- Perfect 10 — Challenge from Mark Cooper
- Crowd Surfer on 47/82 ballots (57%)
- Full Package audio + art + lyrics + both writeups
- Storyteller 2,118 characters across both writeups
- Climber +5 positions from Round 1
TOTAL REACH — 27 plays rank 14 / 21
- VPC SITE 27
TOTAL LIKES — 8 rank 8 / 21
- VPC SITE 8
Club 801
Vocalist's challenge writeup
I met the challenge by imagining a nightclub for Yaoi/BL fans— known as Fujoshi (female fans), Fudanshi (male fans), and Fujin (gender-neutral). I include multiple references, wordplay, and vocabulary that yaoi fans would recognize and appreciate. Niche References: Dead Dove: a label referring to fiction with content considered controversial, explicit, or potentially upsetting. A way of saying “I’m serious, you’ve been warned.” The term originates from the show Arrested Development, where a character opens a bag with a dead dove in it, despite reading the label that says “Dead Dove, Do Not Eat!” Uke: Yaoi characters that are the bottom of the pairing. Citrus scale: a method of rating the levels of romantic/sexual content in yaoi fanfiction. “Lemons” are considered very explicit, while “Limes” are more subtle. The repeated use of the word “Body” is a reference to “Touch You,” the catchy theme song of the 2018 yaoi anime Yarichin Bitch Club. Yaoi Paddles: In early-2000s anime con scene, a yaoi goods vendor invented the “yaoi paddle” as a joke. They became incredibly popular among yaoi fans and cosplayers in that decade, until they were eventually banned. Double entendre: “Slick omega-verse”: References the omegaverse subgenre. Omegas are a class of humans that can pretty much get pregnant regardless of their physical sex, and in some variations, can develop a secretion referred to as “slick” when they go into heat. Catchy Chorus: “What’s your OTP?” is an interactive call-and-response. In a live setting, club members would shout out their favorite pairs/ships. This recording includes 3 ship examples (USUK from Hetalia, KawoShin from Evangelion, JohnLock from Sherlock), and a blank space for you, the listener, to shout out your own.
Producer's challenge writeup
For my challenge of adding at least 5 things to engage a live crowd I included multiple drops, a major and dramatic beat switch/drop around halfway through where a new lead synth sound is introduced and the drums cut out to make the moment more impactful. There is also a very sudden extra bonus dubstep drop at the end to keep the crowd on their toes.
Lyrics
Fujo, fujin, and fudanshi If you wanna see guys romancing Get up, get out on the floor Cuz I wanna wanna see y’all dancing Love that cute stuff, sweet fluff On your AO3 Or you want your doves dead, flags red It’s all “uke” with me! No scaling power here, All we scale are limes and lemons Turn that volume up to eleven This is Y-A-O-I heaven, but Make - no mistake, we be getting ungodly So move your Body! Body! Body, Body, Body! Put your paddles up! Put your paddles up! Rock your wack ships, crack ships, don’t have to add up Just in case you’ve forgotten, I’ll give you a content warning Everybody here is rotten and we’ll dance into the morning This boy’s in heat, it’s like he’s on fire This boy’s in heat, it’s like he’s on fire We don’t need suppressants, we aint gonna fight the urge You betas betta work when I rhyme on this this slick omega-verse What's your OTP? “USUK!” I ship it! What’s your OTP? “KawoShin!” I ship it! What’s your OTP? “JohnLock!” I ship it! What’s your OTP? [your favorite ship] I ship it!
JUDGES' BREAKDOWN
Richie Branson
7.33/10 score rank #19 of 21VOCALS 7PRODUCTION 7CHALLENGE 8Definitely clubby, I’d definitely have my paddle up to this. The beat fits the vibe, and the cadence switch is cool at the end (could just a bit more of a lead up to it, a more pronounced riser would help here). Vocal performance is straight, it’s got a nice hook that you’d expect to hear in a club banger. Could be a bit more in pocket in terms of delivery. Vocal mix gets drowned out by the synths at points, an EQ pass would be helpful. Good stuff
Mark Cooper
8.00/10 score rank #11 of 21VOCALS 6PRODUCTION 8CHALLENGE 10Fits the challenge. good production but vocals are very loud and distorted. if the vocals were mixed a little more it could be a contender this round but unfortionately is was hard to understand and made a distraction throughout the song.
LEX the Lexicon Artist
8.33/10 score rank #13 of 21VOCALS 8PRODUCTION 8CHALLENGE 9Oh man that was rad. This fujoshi and slash shipper is greatly pleased. Great concept, great execution, and just happens to be fanservice (for me!!!) Mouna's bitcrushed vocals and flirty delivery work really well with this beat. I also notice significant improvement with your confidence and writing. You still rush in places but hell, I want to give you your flowers. That was great. This might be the first hyperpop-style beat I've heard in this round. It's a great match for the lyrical content and energy. I'm removing points from both because of length and the song itself not being as fleshed out as other teams'. Challenges are met although I feel like we are missing 1 or 2 "live elements" from the production challenge so docked a point there. Overall I would throw (my admittedly modest) ass to this in a circle and yell out my favorite slash ships! (I'm partial to Sherliam from Moriarty the Patriot ;D)
Ben Tarkus
8.00/10 score rank #10 of 21VOCALS 8PRODUCTION 8CHALLENGE 8I can say without a doubt that I am not the target audience here, but if I attended this club I think I would still be able to vibe with the crowd! The song is honeslty a bop. A little shorter than I would like it to be, but for 90 seconds is a powerful little entry. I am just adjacent enough thanks to conventions to get most of the references here, but I think everyone can pick up the message easily.
Klopfenpop
8.00/10 score rank #13 of 21VOCALS 8PRODUCTION 7CHALLENGE 9I wouldn't go as far as to call myself Fujin, but I do love some good yaoi (DFI anyone?!). This song is a blast. I love the insider references and the crowd work. This beat goes pretty hard, too. I do wish the mix level was swapped for the more distorted vocal and the clean vocal. The more affected one is drowning the clearer one out just a bit. Some slight adjustment on one or the other to align them rhythmically could really help the vocal performance to sound a lot cleaner and come through much clearer. I understand the hyperpop vocal aesthetic, but if the clean track is there anyway, is more distracting to have it so much quieter than the fuzz out track. It can also help to make a drier track of the exact same vocal and mix it with the wet track like a wet/dry knob. This can also enable you to go way further with you vocal effects without losing comprehensibility. Using a Send for these effects can be very useful for this. Overall, the production is solid throughout!
Audience score and rank
AUDIENCE SCORE
Aggregated from 82 ballots cast by the public.
AUDIENCE RANK
Out of 21 teams competing this round.
- 47 voters ranked them in their top 10
- 18 voters had them in their top 5
- 3 voters picked them as their #1 favorite
FINAL BLEND
The final score was a 7.25. The song received an average voter score of 5.19 from the community, and an average judge score of 7.93.
The display score blends the audience and judges' contributions at 25%/75%. Here's how Koumori Rider's 7.25 broke down:
(5.19 × 25%) + (7.93 × 75%) = 7.25
YOUR SEASON SO FAR
- Round 1 5.69 / 10 rank #20
- Round 4 7.25 / 10 rank #15 PERSONAL BEST
- Round 5 6.92 / 10 rank #23