Somewhere in the deepest citadel of Defected’s trendy Shoreditch HQ, someone spends their days contributing to the relentless Dunmore propaganda machine by creating social media content. Any kind of content will do, so long as it promotes Defected, gets lots of eyeballs looking at it and there’s lots of it.
Most of it serves little purpose other than keeping people engaged with the label – meaning that the algorithm views them more sympathetically when they do have something to promote. Depressingly, Defected do actually have the right approach here – it saves them having to spend a fortune on advertising.
Nonetheless, it requires a long line of clickbait to maintain this setup – and some of it becomes positively suspect. Take this video of Anthony Hopkins – you might remember him from box office toppers like The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal – apparently dancing to recent Defected release “La Danza” by John Summit.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cf3s6l1Igap/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Some people watching this – Ears To The House included – might have smelled a rat. Was this legendary movie actor really dancing to a third rate tech-house record? Unsurprisingly, it turns out the answer was no.
Hopkins was, in fact, dancing to a Colombian song called “La Pollera Colorá”. The song was composed in 1960 by Juan Bautista Madera Castro, with lyrics composed by Wilson Choperena in 1962. It has been performed by numerous bands and orchestras since and is highly regarded in the Colombian music world.
Which, with respect, “La Danza” simply isn’t and never will be. So Defected’s use of this video – substituting the original music with one from their own catalogue for its own self-serving reasons – is, to put it politely, questionable. Here is the original clip with Hopkins dancing to the correct music…
At the very least, Defected should have credited the original video – not doing so looks lazy at best. In the meantime, here’s hoping Hopkins doesn’t bring out his inner Hannibal Lecter when he sees this – otherwise, Simon Dunmore might find himself being served with fava beans.
Anyone got a nice chianti?
