The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Caravanray wrote: There's plenty of well written, well executed songs done by competent people seriously in the style to which they are best suited which I simply don't like.

That perfectly describes your song this week!

Leaf wrote: I'm gonna review this weeks' fights (deep breath) with one word answers. Good or Bad. Despite if there is something I like, or an element that ... hell, ...hmmm. Not sure what word is best for the middle...cause "mediocre" may be too negative... "average" too good. Fuck it, four words. Good, average, medicore, bad.
If anyone wants to know why (I gave them the one word) , I'll try to explain.

It would be cool if someone made a website where you could rate songs good, bad, average or mediocre. Oh hell, let's just replace the last two with "okay." And then, if you wanted to, you could write comments about the songs. Or not.

erikb wrote:

Leaf wrote:I rated one thing bad, based on the views I'm picking up about what a song is supposed to be, and I really liked it.

What is a song supposed to be?

I really have no idea. That's the problem.What I meant by that, is that I'm picking up a vibe, or opinion on what others around this particular community view as a "song"..some of these views and opinions are conflicting of course. I'm listening to these songs, trying to think like someone I'm not...someone who would rate them in that fashion, a fashion of "quality of writing", yet I can't HELP but listen to the performer instead, or the cool sounds, or the riffs. The story to me is the music instead of the lyrics... although I've been trying to tell a story with my lyrics lately that are more .... accessible?

Maybe to me, a song is merely a vehicle for the performer so they can communicate something that 'll make me dig it.

After thinking about this stuff, about "good versus bad", I ended up listening to Blood sugar sex magik last night, I so love that album!! I wondered... how would other SF'ers rate these songs?

I know that the message boards are famous (ok...not "famous"... whatever) for "what is a song" converstations. I suppose it's important if one is too stick to the whole "songfight is about only the rules posted" and from that, determine that the point is to SONG fight, as opposed to any other thing... thus begging a definition of what a song is supposed to be in the first place!

I guess I'm trying to learn, and understand this perspective, because I see value in it. I'm just not very trusting of how I view a "good" or "bad" song, or even "song"; and how that fits into it.

fodroy wrote:

jack wrote:think of production as the personal hygiene part of your song.

i don't floss, and i've never had a cavity.
my roommate only bathes twice a week, and he has a girlfriend. i don't.

that's all.

as far as flossing goes, the key word is yet.

your roommate's girlfriend obviously doesn't mind her boyfriend's body odor, much like some listeners might not like clipping or pitchy vocals.

as songfight has proven over and over and will continue to prove well in the future, there is somebody out there who also doesn't mind somebody's stink (figurative and literal here) and will consider themself a self proclaimed fan of stinky roommates and wonder why other people don't smell or feel the love.

i think it might also be considered that as technology continues to evolve, improve, and be affordable to the masses, the paradigm for creating a "song" has changed and the definition should be loosened a bit.

for example, i just created what i'll call a new "song" called monogomous. Some would call it a "remix" but it's really more "recycling" of a few old source tracks differently and adding new source tracks to it in a completely new and different arrangement. i could look at DJ Lang's acapella vocal tracks (which i sliced up and used only parts of differently with his permission) as my lyricist and vocalist and future boy's 2 source tracks i used (a harmony vocal track and a short synth lead track) as part of my virtual band. i created the arrangement completely from scratch, creating the "song" while i produced it (like the hip cola mentioned). there is no real past point of reference to compare it to so i wouldn't call what i created a cover, or even a "remix" which implies remixing a past song.

i really don't care what people call it by the way. i'll probably just call it a remix myself, but i'd also call it an original song, as it seems to meet the somewhat antiquated conventional wisdom definition and criteria.

kill_me_sarah wrote:

erikb wrote:*Disclaimer: I was for a while the losingest SFer in SF history.

I intend to break your record.

I'm way ahead of you. I'm already up to 25 songs without a win. I think I only need 32 to beat erik. However, this is not actually my goal.

Steve

frankie big face wrote:

Leaf wrote: I'm gonna review this weeks' fights (deep breath) with one word answers. Good or Bad. Despite if there is something I like, or an element that ... hell, ...hmmm. Not sure what word is best for the middle...cause "mediocre" may be too negative... "average" too good. Fuck it, four words. Good, average, medicore, bad.
If anyone wants to know why (I gave them the one word) , I'll try to explain.

