tournament Golden Hit: Season 5 ⚜️ Congrats to fountain!

[Aurora]

 

Hey, Hitmakers! Paranormal activity has been detected, and apparitions of Spooky Tunes reviews have been sighted!
While results for Round 2 are coming—some reviews are already posted—it’s time for your next writing exercise. ⚖️

 

Without further ado, let me introduce you all to the third round of Season 5...

 

A classic returns! As one of Golden Hit’s most beloved and high-scoring challenges, it has become somewhat of a series staple. For our first-time players this season, the Judge’s Choice challenge is comprised of three individual challenges, each created by your judges, @Jackson, @XO_Life, and yours truly, @Aurora. You may select any one of the challenges below to complete, or combine elements from two or more challenges if you’re game! Will your decision be based on which option you prefer, find the most creatively inspiring, or perhaps even challenging to write? Choose wisely...

 

 

Quote

Jackson's Diss Track challenge

 

For my challenge, I want you to unleash your deepest anger. Whether it’s an ex, a rival, a hater, or a friend who betrayed you, this is your chance to vent your anger and frustration in a creative way. You can call them out by name or be discreet, and your lyrics can be unabashedly fiery, sarcastic and cutting, or thoughtfully conniving.

 

There are no genre or style restrictions for this challenge, so feel free to write in any musical form that suits your message. Whether you choose to write a rap, a pop song, a lyrical poem, or whatever else, this challenge encourages honesty and expression and has few limits otherwise - this is your chance to vent and test the limits of your creativity.

 

Quote

Aurora's Mentality challenge

 

Hey, Hitmakers! For my “Judge’s Choice” challenge this season, I'm looking for something a little more introspective... songs that explore the strength and fragility of the human mind. I've had a very tumultuous journey with my mental health this year, and although I am pleased to say that I have now reached a healthy state of well-being, it hasn't been an easy journey. What helped was being open and honest with myself about my struggles, then accepting and actively working towards bringing about the changes in my life that I desperately needed to make, but was blind to under the weight of life's many burdens.

 

Mental health is only one aspect of this challenge, however—anything relating to the human mind is fair game! Delve into your psychology bag, explore your imagination, write a song exclusively from the perspective of your inner monologue, address growing up with dysphoria or dysmorphia... the possibilities are quite literally limitless. The narrator of the song may not even be the one whose mentality is in question. Songs for this challenge do not have to be too personal or reflective of your own experiences; you may craft a narrative if you wish. My only requirement is that you explore the complexities of the human mind in an intelligent and tactful manner.

 

Quote

XO_Life's Smash Hit challenge

 

Write a Smash Hit while keeping social media in mind.

 

I want you to deliver a pop smash hit! You should focus on delivering a catchy, big and quote worthy chorus! After you got the perfect chorus, your verses also should contain lyrics that could easily resonate with the GP and can be used as captions. Your song should be cool, trendy and have smash hit written all over it.

 

You should have a good rhyme scheme but don't be shy to experiment a little bit if you think you can pull it off (ABAB, ABBA and so on).

 

Please don't go too far tho, cringe lyrics (e.g. won't wash my hair and make em bounce like a basketball) should be avoided at all costs. People should want to caption their pictures with lyrics from your song and create videos, basically your song should scream "viral organic hit"

 

Please also share how you think you fullfilled this challenge and give details how a tiktok and insta post could incorporate your song.

Songs due via Google Form submission by Thu. Nov 9, 11:59PM EST

 

Jackson, XO, and I can’t wait to see what choices you make… and hey, if you don’t love our challenges, we won’t judge! The top three submissions will earn their writers a Hit Token, so make sure to submit for your chance at one of those. If you have not yet signed up for Golden Hit: Season 5, that’s fine! Just submit an entry and we’ll add you to the sign-ups list.

