A few weeks back, Dev Hynes, a brilliant, multitalented artist who created one of last year's most underrated and most fascinating pop records, announced a new project. VeilHymn was to be a collaboration with Bryndon Cook of Starchild and their first single, "Hymn," was intriguing. With Cook on lead duties, there was a lo-fi bite to the soul. Cook couldn't hold his falsetto, and it started to unravel when the melodies demanded more of his vocals, but it was never boring.It's harder to give a shit about that this morning, after Pitchfork reported that VeilHymn was merely one arm of a sponsored marketing campaign from MailChimp. Specifically, VeilHymn was one of many "strategically created executions targeting digital subculture." Hynes's spokesperson told Pitchfork that the two musicians had been working together for a long time, but did admit that the band was named in order to rhyme with the [insert whatever Mailchimp does here] company's name, and that "Hymn" was written for the campaign as well.There's no joy in being a purist; art and commerce can't be completely split today, at least not when you edge towards pop. But a band named to rhyme with a [seriously, what do they do?] company's name, released with no explanation of its origins, feels like a perversion. Congratulations to MailChimp on reaching the digital subculture. I sure hope everyone got paid well for this.Follow Noisey on Twitter.
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