Song Contest - BOTB 8 (Results posted!)

[Vi]

Let's see if I can set something right that has bothered me for a very long time.

(If you're wondering, because I was - the bands that have become eligible for BotB the most times while maintaining present eligibility are Moby and The Go! Team, only the former of which have been submitted by multiple people.)

(Also, nice, the song that got my attention while watching Celeste playthroughs is at the top of the list.)

[Vi]

Okay I recognize like two or three Artists from the list LOL.

seriously

There are several artists I remember from previous contests where I'm like "yes!! time to go dive into--" and then I realize that while I gave them my 12 they actually came in like ninth and aren't eligible >_>

[Vi]

HEY MOD, does that list of eligible artists have the ones that have won previous BotBs removed?

Asking because Florence + The Machine shouldn't be in there. (B5)

[Vi]

Okay I recognize like two or three Artists from the list LOL.

seriously

Come on. I usually didn't listen

that

much to the western music. I mostly stick with J-Pop and Thai. Plus some of the mainstream artists. Trying to widen my collection here.

I meant that I had a similar reaction.

[Vi]

If you're thinking of entering, think faster - the deadline is tonight and you don't want to still be thinking about it when the rabble starts tomorrow.

[Vi]

If you're thinking of entering, think faster - the deadline is tonight and you don't want to still be thinking about it when the rabble starts tomorrow.

rabble is go

repeat, rabble is a go

[Vi]

My advice is as it was before - as long as it's not the bad kind of false or otherwise getting out of hand, let people have fun.

Things I don't really care about:
*Greenland - Technically a holding of Denmark but geographically and culturally distinct
*French Polynesia - Despite very blatantly being a holding of France, still geographically and culturally distinct (I think I would disallow "Tahiti" though)
*Guam, Sint Maarten, Australia - as above, also pls do not support colonialism
*Antarctica, The Moon - obviously not countries but culturally distinct and more gimmicky than anything

Things I would downvote:
*Paris - obviously not a country and superseded by an eligible entry "France"
*Ceres - someone is trying to flex their nerd cred but it comes across as douchey. like. humans have never been there
*The Independent Republic of PranaDevil's Flat - not cool unless PraDe enters it, and still not cool because it's not a recognized micronation, defeats the purpose of anonymization, and defeats the purpose of identifying as a country
*Earth - unless you're submitting something from Live Aid or smth, attempting to supersede the whole "countries" idea is really dumb

[Vi]

I appreciate that Vi, but I think you forget about historical nations, which is likely where I will return.

For instance, The Roman Empire, Athens, Burgundy. Which would you accept?

This is more out of curiosity as I will likely do it regardless. I just would love to know

The Roman Empire would not not permitted. The Holy Roman Empire on the other hand would be allowed.

Athens was a city-state, but current Athens, which supersedes past Athens, has no autonomy and is not eligible.

Burgundy is best and most recently known as a region of France, albeit now defunct. That wouldn't be admissible.

[Vi]

Alternative link for Belarus if you need it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwDd0HUn2_o

also you can't just take a noun and add "land" to it, that's dumb in the view of my extremely correct aesthetic sensibilities

[Vi]

I've finished my first pass.

I've done my best not to read most of the posts above this one but I do concur with Mina's conclusion. I didn't hate anything (we're on a roll with that), I'm pretty sure I know what my 12 and 10 are going to be, I think I know what the next four are going to be in some order, and after that... it's going to be a long second pass.

[Vi]

The entirety of it has changed. The image size no longer matters as points aren't put on the image. Country matters because...? Seriously. If somebody, anybody, can tell me what the role if country name serves beyond allowing anonymity in the submission (and even then, only until results are revealed) please speak up.

That is what I'm talking about. It's not even anonymous. The regulars know which player is which country. Hence countries need to shoved down the drain. I don't know about the image thing, it's before my time.

the regulars know most of the players because they're the ones boring enough to stick to one country, which is a problem with the players and not the concept

(yes I know mine should be obvious this round)

--

Also worth pointing out it's probably more socially beneficial to be normalize saying "oh god here comes another

[COUNTRY]

entry" rather than "fuck it, why does

[NAME OF SCUMMER]

enter these".

--

idk..i think typically giving lower scores to very popular bands/songs is good because it encourages more diversity in entries instead of just like..the top 150 songs of all time. I also think doing that in battle of the best is weird. but those two ideas are contradictory

I think it balances out in this particular contest because if everyone submits generically decent pop, it offers a lane for something else to grab attention purely for not being generically decent pop.

[Vi]

I don't think this is large enough of an issue to warrant deliberate and organized action, but you can cast votes for whichever reason you want so etc.