 

Spoiler

@stupidjock@fountain@Hey Dude@GentleDance@réveuse@Invisibility@worldwide angel@Legend E@JonginBey@Kayseri Mantisi@blackoutbaby@Navy4Life@Antikythera@Julianna Calm Down@Hug@Prisoner@punisher

[Aurora]

Tags were missed, new round at the top of the page! ⚖️

 

@stupidjock@fountain@Hey Dude@GentleDance@réveuse@Invisibility@worldwide angel@Legend E@JonginBey@Kayseri Mantisi@blackoutbaby@Navy4Life@Antikythera@Julianna Calm Down@Hug@Prisoner@punisher

[punisher]

am i allowed to make a nicki minaj diss track? or does it have to be related to my personal life 

Edited November 4, 2023 by punisher

[Jackson]

ready for @stupidjock and @Antikythera’s diss tracks

[Jackson]

1 minute ago, punisher said:

am i allowed to make a nicki minaj diss track? or does it have to be related to my personal life 

no please do i’d LOVE to see that

[punisher]

1 minute ago, Jackson said:

no please do i’d LOVE to see that

best judge oat 

[Kern]

I feel like writing a diss track about my tribe from Survivor game

[Aurora]

When we get a catchy diss track about a mentally abusive ex... GAYLE is shaking, I fear! 

[JonginBey]

Mental health? Is it finally my moment? 

[fountain]

Best round is back again

 

im liking this set of challenges! I’m a bit torn between two at the moment, but we shall see where inspirations leads 

[XO_Life]

This round is very difficult for me to judge. 

There were some really amazing highs but also some lows. 

 

I hope you guys won't be mad at me.

[Kern]

15 minutes ago, XO_Life said:

This round is very difficult for me to judge. 

There were some really amazing highs but also some lows. 

 

I hope you guys won't be mad at me.

I have a gif ready

 

[punisher]

[Jackson]

41 minutes ago, XO_Life said:

This round is very difficult for me to judge. 

There were some really amazing highs but also some lows. 

 

I hope you guys won't be mad at me.

your simon era incoming, not sure if i’m ready for the lashings

 

i just have 2 songs left to review but might have plans tonight. still hoping to get them up this evening 

[Hug]

Oh here we go...I have a concept for one, but I don't think it's going to be strong enough. 🙄

[Jackson]

1 hour ago, Hug said:

Oh here we go...I have a concept for one, but I don't think it's going to be strong enough. 🙄

please, we all know you're going to pick all 3 

[Jackson]

posting reviews as soon as my dog gets off my lap so i can get to my computer

[Jackson]

 

@Kayseri Mantisi – Ghoul’s Ballad

This is an intriguing and original concept for a song. The imagery painted here is quite evocative. Visualizing a moonlit gathering of supernatural creatures, complete with dancing skeletons and soaring witches, sets the stage for a delightfully eerie atmosphere. The Halloween spirit is well-captured, and the repeated theme of a 'haunted masquerade' adds a sense of consistency. The chorus is catchy and effectively conveys the essence of Halloween as a time for wild celebration. However, to enhance the overall impact, the songwriter could consider introducing more varied themes and exploring different layers of depth within the song. There's a lot happening in the narrative, and it might benefit from more focused development in certain areas. In particular, the outro provides a sense of closure, but it could be further refined to leave a stronger impression. Nevertheless, this is a well-crafted Halloween tribute with vivid, immersive imagery that leaves the listener eagerly anticipating the next celebration.

 

hurricane326 – The Sentinel

One thing I love about your songs is that there’s often two separate threads running throughout. At the surface, there’s the actual story being told. Here, you convincingly depict a Halloween-ish monster lying in solitude searching for prey. You use excellent descriptive language like “ecstatic screams” and “malformed monster” that paints a very dark picture. But underneath these lyrics is almost always a deeper meaning. The way you weave such personal emotion in such a morbid, otherworldly song is masterful. You’re slowly turning me into your biggest stan – almost every week, you give us such memorable, emotive, convincing songs. We’re fortunate to have a lot of really talented songwriters playing this season, but I think the emotional earnestness I feel from your lyrics so continually is unmatched. To highlight my favorite part of the song, the “I place the heart in the chest of the beast/and I connect the proper wires” verse is completely flawless. If I were to give one criticism, I think the word “meathead” felt out of place, but otherwise this was near flawless.

