tournament Golden Hit: Season 5 ⚜️ Congrats to fountain!

[poki]

Think I'll have to sit this one out. 

[fountain]

1 hour ago, Hey Dude said:

Think I'll have to sit this one out. 

Noo submit what you wrote ! 
 

I feel you cause I’m very weary about mine too, but will be submitting it regardless cause why not 

Edited November 10, 2023 by fountain

[Jackson]

3 hours ago, Hey Dude said:

Think I'll have to sit this one out. 

you should submit what you wrote! it sounds like you already put a lot of work into it 

[punisher]

3 hours ago, Hey Dude said:

Think I'll have to sit this one out. 

just submit! something is better than nothing, and everyone is struggling this round we’ll go through it together

[Hug]

29 minutes ago, punisher said:

just submit! something is better than nothing, and everyone is struggling this round we’ll go through it together

The one person who knew what they were doing instantly and had some divine being whisper the words right into their ears as they were writing is LAUGHING right now...

[Jackson]

 

The deadline has passed, and we're hard at work judging you. As in prior weeks, we should be able to accommodate late entries through end of day Saturday. If you're still working on your finishing touches or inspiration is just striking, please submit!

 

Google Form Link

 

On 11/4/2023 at 4:31 PM, Aurora said:

 

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...

 

 

 

 

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.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

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

@fountain @Hey Dude @réveuse @Invisibility @JonginBey @Kayseri Mantisi @blackoutbaby @Antikythera @Prisoner

[Antikythera]

I will not participate cause i dont have time and i kinda get my style is not what judges want. So good luck to all!

[Jackson]

17 minutes ago, Antikythera said:

I will not participate cause i dont have time and i kinda get my style is not what judges want. So good luck to all!

We've loved having you participate in the first two rounds. I particularly appreciated your unique style and fresh perspective in this game. Thanks for letting us know and good luck - and if inspiration strikes, you're always welcome to submit for a future round!

[Antikythera]

27 minutes ago, Jackson said:

We've loved having you participate in the first two rounds. I particularly appreciated your unique style and fresh perspective in this game. Thanks for letting us know and good luck - and if inspiration strikes, you're always welcome to submit for a future round!

Thanks, maybe I comeback when i have more time!

[poki]

Thank you for the extension. Will rewrite it soon and hope to send it before end of today. It's okay if you won't have time to post reviews for mine.

[poki]

Was ready to submit my track. Was focused on my newfound depression and how I've been feeling numb since September and how I'm trying to still hold on to my summer re-awakening and then HE lifted me up one more time 

 

Final Fantasy 16 actor behind Clive Rosfield wins Best Lead Performer at Golden Joysticks 2023 | GamesRadar+

 

About to re-re-rewrite. 

 

[Jackson]

5 hours ago, Hey Dude said:

Thank you for the extension. Will rewrite it soon and hope to send it before end of today. It's okay if you won't have time to post reviews for mine.

I'll definitely include it in my reviews! 

[Jackson]

 

Was waiting to see what entries would come in today but haven't seen anything yet. We'll still accept entries for another day or so, so work on those final touches if you're still writing!

 

⚜ THE SONGS OF ROUND 3 ⚜

 

hurricane326 - Your Perversion

@stupidjock - Villa With a Swimming Pool / The History of Masculinity

@Hug - Romancing Saga 

@Legend E - Childhood Dreams

@punisher - Off-brand

@worldwide angel - I Don't Miss You

@Hey Dude - The Cheering You Up Song (I'll Always Be There)

@fountain - 🎭

[Hug]

Another season of not dipping below 6th LET'S GO ‼️ 

[Jackson]

1 minute ago, Hug said:

Another season of not dipping below 6th LET'S GO ‼️ 

I think at least @Hey Dude and @fountain are still submitting so don't get too comfortable!

[Hug]

14 minutes ago, Jackson said:

I think at least @Hey Dude and @fountain are still submitting so don't get too comfortable!

Can they spare me JUST ONCE

[poki]

Yeah you guys convinced me to send after all 😅

 

Re-reading out loud what I've got and doing some changes (removing/adding "and", "if", where it feels good). 

 

Spent more time on this than Ifrit & the Phoenix!

[Galah]

14 hours ago, Antikythera said:

I will not participate cause i dont have time and i kinda get my style is not what judges want. So good luck to all!

