Winner!

Looks like "Barber Shop Maria" is the winner. Yeah, we had very few votes, and I know my sloth is partly to blame for this, so sorry for being a jerk-face. Anyway, it was a charming song, and that makes back-to-back wins for THAT guy. Congrats--you're on fire! I don't know if it's fair to win your own prompt, but there's no rule against it.

Vote for your favorite "advertising" song

Yes, it is beyond ridiculous how long it has taken me to upload the latest entries. Would you believe I was in a submarine accident? Suddenly the water was coming in and it was just so bubbly that it reminded me of a bubble bath I once took at the tender age of seven and how the fear of water moccasins coming through the faucet (I had heard stories--we lived in Texas then) and slipping under the bubbles so I couldn't see them gave me a panic attack. So, in the replay of the panic attack that was happening in the submarine I started running and slipped and banged my head on a pipe and that's all I remember until that tick-tick of my heart monitor woke me from a coma six weeks later.

Anyway, here are the entries. Listen and weep (in a good way, or maybe a bad way cause you done lost, fool).

Find all of the entries at the Songwriting Challenge 8 page on soundcloud.

Entries are in

We have five entries for the latest challenge. Expect them up sometime soon.

Challenge #8: The Advertease

As described by the previous winner:

The subject of this challenge is advertising. Take it wherever you want to go. Write a jingle. Use a classic line of advertising in your song. Sing about an offensive billboard you once saw. Or do something like this. Whatever, you are only limited by your own imagination (kind of like the Green Lantern).

Send your production-free recordings to rocktastica at gmail dot com by fall equinox, just because I am all about the equinox. As always, winner gets to gloat and pick the next challenge.

Advert:

So I was thinking about advertising, mainly because our last winner was also thinking about advertising and my job is to share his thoughts as custodian of the Songwriting Challenge blog, preferably in a way that gets everybody fired up to be musical. But since at this point I got nothing, I'll share with you what I learned about the word "advert." May it brighten your day.

From Merriam Webster:

You may be familiar with the noun "advert," which is used, especially in British sources, as a shortened form of "advertising." That's one way to use "advert," but it has also been used as a verb in English since the 15th century. There's a hint about the origin of the verb in the idea of "turning" the mind or attention to something; the word derives via Anglo-French from the Latin verb "advertere," which in turn comes from Latin "vertere," meaning "to turn." "Vertere" is the ancestor of a number of words in English, including "controversy," "divert," "invert," "revert," and even "versatile." In addition, we'd like to turn your attention to one particular ''vertere" descendant: "avert," meaning "to avoid." Be careful to avoid mixing this one up with "advert."

Challenge coming soon

We have a winner!

Congrats to the writer of "Visitor" as you are deemed the one who rocked the hardest for this contest. I know that my toddler voted for this song, as she found it the most sing-a-long-able of them all (she really did try and imitate the infectious "ha-ha"). It is also hard to ignore the raw power of such lyrics as "I don't know if we're genetically compatible but I know my emotions."

A secondary congrats is due to "When an Alien Offers to Take You Home With Her." This song was clearly written by an alien as manifest in the very pro-invasion stance it takes as well as the sheer other-worldly prettiness.

For the non-winners, you should know that you are all truly winners. And I don't mean that just in an "every time you try you win" sort of way--thought that is true. I mean that we had some seriously creative entries this time. I know I personally was torn between three possible choices. And I have to give a shout-out to "Pale Winnebago" which turned post-apocalypse into a fantastic alt-country-ish anthem of laziness. Gems like that are why this contest is worth having. And I'm just too tired of writing this to do any more shout-outs but I haven't even mentioned the song my own husband voted for and touted as pure brilliance--he has a point. Okay I'm done. Go forth and sing. Or whatever.

No more voting extensions!

This is it chitlins. So best be getting in your votes by the ominous day that is 15 April. We have a clear leader at this point, but considering the number of votes we are talking about the leader could still be toppled with 2 or 3 more votes.

Alien songs are ready to rock you!

Here are the contenders:


Alien Invasion Lullaby.mp3
when an alien offers to take you with her.mp3
visitor.mp3
there's no running.mp3
Pale Winnebago.mp3


Vote for your favorite and for the song most likely to have been composed by an alien. If that is the same thing to you, so be it. Go forth and listen to the majesty.

p.s., No, I did not compose an entry. Why? Because I am still in shock and thus not yet able to put my alien encounter into music and lyrics. Or, I'm lazy. Take your pick.

Entries are in, "more or less"

I might be a little delayed in getting the entries up since people are currently paying me to do stuff while the baby naps. And stuff is not equal to the Songwriting Challenge. So, good news for stragglers that still want to submit something. It's now a race of your songwriting procrastination against my song posting procrastination. Who will win? (It's driving me a little bit insane looking at the words "song posting" and trying to decide whether it should be a compound word or hyphenated or just left alone. Better check the CMOS, which already owns my soul anyway.)

Challenge #7: They're Coming

If you happened to check in yesterday, you saw one challenge, but I am changing it. Sorry. I got a better idea that should be fodder for some interesting responses. Okay, the "better idea" part is definitely subjective, but I am changing it anyway.

CHALLENGE #7: Write a song depicting, involving, or related to an alien invasion.

That is all.

Rules are somewhere around here. Just write an original song and record it as simply as possible then send it to rocktastica at gmail.

Due date is end of February. So, shake off the winter blues, fellowes.