The veto system was introduced in an effort to stop ‘cheaper’ songs or songs known by many participants from winning. Since the introduction of this system, the quality of the contest has increased significantly, and we’re sure you’ll agree that the winners have usually been well-received and sometimes unexpected.

 

The veto process is not, and never was, clear-cut. It’s not a case of “well this was vetoed last time so this song should go now”. There are many different factors that need to be considered when reviewing each song. We hope that this guide will make the system clearer.

 

When we receive the list of confirmations from the host, we begin the process by Googling each artist and their song. What we look for mainly is blog support, primarily from the core sites like Popjustice, Scandipop, and Pitchfork. There are many more we look at but if an entry falls into one or more of these three primary blogs then it will be discussed. If the song is new then we’ll look through the first ten or so pages of Google results. If it’s an older song (1 or more years) then the digging isn’t as extensive. So, what else do we look for? We’ve separated these into 4 categories:

 

Minor/Yellow (3 points)

• Has moderate personal chart support from within it's likely fan base.
• Artist has been recycled and previously qualified for the final.
• Song has appeared in Unknown Pleasures.
• Song has a thread with more than 15 replies in a genre forum.
• Song is in the top40 of the artists 'home' nation.

Medium/Orange (7 points)

• The song has performed significantly well in another contest on the forum, eg. Unknown Pleasures.
• The song is by a MALE artist, or associated act with an Artist Forum on Buzzjack.
• Has strong personal chart support in it's genre fan-base and has 'crossed over'.
• The artist has had a top40 UK album in the past 12 months.
• Has presence on one of the big three blogs, the trifecta of Popjustice, Scandipop or Pitchfork.
• The song is a similar sounding cover version or contains a heavily used sample of a previous BJSC entry.
• Artist has come top10 previously in BJSC
• Song has a thread of more than 40 replies in a genre forum
• Song is currently in the chart of a Scandinavian nation
• The song/artist has charted, within the past 12 months, in one of the following nations: United States, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France & Germany
• 2 or more people attempted to confirm the song.

Serious/Red (12 points)

• Has significant BJSC Personal Chart presence//The song is in the Multichart during the week/s in which the confirmation process is open.
• The song is a fresh leak or forthcoming single by an artist with a significant following on Buzzjack.
• The song has received substantial radio, internet and/or TV exposure.
• The song is on a current Radio 1 playlist (any playlist published just prior to or during the confirmation period)
• The artist/song is currently or has recently (within the last 12 months) been in the UK Top 40 Singles Chart.
• Has a review on one or more of the trifecta (Scandipop/Popjustice/Pitchfork) with Hyperbole set to 11.
• Artist has multiple top10's, or a top5 finish to their name
• Song has very recently finished top5 in UP
• Song has more than 75 replies in a genre forum thread
• The song is by a FEMALE artist, or associated act with an Artist Forum on Buzzjack.
• The song has gone top5, within the past 6 months, in one of the following nations: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France & Germany
• Song is in the Hot 100 currently
• More than 5 people attempted to enter the song.

Auto-veto/Black (25 points)

• Is a straight cover of a previous BJSC entry.
• Is currently in the UK Top20.
• Has significant presence on all of the trifecta. (Scandipop, Popjustice and Pitchfork)
• Is a former ESC entry.
• Is currently in a national final for ESC selection.
• Is a previous BJSC entry.
• Artist was in the previous month's top 3.
• Song has more than 100 replies in a genre forum thread.
• Song is from the current album campaign (single, album track, b-side or leak) of one of the very popular AF artist's (Sugababes/MKS, Lady GaGa, Katy Perry, Adele, The Saturdays, Leona Lewis)

(For the criteria that read "Song has a thread with more than X replies in a genre forum": If the artist or sub-genre has a combined discussion thread, like K-Pop or Tone Damli, then only the number of replies the song in question has received will be considered. If this criteria is one of the flags raised when we discuss an entry for veto we will take into account the number of individual people posting in the thread and the number of them that are BJSC contestants. For example if a thread is like the Tone Damli one where it has one loon and a few people that pop in to say "Ooooh that's nice" we will take into account that the posts and thus the hype on Buzzjack is being driven by one person)

 

An entry to the Buzzjack Song Contest WILL be vetoed if it scores 25 points or more. Songs scoring 16 points or more will be discussed for potential vetoing.

 

The points allocated to each level have been calculated so that triggering 2 Red Flags alone is not enough to trigger a veto, but meeting an unrelated condition from either the Yellow or Orange level will. By unrelated I mean that if one of the Red Flags is for an exceedingly hyperbolic review on Scandipop it can not receive an orange flag for it's presence on Scandipop.

 

It is mathematically impossible for a song with only yellow flags to be vetoed.

