Plat wrote:I was surprised how the Bovine tune is getting knocked for writing to a "different title". Here's why I felt no guilt in using it:
I think I've been the one complaining about your song, so I suppose I ought to answer.
1) It's clearly based on the title. The original title is still part of the derivative title (filLET ME INanga).
LET ME IN is part of your title, lexicographically, but not semantically. That's not exactly a new idea. Octothorpe, for example, tried it a few times (That's the Spirit and Alright, Alright, amongst others) but those examples involve much smaller changes. Actually, I think That's the Spirit should probably count as the "It was a funny idea but nobody should ever do it again ever" song for title manipulation, but that was a long time ago, so maybe it's okay again.
To my mind, there is a difference between the two sides of your title. FILLET ME IN seems to flow better than LET ME INANGA; the latter is using what appears to be a made-up word for no good reason. Look it up in the Becktionary! DO NOT FIL- is a lot to add, though. It's hard to add a negative to a phrase and be subtle about it.
Note: "FILLET" can be pronounced either FIL-LAY or FILL-IT. I always thought the latter was more of a British thing but it could be regional, too; the former is ubiquitous where I'm from.
2) What's more, the original title is in the derivative title. Just like the phrase ("let me in") asked. This is what started me down the path to the derivative title; I looked for a way the original title could be a substring of something else.
I can appreciate the
"Do not fillet me, Inanga," maintains Nur Ein title (3,2,2)
... but it's pretty weak, I think. Even though LET ME IN suggests that sort of thing.
3) One doesn't have pre-written lyrics for "Fillet Me Inanga" laying around to "cover", so it's not like I got lazy and swapped in an old tune (thus having more than the ~5 days to work on it).
This never occurred to me. Hell, even if you did, which, for some reason, would not surprise me all that much, I don't think you'd try to cheat anyway.
So I'm curious: where was the line crossed? By not pronouncing it "let me in"? By changing the ID3 tag and filename to represent the derivative usage? By not specifically writing a lyric about being "let in" in some fashion?
At the end of the day, you've changed the title enough so there is no reasonable way that the song could be called LET ME IN. And that's the basic idea of songfight!, and by extension, Nur Ein: Write a song for the title that we give you. There's something sacred about that, for me. You can do whatever you want within these broad constraints, but changing the constraints to suit your own nefarious purposes is another thing entirely.
On the other hand, at least it was a pretty decent song. I can't remember where I ranked it but I'm pretty sure there were at least seven or eight entries below it on my list. So it's not an automatic disqualification but it does hurt quite a bit.
The "I wouldn't try it in future rounds, though" comment has peaked my curiosity, and I'd like to understand this for subsequent entries.
Here is what I had in mind when I said that. From the general theory of knockout competition: Do not get crazy (until you have to). Especially in this round, when there was no immunity available, first place and twenty-fourth were worth the exact same thing. Your only goal is to not lose, and there are three ways you can expect to lose at this point:
1. Don't write a song at all
2. Write a song that is bad enough that most/all of the judges will agree on its badness
3. Try something crazy
Obviously you pass on the first two counts. Remember, you don't need to "win" here, and all that Merisan get are relatively weak bragging rights. You can even submit a below-average song and be just fine.
But you tried something wacky. Something that might work fine and might make all the judges angry. This is all risk and no reward. Worked out for you, not so much for Mico Saudad.
Anyway, there comes a point where this can actually be a good strategy. If you expect that your normal song will not be good enough to survive, it's worth considering something unusual. You are clearly not at that point yet and can probably coast through another round or two simply by not upsetting anyone.
Honestly, I don't really need to know.
