In League with Canadians
Exciting news: we have a (new) official launch date for the WAYPOINT Kickstarter! Mark July 14 on your calendars. Every early backer counts.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/waypointcomic/waypoint-1-4/
The Decibel cover story I wrote about last week got announced! If you want to learn about the impact of the Transformers (1986) movie soundtrack on nascent metalheads and the new re-recording, you can pre-order the issue here:
Onto this week’s column!
I’ve talked about the idea of “taste” before. Sometimes there’s no accounting for it. But what about activities where you’re literally accounting taste? I’ve participated in one of my favorite online pastimes, Music League, since the quarantine days. Frankly, I devote way too much thought to the game, so I thought I would share those thoughts with you, my faithful readers.
If you have no idea what Music League is (and I suspect that’s most of you), the napkin pitch is that it’s Fantasy Baseball but for songs. Which doesn’t actually make any sense when you think about it. It’s more like Apples to Apples or Cards Against Humanity. Basically, you gather a consistent group of people to play. Every week, the person running your league provides a prompt like “Songs about cowboys” or “Songs that make you ugly cry” – I’ve found that either very specific categories or very broad emotional reactions work best. Everybody submits a song anonymously, with optional comments for context. The algorithm generates a Spotify playlist from the submitted songs. You then have a week or so to listen through the playlist and assign points to everybody else’s songs (and leave comments if you wish). At the end of the voting period, it tabulates the points and presents everyone with a ranking. You do this for 8-10 rounds (or whatever) and at the end the person with the most points wins. Fairly straightforward stuff that I just described in as overcomplicated a way as possible.
Here’s how it’s like Fantasy Baseball: it’s a blast to pick your player, send them out into the field, and see how they do. Watch as your song accumulates points. Bitch to your friends when it doesn’t accumulate enough of them. Point out weird patterns, like one league where my songs would get exactly 19 points from the first half of the voters and then zero after that. It happened multiple times!
But what are the criteria for assigning points? Ah, there’s the rub, as Shakespeare once said, kinda. It’s largely arbitrary. You can give points based on how well it fits the theme, how much you like the song, if the song is obvious or obscure, etc. It realistically boils down to how much you like the song. Ultimately, you’re trying to get people to give you their precious points. And let me tell you: it is devilishly hard to predict what songs people are gonna like.
One of the reasons I find Cards Against Humanity so frustrating is that it feels completely random. There’s strategy you can try to apply, but it ultimately comes down to: do you know the sense of humor of the judge, and do you have the right card to fit the prompt AND their sense of humor? My sense of humor tends to be a little esoteric at the best of times, and since there’s usually alcohol involved in CAH, it’s not the best of times. I’m not a fan.
With Music League, you can choose from the entire history of recorded music (or what’s available on Spotify, anyway). Endless options! The flip side of that is that it’s not just one judge; it’s twenty or so other people, all with wildly varying tastes. My regular group consists largely of 50-something Canadians (demographics I don’t belong to), with outliers like the 12-year-old son of one of the players. Hell if I know how to hit their varied tastes in the center. It’s not like you can pander – I’ve dropped songs that I thought would kill it, only for the song to die in the rankings. And it’s not like I can blame the other players. They’re just going by what they like, and everybody likes different stuff. The only person you can blame for a poor showing is yourself, for failing to read the room well enough.
The best you can do is try to match the overall energy of the group. My problem is that I tend to like higher-energy music (metal, punk, Italo disco, etc.) and the group I play with tends to skew more mellow, at least when it comes to rock – ebullient jazz and soul cuts tend to do well. Those just don’t come to mind immediately for me. Metal songs, which do, flop. My friend Scott McLaren, who pulled together a lot of the people in the league and is a 50-something Canadian himself, is much better at matching the vibe. Surprise! I’ve only won this particular league once in years of playing and that was, frankly, a shock.
While I am extremely competitive, I’m also a pretentious asshole. For me, the appeal of Music League is introducing others to new music and discovering new music myself. I've encountered some cool stuff! That’s where I found the Viagra Boys, one of my current faves – I had avoided them previously because of the name but somebody submitted “Ain’t No Thief” to a playlist and that caused me to reevaluate. When I submit or vote, I immediately rule out obvious songs and radio mainstays. Like last week, the theme was “Robot Songs.” My wife’s immediate reaction was “Mr. Roboto.” And while I say “domo arigato” to that, I would never use that song, or give it points. I’ve heard it too much. It’s boring to me. I love sharing music and expanding worlds, and I love having my world expanded. Personally, I vote to reward songs I haven’t heard, or that grab me unexpectedly. I see it as an opportunity to introduce folks to songs they may not have heard. Which can backfire – there’s comfort in familiarity.
I also need to keep in mind that I’m a 40-something nerd who works from home and can listen to records all day. A lot of the other players have jobs where they can’t listen to music, or have kids, or are kids. The teenager, for example, literally cannot have heard as much music as I have. And that’s not his fault! The music he picks brings a much-welcome younger perspective. I put way too much thought into it even though I realize it’s a silly game with no real world consequences. I just get very invested in games. AND I MUST WIN.
It’s also similar to creative endeavors in a capitalist society. Do you write for yourself or do you try to appeal to an audience? Ideally, there’s a balance between the two, but it’s difficult to know what’s gonna hit and what isn’t. I wrote WAYPOINT based on my own interests, but hopefully those interests resonate with enough folks to make it a success.
Anyway. The point I’m trying to make is that Music League is a perfect microcosm of what’s beautiful about humanity. Everybody has their own approach to it, whether it’s the songs they submit or what they choose to vote for. It’s chaos. I love it. It drives me mad.
NOW SPINNING
Vangelis – See You Later
Slift – Fantasia
Fast Draw – 根腐劣屑 (コンプレックス)
Echo and the Bunnymen – Heaven Up Here
Blood Incantation – All Gates Open (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