It would be cool if someone made a website where you could rate songs good, bad, average or mediocre. Oh hell, let's just replace the last two with "okay." And then, if you wanted to, you could write comments about the songs. Or not.

Stay tuned. Exactly such a thing is coming. Working hard on it as we speak.

jb wrote: Song Fight isn't about the reviews. It's about the songs. It's about the fight. Song Fight went along quite well for at least a year before anyone thought to "review" anything.

No so fast. The boards, including the reviews, are the heart and soul of Songfight. The songs, the fights, the votes, those are the skeleton and the musculature. I go to the main page once a week to download songs, then spend the rest of the week on the boards, looking at reviews and other posts. The next time I visit songfight.org is when the next fight is up.

Is someone gonna tell him?

sdurand wrote:

kill_me_sarah wrote:

erikb wrote:*Disclaimer: I was for a while the losingest SFer in SF history.

I intend to break your record.

I'm way ahead of you. I'm already up to 25 songs without a win. I think I only need 32 to beat erik. However, this is not actually my goal.

Steve

You'll need 45 to beat King Arthur, though.

kill_me_sarah wrote:Actually, I don't know that I ever made reference to Lennon originally. I talked a bit about Dylan, but I think someone else's Lennon and my Dylan comments were confused

Yeah that's my bad again KMS (I'm making a regular habit out of that) It was Melvin that made the Lennon reference, the Dylan thing just made it sound familiar to me. What I said about Lennon I will say again about Dylan. Thier poorly recorded "demos" might not be as easily listened to by John Q. Public if they weren't already familiar with the artist.

Obviously a lot of folks have stated that production means nothing to them, and (I haven't counted mind you) I think just as many have stated it does. In the end you'll just have to take your chances on whether anyone will give your song a fair listen based on that criteria.

frankie big face wrote:

Caravanray wrote: There's plenty of well written, well executed songs done by competent people seriously in the style to which they are best suited which I simply don't like.

That perfectly describes your song this week!

Actually - I thought I was providing an example of all 4 of JoS's criteria

Jim of Seattle wrote:

jb wrote: Song Fight isn't about the reviews. It's about the songs. It's about the fight. Song Fight went along quite well for at least a year before anyone thought to "review" anything.

No so fast. The boards, including the reviews, are the heart and soul of Songfight. The songs, the fights, the votes, those are the skeleton and the musculature. I go to the main page once a week to download songs, then spend the rest of the week on the boards, looking at reviews and other posts. The next time I visit songfight.org is when the next fight is up.

I think it's time for an exclusive special challenge: write a song and record it in mono with one voice and one accompanying instrument, don't produce or master it, use a $10 mic, record it to Spud's answering machine, don't use any additives or preservatives, don't listen to it even once after you make the recording and then SHUT DOWN THE MESSAGE BOARDS. OPTIONAL CHALLENGE: Disable the voting.

Jim of Seattle wrote:

frankie big face wrote: It would be cool if someone made a website where you could rate songs good, bad, average or mediocre. Oh hell, let's just replace the last two with "okay." And then, if you wanted to, you could write comments about the songs. Or not.

Stay tuned. Exactly such a thing is coming. Working hard on it as we speak.

What'd be really neat would be if you assigned a number to the ratings (say, 0 for bad, 5 for okay and 10 for good), and assigned the average of these for each song. Then you could, for example, have a list of the week's top rated songs etc.

obscurity wrote:

Jim of Seattle wrote:

frankie big face wrote: It would be cool if someone made a website where you could rate songs good, bad, average or mediocre. Oh hell, let's just replace the last two with "okay." And then, if you wanted to, you could write comments about the songs. Or not.

Stay tuned. Exactly such a thing is coming. Working hard on it as we speak.

What'd be really neat would be if you assigned a number to the ratings (say, 0 for bad, 5 for okay and 10 for good), and assigned the average of these for each song. Then you could, for example, have a list of the week's top rated songs etc.

Also it would be nice if you could select certain songs or artists as your favorites so they'd all be stored in one place. Also, as regards the rating system, I think you should have to have at least, I dunno, five or so ratings before your rating shows up.

kill_me_sarah wrote:

obscurity wrote:

Jim of Seattle wrote: Stay tuned. Exactly such a thing is coming. Working hard on it as we speak.

