Yearlong Song Challenge Monthly Roundup: OCTOBER 2024

In lieu of going through all the prompts for October and making some notes about each—mainly because I honestly just don't fucking feel like it right now, so worn out am I with the idea of pretending that today isn't an important day in our nation's history, etc. etc.—I am going to use this space to instead practice writing out my thoughts about a possible transition plan for 2025, when Song Challenge ends but we as a collective need somewhere to write out our thoughts about music and about life in a similar way (i.e. separate from Record Club, which, guys, c'mon, it's right there, begging for you to hop in). Here are my preliminary thoughts about the concept of a plan I have.

Let me say first that I love the idea of a Song Challenge and I think it's been going well and will end well. I also think that, if something similar is going to be done in 2025, then it needs to be something that requires less frequent commitment. Obviously, nothing works if no one is committed at all, but a new idea would work better if I can say something like "instead of doing this three or five days a week, you only have to do it once a week." Let's start there. This new thing would call for participation once a week.

The name-to-be-changed-at-a-later-date-if-needed is Monday Morning Mixtape. It would be published, obviously, every Monday morning. It would be similar to YSC in that there would be a prompt presented, and you would choose your song based on that prompt, and all the songs chosen would add up to a playlist, and you'd write about a song if you chose that song.

Now, differences. First of all, there would be less of an emphasis on the "creative writing" aspect of YSC. Instead of saying that the minimum is 100 words, I'd say that the maximum would be something like 250 words (and maybe minimum 50). So we're looking at blurb-writing instead of essay-writing. This is me acknowledging that some people don't give a shit and have never given a shit about the writing aspect of YSC.

Which is totally fine! But I think if that's the case, we should lean into it. Let's really hone our writing in more limited spaces. You are required to write less, BUT, that writing is going to be sharper by necessity. For example, there would be a loose rule about not being allowed to use your blurb to write about how difficult it was to choose a song for the prompt. Another example, you can write about whatever you want but you'd have to at least attempt to make what you write about the song in some way. You get what I'm trying to say.

The prompts would be on a rolling basis. We'd rotate on who was in charge of coming up with a prompt. That prompt would be announced on a Sunday, in the email, and then would be due the following Sunday, to be published the next morning (so, eight days after the prompt is announced). No late entries, but on the other hand, less restrictions on repeat songs (the onus being on the prompt-selector to select a prompt that would elicit fresh non-repeat songs). Every song and blurb wrapped up in a nice little playlist on a single blog post. AND, you'd be allowed to choose more than one song, if you wanted. Maybe maximum three or five, and you'd have to write a separate blurb for each song, but yeah, otherwise, you'd be allowed to go wild.

And again, this is once a week. So there's less commitment. I suppose that means that there will be more people dropping out, since I assume the yearlong commitment of YSC is what has kept some Challengers involved all this time. But I'm also hoping that the smaller commitment and the lighter challenge will encourage people to keep coming back week-to-week anyway.

I'm saying all this at the beginning of November so that there is ample time to gather thoughts and ideas from others, as well as start gathering interest levels on such a project. Probably not gonna bother with this thing if we can't get a healthy half-dozen commitments before Christmas. But I'll slowly get the word out, that comes in time. For now: how does this sound? Did I explain it okay? Do you have any thoughts on whether Monday Morning Mixtape would be a good idea? Let me know.

SONG CHALLENGE MOVIE CLUB

• The Sound of Music
• No Time to Die
• Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb a bunch of times, obviously
• Twisters
• Ocean's Eleven
• The Iron Claw
• Garden State (twice)
• The Sixth Sense
• Smile 2 (twice)
• Psycho
• Scream
• Midsommar
• The Ritual
• When Evil Lurks
• Barbarian
• The Menu
• Evil Dead

ALBUMS I DOWNLOADED OR AM GOING TO DOWNLOAD SOON BECAUSE OF SONG CHALLENGE

• Gris Klein by Birds in Row (Nate, Day 148)
• Post by Björk (Sunny, Day 148)
• Joy as an Act of Resistance by IDLES (Gilson, Day 150)
• Evil Empire by Rage Against the Machine (Zach, Day 150)
• Look, I'm not gonna download Midnight Memories by One Direction, but I did like the title track that Bridget posted on Day 154, and I think the album would be a fun Record Club album someday. Oh shit, that's November. WHOOPS.

SONGS I'M GOING TO DOWNLOAD SEPARATELY

• "Here Come the Sixers" by Fresh Aire
• "Spooky" by Dusty Springfield

BEST SONGS (THAT I WAS ALREADY FAMILIAR WITH)

• "Sussudio" by Phil Collins
• "banger supreme" by Magic Toaster
• "Lottery" by Single Mothers
• "Science Fair" by Black Country, New Road
• "Hurricane" by Bob Dylan
• "Ocean Man" by Ween
• "Green Light" by Lorde
• "Proud Mary" by Tina Turner
• "Lifter Puller vs. the End of the Evening" by Lifter Puller
• "Pedestrian at Best" by Courtney Barnett
• "Friend of the Devil" by Grateful Dead
• "Candy" by Mandy Moore

WORST SONGS

• "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" by Liesl von Trapp and Rolfe
• "There Were Changes in the Hardcore Scene" by Cheekface
• "What I Want Is a Proper Cup of Coffee" by Trout Fishing in America
• "House of the Rising Sun" by alt-J
• "Cruise" by Florida Georgia Line
• "The Black Dog" by Taylor Swift
• "Goatmilk" by Goat
• "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" by Taylor Swift
• "A Golden Smile" by Randy Steele
• "Bus to Beelzebub" by Soul Coughing
• "I'm a Gummy Bear (The Gummy Bear Song)" by Gummibär

My favorite write-up from each individual contributor, with a brief description of each:

Allison — Day 141 — the Hard Rock Cafe

Brianna — Day 151 — the Satan trait

Bridget — Day 142 — the dying gasps of the Phillies

Gilson — Day 146 — the Americana divorce of the century

Maeve — Day 149 — the cops are the boot of fascist pigs

Nate — Day 141 — the waste of food every single night

Sara — Day 147 — the JAMBA(!) and starbucks and candy!

Sunny — Day 149 — the inability of me to choose anything but stories about B in this space every month

Zach — Day 147 — the loneliness of a crowded room

Joe — Day 147 (the chair) or Day 142 (the health center)