Revolving Baby Walrus | Round 4 - Accepting signups

[Ariel]

Current Status

• schadd_ is looking for thought-generating songs for Round 4

In-thread Ping List

• tris & T3 would like to be pinged in thread by the current host for submissions

The Gist

tl;dr. The current host tells you what kind of song they want you to send. Send them a song. If you do well, you get to host next.

1. The host of the round will announce criteria for one category of songs and a submission deadline. They might give a lot of details to explain the category, or they might not. They might cap the number of submissions that they have time to review.
   
2. Players should privately submit a song to the host by the deadline.
   
3. The host will grade the songs based on adherence to the category and general enjoyability. They might give a bonus to songs they are unfamiliar with.
   
4. The host will reveal the scores. They might host a live reveal on discord and stream the song submissions, or just post the scores in the thread, depending on their preference and availability.
   
5. The winning player will have the opportunity to be the next host. If they are not interested or hosted recently and would rather give a new host a chance, the opportunity will pass to 2nd place, and so on until a new host has been chosen. The winner has 5 days maximum to respond, and any additional candidates have 3 days before the opportunity passes to the next candidate.
   
6. We will try to keep up a leaderboard of sorts in the OP of this thread. Format TBD.

FAQ

How do I play this?

• If the current round is accepting song submissions, check out the guidelines the host posted and then send them a song. MafiaScum PM should work. If you're both on the MafiaScum discord, DMing them will probably also work.
  
• If the current round is waiting on the host to reveal, hold on until it's time for the next round.

How do we keep the thread from dying young?

• If a host goes for 4 weeks without revealing scores, any community member can prod the host and announce that they were prodded.
  
• If the host does not do their reveal within 2 weeks of a documented prod, any community member may declare themselves the new host and announce a new category.
  
• It would be great if the MIA host follows up eventually with a reveal, but the winner of the MIA host's round will not win the opportunity to be the next host, because the thread has moved forward.

Is there a set scoring rubric or is it up to each host?

• Up to the host if they want to borrow someone else's rubric or post their own. For the leaderboard, we probably need to set the first place score of a round at a constant value though.

What information might I want to give players if I'm hosting?

• You may use the template within the spoiler tag as a starting point:

Spoiler: Template

Code: Select all

[u]Category[/u]
Title: (e.g. "something I normally don't like" / "makes me smile")
Details: 

[u]Scoring Criteria[/u]
Names: (e.g. Category Fit / Enjoyment Factor / Novelty Factor / Unpredictable submitter / Other)
Details: 

[u]How to send your song[/u]
Send via: (e.g. MafiaScum PM / Discord if possible / No preference)
Format preference: (e.g. For consistency/anonymity, everyone please send me a link to your song via Spotify / No preference)

[u]Deadline[/u]
Last day/time to submit:
Maximum # of submissions: (e.g. No cap)

Round Recaps / Leaderboard

1. Ariel hosted Round 1 and biancospino won. Category | Reveal | Chart
   
2. T3 hosted Round 2 and Skygazer won. Category | Reveal

-Leaderboard- (Format subject to change)

[Ariel]

category 1: somewhat annoying but also a banger

• songs that have string instruments or are in the reggaeton genre might be more likely to fit this category than other songs, but I am sure there is a wide variety of stuff that would
  
• in general, I expect that I am more likely to find a given song annoying than the average bear bc I get overstimulated
  
• in general, it will probably take less effort to submit something I am unfamiliar with than the average person. hope that helps!

submission deadline: end of day October 11th

(expired on 2023-10-12 00:00:00)

# of submissions so far: currently 11

[Ariel]

I am going to test out-
2 point for unfamiliarity/pleasant surprise factor
9 points for fitting the category
9 points for how good the song was

and then try to grade on a curve for the leaderboard so that whoever got first place overall gets 10 points toward that. whoever hosts next can do what they want tho

[Ariel]

3 more days ish to enter!!

