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PokeMMO Event Discussion: Music Battle


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Actually I'm depressed/upset I really thought I had a chance. When my piece got positive reviews from my fellow musicians it gave me courage to post it. I wasn't going to in the first place because I didn't think I could do it. During the contest it was encouraging when I saw people like my music and was thinking maybe I might win it. When the results came today I felt like the biggest failure and felt like absolutely nothing. I haven't felt like this in years. Was my 13 years of studying music a waste of time? Where did I go wrong? :(

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I don't quite agree with how the winners were chosen. Not to mention that the winnners were the first three posts on the entire thread. Next time it should be based on number of likes on each post cause I actually found JWingWangWong's music to be more unique than the winners and his even got more likes. Also consider: What did the selected judges even know about music?

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I thought for sure top three would have included (in no particular order) Jwingwangwong, BakuRyuuha, and either KatoshiRin or myself (I don't think too highly of mine though). Happy I got the honourable mention, but I think the judges screwed up their choices. There was way more musical diversity with those two that didn't make top three or honourable than those techno ones. At least that's how I feel. I'm sure there was a reason for why that was the case, but I don't agree with it. Maybe if they explain how judging worked, it would help me understand, but as of right now, I think it's a little bit of a joke. I mean no offence to those who won, and if you took offence in this post, I formally apologize. I'm just expressing my opinion, and if you disagree, then that is your opinion which you are entitled to. 

 

Edit:

The "Vote by Like" idea you proposed Surfintygrr would not work very well, as one person could get all of their friends to like it, thus inflating their song's chance at winning, whereas someone who plays alone for the most part may not have as many people like theirs and the inflated post would most likely win.

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Rest assured we did look past the first few posts in the thread, it took the judges a considerable amount of time to decide on how they felt about the submissions. I personally spent a good 45 minutes reviewing them (after already listening to them several times throughout the competition). Judging these was no doubt a very difficult task, but I am happy with the results. Please remember musical preference is very subjective and differs from person to person, you may not agree completely with the results but they are a composition of all the judges' thoughts and analysis. I personally enjoyed AstroSpud's submission immensely and congratulate him and the runner ups for their placing in this contest. 

 

Determining the winners by number of likes is considered a popularity contest, and that will never be used as the sole reason for determining winners in a Music/Art/Writing contest. Submissions coming in later than other ones would also be at an unfair disadvantage if likes were a determining factor as those entries would have less exposure to the public. 

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Judging these was no doubt a very difficult task, but I am happy with the results. Please remember musical preference is very subjective and differs from person to person, you may not agree completely with the results.


Thank you for proving that the music contest was not judged by composition but by preference. This means there was no rubric and a person who made a decent acid bass could have won the contest.
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Thank you for proving that the music contest was not judged by composition but by preference. This means there was no rubric and a person who made a decent acid bass could have won the contest.

 

I concur, I think JWing should have taken first. I'v been a musician for 13 years now. I've made my share of recordings, mixes, and his was FAR better quality, and had most originality, while also keeping to the theme of the contest : Pokemon Battle Music. Most of the winners do not even sound like they could come from a Pokemon game, but like you said, it's all about musical preference. Congrats to the winners.

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Thank you for proving that the music contest was not judged by composition but by preference. This means there was no rubric and a person who made a decent acid bass could have won the contest.

 

I did not confirm that. If you reread my post you will notice that it says "Thoughts and Analysis". I merely included that people's opinions may differ from ours (the judges collectively) because musical taste is and will always be subjective and based on opinion.

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I did not confirm that. If you reread my post you will notice that it says "Thoughts and Analysis". I merely included that people's opinions may differ from ours (the judges collectively) because musical taste is and will always be subjective and based on opinion.


I read your post clearly. You made it clear that it was judged on subjectivity and if there was analysis done you would have taken note of musical aspects of each song. During judging did you write down quantitative aspects to the song like BPM, where expression was placed, key signature, off vs on beat, placement of melodic or harmonic segments, the type of score, and most importantly did it follow the outline of Pokemon battle music? If you did all of that then you have done an analysis because that's what you should be thinking in a musical analysis. If you didn't that's fine as thoughts make up the qualitative aspects to a song. However this means you didn't analyse the song and you only had the feel to it only.
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I wasn't really expecting 2nd place, since I wasn't fully satisfied with my own Pokemon song. I was expecting JWingWangWong, Yaguarete, Pakigg, or NormacX8 to be more better than mines, since it had a better composition and it had more motivation to it than what I had to offer in the past 3 years. I'm not disappointing in the results, just quite surprised, and I find it quite funny how some genre's are easier to utilize than the other.

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I read your post clearly. You made it clear that it was judged on subjectivity and if there was analysis done you would have taken note of musical aspects of each song. During judging did you write down quantitative aspects to the song like BPM, where expression was placed, key signature, off vs on beat, placement of melodic or harmonic segments, the type of score, and most importantly did it follow the outline of Pokemon battle music? If you did all of that then you have done an analysis because that's what you should be thinking in a musical analysis. If you didn't that's fine as thoughts make up the qualitative aspects to a song. However this means you didn't analyse the song and you only had the feel to it only.

 

As I am not the host I will leave it up to him to decide to speak about the judging method. I will say your work had to be original to even qualify for judging though and reflecting typical Pokemon music was key.

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If the judging did not have much musical though process then I'm not sure what to think. I have been a musician for 15 years and maybe that's why I can't understand the results. Maybe I read into all the submissions too deeply from a theoretical perspective instead of a "listening pleasure" perspective. That being said, maybe it is my "listening pleasure perspective" that is making this hard for me to understand. The theme for a Pokemon Battle is normally fast paced and exciting, unless it is a Legendary Pokemon fight, but even most of those are fast (normally up around 160-200 BPM) and they're still really exciting, but I don't feel those vibes from the techno songs, where as Katoshi's submission may have been slow, it still brought that feeling of excitement that I would get when fighting a Legendary or a Boss from a team.

 

That's all I am going to say, as the more I say, the more of a jerk I probably sound like. As I said in my first post, I mean absolutely no harm in what I am saying, and if what I said has offended you in any way, then I am sorry.

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As I am not the host I will leave it up to him to decide to speak about the judging method. I will say your work had to be original to even qualify for judging though and reflecting typical Pokemon music was key.

The whole point of this discussion is for you to take notes and realize that the judging process is flawed. The more judging is based on opinion the less serious it is to enter a contest. I'm expecting there to be another music contest however a lot of people right now are not going to enter the next one if the same judging methods are used. That's why I'm saying this now than later.

Also in your last sentence in the post are you saying my work did not qualify for judging?
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