 

@punisher – Body on the Ceiling

Welcome to Golden Hit! Glad you were able to escape ban-land and join us just in time. I can tell a good amount of work went into this song, and there’s a lot of payoff. You absolutely captured the scary, high intensity Halloween vibe in this song. Your imagery was captivating, but you also kept a very commercial feel. The tight rhyme scheme and repetition sprinkled throughout help reinforce the hook of the song, and the stark image of a body on the ceiling sticks out and helps create a catchy refrain. I love the “american psycho and carrie/do you find this **** scary” rhyme – it feels so commercial and current. There were times where it felt like your rhyme scheme was driving the song – words like “overheating” and “bedside” felt more forced in to fit the rhyme scheme than needed to build the song. “Bedside” specifically felt out of place, as using two prepositions in a row felt unneeded (“above our bedside”). I’d also suggest focusing more on your meter next week. You don’t necessarily need to keep every line the same number of syllables, but when read aloud it’s clear that some lines don’t flow as best as they could. This is most important when writing pop songs, as I imagine a song like this would have a prominent beat and melody that the lyrics would need to follow. I only make these comments so that your next entry can be even stronger, because as it is, this is an excellent first entry. I genuinely enjoyed this and can see you doing quite well in this competition. Great job!

 

@Legend E – Danse Macabre

I’d never heard of Danse Macabre before but this is such a cool idea for a song. You have a lot of great imagery here. Imagining wings made of bones flying from a hell-ish underground cavern is so delightfully ghoulish. You personified death extremely well – I can just imagine its surprise seeing lines of people imitating it. There’s a sarcastic tone throughout that I appreciated as well. I love imagining death playing the cello, greeting a newly dead human, and all joining together for a dance. Structurally, I think this wasn’t your strongest of entries. The wording at the beginning of the song was a bit awkward – the “worst” line felt a bit forced, and the first verse as a whole was a slightly clunky introduction to the song. The story was also perhaps a bit overly ambitious – I love all the different settings in the song, but I don’t think the song allowed enough time in each place. Rather than having such a long cast of characters show up for a line or two each, I would have preferred developing a couple characters or describing in detail one or two settings. This was a cool concept with some great lines, I just think it could have benefited from a bit of focus.

 

@Hug – Shadow Hearts

Not you following the PoKiprint writing a song based on a video game – the impact! Technically, this is excellent as usual. You also included some impactful, original lines. I like “I’ll trace the lines regardless”, and although I understand why you chose the word “sketched” in the previous line, it did feel a bit out of place. I think the end of your chorus was also very memorable with “I’ll contribute to your twisted art/To the disaster that you are”. This strength is continued in lies like “Unholy feelings so divine/I worship every part of you”. The bridge was the highlight for me, ending with the killer line “And I pray to you in every position”. You definitely deliver in terms of imagery and giving us memorable lines. Despite this, I don’t quite get the intense, primal passion you were aiming for. I think “calculated devotion” is probably a better term. Everything being so technically perfect and each word and metaphor feeling so meticulously picked detracts from the sense of fiery passion. If you wanted to convey a more illogical, intense desire, I would expect to see a more loose structure and more emotional, rather than poetic writing. The almost Biblical feeling also made the lyrics feel less personal and relatable, to where this felt more like an ode to dark desires than a song to a specific person. This is certainly a great song, but to feel fully convinced, I would have loved to see a few more risks being taken.

 

@stupidjock – Tyra Banks

I love the sample at the beginning. This is certainly an inventive concept. I don’t think I’ve ever read a Tyra Banks inspired song in this game before. Perhaps appropriately for a Halloween round, I think this lives in a sort of lyrical purgatory. With the sample, and honestly just the mention of Tyra Banks at all, this song is half kitschy campiness, but doesn’t devote itself quite enough to humor or absurdity to be considered a fully camp entry. Lines like “It’s worse than seeing alien faces burned on your toast/They looked so real I could almost taste them” (you’re kinda a genius for that one) took me there, but then lines like “I never knew what it means to be afraid/Until I realised one day that you could leave me” feel so grounded and serious. Elsewhere, “Bite my neck, bleed me dry” inflict more traditional Halloween, horror-ish emotions. Taken individually, there aren’t any bad lines here, I think this song is just trying to be too many things at once. I would have loved to see you fully devote the song to being scary and macabre, unserious and camp, or sad and emotional, rather than a Frankenstein-like amalgamation of all three.