[Vi]

Stop being modest!!!

note mouse avatar

[Vi]

honestly i feel like unless you're making an active effort to learn people's countries they're basically anonymous as I don't tend to really remember. I know like, two people's. And one of them isn't even right anymore.

I'm pretty sure I can call almost all of the regulars and am always interested (and usually just a little afraid) when an unusual country pops up in the rotation.

[Vi]

I've finished my second pass. This contest was hugenormous and I don't feel like the quality of the entries made up for it tbh.

Spoiler: Entries that were in contention - SAFE FOR HEDGEHOGS

ARGENTINA -- GALNERYUS {ANGEL OF SALVATION}

-- I wish I could have as much fun doing anything as the electric guitar soloist does working that axe.

AZERBAIJAN -- Within Temptation {The Reckoning feat. Jacoby Shaddix}

-- This may be a minority opinion born from not listening to the radio growing up, but I appreciate some properly intense butt rock.

BELGIUM -- Bastille {Things We Lost In The Fire}

-- In a contest full of pop songs, this one's my favorite.

COTE D'IVOIRE -- Dirt Poor Robins {Leviathan}

-- The funk has been brought. This is put together well and flows smoothly. Very much a vibe song and I vibe this.

DENMARK -- OWEL {Death in the Snow}

-- I liked this better on the second listen. It's good background ambience.

DJIBOUTI -- Jason Richardson & Luke Holland {Retrograde ft. Spencer Sotelo}

-- It has a bunch of things I usually give points to. It doesn't seem like it has a lot of variety in chords but the ones it uses make for a good mood IMO.

GREECE -- Meg Myers {Adelaide}

- I like the style this has. Good lyrics. It's this high for how straightforward it is.

ICELAND -- Foxy Shazam {Killin' It}

-- Fabulosity has entered the building! It has a good drive, and while this isn't my usual vocal style, it's fun, and that means points from me.

IRAN -- Mae {Night/Day}

-- It's okay. Sounds euphonic enough. I appreciate how the beat and structure keep the listener off-balance.

NICARAGUA -- Owen Pallett {The Great Elsewhere}

-- I appreciate the sound effects. It ends so strongly.

NORWAY -- Lana Del Rey {Young and Beautiful}

-- This is me being a sucker for the orchestral backing. The mood hits my favoritism.

PANAMA -- My Chemical Romance {Na Na Na}

-- This is... kinda dumb, ngl. Still, I can do dumb.

SCOTLAND -- Kasabian {Ill Ray}

-- This is the appropriate level of percussion and bass. This is not really my style but the attitude sort of translates to me.

SOUTH KOREA -- 원어스 {개와 늑대의 시간}

-- This is better than your average boy band owing to its vocal range.

TAIWAN -- Mitski {Your Best American Girl}

-- This is very much a lyrics song, and I respect them. Puberty 2 seems like the best hellish album name in the Contest.

USA -- SycAmour {The Measure}

-- Hah, I should have expected 1:36. I'm reminded of why this band got my 12 in SC140.

somehow this list is actually half of the entries

[Vi]

and for non-small-mammals

Spoiler: NOT SAFE FOR HEDGEHOGS -- This took so long to get through 4srs though

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===TIER: POINTS!

(12) ARGENTINA -- GALNERYUS {ANGEL OF SALVATION}

-- That was quite a shift. This is by far the entry I'm most excited about. I wish I could have as much fun doing anything as the electric guitar soloist does working that axe.

(10) COTE D'IVOIRE -- Dirt Poor Robins {Leviathan}

-- Here comes the funk.

I would rather have something with a harder edge,

but this is put together well and flows smoothly. Very much a vibe song and I vibe this. (in re: strikeout - this was a bad opinion, nvm, this song is completely fine as is)


===TIER: POINTS

(8) BELGIUM -- Bastille {Things We Lost In The Fire}

-- In a contest full of pop songs, this one's my favorite. I don't think I'd rate this higher in an ordinary contest.

(7) ICELAND -- Foxy Shazam {Killin' It}

-- Fabulosity has entered the building! It has a good drive, and while this isn't my usual vocal style, it's fun, and that means points from me.

(6) SOUTH KOREA -- 원어스 {개와 늑대의 시간}

-- This is better than your average boy band owing to its vocal range but I think I've finally reached the point where I've heard enough creative K-pop that my mind isn't being blown. It occurs to me that in terms of badbutt I feel like I would rather listen to some Sonic the Hedgehog vocals. There's no way I'm going to give heavy points to lyrics like "bing, bing bing

bing

bing - bing"... is what I

want

to say, but here we are. C'mon people. Excepting the IU entry from the previous contest, it seems like K-pop entries always seem to get 4-6 points from me...

