrating a criminal organization. Once he was found out by the other members, he entered a witness protection program, which explains why he ‘died’. Elvis is still ‘spotted’ to this day, and there’s even something called ‘The Elvis Sighting Society’, which examines potential encounters with the rockstar.
Paul McCartney
This infamous theory from 1969 states that Paul McCartney died in a car crash in 1966, and an imposter took his place because the Beatles were afraid of disbanding. Fans support this theory with various lyrics – ‘I buried Paul’ (‘Strawberry Fields Forever’) and ‘Turn me on dead man’ (‘Revolution 9’). The first lyric is misheard, while the second can only be heard when you play the song backwards. Paul’s choice to be barefoot on the cover of Abbey Road (1969) (the other members wore shoes) helped the theory gain traction.
Tupac Shakur
Tupac Shakur was tragically killed in 1996, but many believe that the legendary rapper is still alive. Tupac was alive for six days following the attack, which allegedly gave him time to go into hiding. Considering he was a target of assassination, Tupac had a reason to fake his death. Another thing that sets this theory apart from the previous two is that the rumours of him being alive were partially spread by his loved ones.
The music video for ‘I Wonder If Heaven Got A Ghetto’ opens with the rapper landing with a helicopter in New Mexico on 14th September 1996 (1 day after his death). If the visual metaphor was meant to represent heaven, it failed miserably, because it implied that Tupac didn’t die as it portrayed a real location. Another song – ‘Hail Mary’, which came out after his death, has 2Pac rising up and killing his enemies.
Tupac’s family owns the rights to his music, so these songs and the marketing campaigns following his death only arouse more suspicion. However, this conspiracy theory could have been used to make 2Pac’s posthumous albums more profitable.
Random Conspiracies
In the second section, we want to give you some newer conspiracies that don’t fit a single type. They can be simply categorised as wild.
Taylor Swift
If you don’t remember Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s VMA speech, then you probably weren’t on the internet! Anyway, some people claim the interruption was intentional. This crazy conspiracy theory goes like this – Swift wanted to join the Illuminati, and one of their initiation rituals is public humiliation, which Kanye swiftly delivered.
Afterwards, Swift became much more popular, so theorists attribute her new fame to a dark deal, just like they explained Led Zeppelin’s success back in 1968. Continuing this topic, another theory postulates that Taylor is a clone of Zeena LaVey (famous Satanist) due to their similar looks.
Britney Spears
Cloning is a popular subject for conspiracies, and Britney Spears is yet another ‘potential clone’. Theories claim she died in a car crash in the early 2000’s and was replaced with a lookalike or a clone. This, people believe, explains the sudden change in her behaviour around the time.
What’s more, Britney wrote and produced an album by herself called Original Doll, without the knowledge of her record label. She even went to Los Angeles KIIS-FM radio on 30th December 2004 to exclusively play the song ‘Mona Lisa’. And surprise! The song is about a clone! It made some fans think that this was clone-Britney’s way of revealing the truth.
While the clone part of the story is obviously a conspiracy theory, the song does exist, but the studio said it wasn’t going to be played again and Original Doll never came out. This made fans think the studio was hiding something.
Beyonce
There have been many conspiracy theories attached to Beyonce’s name over the years. The most prevailing one is that she and her husband Jay-Z are part of the Illuminati. This theory even ties with the one we discussed earlier, because it was apparently Beyonce who initiated Taylor Swift into the secret society.
However, the Illuminati conspiracy took yet another turn last year when someone suggested that Beyonce is an Italian who pretended to be an African American to conceal her true roots. According to this theory, Beyonce or Ann Marie Latrassi (her ‘real’ name) came from a powerful Italian family that’s been part of the Illuminati for centuries.
Beyonce has addressed the Illuminati rumours by dismissing them, but we’re sure that these conspiracy theories will never stop popping up.