 

@Antikythera – Knives Out (After Party)

Your writing style is so unique. I love seeing how distinctive each of the new writers’ styles are this season, because I can’t see any other writers crafting something like this. You chose a pretty heavy subject matter, but it was balanced with a weary vindictiveness and even a touch of sarcasm that made it fit the challenge a bit better. I’m a bit conflicted about the “CLEOPATRA ... MARILYN ... THEDA ... ARETHA ... LEFT EYE” in the prechorus. I do appreciate the personal, specific touches, and I understand why you chose the names you did, but seeing Cleopatra and Left Eye in the same sentence still reads as slightly jarring. However, I think you executed this better in the bridge, using specific examples of each woman and relating it back to the narrator. The “Britney” inclusion might also be controversial, but I actually like the way you incorporated “Britney, *****!” and made it feel spiteful, kind of re-purposing her signature line as a weapon to her abusers. My main piece of advice would be to take some of your descriptive language even further. Lines like “A pinch of Marilyn’s charisma to make it venom palatable” (ignoring the small grammatical mistake) were excellent, and a great example of showing how you feel rather than telling. Elsewhere, “Like a fool in love, I let in all your pain” was more plain and didn’t quite get the same emotional response out of me. I should also note that I appreciated the rap section – I love seeing changes in structure, and that was a big risk to take in round 2!

 

@worldwide angel – Sundiving

I’m not sure if this is explicitly a Halloween entry, but it leans that direction and I’m never one to challenge-police, especially for seasonal rounds like this. I like the direction you’ve taken us this season so far. Conceptually, this was pretty ambitious. The narrator has a siren-like tone, beckoning their lover in lines like “all I did was listen, like I always do/couldn’t help it, had to follow you”. The way you contrast your typical dreamy verses with the sudden brashness of “god damn it/you done ****** up” in the prechorus was so powerful, and so convincingly exemplifies the change in mood from verse to chorus. “Haunting half-screwed heads/you know you made your bed” rolled off the tongue so seamlessly and brought a commercial element to the song. “Listening like a mime” was one of the rare misses here, but you quickly made up for it with the excellent “at least adam and eve were deceived/you were lucifer in my sheets”. This was definitely your best so far this season and one of my all-time favorite from you. I hope you keep surprising us and taking us on these unexpected odysseys.

 

@réveuse– Broom

I’m bopping – this is such a catchy, fun song. I’m happy to see a full-length song from you this week, although it still felt a bit short in terms of content. I think your length and word count (not that those matter) were fine, but there were a lot of repeated words and sections to where the number of unique lines was relatively small compared to the overall song length. Although repetition (and many of the phrases in parentheses) are common on pop songwriting, they don’t add much lyrically. I’d advise keeping these sections to a minimum. Additionally, if you choose to write a song on the shorter side, make sure every line and lyric counts. I think lines like “I’m sorry bruja, the job needs to be done” were distinct and memorable, but “October, it’s the time of the month” felt like filler in an already short song. For future rounds, I’d advise reading through your song after writing it and thinking about what each line contributes to building the storyline, evoking an emotional response, or creatively describing the events in the lyrics. You have a great start here, and with a bit more time and editing, I could see this being a fantastic entry.