(5) GREECE -- Meg Myers {Adelaide}

-- I like the style this has. Good lyrics. It's this high for how straightforward it is and would be higher if it were more so.

(4) AZERBAIJAN -- Within Temptation {The Reckoning feat. Jacoby Shaddix}

-- This may be a minority opinion born from not listening to the radio growing up, but I appreciate some properly intense butt rock. It's probably too heavy on the ibex screaming though.

(3) IRAN -- Mae {Night/Day}

-- It's okay. Sounds euphonic enough. I appreciate how the beat and structure keep the listener off-balance.


===TIER: POINTS?

(2) USA -- SycAmour {The Measure}

-- Hah, I should have expected 1:36. I'm reminded of why this band got my 12 in SC140 - I'm still not a convert to post-hardcore but these people weave in enough other influences that there's something for me. Actually pretty pretentious.

(1) DJIBOUTI -- Jason Richardson & Luke Holland {Retrograde ft. Spencer Sotelo}

-- A mainstream Djibouti entry. It has a bunch of things I usually give points to - in fact I would give this middling points in an average contest - but the impression I get from this is that it's a little unfocused and repetitive. It doesn't seem like it has a lot of variety in chords but the ones it uses make for a good mood IMO.

NORWAY -- Lana Del Rey {Young and Beautiful}

-- This is me being a sucker for the orchestral backing. It's not a very adventurous song in terms of the vocals, but the mood hits my favoritism. I thought I got the point of this 45 seconds before it ended.

PANAMA -- My Chemical Romance {Na Na Na}

-- Who is this video trying to appeal to? This is... kinda dumb, ngl. Still, I can do dumb. There's probably a place for this.

SCOTLAND -- Kasabian {Ill Ray}

-- This is the appropriate level of percussion and bass. This is not really my style but the attitude sort of translates to me.

DENMARK -- OWEL {Death in the Snow}

-- I liked this better on the second listen. It's good background ambience.

NICARAGUA -- Owen Pallett {The Great Elsewhere}

-- I appreciate the sound effects. It just kind of drifts aimlessly and it takes way too long for it to get somewhere interesting. It ends so strongly, and yet it takes so long to get there

TAIWAN -- Mitski {Your Best American Girl}

-- This is very much a lyrics song, and I respect them. The song itself is muddy and mostly just okay. Puberty 2 seems like the best hellish album name in the Contest.


===TIER: NO POINTS

GABON -- Clean Bandit {Solo (ft. Demi Lovato)}

-- What the heck is that volume effect. Don't treat that vase like that :< Not sure how much this is intended to appeal to the male gaze. This chorus is really, really cheesy. There's too much autotune in this for me to get into, and I feel like I mostly like this ironically. quack quack quack

PORTUGAL -- Ricky Montgomery {Cabo}

-- Standard Portugal entry. This is not my preferred artist in the Portugal lineup.

BELARUS -- Matthew Good {A Silent Army In The Trees}

-- Standard Belarus entry.

AUSTRALIA -- Arctic Monkeys {R U Mine?}

-- Generic rock music.

ITALY -- Sia {Chandelier}

-- Things do not appear to be all right. The autotune is distracting, but Sia knows how to do soaring choruses, and that's this entry's strongest point.


===TIER: NO POINTS. (I'm reaching the point where I piss off a lot of people who used to like me )

ARMENIA -- Sigur Ros {(Untitled)}

-- I can't say I'm into minimalism, and not six and a half minutes of it.

EGYPT -- Hop Along {Sister Cities}

-- I don't think I could hear her abuse her poor vocal cords for much longer. I kind of mind this. Might be better if the lyrics are present.

GERMANY -- Depeche Mode {Wrong}

-- Not sure if meme song. There's only so much wrongness I can take in one song, and listening to this gives me the same vibes as being attacked with a hammer.

eSWATINI -- Mumford & Sons {White Blank Page}

-- True story: My manager, who's in his 50s, taunts one of the other managers (closer to my age) for his preference for this band and Modest Mouse. I'm not nearly as much of a live-jazz hipster as him but on this point I'm going to agree with him. Those sustained high notes are all obnoxious and don't need to be repeated every time. This style almost seems more hillbilly than actual hillbilly. It has its moments but I'm not convinced the rest of the song is worth it.

CANADA -- Camille {Seeds}

-- It's okay. I get the impression this song is about seeds, rather aggressively so. I don't think I've done enough drugs to appreciate this.

BHUTAN -- トクマルシューゴ {parachute}

-- This is far outside all the other entries... but I'm not sure if that's a good thing here. It's okay, but it's not really anything that's grabbing me.

