1. I'm 99% sure they're ineligible, but since I never actually asked: Do all the songs by The Megas count as covers and are they banned as a result? There's a decent argument in their favor: They change the songs around, use actual instruments, add lyrics & a plot, and their better songs work even without the context of the games the music came from.
If they have anything original sure they count. If they cover a song that is from the 60's and are the earliest covers in the decades I am requesting then they are fine also. Even though I have this rule I think I have 2 songs from my list that I have made exceptions of so this late in the nomination phase I might bend slightly on the rule. If you have a particular song you want me to consider just nominate it anyway and I'll let you know if it can be made an exception as well.
On the other hand, they're still easily recognizable as Mega Man songs and I can't quite get an argument that allows them without also allowing Weird Al who you explicitly banned back at the start of this. So...pretty sure I know what the ruling is, but I have to ask in case I can sneak one of their songs in at the last minute.
I didn't explicitly ban Weird Al. In fact there are a couple of his songs on the list since he has made several original songs on his own. The reason most of his stuff is denied though is done so under the limitation of parodies since most of the stuff he has 'covered' falls inside the last 50 years.
2.I believe you mentioned something that there could be exceptions for cover songs if the original song isn't allowed for some reason? Now I don't want to nominate it, but doesn't this loophole allow the Weird Al cover of the "George of the Jungle" theme to be nominated?
It would allow the cover from Weird Al if it is the earliest cover inside the last 50 years.
George of the Jungle came out in '67, so it's obviously excluded ; Weird Al usually does parodies of songs from time periods covered in this topic, so they're excluded ; yet, through the magic of oddly specific loopholes, the two combined to form probably the only Weird Al song that could sneak in.
I just want to take a moment and let that sink in: A children's cartoon came out in the 60s ; almost two decades later, Weird Al's label demanded he make a "normal" cover, so he added the show's theme specifically to spite everyone ; three decades after that, this topic was created and I subjected us all to this inane conversation. It's beautiful, in a way, this stupid song transcending the generations and I think we should all pause and reflect on everything in the history of the universe that led to this moment.
...of course the song wouldn't even be in my top ten joke noms from the 80's, I just really wanted to share that story.
3.Would you resent me adding a fourth Protomen song? Because I've regretted picking "This City Made Us" instead of "Hold Back the Night" for a solid month now and, to be quite honest, The Megas and The Protomen are the only two current bands I listen to which makes it hard to nominate 10's songs that aren't from one of them.
Nominate what you have and I'll take a look. A bunch of that stuff is sort of original on it's own as you say because of the songs being more or less 're-imagined' and not so much covered or parodied. That may actually be the line I draw in the sand in your case here since the bands are unique in that way.
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"Best read of the game goes to se7en. Who correctly surmised this town is full of idiots." - Corrik Se7enthrust ~ Dude_Dexter