 

@Hey Dude – Wicked Rose

I had never heard “Furious Rose”, so thanks for introducing me! I absolutely love the lyrics to that song now that I’ve been introduced. One thing I love about it is that it presents heavy, emotional topics in such a beautiful and poetic way. The storyline is layered under clever metaphors and striking words like “opiate eyes”. In some places, I see that mirrored here. “He always had it coming/Yet her heart is still running” felt similar to the original song. I also love the conflict present in “His mother lost her only son/And what about Rose’s own?” – I think these are thoughts someone would actually have in a situation like this, and I like that you show how many drastically different emotions would be present in this scenario. Elsewhere, I think events were presented too literally, or worded imperfectly. I understand why you included the witch imagery, seeing as this was a Halloween round, but I honestly think it was unneeded in most places, especially in the first verse. I also think “wives” was the wrong word to use in the prechorus. Yes, it’s accurate, but I think it downplays the humanity of the woman a bit, reducing her to her marital status. I don’t think that was something you intentionally did, and I don’t think it was tastelessly done, I just think another word would have been more impactful. In the same vein, “Blood splattered on the door mat” was too literal, and quite jarring compared to the other, more poetic lyrics in the song. You could have depicted the same scene more tactfully, using a metaphor for blood and a word less grotesque than “splattered”. This wasn’t a bad entry by any means, and I actually love that you went for such a difficult theme with some successes, but a few key edits could have taken this to the heights of the song it was inspired by.

 

@blackoutbaby – Dancing Under the Blood Moon

This was such a classic Halloween entry. I think this was a definitive improvement from last week, and I’m excited to see you continue to grow. Technically, this was an incredibly solid entry. I love the AABCCB rhyme scheme you chose in the verses. The words roll off the tongue with ease – I found myself at the end of your verse and having to go back to re-read because I was so caught up in how pleasant the lyrics sounded together. I liked a lot of your word choices as well. Words like “hollow” and “desperate” definitely carry a lot of emotional weight, and the central motif of “dancing under the blood moon” is a striking one. I don’t think there’s anything you did wrong here, only things you could have done more of. Your verses were quite short – the first verse was only 22 words! Had your verses been a bit longer, I think you could have had more real estate to deepen your social commentary. Your word choice was great, but I think you could have done even more to drive home the theme of ignorance through additional metaphors or more pronounced political commentary. I think you’ve done a great job of incorporating a lot of our comments from round 1, and you clearly have great writing skills and the capability to grow even more. This week, you’ve already shown a mastery of the technical elements of songwriting and a knack for excellent imagery. Next week, I’d love to see a song that gives itself more room to explore itself, and an emotional grip that matches your excellent worldbuilding.

 

@fountain – Killer Whales of the Zombie Strain; “Cognisance”

I should mention that I’m also an obsessed Halloween hater – my Halloween evening consisted of watching a non-Halloween TV show with my boyfriend at home. Seaside imagery and absurdity aside, this reminds me of the movie Supernova, which I hated because it made me depressed. This also made me depressed, but I didn’t hate it. In fact, I thought it was quite moving. This had a more lyrical structure than a lot of your entries, but I think it worked to your benefit. “Dreams and dreams, no more halloweens” was an effective hook that wouldn’t have stuck quite as much had it not been so poppy. You did an excellent job of marrying the autumnal seaside imagery with the more poignant themes of death and memory loss. When you talk about the sea swirling and growling, it’s hard to separate it from the narrator’s mind, creating an extremely cohesive storyline. “Two lovers, retired by the sea/Thought it’d be the perfect end for you and me” feels like the climax of the story, continuing to build through the “my heart plunges to the sea” line. This song is simultaneously so creative, descriptive, and heart-wrenching I feel like I’m watching a film in my mind. There were a couple lines that could have been reworded – “human population” feels too scientific for a song like this, for example. I also need you to explain why the whale is “inflating” – is the “whale” just a metaphor for the memory decline continuing to grow? Still, this was an absolutely brilliant song, and perhaps my favorite this round.

 

 

@Invisibility – It’s a Love Thing

I have to admit, I’m a bit of a horror movie hater so a lot of these references probably flew right over my head. I’ve also never seen The Thing, so my background on the topic is five solid minutes of Google images and Wikipedia. Regardless, I absolutely get the folky campy Halloween vibes. Halloween is the perfect opportunity to write a camp song like this, because you can take something as grotesque as a parasitic alien and write a cutesy love song about it. The way you described the narrator’s alien lover with such blind devotion was compelling - “bitentacle” in particular was really creative. I also really liked the way you structured your chorus, always ending with the catchy, commercial “it’s a love thing” hook. Having not seen the film, there were a few references that didn’t fully connect for me, but I can tell this was a lot of fun to put together, and I’m glad you gave us something with so much personality rather than not submitting. This song is proof that “fun” writing can still be good writing. Excited to see what you come up with for this round (in the next 18 hours)!