 

Due to the extensive nature of the confirmation stage, it’s important to note that there’s no set process that’s easy to adhere to. The vetoes (or lack of, in some cases) are decided on a contest-by-contest basis. Consider 10-15 points the new 'borderline'. We can not promise complete consistency every month as songs that fall into the 16-24points range will be discussed on a month to month basis and each song will be considered independently of all the other songs. FOR EXAMPLE: A 19 may be vetoed (1*Red + 1*Orange) but a 20 may not be (2* Orange + 2*Yellow). We will also discuss any entry raising a Red Flag and may discuss entries that raise two Orange flags if one or more of those is borderline Red Flag.

 

We would appreciate it if people would check their songs against this criteria before confirming in order to save you (and us) the hassle of rejection. There really isn't any point confirming a song that scores more than 25 points.

INTERESTING. Just spent my time reading that through completely, and I can't really think of anything I'd think of adding / anything overly harsh. Obviously some of the 'hyperbole' things could be judged different from person to person, but as I said, I think the framework is a very good idea for people to work with and has been executed well. So, kudos to the mod team.

This isn't a criticism and more a curiosity - when has the German chart ever been of relevance to BJSC? I can see the argument for basically every other country on that list but Germany seems quite an ignored country in this contest!

 

List is fab though, will be handy I'm sure.

After the publishing of this new veto framework system, I'm sure a lot of people's questions regarding the veto will be cleared now. The list being fair and not overly strict is an absolute bonus as well so well done to the veto mod team on the effort to prepare this list.

Excellent. I see no reason why anybody should have a problem with the veto system now.

 

*uses list to decipher if the song I'm thinking of will get vetoed or not*

Yeah that all sounds very fair. Thanks for doing this guys!

Serious/Red (12 points)

• The song is by a FEMALE artist, or associated act with an Artist Forum on Buzzjack.

 

I don't know if I'm misinterpreting this (I probably am!) but is this suggesting that sending any female artist automatically is a serious veto issue or just a female artist that is associated with an artist forum? If it is actually the former then I don't agree with this point at all, but I do think I misinterpreting it and you are referring to the latter! :kink:

 

Apart from this, it's absolutely great and really helps us all know what you are looking for! :D

Well Ryan, given they have a similar one for male artists, if it was the former anyone sending a song would automatically get some points. :lol:

I'm not happy with the top 40 rule but I'm not complaining about this

This veto system is very good, hopefully no arguments shall take place over vetoed entries now. Looking at the list I think it's safe to say my four potentials won't be vetoed. And if you want to check out my potentials, go to the most recent post in my national thread and send me a PM telling me what you like!

Well Ryan, given they have a similar one for male artists, if it was the former anyone sending a song would automatically get some points. :lol:

 

Ah I didn't see the same rule for male artists with an artist forum too. :kink: That'll teach me not to just scan it, but read it properly! :lol:

Echoing the general sentiment in this thread so far.

 

Reasonably confident my next entry would score 0 points on here but could hopefully do okay. Yay.

I'm not happy with the top 40 rule but I'm not complaining about this

Because the UK top 40 is the IDEAL place to find unknown and inspired BJSC entries....

*yes* at all of this.

Yeah, this all sounds good. I'm just gonna pray my next entry isn't a victim of this...

Because the UK top 40 is the IDEAL place to find unknown and inspired BJSC entries....

 

I was on about the top 40 in the home country chart, happened to rule out one of my potentials :kink:

That's only worth 3 points!

I was on about the top 40 in the home country chart, happened to rule out one of my potentials :kink:

 

If your potential is Top 40 in your home country chart, there's still plenty of points for it gain before it gets anywhere near being potentially vetoed. I would say as long as it doesn't meet the other point categories, you're still safe!

I'd imagine lots of entries will probably fall into the 3 point category in some way - I mean, Zara Larsson wasn't a cheap entry but she was doing well in Sweden. So, you'll be fine, Tim, unless it's a problem with other parts of the framework.

I reckon the average entry will probably pick up 6-10 points, people might be surprised at first how many points their entry picks up. If I have some free time at the weekend I might run some of my past entries through the points system as examples so you can see where songs would pick up points that you might not even have thought about. It covers a lot of things but it's an accurate reflection of what we consider. Just looks like a hell of a lot spread out like that!

 

Guess I'm so used to it by now that it's almost second nature!

 

I know there are a couple of more subjective points in there although if you have any form of qualification in English and can't spot Scandipop cranking the hyperbole level to 11 you should probably go ahead and hand that back :heehee: Aside from that, we're pretty good judges of splitting that hair between loves it and hyperbole. After all, there are some threads on Buzzjack where every post I make is done with the Hyperbole set to at least a 9.8 :lol: