While Israel’s offensive on Gaza continues, an Israeli group based in the United States is triumphing globally and there are many who are calling for a boycott of their music. ‘Self Aware’, the only release by the Temper City trio, has been in the global top 10 on Spotify and has just entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 51. Billboard has already dedicated an article to explaining the phenomenon and both Variety and Spotify have included the song among their candidates for song of the summer.
Suspicions have not been long in coming, especially since ‘Self Aware’ remains the only single released by Temper City. There are already close to 330 million views for the only song by a group that was completely unknown until two days ago. Threads are accumulating on Reddit wondering if Temper City are even a real band or if we are dealing with another AI project. In X, accusations of “industry plant” abound. The group seems to have appeared out of nowhere, but that is not the case.
Behind Temper City are Chen Kordova, Aviv Barenholtz and Eytan Peled. The first two have been working together since they were 12 years old and before starting the band they had already composed and produced for Israeli artists such as Noa Kirel or Netta, the controversial winner of Eurovision in 2018. It was not the first time that the three collaborated either: they had already published music together for the NoCopyrightSounds label.
The launch strategy, anything but improvised, is explained by the influencer marketing platform Influur as a success story. At the end of January they began uploading videos to TikTok recording ‘Self Aware’ in the middle of the desert, always using the same fragment of the song. Then came a campaign with creators, a practice that is actually common in the industry, but especially evident in this case, since the group has no track record.
But what does the song offer musically? Its mix of blues-rock and indie pop, with echoes of Portugal. The Man or Cage the Elephant, get in first time. The lyrics, however, resort to textbook clichés (“no smoke with no fire,” “mood swings like the weather,” “drinks flowing like water”) and images so worn out that suddenly the AI accusations don’t seem so far-fetched. Let’s say that they have put more imagination into the campaign than into the song.
You already know that many of today’s hits are born from carefully calculated marketing campaigns, even when they are disguised as spontaneous finds or “authentic” rock bands. In this case, everything gives off the aroma of a prefabricated product, both the music and the success. And, to make matters worse, this success will contribute, even if involuntarily, to whitewashing the international image of a country accused of committing war crimes by numerous international organizations.
