The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Yo.

I'm new here, and the FAQ doesn't really cover these questions, so I figured this might be the place to ask.

First of all, does anyone have a problem with people submitting instrumentals? I know that some people might not vote for an instrumental because it's hard to decide how it relates to the title (and therefore how it compares to the other entries), but instrumentals are all I do (until I can afford some more gear).

Second, is there any significance to the color designations? Like, would an artist of a certain style be better off sticking to one color when making entries?

you'd be better off finding a collaborator to provide vocals.

-craig

NOTE: This is merely one SongFighter's opinion. And for that matter, it's subject to change.

Let me address your questions in reverse order.

The color designation is arbitrary. It really should have nothing to do with your decision of which song title to go for.

As for instrumentals... there have been exhaustive discussions on this. I'm surprised to hear that it's not at least mentioned in the FAQ. But I guess even if it WERE mentioned there, it might be an unsatisfying answer.
Basically, you can submit an instrumental piece if you wish. But some people are bound to discredit it, because it's tough to back up the claim that the piece was written for the song title in question. Personally, I want to be as sure as possible that people are playing by the rules.
I mean, I could just write instrumentals in advance and wait for appropriate titles to match them to. But -- it's arguable that I could do the very same thing, and then wait for the titles, and then write LYRICS to put over those pre-recorded songs, and this would be perceived as somehow having more integrity. The system can be worked around, if that's your thing. Here's hoping it's not.
And that's what it all boils down to. People can pretty much do whatever they want, and people can pretty much SAY whatever they want to about it. The price for this freedom is personal responsibility. Do what you will, and do it as well as you possibly can. And understand that people have the right to say what they will about it. If you were honest in your efforts, you won't mind.

Agree with Jim. If you can make an instrumental and convince everyone that it was written specifically for that title, and any other title wouldn't fit -- go for it.

A couple of classic instrumentals (in this one man's humble opinion):

Paniflex Jones - Level Best

obscurity - Too Goth to Rock

There have been many others that didn't work. Occasionally one wins.

The only good instrumental I've heard on Songfight (that is, one that relates to the title) is ctrlaltdelete's Snow Globe.

Anyway. An instrumental is not a song. It is a tune. This is *Song*fight. Don't take that badly, but we've been over this many, many times before (and invariably head to a debate about what a song is).

Instrumental songs that I would vote for if they were submitted to Songfight (in some sort of parallel unverse where they hadn't already been written) for the appropriate title (NB: in this list I consider a song whose only lyric is the title is an instrumental):

Baby Elephant Walk - Henry Mancini
Wipe Out - The Surfaris
Bombora - The Atlantics
Tijuana Taxi - Herb Alpert & his Tijuana Brass
Popcorn - Hot Butter
Wedding Cake Island - Midnight Oil (ok I think this does have some words mumbled in it but they don't really count as lyrics)

Caravan Ray wrote:Instrumental songs that I would vote for if they were submitted to Songfight...

And of course, "Flight of the Bumblebee."

c hack wrote:

Caravan Ray wrote:Instrumental songs that I would vote for if they were submitted to Songfight...

And of course, "Flight of the Bumblebee."

of course

to the list of songfight-submitted instrumentals which do in fact fit their titles, i would append lonbobby's "between the rain".

I voted for DWG's Chaos vs Order a couple of weeks ago

and now you will die a slow, painful death.

Caravan Ray wrote:I voted for DWG's Chaos vs Order a couple of weeks ago

Why?

j$ wrote:

Caravan Ray wrote:I voted for DWG's Chaos vs Order a couple of weeks ago

Why?

I liked it

Actually, Chaos v Order was the first fight I've been in where I actually thought my song was the best. But, taking myself out of the equation - DWG was the best of the rest - IMHO.

It was an instrumental (which is why I mentioned it here) that sounded to me like a representation of Chaos vs Order, I enjoyed it - so I voted for it.

I always try to listen to the songs without looking at the names - and believe me, I was as surprised as the next man that my vote was going to those annoying little toss-pots, but - there you go...

john m wrote:An instrumental is not a song. It is a tune.

Classical composers wrote some nice "tunes" then...

Yes. They did.

As long as you guys are replaying this tired argument, please answer these:

1) Why do you want to submit instrumentals?

Is it because you don't want to write words or sing? You don't like songs with words? You think words will detract from your musical vision? You do realize that nearly everything that people call "song" has vocal parts with words, right? Why fixate on the minority of ditties that manage to get labelled "songs" without vocal parts with words? What is it with this argument? Why does it keep happening? Why do you instrumental people care so much about this?

2) What is wrong with banning or accepting instrumentals officially?

This whole "sure, but only if it's really good, or obviously relevant to the title" (or whatever the unofficial policy is) is so wimpy. C'mon! Someone put a foot down! Instrumentals: yea or nay? I'll make a motion to allow all instrumentals, no matter the quality or relevance to the title. Is there a second?

why wonder about these things two weeks after the original discussion?

i vote for the wimpy policy. it's the same damn policy we have for songs with words. they should have title relevancy.
on the other hand all songs are "allowed."
-bill

yeah... but what is a "song"?





I"M KIDDING.

The main reason I think people contribute to songfight is not to win but to submit something and get feedback/ego stroking regarding it. For that reason I'm never going to put down anyone for submitting an instrumental. I'm also not going to nitpick about what is or isn't a song because who really cares, anyway.

For some inexplicable reason, people get all anal about this. Some people don't want to write songs with vocals in them. But those same people want to participate in Songfight. I don't understand why people insist on enforcing rules that don't do anything to the community but discourage people from submitting.

Same goes for my suggestion about having longer fight dealines every once in a while. I was pretty surprised to get so much push back on that issue, and frankly, it turned me off Songfight to a certain degree.

yay