[Ariel]

Wait how does this work

Hi Jackson, looks to me like you understood this right, but I did just add more detail to the OP to try to make it more obvious to a brand new person what's going on. Hopefully that helps the next person in your boat

[Ariel]

When are you going to do the thing and are you going to do a discord thing

hmmmm any interest for the 15th or the 22nd (gmt-7 late afternoon) ?

[Ariel]

I set up an event in MS discord. Might be able to move the time a bit if it's bad

[Ariel]

Looks like some stuff may have come up last minute for a lot of the folks who were interested so I'm switching over to an in-thread reveal. Here's my little intro-

To all the players this round - thank you for putting yourself out there in this highly subjective contest. I hope that this game format ends up being fun for people. I'm on the edge of my comfort zone starting us off hosting though. I feel a little silly trying to put numbers to or give vaguely authoritative opinions on music. Nonetheless, I greatly appreciate you all helping me explore this category! Listening to these really underscored how much pitch seems to mediate what I find grating. I didn't hint at that in my category explanation, so I apologize if I set expectations poorly. Anyway, we've got orchestral video game, slacker rock, jpop, dance pop, electropop, pop punk, heavy metal, doom metal, disco and "bimbocore" on our playlist, which I will be posting shortly.

[Ariel]

These are being provided in order of overall score.

Spoiler: toad sings chandelier

toad sings chandelier - Sia cover by melancholiaah

I'm pretty familiar with the song this is covering, but this is, uh, different. I did laugh for 80% of my first listen. Is Toad OK? I will not subject my ears to this more than twice because I think the original is a lot closer to the "somewhat annoying" I thought I was asking for.

Spoiler: Civilizations

Civilizations by Masayoshi Soken (Shadowbringers: Final Fantasy XIV Original Soundtrack)

The lead vocals here are the birdcall of my nightmares. My sources state that they are combining operatic and Bulgarian folk influences vocally. The latter in particular I seem to find grating in higher pitches, but both are rough! The choral piano and the strings at the start don't help, they're just adding more to the unpleasant echoiness for me. So unfortunately, this is more than somewhat annoying, which ends up hurting it in other scoring areas too. I did like most of the instrumental stuff and the background vocals fairly well. It gets most of its banger value because it sparked my interest in what a dance for it could be like, whether that's contemporary ballet or folk dance or whatever.

Spoiler: Never Gonna Give You Up

Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley

I'm very familiar with this song (just got 138/139 on Sporcle quiz of the lyrics.) However, I didn't expect to get rickrolled via this game, so got me there! The start of the song irritates me with the drum fill and ESPECIALLY the strings, which I think punctuates the rickroll aspect. If I stick around to the verses, they are pleasant. Some lyrics are annoying bc I'm not too sure about "the game" and if Astley's a reliable narrator about his love. It's upbeat, iconic and can be fun to sing along with. I kinda enjoy the vibe and the percussion and bass, but it's not it for me overall due to cheesiness/instrumentation. I enjoy that this song exists but there's a good amount of pop music I do find more enjoyable.

Spoiler: DYWTYLM

DYWTYLM by Sleep Token

This entry was thought-provoking! Overall, I would say the prominence of the heavy autotune is employed in an annoying way that is not so much also a banger. It came across to me that there's more other things it's trying to convey than be a banger? The song has a simple summery ambience to it that is kinda fun but it seems hollow with the lyrics. Asking the same autotuned question repeatedly is evocative, and it's also annoying =p. I got some additional enjoyment out of thinking over the lyrics and there's a couple of very good lines in it.

Spoiler: Pink Hotel

Pink Hotel by Scene Queen

This is such a hot mess. It has quite a few twists and turns, which includes some fun moments. I'm considering it a banger in the sense that it seems like Scene Queen is having a total blast performing it. It's also a pretty good category fit for annoying because it is annoying in a wide variety of ways. For example, the slow bit gets repetitive, and when she starts screaming at us I don't even know most of what she's saying, but at least it's short. I find it cringy at times and that hurts my enjoyment! Sorry.

