MUSIC LEAGUE - a way to gamify your music taste

MUSIC LEAGUE IS A FUN GAME WHERE EVERY ROUND YOU PICK OUT SONGS BASED ON A THEME
THEN A PLAYLIST IS CREATED
THEN YOU VOTE ON THE SONGS VIA UPVOTES AND DOWNVOTES

WHO WANTS TO PLAY MUSIC LEAGUE?

I'll start a ILX league with a basic 5 round game - winners will get to pick the theme of the rounds in the next game.

You can play on mobile or web.

JOIN HERE https://app.musicleague.com/l/ec1767aa53a34d73aa8cbd4f9c5e8aa1/

Looks interesting but it seems you need spotify to sign up and I'm not going to use spotify, sorry.

Samwell - What What In The Butt

exactly! i dont pay for spotify and i still play

The Roches - Hammond Song (Arthur Baker "Downtown" rmx)

lol one of my besties plays this, she is always pissed of at the rest of the comparatively mainstream tastes in her group

3 players so far woo!

Yeah I’m in. Sounds fun.

aight i'll do it

we have 4!!!

SIX!!!

I HAVE JOINED THUS

THIS

Oh I’m so happy

Im the one with the Steve Perry avatar

this sounds awesome, I'm in

i have entered the building

good you're the one I wanna beat

I definitely won't be this first round though lol

10! WE HAVE A LEAGUE PEOPLE!

like a maniac I have my choices set up for the next rounds too

It took me a while to work out how to submit my votes. It looks like you're given an allocation of 10 plus points and 2 minus points, which you can distribute amongst the songs however you want, i.e. you can give a song more than 1 plus/minus points, or you can leave a song on 0 points.

Yah I can change that I’d people want that’s just how my other leagues are

It's good this way!

The fact that you can give out negative points is gonna tank my chances at ever winning this thing

Jumped aboard too late for Round 1, but I'll be able to play in Round 2.

The chat and comments make for the best part of the leagues. Plus non-algorithmic music discoveries.

Oof should have disabled downvotes. I feel bad downvoting other people’s noms and there’s nothing I think even warrants them in this round.

Someone less lazy than me should transcribe the tracklists from the playlists in here for future reference.

So we have to give two downvotes and also can't give more than three upvotes to any one song? Is that right?

No more than 3*

I like downvotes because I’m a hater

If only the White Mountain Cooler jingle from 1986 was on Spotify. Damn thing has a "You Give Love A Bad Name"-style chorus intro, a verse, a pre-chorus, and another chorus, all in 30 seconds!? I guess that means that their next commercial was their "New Jersey"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1XlpbUVaUY

I’m lolling a little at the blurb that’s longer than the song it’s describing

VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE

Oh it’s a relief to see my song climb the standings as more votes go in lol

lol, this is not the experience I am having

I didn't get last place so that's nice

One voter remains. What could possibly be riding on it?

looks like my song is the one people are the most indifferent to, that's something at least

Wow! ILX hates weird Paul!

I thought it was ok, it was just not as good as all the other songs, so I had to downvote it per the rules of this game

Love it

(The hater energy)

Just voted - maybe I needed at least 900 more gecs

Very interested in the tracklist for round 2! Love grooving.

I’m gonna suck so bad at round 3 I don’t know any britpop music. I don’t even know what can be considered as Britpop besides the obvious things. Are the Stone Roses britpop? Is early The Verve allowed?

I'm not even sure I know what a groove is so I might sit the next one out for fear of making an embarrassing mistake.

Thanks to the first round for "Final Day" which I did not know and which has been haunting my brain for the last few days.

This round made me realize that the short songs I respond to most are the ones where the song itself is in some way about not quite having enough time. Also, I think, why I have always responded more strongly to the Stones cover of "Good Times" than to the Sam Cooke original: the Stones version is shorter, under two minutes, and I think that's one reason it's always given me a more intense feeling of a fleeting golden moment that will not be repeated.

so no one else is waking up every morning with "Bart and Marge, they are in charge" stuck in their head?

