NOT ON BOARD
Philo and I are not on board with how the whole birthday song contest went down. Not so much because my entry wasn't among the winners as because the winners didn't even come close to achieving the announced goal of the contest. Whatever the sound engineering or musical merits among the honored compositions, none of the three were straightforward enough, simple enough nor memorable enough to ever replace the famous "Happy Birthday to You" song.
The third place winner, a tipsy waltz tempo, might be catchy enough for adults to slur-shout in a beer hall venue, but never by children or in the majority of situations where happy birthday is sung. The second place winner was too close to and derivative of the famous melody itself and can't be extracted easily from the original for accurate memorization by children or by most anyone who ever learned "Happy Birthday to You" first. The only chance of it ever replacing the copyrighted song is if the original is wiped from the face of the planet so future generations would not conflate it with HBtY. As for the first place entry, neither Philo nor I understand this status at all. Setting any musicianship and recording talent aside, it simply does not distill down into memorable, earworm material.
Also, probably a leg up, the third place winners managed to get their late submissions (after the deadline no less) posted at the top of the heap, and their tracks never got rotated back into the boondock numbers as mine and others were. Clearly their "post position" gained them the most public attention by default alone.
My own little birthday ditty was a unique experience for me. It came fully formed in my mind in an instant. From very first thought to d/ling the .mp3 took under two hours, and only that long because I self-engineered and am unskilled in the software. It's truly sad if rejected because of my innocent use of "gay" in its classical meaning, as Philo thinks it was, but it only heightens the hurt after hearing the three winning entries miss the mark by so much. My simple melody is much closer to the contest goal. 'Nuff said. Except THANK YOU to the FS folks who listened to my track, especially Katya and Lewis for their comments!
In the absence of enough oxygen to feed it, a spark cannot flame and a flame cannot sustain. -- KAM
Never forget: Freudian slips are the underwear of ideas and beware of geeks bearing .GIFs! [that's .G as in "G"raphic]
Always brush your tongue and drink lots of water.
"Home is acceptance." -- Searching for Sugarman
Lack of acceptance is nothing like home. -- KAM