[Ariel]

Spoiler: Inside Her

Inside Her by Gezebelle Gaburgably

This story seems to be of someone who's trapped in a bad relationship and wants to be numb. So even though there's some fun/interesting stuff going on musically, imo it's not much of banger, because it's coming across too hard that this person is sorta giving up or still in shock?? It's just a bit muted. The flute(?) is cool but also annoying and it's kind of a lot with the percussion in the instrumental bits. Vocals and vocal effects also contribute to it being annoying, so it's a good category fit in that respect.

Spoiler: Life of a Salesman

Life of A Salesman by Yellowcard

Aw, it's sorta heartwarming pop punk. Overall, I think this is the second least annoying song submitted? Like I could stand for it to be more annoying for it to have more substance or variation to it. I think the vocals are kinda annoying combined with the drums. There's some repetitive elements in the lyrics that I guess I wish were elaborated on more? e.g. what does being a better man mean? I can imagine people like jumping up and down to it at a concert or something, so more of a banger than not. The violins are also more on the banger side than annoying side!

Spoiler: Night on Disco Mountain

Night on Disco Mountain by David Shire

This is a groovy song! It is definitely overstimulating and therefore annoying for me, especially with it not being a short track. A pro for category fit on both counts is that there's a lot of dynamic stuff happening. I'm not familiar with Saturday Night Fever but I bet this would be a lot of fun accompanied with dance or action. I also think that would help me avert my attention from the more shrill sounds too. I'm having trouble identifying all of the individual instruments in order to speak to them, sorry! I do find the snares more annoying than other entries, for example. I dig the low-pitched horns at around 1:00 and it takes a funky turn with the strings at the end.

Spoiler: utopia

utopia by siraph

This sounds so cute and daydreamy, like an optimistic person having fun in a city. It would be a fun TV show intro or something. It's actually not annoying enough for what I was trying ask for. It is definitely a little busy throughout while being a longer track, and doesn't pare down very often. The elements contributing to the busyness are just not as annoying as what's going on in other entries I guess! Listening to this seems to put me in a good mood.

Spoiler: Bat Country

Bat Country by Avenged Sevenfold

This looks like it might be a relatively well-known song that I missed because I am apprehensive of metal. All the elements of this are really contributing to it being a banger. From listening to a couple of covers, I think the lead vocals are helping with both category fit aspects. It's a lot at times, especially the guitar I think, but I appreciate this entry. It got stuck in my head more than any other entry.

Spoiler: III

III by Ufomammut

I'm totally unfamiliar with this band and with "doom metal"/"psychedelic sludge." The beepy noise at the very start is irritating. I am also not a fan of the synthetic high pitched sound that's going on for a lot of the first two minutes. Overall, I have no idea what's going on but I'm confused that I'm fairly into it. I actively like the drums and the muffled yelling makes sense somehow. I actively like it more once you're at 2 minutes but it's also layered with a new irritating screechy noise. I think it felt like more of a banger on the very first listen than on subsequent ones. It's somehow perfectly, grippingly annoying with its sludgey elements.

[Ariel]

biancospino, besides being the only one to make it to the discord reveal, you have won and are thereby eligible to host the next round. You have (expired on 2023-10-27 18:20:18) to respond as to whether you are hosting or want to pass it to the next person. If you're not hosting, then 2nd place (T3) will have 3 days to let us know, and so on with hellbooks, Skygazer, Shea, etc. if we get that far.

[Ariel]

Thanks for hosting T3. I also gave you mod powers in the thread in case you need them. Do you have a deadline for when you'll be done accepting submissions?

[Ariel]

2 more days left to submit

[Ariel]

Prodding T3

[Ariel]

Thanks T3 for hosting! Here are a couple of charts to go with your round. When we have more rounds completed, might be able to make the leaderboard calculation fancier if it seems better.

-Round 2 Recap-


-Leaderboard-


I will be fixing the OP to reflect we're onto Skygazer's.

[Ariel]

Prodding Skygazer

[Ariel]

I believe schadd_ is happy to host round 4 so I think that can start getting submissions going soon tm for that while we look forward to more deets from Skygazer in the future