What'd be really neat would be if you assigned a number to the ratings (say, 0 for bad, 5 for okay and 10 for good), and assigned the average of these for each song. Then you could, for example, have a list of the week's top rated songs etc.

Also it would be nice if you could select certain songs or artists as your favorites so they'd all be stored in one place. Also, as regards the rating system, I think you should have to have at least, I dunno, five or so ratings before your rating shows up.

Is this some kind of joke, or is it obvious that a site called "somesongs" exists, and it's URL is:

http://www.somesongs.com

? Or am I supposed to read through 9 other pages of bullshit to arrive at this conclusion ?

Now just get them to add a "great" to the list of voting options (something that I've always wanted...)....

oh you can still find a bunch of Bad Songs there, if that's what you're into...I assume ya'll are into that, since thread has been created here, to publicize, and create buzz about, bad music. Badass TUNEZ

boltoph wrote:

kill_me_sarah wrote:

obscurity wrote: What'd be really neat would be if you assigned a number to the ratings (say, 0 for bad, 5 for okay and 10 for good), and assigned the average of these for each song. Then you could, for example, have a list of the week's top rated songs etc.

Also it would be nice if you could select certain songs or artists as your favorites so they'd all be stored in one place. Also, as regards the rating system, I think you should have to have at least, I dunno, five or so ratings before your rating shows up.

Is this some kind of joke, or is it obvious that a site called "somesongs" exists, and it's URL is:

http://www.somesongs.com

? Or am I supposed to read through 9 other pages of bullshit to arrive at this conclusion ?

Now just get them to add a "great" to the list of voting options (something that I've always wanted...)....

oh you can still find a bunch of Bad Songs there, if that's what you're into...I assume ya'll are into that, since thread has been created here, to publicize, and create buzz about, bad music. Badass TUNEZ

YOU HAVE UTTERED THE NAME OF ADONAI! Details of your stoning are now being arranged. Stay put, we'll contact you.

roymond wrote: Details of your stoning are now being arranged. Stay put, we'll contact you.

dude, he's not going ANYWHERE.


Put me on that list too.

kill_me_sarah wrote:

obscurity wrote:

Jim of Seattle wrote: Stay tuned. Exactly such a thing is coming. Working hard on it as we speak.

What'd be really neat would be if you assigned a number to the ratings (say, 0 for bad, 5 for okay and 10 for good), and assigned the average of these for each song. Then you could, for example, have a list of the week's top rated songs etc.

Also it would be nice if you could select certain songs or artists as your favorites so they'd all be stored in one place. Also, as regards the rating system, I think you should have to have at least, I dunno, five or so ratings before your rating shows up.

Hold on. At this point I'm not building this thing to be sharable by people. That's what the voting and the reviews are for. So this isn't "somesongs for Songfight" or anything like that. In the initial version, anyway, the ratings are for the rater's own personal consumption only. My vision was to build my own personal SF filter, to enhance my SF listening pleasure. But yeah, somesongs was an inspiration for the rating system (I am indeed using the zero-5-10 rule for the ratings so that bands and fights can have average ratings to them.)

You'll also be able to write reviews in the app and then click a button to make a nice pretty UBB-style chunk of text which you can cut and paste into the review threads.

This will be a web-based application so that a person can access their own list from anywhere. You'll have to have a personal web space to install it into. Perhaps later on I'll make a web service or something that will enable people to publish their own ratings of SF songs, but that's a version 2 type of thing.

Dan-O from Five-O wrote:

kill_me_sarah wrote:Actually, I don't know that I ever made reference to Lennon originally. I talked a bit about Dylan, but I think someone else's Lennon and my Dylan comments were confused

Yeah that's my bad again KMS (I'm making a regular habit out of that) It was Melvin that made the Lennon reference, the Dylan thing just made it sound familiar to me. What I said about Lennon I will say again about Dylan. Thier poorly recorded "demos" might not be as easily listened to by John Q. Public if they weren't already familiar with the artist.

Obviously a lot of folks have stated that production means nothing to them, and (I haven't counted mind you) I think just as many have stated it does. In the end you'll just have to take your chances on whether anyone will give your song a fair listen based on that criteria.

Actually I can't listen to any Dylan at all, demo or not. Mystifies me what people hear in him. But that's another topic.

Spud wrote:Is someone gonna tell him?

Tell me what? You have a knack for bringing out all my insecurities.