[punisher]

thank you jackson! i especially appreciate the constructive criticism cause it really helps me improve

[worldwide angel]

13 hours ago, Aurora said:

 

 

 

8. @worldwide angel - “Sundiving”
Cool and intriguing title was my first impression. Thankfully this carried through to the song itself, I definitely got “Kill Bill” vibes, so I wasn’t at all surprised to see you acknowledge that specifically in your other information section. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve seen an entry quite like this in Golden Hit thus far. We’ve obviously had songs about unfaithful partners before, but this is very unique in its approach to the relationship, and the aftermath. The way you phrase everything in this song is so delicately crafted: “all i did was listen, like i always do / couldn’t help it, had to follow you,” evokes such a strong image of someone lovingly watching their partner sleep, and having that serenity and peace ripped away from them in an instant with the utterance of a name. Somehow things get even better in the second verse, their depth of their devotion becoming clear with lyrics such as, “you were so sweet to me / tasted like summertime / even though i love the snow / i would give it up, give all for you“. The bridge… how does each new section keep getting stronger? “at least adam and eve were deceived / you were lucifer in my sheets“ might be my favorite couplet of the season thus far. Your approach to this challenge is one I’d consider far from obvious, yet it works so well. Another brilliant offering from you!

 

 

 

thank you so much  i'm glad to see that you really enjoyed it  

 

1 minute ago, Jackson said:

 

 

@worldwide angel – Sundiving

I’m not sure if this is explicitly a Halloween entry, but it leans that direction and I’m never one to challenge-police, especially for seasonal rounds like this. I like the direction you’ve taken us this season so far. Conceptually, this was pretty ambitious. The narrator has a siren-like tone, beckoning their lover in lines like “all I did was listen, like I always do/couldn’t help it, had to follow you”. The way you contrast your typical dreamy verses with the sudden brashness of “god damn it/you done ****** up” in the prechorus was so powerful, and so convincingly exemplifies the change in mood from verse to chorus. “Haunting half-screwed heads/you know you made your bed” rolled off the tongue so seamlessly and brought a commercial element to the song. “Listening like a mime” was one of the rare misses here, but you quickly made up for it with the excellent “at least adam and eve were deceived/you were lucifer in my sheets”. This was definitely your best so far this season and one of my all-time favorite from you. I hope you keep surprising us and taking us on these unexpected odysseys.

 

aww i'm really happy to hear that you received this as highly as you did

[punisher]

i kinda give up on the nicki diss track cause she hasn’t done anything to me

i started to write it in the cardi b perspective but then i found it corny since she wouldn’t say any of those things and now i’m going crazy 

we’ll see how it goes though

[Invisibility]

Rip! I'm extremely late, but I hope the panel considers giving their feedback on my entry... A much appreciated thanks if you do 

And omg not the Judge's Choice round already! Mentality is tempting, but I have an idea for a diss track actually hehe

[Aurora]

1 minute ago, Invisibility said:

Rip! I'm extremely late, but I hope the panel considers giving their feedback on my entry... A much appreciated thanks if you do 

And omg not the Judge's Choice round already! Mentality is tempting, but I have an idea for a diss track actually hehe

Oh we moved, I just thought you were cashing in your week off this round. I believe we did say we'd accept late submissions up until the results were finalised and, well... they're not finalised just yet.

[Jackson]

20 minutes ago, Invisibility said:

Rip! I'm extremely late, but I hope the panel considers giving their feedback on my entry... A much appreciated thanks if you do 

And omg not the Judge's Choice round already! Mentality is tempting, but I have an idea for a diss track actually hehe

i did say through saturday earlier this week, so we’ll accept it

 

i’ll update my reviews tomorrow 

[Invisibility]

I almost hit the 500 word count... with a love song about 2011's The Thing