SPAIN -- Patrick Wolf {Accident & Emergency}

-- This wins the "what did I just watch" award. This kind of happened, but with distinction.

HUNGARY -- AnnenMayKantereit {Hurra die Welt geht unter}

-- I literally asked if this was Gansta's Paradise at 0:42. This is very much something that only really lands if you understand the lyrics, I think. Without that, the vocals come across as very harsh for four minutes.


===TIER: NO

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC -- King Crimson {Fallen Angel}

-- The vocals are incredibly British. While I appreciate the oboe feature this just kind of plods along and provides generic rock background music to me. There's a lot of blatting in the background and after so many minutes it gets tiring and borderline harmful.


===TIER: N/A

SUDAN -- LIM KIM {YELLOW}

-- I was not ready for this. From what the comments are saying, it's fairly close to my original impression - dirrty "oriental" rap more heavily inspired by America than any single other nation - but flipped on its head and done with pointed deliberation. I still don't think I'm ready for this. It makes me uncomfortable in more ways than I would like to discuss here. Perhaps that's the point. I kind of want to stare at a blank wall now.

Divorcing it from the message, in terms of the music itself I didn't like it.

MEXICO -- Ghost {Zenith}

-- I suggested "that

other

Ghost" in SC139, Ffish submitted it, and he won. Given how many contests I've won so far (i.e. not just zero but not particularly close) it's bothered me ever since.

Although truthfully if I was trying to win I would have submitted Square Hammer or Rats. Still, my entry, my mood music. Y'all don't need more pop music in this contest anyway.

Answering Cyril - it was a bonus track associated with Meliora. W.R.T. quality I don't know what you're expecting from vinyl; some of the uploads seem to have been taken down and the other ones currently on offer really are much worse.

Mexico because it's the home of Santa Muerte.

[Vi]

For reference, it took me three hours and 45 minutes to go through my first pass, and two evenings and a weekend morning to complete my second pass. This is about 30% larger than the large contests we've had recently; this is the one you don't want to take lightly.

[Vi]

Thats totally fair, but I only listen to 3 second clips of each song.

I request 1:47 to 1:50. I won't tell you which entry is mine, just use those three seconds for all of them.

[Vi]

I kind of hate these botbs because I'm a snowflake and almost none of the artists I know makes it to the "best" list. :[

If it helps, I don't know anyone in general. The only artists I know I've heard songs from before (not including when they were previously entered into the Contest) were Sia and Depeche Mode.

[Vi]

i cant get excited about these botb either

in that case you may be interested in

rabble

[Vi]

I'm still here with the heartbreak simulator. This is how well your ballot matched the final results.

SHEEPLE

Tatsuya Kaname
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davsto
ceejayvinoya
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[3/4 sheep]

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Mina
Equinox = schadd_
PranaDevil = notachipmunk
pickemgenius
Errantparabola
Vi = Natirasha
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[midpoint AKA Keke]

Scigatt
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shiki
Panzerjager
SleepyKrew
vizIIsto
Plotinus
Knightmare491
Porochaz
Empire
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Hiraki
caledfwltch -

[3/4 snowflake]

MiniDeathStar
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Tammy
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Xtoxm
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Cyril
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toolenduso
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Dr Easy Bake

SNOWFLAKE

I'm pretty sure I said this last time, but Tatsuya Kaname is on a level of popularity enlightenment I can only aspire to.

There is only one person who was either within 4 slots of matching or at least 10 slots off for all 10 of their picks. That person was... me!

---

As for the anti-heartbreak, here are the reciprocated top 3 picks.

TEAM HOP ALONG WITH A PARACHUTE - Errantparabola <-> Panzerjager
TEAM PUBERTY 2: ACCIDENT AND EMERGENCY - Empire <-> caledfwltch
TEAM YOU WERE WITHIN TEMPTATION AND CHOSE WRONG; TIME FOR A RECKONING - PranaDevil <-> MiniDeathStar
TEAM SATANIC GHOST LEVIATHAN OF SALVATION - Vi <-> Natirasha <-> Knightmare491
TEAM (S)EEDS OF NIGHT AND (S)EEDS OF DAY AND (S)EEDS OF ELSEWHERE - Hiraki <-> toolenduso <-> Mina

[Vi]

wait serious i was that snowflakey this contest? even with giving the runaway winner high points? ok

granted i think the snowflake scale is skewed a bit when there's this many submission

On the one hand, yeah, you were close on Cote and right on with Iran

on the other hand you also gave points to Italy, Denmark, CAR,

Parama

Panama, eSwatini, and USA

[Vi]

Natirasha

&

Vi

obtained a compatibility of 59.20%

uwu

I hope we haven't peaked.