Oh you seriously need to get on the Colossal Youth album. It sits on its own plane of existence.

Xpost to lily

And Lily: I think of groovy music as music with an insistent rhythm that makes you feel like bobbin your head, your body, your mind. don’t overthink it, just groove.

Sorry kurt (//0~~0//) xps

Do we have to allocate all our votes? As did feel bad down voting

ILX poster Willl told me about this over the weekend. It says the group is full though :-(

Yeah, play that Lush track next to Elastica's Waking Up and you'll spot a connection.

how dare they rip off elastica, a band that famously never ripped off music from other bands

I am playing “Waking Up” now and there’s a tenuous melodic connection? The Lush song has a lot more energy and a better chord progression.

You made it sound like Lush did a Porto-Blurred Lines on Elastica when it’s more like a couple of guitar bands with female vocals used the same melodic line cliche

Dammit

PROTO

Yeah I don’t think lush strayed that far from where they already were there, they just laid off the chorus and fuzz, eg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGVzyby5kcU

really loving everyone's write ups on the parent round

Yeah I was looking forward to reading the blurbs in this one

I had never heard of Harry Chapin before today and now I find he's centre stage

Curious, how old are you, Alba, & where in the world do you live?

xp thanks to ILX I have learned things about Harry Chapin’s work that I might have been happier not knowing.

I'm early 50s and British. Probably just a blind spot

According to Google Trends data, UK interest in Harry Chapin is about a fifth of what it is in the US, fwiw. More popular in Ireland and Australia!

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=%2Fm%2F016z3r&hl=en-GB

He had one Top 40 hit over here: W.O.L.D. got to #34 in 1974.

I've heard cat's in the cradle plenty of times, nothing else I'm aware of.

xp thanks to ILX I have learned things about Harry Chapin’s work that I might have been happier not knowing.

― JoeStork, Wednesday, October 30, 2024 1:33 PM bookmarkflaglink

like this?

The Official Harry Chapin Thread

the only other song I've heard is the one I posted in the Music League, "Taxi", and at the time my dad sang it in person, I thought "how many fucking verses does this song have" - but now the context in which I revisited that video of dad singing it will always give the song a warm place in my heart even though it probably would never have otherwise.

This round seems the toughest for downvoting yet as whatever track you choose will more than likely have some emotional resonance for the nominator.

So apologies in advance

was ez for me 😎

downvote my dad's song all u want, just know he will shout "A FANABLA" at you from beyond, then thumb his nose at you

Congratulations to…. ME for winning the parents round lol.

Ok so now this simple league will be complete after this next round. I will send yall invites for the next league after a few days.

No presh to keep playing. If there’s some more room in the league I’ll post in this thread.

Shaka 🤙🏽

I fucked my chances of being able to choose round themes, but my experience of music league is that it’s best if you remain true to yourself, both in song selection and in voting & commenting. I stand by my choices.

Yes don’t play for points PLAY WITH YOUR HEART 🫡

I'm not sure we have 'road trips' in this country. The longest you could possibly drive for is about 14 hours. London to Edinburgh is six or seven. Does that count as a road trip? Anyway, the most fun I ever had listening to music in the car with friends on a long distance journey was trying to be the first to guess all the artists in intro introspection by osymyso. I was driving and luckily the roads were fairly quiet as it took a fair bit of my attention. Not really something to boast about!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRJVErS87PA

(This is not my actual selection)

Papa Likes It was a great round to start on - thanks all. Like ledge, I'm pondering what a road trip means to me. I'm just going to take it as good music to be in a car too.

to

Did not expect the visceral negative reactions to Cats in the Cradle lol

Oh well! I stand by the pick as my dad did love it, and his appreciation of the theme I think informed his attentive parenting. (And I still think it's funny as a pick related to parenting but ymmv) I figure with this stuff to always go with your first instinct and not play to the crowd, although I had no idea the crowd hates him lol

I said my piece on Cats in the Cradle on the league chat but I genuinely enjoy that song and also knew it was going to be targeted by the league for downvotes. I figured the same would happen for my pick but it’s not every day you get to post a world-famous recording done by someone you later shared a stage with.

I like “taxi” more, that one was new to me

I avoided making a comment on the tracks I downvoted but having been in the receiving end of it with mine, I actually preferred it when I could read why!

I loved both the Harry Chapin tracks, and was utterly baffled by the downvotes, but then he's barely known here in the UK and maybe he carries more baggage elsewhere?

Cat's in the Cradle has over time been seen as 70s schmaltz, and then it hit the airwaves again in the 90s when Ugly Kid Joe covered it, so Americans might just be sick of it.

(I like it but even I'm sick of hearing it by now)

Yeah, my high school history teacher tried to get us into Harry Chapin, so it's just forever uncool in a way that say, Fairport Convention (who I didn't grow up with), never will be.

I don't remember ever hearing it before, but I took against it instantly. Something cloying about it and I like a lot of 70s schmaltz

My dad was a fiend for 70s acoustic singer-songwriters so I got to hear it all, including Don MacLean deep cuts

i have an affinity for certain kinds of schmaltz but the tone of the lyrics (especially the DO YOU SEE!?! turn at the end) and chapin's voice really turn me off CITC. the little instrumental refrain is nice. and it was smart to write the lyrics from the perspective of the shitty dad instead of the son.

i'm thinking i might opt out of the next league, it's been really fun but i find the time crunch of it a little stressful

had to upvote Cat's in the Cradle, my kids are 9 and 7 and that shit makes me emotional now

There is something extremely special about watching an a capella group struggle their way to sing the CITC harmonies through stifled giggles while the soloist stares blankly into space, unable to remember a so glad lyric to the last verse

My child ...uh...came home
Other day
Mumble mumble
Bits of clay

Yeah I loved the Chapin tracks. Guess it's a matter of exposure. The really tough justice was done to the novelty track though, that was an instant hit of nostalgic joy

I expected the punishment I received. If I’d been playing to compete I would have chosen “Kodachrome” for my mom, but the writeup wouldn’t have been as keen.

Loved both the write up and the song itself for Gimme Dat Ding (i played it for my kids yesterday), and was a little surprised it did so poorly.
But I guess you've gotta downvote something, and schmaltz and novelty are easier to rationalize?

I love goofy old stuff like that, would never had heard it outside this league I imagine!

QUESTIONS - how do you guys want to do the next league? Was this too many people? Would more be too many? Was the amount of downvotes/upvotes ok?

More would be too many. 25 is already a lot. But it’s manageable for me. My previous league was smaller and tight-knit, so there was a lotta pressure to provide a decent writeup for every vote (and tbh that’s the best part of this game for me. I especially love the catty ones).

16 up is tight for 25 songs but I do like that it makes you make choices.

3 down is lots

25 is a good number, it's enough to have a good amount of diversity but not so much that I can't listen to the playlist a couple of times before voting. For upvotes/downvotes I don't really care too much, I think I can adjust to whatever most people think is good.

The downvotes aren't fun to hand out, but it seems like an essential part of the gameplay dynamic.

In fact, it'd be fun to see categories with rules on when you have to use downvotes (automatic downvote if you've ever heard the song before, automatic downvote if someone else picked a song in the same language, etc).

25 players is a lot. If there are enough people waiting to get in, maybe we should split the league in half?

The current formula works just right for me. It makes for tough choices, but in a good way. 25 players is also plenty.

Also, I think it’s OK to mix familiar songs with new discoveries, and given the geographic divide it’s different to know what is and isn’t familiar to others. Case in point: Blur’s Girls & Boys in the Britpop round. My first thought: urgh, not this obvious old cliche (in the UK, it’s uber canonical). My second thought, on working through the playlist: fair enough, it still has merit. Whereas the geographic opposite may well have been true for my Bobbie Gentry pick in the last round.