Your writing has certainly been a welcome addition. Not everyone is going to rank highly out of the gate, and we've seen lots of writers who started out in a similar position to you end up scoring some of the biggest hits we've seen in Golden Hit. hurricane326, JoeAg, and Kylie Jenner didn't score a single top three hit token in their debut season, and now all tie as having earned the most Golden Hit Tokens (#1s) of all Golden Hit players. beatinglikeadrum and Julia Fox scored two of the biggest #1 hits of Season 2 and Season 3 respectively, despite having previous entries ranked outside the top ten.

 

I also completely respect your decision if you wish to sit this week out, or even don't wish to submit for the remainder of the tournament. But I did want you to know that the path you're on isn't an uncommon one, and you might be just one, two, or even ten songs away from getting that smash hit. Good things sometimes take time. At the very least, if you participate in 3 or more rounds of this tournament, you will earn yourself a Rose Gold Hit Token for loyalty. Just something to think about!

[poki]

Sent.

[poki]

I made edits to it inside the form and I forgot to copy it over to save it to my Word document 

Will it be possible to have it sent over to me, I'm so sorry 

Edited November 11, 2023 by Hey Dude

[Galah]

4 hours ago, Hey Dude said:

I made edits to it inside the form and I forgot to copy it over to save it to my Word document 

Will it be possible to have it sent over to me, I'm so sorry 

Yeah of course, I'll send it to you in a private message now. 

[Kern]

PTC

[Galah]

2 minutes ago, stupidjock said:

PTC

Post the critiques? Okay!

[Galah]

 

 

We may not have received many songs this round, but thanks to everyone who participated in Round 3.

My reviews are debuting on the earlier side, so if you are still keen to submit before results, I'll add you in.

If there is anything in your review you'd like clarified or removed, please let me know and I will do so.

 

⚜️

 

1. hurricane326 - “Your Perversion”
Well, what a way to begin this challenge. This was certainly a bold subject to go with, and while I don’t know if it’s quite the diss track that first springs to mind, it absolutely works for this challenge. I get super strong spoken word, slam poetry vibes for some reason. I’m not sure if that was your intention, I hope it was, but that’s a compliment regardless. I think some of the imagery you touch on in this particular song could be considered awkward or uncomfortable given the wrong audience, but I mean, we’re all adults here, and I think that’s kind of the point of the song—to make us feel that same sense of discomfort, and it does it incredibly well. As an overall experience it wasn’t as engaging as your last two pieces for me, but I can still appreciate the thought that went into this and acknowledge it as a brilliant piece of writing. “I want to tie you down and make you see it with your two unflinching eyes,” was maybe the strongest single lyric in the tournament thus far. Excellent, as usual.

 

2. @stupidjock - “Villa With a Swimming Pool / The History of Masculinity”
Iconic title once again, you’re knocking it out of the park with these ones.  I wish I could say the same for the song itself… Oh wait, my wish just came true! This is definitely my favorite offering from you thus far, and I can already see a tremendous amount of growth between your round one submissions and this one. You start this song on such a strong note with the, “We were a good match,” hitting directly after setting up the two characters of this story being persuasive and easily manipulated respectively. The, “He changed me,” repetitions were so perfectly simplistic, and were just enough to allow the chorus to feel like a chorus, despite the remaining lyrics differing between the two sections. Simultaneously, you’ve got this thread of seaside swimming pools representing external happiness, and the exile desert representing internal sadness. It’s a simple dichotomy, but an effective one. The simplicity of lyrics such as, “When he ordered us tequila soda,” which quite clearly expresses the dominant character’s habit of speaking for the narrator, can’t be overstated. Now I’ve highlighted what I really loved, I do have some constructive criticism: I’m not sure if “vulture” was the correct choice here, while there is definitely a sense of preying-on-weakness, they don’t appear to be entirely malicious. In the second verse, it would have been great to see more examples of how the narrator’s decisions are now being made for them, rather than just being told. You do address this in the chorus, but I think a few more examples in an extended second verse would have really elevated this. The, “screaming above the water,” lyric wasn’t very clear in what it meant. The double use of “desert” in the second verse and bridge could have also been better utilized to introduce a new piece of vocabulary that shared the same feelings and message. I also fear the outro doesn’t feel like a complete resolution… This is both a good and a bad thing because it leaves me wanting more, and hope you follow up on this in a future submission! This can’t be the end of their story. Sorry for the mini novella of a review, but you earned a lot of feedback with this wonderful entry. Great work!

