ST23 Round 3 Challenge

Here's a modest proposal: While the judges finalize their Round 2 rankings and reviews, why don't you get a head start on your Round 3 entries?

Read on for your Round 3 challenge:

Listen Between the Lines: Write and record a song from the point of view of a fictional or fictionalized narrator. Use your song to convey some knowledge, opinion, or perspective that you, the songwriter, possess, but your narrator does not.

Examples:  

• "Love Me, I'm a Liberal" by Phil Ochs - The songwriter, a leftist, wants us to recognize his narrator, an establishment liberal, as a selfish, hypocritical coward.
• "The Babysitter's Here" by Dar Williams - We are meant to recognize that the babysitter's boyfriend is a jerk, despite the narrator (a young child) being too innocent to realize it, and even fantasizing about having a relationship like theirs someday.
• "Why We Build the Wall" from Hadestown - Hades, the character singing this song, is presenting his subjects with an argument that, in its circular structure, is rhetorically compelling but logically faulty. We're supposed to recognize that his argument is both convincing and wrong.
• "Can't Keep Johnny Down" by They Might Be Giants - Johnny (the narrator) is sure that everyone is out to get him, but the specific examples he provides range from someone just trying to help (a fellow driving pointing out that his gas cap is unscrewed) to someone who doesn't know he exists (an astronaut who's been on the moon). We're supposed to recognize that Johnny's view of a world full of enemies is a paranoid fantasy.
• "I Want to Get Married" by Nellie McKay - The songwriter critiques the Cult of Domesticity by having the narrator espouse her desire for it.
• "The Hymn of Acxiom" by Vienna Teng - The songwriter critiques Big Data surveillance and advertising by making her narrator a database celebrating its power to control consumers and shape their desires.

Submitting Entries:

• Your entry must be received by Sunday, October 6, 2024 @ 11:59 PM EDT. Otherwise it'll be posted as a shadow. Received means that it has to appear in my e-mail inbox (spintunescontest@gmail.com) by the given deadline. I will be going by the time stamp on the e-mail. One minute late is too late.

• You are allowed and encouraged to submit a draft of your song early just in case something horrible happens and you miss the deadline. Then you can add polish to your song and send in a better version closer to the deadline. The last version received prior to the deadline is your official entry. 

• Lyrics are mandatory. No instrumentals. Having no lyrics will get you disqualified.

• SUBMITTING BY EMAIL: Send your file in a format that BandCamp accepts. (.wav or .flac) (at least 16-bit/44.1kHz) Do not send MP3s.
• Name your file the song's title + your band name, without punctuation.
• The subject line of the e-mail should identify the challenge and your band's name. Something like this would be fine: "ST23R3 - All the Robots".
• Include the song lyrics in the body of the e-mail.
• Include information on anyone that needs credited if you collaborated with someone.

• ALTERNATE FILE SHARING OPTIONS: If your file is too big for an email attachment, you may email me a link to where I can download the song. The email still needs to land in my inbox by the deadline.
• If you have a Bandcamp account you can just send me a link to your song if you include all the info I mentioned for emails. Info such as lyrics and song credits can be included in the email or on the song's Bandcamp page. Make sure you have it set as a free download, and have it set so that I don't have to put in an e-mail to download it if you pick this option.
• You may also use a file sharing service such as DropBox, WeTransfer, Google Drive, etc. Include in the email any required information (such as lyrics) that you couldn't include in the file. Make sure I have permission to download the file, and please follow directions so your file doesn't wind up in my spam or trash folder accidentally.

• SONG BIOS: In addition to lyrics and any necessary credits, you are welcome to include a "song bio", with any information you feel is useful. This could include your inspiration for the song, citations for any obscure references within the lyrics, an explanation of how your song met the challenge, etc. Some challenges may require you to supply certain info in your song bio. Since the judges are volunteers with lives outside of SpinTunes, song bios can help them zero in on aspects of the song you feel are important. However, if your song requires a multi-paragraph explanation in order to understand and appreciate it, this is probably a sign that it doesn't stand up well on its own, and its ranking may reflect that.

Side Notes:

• You can send in an entry to SpinTunes 23 without competing. Just tell me it's a "Shadow Song". It will be played at the listening party, but won't be ranked and you might not receive feedback from the judges. Check the FAQ if you don't know what that means. You can even complete past challenges from previous contests. It's a nice way of playing along if you can't commit to the schedule or you just want to get your feet wet.
• The only other way to get your music played at the listening party is to cover "Today's The Day" by Inverse T. Clown or "Right Again" by Mandibles.

Feel free to leave any questions in the comments.