Welcome to the 14th edition of the retro forum's song contest.

For this edition we're going a bit back to basics and reverting back to the genre based themes that earlier contests had in the form of singer songwriter. Whilst racking my brains for a style that I could use, it occurred to me that this is a genre that isn't often well represented in Buzzjack song contests. This felt like the perfect place to choose it seeing as the genre was very well represented in the 20th century and hopefully may result in quite a range of potential entries across the decades.

As with all editions in this forum, we're looking for entries to have been released before the year 2000. We don't enforce a strict set of rules, however please do try not to send anything that is too well known - a general rule is that a top 10 single will be a definite no, a top 20 may be side-eyed but smaller hits will likely be okay unless they've gone on to become much more popular for any reason. The same principle applies with artists, anyone is fine but if you choose someone who is well known then try to go for an album track or something that you don't think everyone else will have already heard. Please do try and avoid hugely popular albums also though, for example it's very unlikely that we'll accept anything from an album as famous as Jagged Little Pill or The Hounds of Love.

The song you choose must have been both written by and performed by the artist. There's no strict restriction on genre but try to stick within the spirit of the theme - ie no out and out pop song where the singer has a writing credit for improvising a 'yeah' noise after the second verse.

The mod team will review all entries and if we decide to veto anything then we'll let you know as soon as possible so that you have time to find an alternate entry.

Please PM me with the details of the song you'd like to confirm, I'll require:

Artist name:

Track title:

Video link:

You've got a week to confirm so entries need to be with me by close of Saturday 15th August. Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

D*

Edit: it turns out this edition has such a wide scope that virtually everyone has found songs that didn’t chart. The mods have decided to ask that charting songs are avoided altogether, unless the Spotify count is really low.

I've confirmed something.

I hope we get plenty of entries for this theme.

I guess solo artists only?

Yes, I certainly had solo tracks in mind when I thought of the theme

Ah gutted I've had a track on the back burners for ages that would have been amazing for this theme but it's by a group. No biggie think I've got a couple of other strong shouts on my list that I need to review whether they actually wrote it.

Oh I have one for this that is maybe a slightly leftfield choice but that still fits the theme. Confirmed.

Ooh I do like this theme as generally I'm a fan of 'emotionally troubled female singer-songwriters banging on a piano or guitar' in particular 😁

Edit

I think I wanna listen to a bunch of albums for a few days to find my 'perfect' entry as I have many artists in mind but don't remember every song just from the title. Hopefully by the time I confirm my artist won't be taken 😬

1 hour ago, dhwe said:

Edit

I edited as it gave too much away… PM me with the song and we’ll consider it though

Side eyed lol. Will have to rack my brains for this one. 🤔

just to make sure, we are not using AOTY's strict definition, right? As long as it's written and performed by the singer, is it fine?

With less emphasis on instrumental accompaniment, focuses on the writing, emotion and storytelling of the musician's lyrics. Rooted in Folk music.

4 hours ago, matto said:

generally I'm a fan of 'emotionally troubled female singer-songwriters banging on a piano or guitar' in particular

Aren't we all, lol

13 minutes ago, WoW73 said:

Aren't we all, lol

I always liked this quote by Matthew Perry

I very much agree with that quote! And your last.fm library!

I don’t think we’ve got a clashes yet on choice of artist. I’ll wait for a few more then the mid group will look at the early submissions ☺️

Submitted something - hope the artist has not been taken already.

I think I’ve got 18 entries so far so not bad for the first day! 🥰

No artist clashes yet either so that’s good (well there was almost one but the sender decided to change anyway before I even noticed!)

9 hours ago, CowTzy said:

just to make sure, we are not using AOTY's strict definition, right? As long as it's written and performed by the singer, is it fine?

I hope someone can answer this in an adequate way for you as I've been trying to think what exactly makes a singer-songwriter, especially within the parameters of a contest like this. Not that I myself am struggling with coming up with ideas! In fact I did end up listening to SEVEN (!) albums today already in hopes of finding my entry. Clearly taking this uber seriously.

19 hours ago, CowTzy said:

just to make sure, we are not using AOTY's strict definition, right? As long as it's written and performed by the singer, is it fine?

I think for this there aren’t any criteria beyond what is set out in the OP. So the style can be whatever and doesn’t have to be what you’d normally think of as singer songwriter type music. Dandy* correct me if I’m wrong.