 

3. @Hug - “Romancing Saga”
I can already tell you had a lot more fun with this one than your entry last week, so that’s great to see. As far as radio-ready pop songs go, this was pretty good I think, perhaps teetering on the safe side? I’m not sure if this was the radio edit, but a sprinkle of explicit language in a song that’s obviously not aimed at the PG-13 crowd definitely wouldn’t have gone astray. I would say the most TikTok trendy/caption friendly lyric here is, “To all of the boys that had loved him before / That man is mine there’s no room anymore,” (although the label would definitely force you to change “boys” to “ones” to be more #inclusive). You already know I love a good rap, and this is a good rap, so we love it! Definitely could have used some more wordplay and double entendres rather than spending a whole section acknowledging he has a big dick. You could have said that in one line, not four! The counting section was fun, but you missed an opportunity to take it further (e.g. foreplay, “six” sounding like “sex”, another number referencing his size). The bridge here was also kind of a throwaway if I’m honest. I read your song before your dissertation— I mean other information, and some of the shoehorned elements make a bit more sense now. I love how you acknowledged the shoehorning, but instead of doing anything about it you just shoehorned some more lore to justify using your title lmao. At the end of the day you can title your song whatever you want, it doesn’t always have to be a lyric from the song. It still embodies the track well enough. I’d say I enjoyed this more than your last entry overall, and it didn’t have as many technical flaws, so that was nice to see. You set out to make a pop song inspired by modern social media and I think you did so pretty well.

 

4. @Legend E - “Childhood Dreams”
This was a brilliant way to approach this challenge, and definitely something I hoped to see at least once this round—some personal reflection and introspection. You’ve never shied away from opening up to us which I’ve always found very brave and a real indicator of your strength not only as a writer, but as a person. I think the intro and outro sections were very subtle but clever, because while you are not physically sitting on a public stage recalling these events, you quite literally are utilizing this platform of Golden Hit to do just that with us judges. It was a small touch but I found the self-referential nature of it to be truly something special. In some ways it felt like a continuation of your entry from round one, or at least very clearly belongs to the same body of work in a way that isn’t derivative. The dichotomy of childhood dreams having long since drifted away while the burden of reality crushes you was a particularly striking and relatable image. I think this is a powerful statement of how adult authority figures can definitely have a long-lasting impact on us during our impressionable youth, and unfortunately it’s not always a positive impact… I have more strong negative memories of educators than positive ones, unfortunately. Another stellar offering from you, thank you for your honest writing.

 

5. @punisher - “Off-Brand”
I. AM. DECEASED.  Now THIS is a diss track! You went all the way in on this one, and we love to see it. I was a little drunk when I read this and honestly it kinda just made it even better because I cannot tell you the last time I laughed at a song this much (in a good way!) You had me on your side and hating the bítch(es) this song was aimed at, which is exactly the goal of a good diss track. As far as the prompt goes, 10/10. I don’t think every single line in this song landed, but the ones that did… oh my. Let me highlight some of my favourites, in chronological order: “Bítch you’re the bottom of the food chain / Looking like he who must not be named,” “Fast car, face card, real job, got that- / None of those things that you have,“ “You hit your vape more than you hit the gym / Living on the couch you leave an imprint,” “I get the bread and you get the crumbs / That’s why you’re still living at your mum’s,” “Even your own grandmother doesn’t love you / Wishing her dimentia would erase the memory of you,” (this was so COLD). Comparatively, simpler lines such as, “You’re a bítch,” and, “Bítch go away,” felt almost like filler. I think the “Off-Brand” concept was cute, but it would have been great if you had worked that more into the lyrics of the song, even if just in half a verse or something. There’s an “X from Wish” or “Walmart version” reference just begging to be included in this song. Overall though it’s undeniable that you’ve nailed this challenge, and I’m so glad that you came into this competition when you did. Fantastic!

 

6. @worldwide angel - “I Don't Miss You”
Ooh, our first double feature of the round, look out! It’s always risky to attempt multiple challenges because honestly I would rather have one fully-realized challenge than two half-baked ones. Fortunately for you, this isn’t the latter! I’m going to skip ahead a bit and highlight your chorus—this is perhaps one of the strongest choruses we’ve seen in the tournament thus far. It’s so natural in its rhythm and flow, and it’s impossible not to hear it in a sing-song manner that would be perfect as a TikTok sound or Instagram caption, yet still packs a ton of emotional weight. Really, really good balance there. I skipped ahead to that because the first verse didn’t draw me in instantaneously unfortunately, it felt very “Smash Hit” challenge coded but at the expense of feeling a lot more basic than your typical lyricism, particularly in sections such as, “there’s more meaning to this life / than just breathing / its more than seeking / don’t stop believing,” which was giving mid-2010s empowerment mantra a bit. The image of seeing the sun and stars “stand” before you also didn’t work for me. The second verse was a lot more in line with your usual lyrical stylings, which makes me think you oversimplified your writing for the Smash Hit challenge in the first half of the song. Keeping the simpler lyricism to the typically repeated sections, such as a pre-chorus and chorus, while ensuring your verses are packed with personality and punch may have been a better way to toe the line between these two challenges. I’m glad that you showed some restraint and didn’t mark this as a diss track also because I couldn’t have given you a passing grade for that criteria, but you’ve done well to balance the other two as effectively as you have.

 

7. @Hey Dude - “The Cheering You Up Song (I'll Always Be There)”
This was something new from you yet again. It’s giving versatility! I’m glad that you ended up submitting, and especially this song because it seems like it may have been somewhat therapeutic and beneficial to you just writing it, which is fantastic. What better way to make sure your song has emotional resonance than to have it work for yourself? This was an interesting approach to the challenge. I don’t think I had “self-empowerment anthem” in mind when creating this challenge, but I can picture the angle, and worldwide angel also went there a bit, so you’re not alone in that interpretation. I think a lot of this song is pretty solid lyrically, I could definitely see it being a hit on Hot AC radio or something, there’s definitely a sense of commercial viability here. What would have elevated this song even further is a few more really striking, original couplets—as I said, a lot of these lyrics are solid, but in a tried-and-true way where most of the metaphors you’ve used feel familiar and safe. It makes for a very solid baseline of a track, but had there been a few additional lyrics I could individually highlight I would be able to score this a lot higher. In each section try to have at least one standout one-liner.

 

8. @fountain - “🎭”
NAWT the emoji song title, and here I thought Jackson and I having a song titled simply, “?” was authentically minimalistic. This was certainly a concept piece. I definitely got the impression that every lyric that came after the next wasn’t necessarily anticipated, which made for some really great moments, and some others that took a while to build up into something great. The highlight of this entire piece for me was actually the bug crawling across your coat section—if this legitimately happened and inspired this section of your song I would consider it a rather serendipitous moment because it was a striking centerpiece for this song, and made for a brilliantly natural segue into breaking the fourth wall again and acknowledging the audience. This obviously doesn’t capture the same imaginative brilliance of “Cognisance”, nor the poignancy of “The Square”, but I can absolutely see this earn a place among what’s sure to be an EP of magnificent songs by the end of your season.

 

⚜️

 

Your next challenge will be posted by @Jackson at a time to be determined. I hope we can call it even! 

Results for this third round will take place in the coming days at a time to be determined. We'll see you there!

[punisher]

4 minutes ago, Aurora said:

 

 

5. @punisher - “Off-Brand”
I. AM. DECEASED.  Now THIS is a diss track! You went all the way in on this one, and we love to see it. I was a little drunk when I read this and honestly it kinda just made it even better because I cannot tell you the last time I laughed at a song this much (in a good way!) You had me on your side and hating the bítch(es) this song was aimed at, which is exactly the goal of a good diss track. As far as the prompt goes, 10/10. I don’t think every single line in this song landed, but the ones that did… oh my. Let me highlight some of my favourites, in chronological order: “Bítch you’re the bottom of the food chain / Looking like he who must not be named,” “Fast car, face card, real job, got that- / None of those things that you have,“ “You hit your vape more than you hit the gym / Living on the couch you leave an imprint,” “I get the bread and you get the crumbs / That’s why you’re still living at your mum’s,” “Even your own grandmother doesn’t love you / Wishing her dimentia would erase the memory of you,” (this was so COLD). Comparatively, simpler lines such as, “You’re a bítch,” and, “Bítch go away,” felt almost like filler. I think the “Off-Brand” concept was cute, but it would have been great if you had worked that more into the lyrics of the song, even if just in half a verse or something. There’s an “X from Wish” or “Walmart version” reference just begging to be included in this song. Overall though it’s undeniable that you’ve nailed this challenge, and I’m so glad that you came into this competition when you did. Fantastic!

 

 

tysm! im glad it made you laugh

i love this review