LogFAQs > #947672610

Hey all! Ive done a few VGM ranking topics, but Ive never done one for everything else, and theres a lot of non-VGM out there. Im not as well-versed in non-VGM as I am in VGM, so Id like to do a ranking topic to get some more exposure. Thats where you come in!

You can nominate up to four pieces of music. This can be rock, hip-hop, jazz, classical, country, film score, throat singing, yodeling, atonal noise, whatever!

Here are some additional guidelines:

• Songs cannot be eligible for VGMC. This means anything originating from a video game. Note that this rule means that remixes/arrangements of VGM that wouldnt be eligible for VGMC are eligible for this, but Id encourage you to branch out.
• Songs should be no longer than 15 minutes per song. Theres nothing wrong with long songs, but given that Im probably going to be listening to over a hundred nominations, cutting things down is for the best.
• Please do not nominate more than one song by the same artist. The whole point of this is to get a breadth of music, and thats inhibited if you give me four songs by the same artist. If I like a song, Ill probably look up more from the artist, so you wont have to worry about that.
• YouTube is strongly preferred for links but Bandcamp or Soundcloud are also fine if no good YouTube link exists.
• I will only be judging based on the song, so if you nominate something with an amazing video, I wont take it into consideration.

I havent quite decided how Im going to rank/rate the songs. For VGM I have a 0-10 scale with increments of .5, but I dont have that for non-VGM (which is an arbitrary decision, I know). I will very likely use a scale that includes how well a song holds my interest, how well I think it achieves what it intends to do, how much of a unique experience it is for me, and whether I keep thinking about it or listening to it again.

I tend to have fairly broad taste in music and a very open mind, but here are some things I tend to like:

• Most of the time I like music that evokes strong emotions: triumph, sadness, despair, fear, happiness, etc.
• Sometimes I also like music thats more reserved and measured
• I often like music that makes my skin crawl
• Weird music
• Glitchy music
• Unique beats
• Rock and orchestral put together
• Piano
• Jazz in general

Things I tend to not like as much:

• Sappy vocal ballads or nasal singing
• Screechy stringed instruments, particularly when paired with loud guitars
• Lyrics that rhyme pain and again
• Also lyrics that dont fit the meter of the song by stressing the wrong syllables (note that I dont often pay attention to lyrics, at least on a first listen, but I will notice if something sounds off to me)

There are exceptions to everything I dont like, so if you want to take it as a challenge to find something I like that fits those negatives, feel free!

One last thing: I dont really enjoy doing writeups for songs. Im not literate in even basic music theory, and describing things vaguely isnt fun for me. My writeups for this will be brief and will mostly be One thing I like about this song, and thats it. Dont expect big, detailed analysis, but I will attempt to be almost entirely positive, even with the bottom songs.

That said, please nominate! I dont have a cap on total nominations Ill leave them open until everyone who wants to nominate has done so (within reasonable limits). Looking forward to hearing what you want to give me!