Field Week Event: Songwriters of the Mob Unite!

There184
Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Update: You have 24 more hours for this challenge. Get your tracks in by midnight Sunday (Pacific Time).

For this challenge, I want you to unleash your inner rapper, rocker, warbler -- whatever you like.

Just write a song of any genre from a cappella to zydeco, and make it about video games. Throw a diss-rap to the 1UPpers (or at Bitmob, if you've joined us from 1UP), dedicate an acoustic ballad to Alyx Vance, produce a spoken word tribute to Pong -- your choice.

Don't worry if you don't have million-dollar equipment, or if your chops or voice aren't up to Jonathan Coulton's grade -- Bob Dylan can't sing and the Sex Pistols couldn't play their instruments.

But what if you can write but not sing? Or you can produce but don't have a poetic bone in your body? I've seen poems on Bitmob, and vocal-less beats that could use some lyrics on top of them -- volunteer your services in the comments and maybe we'll see some cool collaborations.

So, here are the full details:

  • Register on Bitmob with your real name and email address.

  • Write and record a song about video games. Maybe offer a hand writing/recording in the comments.

  • Post your song to YouTube. Don't worry about a video -- a still picture will do.

  • Link to it in the comments. Be sure to name any collaborators.

  • Do all that by midnight Pacific Time (8AM for me, in Britain) on Sunday.

  • On Monday, I'll post a playlist of the entries.

  • I'll also pick one name out of a hat to win a fabulous prize. You'll have to live in North America, or pay for shipping yourself I'm afraid. You can enter more than once, or submit your own entry along with a collaboration, but your name only goes into the hat once.

I couldn't ask you to put yourselves out there without offering my own example. Here's a playlist of some songs by gamers, starting with something I made earlier.

 

Other Musical Activities

If you don't want to write a song, you might want to check out Ed Tremblay's challenge over at 1UP to cover a game theme-tune.

Not everyone's a musician but most people are DJs, so hop on over to James DeRosa's Community Jukebox and tell him what video game music to play.

Join the Bitmob Last.fm group and help paint a picture of the Mob's taste in music.

 
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Comments (16)
Lance_darnell
May 12, 2010

If I just play a song that I wrote for my daughter, who's name is Zelda, does that count?

There184
May 12, 2010
So long as you don't give me the mental image of you changing Link's Zelda's nappy, you're fine. (Do you call diapers "nappys" in Canada?) Alex Cronk-Young's tweets have led me to expect parents to be oddly proud of their children's bowel movements.
Alexemmy
May 13, 2010

Nappys? Seriously? Are you two years old? You people call them nappys?

There184
May 13, 2010

Well, we only really talk about them in the presence of small children.

Lance_darnell
May 13, 2010

Alright, I am on this. 

There184
May 13, 2010

We have deployed the Lancer!

Alexemmy
May 13, 2010

I found and uploaded a video of my brother's old band playing their song "Donkey Kong". It has a dance and everything, though they didn't really do it in this video. Figured I might as well throw this into the mix, since there's no need to embarrass myself when I can't even win the prize.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmJLSCltpCg

Mikeminotti-biopic
May 14, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_SYcvL-B4c

Added some pics to a rap song I made awhile back.

Alexemmy
May 14, 2010

Since that live version wasn't the best quality, and it cut off early, I put up the CD version. Here ya go: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SO_UZE1_yHE

Pax_dsi_01
May 14, 2010

I'm going to try to get to my friend's house and record something but it all depends if I can get someone to cover for me. I have no way to record something where I am right now :(

Bhhdicon_copy
May 16, 2010

I'm mostly a composer, not a songwriter, but I have a series called "Bullet Heaven" that covers shmups in specific. I composed the main theme, "Mesosphere" in 2005 as the track for the first stage of my own concept shmup that I'm titling "Scramble XI". I then ended up remixing it for the main theme to Bullet Heaven in late 2009. Here it is in all its glory!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlToFix2yeY

 


Let's not forget either, Pixel Revolt's Intro and The MobCast's outtro are my handiwork too!

Franksmall
May 16, 2010

I made an instrumental song based on Shadow of the Colossus!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VvdqAZ4yaU

Thanks for the extension- I never would have finished it otherwise.

Lance_darnell
May 16, 2010

Alright, here is my submission:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44ou4tvzHXA

Like Frank said, thanks for the extension.

There184
May 16, 2010

No, thank you guys for giving up some of your weekends for this.^__^

Profilepic
May 16, 2010

Here's mine, sorry I waited until the last second.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMaBqZezAIk

The idea was to do music for an early '90s shoot 'em up soundtrack, but to make it less cock rock, and more like the kind of alternative music that was popular at the time. I wish I'd had more time to EQ everything properly, but oh well.

Pax_dsi_01
May 16, 2010

Warning! Terrible song incoming!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb0DO2tLUK8

Nothing special, just messing around witht the KORG DS and the Mic software on the DSi.

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