The Klassic Note Spirit Part 8 – The Year 2014 and the Transformation Period
Thursday, 22 November 2018
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Previously, we witnessed the freedom in Klassic Note after the stress that is the 5th Year Anniversary which led to a whole bunch of songs given off the bat. As Klassic Note moved on I started to think about how to give songs again and despite the many changes in this year, it did not stop me from thinking about how I would want to give songs in the near future.The Klassic Note Spirit Part 8
"The Year 2014 and the Transformation Period"
CHANGES IN SONG AWARDS
Attempted revamps of the Song Awards have been done to facilitate easier computation of results, and continuously done over the years ahead. For example, Song of the day got a revamp so that calculations can be made to a minimal. I'm not going to talk Excel here, but yeah most things can be references so that it is easier to compute Song of the day results just by inputting the entries in the right places. Further automation did not happen as for most of the time it is complicated to do, and mostly my initial attempts at them aren't very satisfying, and it took longer to do the usual work I had to do for Klassic Note every year, and that wasn't good.
Furthermore, due to increased emphasis on giving songs and settings song ratings based on the new motto of "Always Searching For That Melody", I created the 2.99 Star Project to list down every song that did not make it to the list but had an impact, was compelling or just something I did not want to give for a certain thing that irritated me. It's also a way to show how close many songs have been to stay on my list but failed in certain aspects. This ended up drawing attention to melody, song structure or even genre as I continued to focus on certain categories of music after the break that is the 5th anniversary.
This year also showed the highest vocalist ratio among female to male, climbing above the usual 2.5 to 1 ratio to extreme levels of 4.5 to 1 by Klassic Note 2014. This shows a heavy bias to female (solo) singers in the song list which obviously represented a lack of balance. It would continue into the future that I find more artists with male vocalists to combat this, but that has been over the years, and as a male listener I felt that was rather unfair. In Klassic Note many male vocalists have stood out, but it isn't enough to win over me in my case, as this misaligns itself to what I want to focus on which was the melody instead of who is singing it.Klassic Note fact: I'm inclined to reject songs I've given chance instead of ignore at the start.— Kaineng (@KlassicNote) November 6, 2016
That's why there's the 2.99 Star Project.
THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE
The previous year also brought about a concept of an official website firstly to offset the unappealing list of results that is the old results page and also to summarise all the stuff such that I can give an overview and hopefully previews about the songs I listen. I then thought of a way to sum up all the results in neat statistics instead of putting up front all the things involved, including the new media. For artists, images were used to spice up the webpage and if any, YouTube videos can be referenced to give a more interactive site. Overall I liked the feel of it. The Strikingly-hosted website has then stayed to be the place to showcase all the stuff over the years, including Ultimate Collection which was crammed into a page in the old web page, Reviews which would help me post to social media neatly, and also a Hall of Fame document showing all the statistics which I made to easily show changes in Klassic Note. (Both will be discussed in detail below)
Prototype website no.2! How does this look, eh? pic.twitter.com/rGn0YMdfYq— Kaineng (@KlassicNote) July 27, 2014
THE KLASSIC NOTE REVIEW
At this point, I would like to bring your attention to how much I've listened over the years. Going into the 7th year brings my desperation to share what I feel for each release. Obviously I cannot cover all, but I started the year with covering a couple of releases (not shown here but on the old site) listing what I liked and disliked about it. I then noticed it'll take a lot of time to talk about the songs I already listened, let alone all of them I did not give. So in came Klassic Note Review, where I review - as fast as I can get them - new releases on my shelf, and treat it as a recommendation panel than something of strong criticism. Backed by the fact that within the year I reviewed many singles including an album which passed the stringent requirements, the Review also pushed me to add these from my blog to putting alongside the website I created which can be found here. That, and throughout the years that I have reviewed many artists of different genres, vocalists and so on, the Review is here to show how diverse I give songs and artists even though most of them may still be female. Yes, idolism became a pushing force in most reviews since they ended up having less strict "requirements".
SCANDAL has the highest amount of singles reviewed in 2014, focusing on self-produced songs
THE HALL OF FAME
Along with the changes to Song Awards are revealing of statistics in Klassic Note. After 6 years running there seems to be a lot of information lying beneath the songs I listen every year, and in this year I decided to give an overview about it, in the form of charts and tables. Not for Song Awards or rankings or calculation, but for observations so I can let the world see the information. And so I did, adding an updated online document showing trends, lists of artists, and review statistics all into one, and is available for viewing right here. It was also a good place for me to keep record of new artists, new song trends and so on so I'm glad I made the effort to start it.
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| Examples of what the Hall of Fame document contained (Click to enlarge) | |
THE FUN IN SOCIAL MEDIA
I think I had a lot of fun since the opening of the official Twitter account (which is kind of my personal account anyway) and the artists are somehow the focus in these engagements for some reason. Mostly from indie artists, this is a good way to promote their songs as well as... you know, make me look good online lol. I totally enjoyed it, by the way. This was also used to post Song of the day rundowns so that I can find a way to track them down without using a notebook or whatsoever, so getting recognition from the artists or bands are just adding on to the wonderful times I have in social media. I also took an effort to share lyrics from certain songs as I slowly learn the Japanese language and start to comprehend songs old and new, giving them more impact as I discuss them online alone. Furthermore, I tried to source the legitimacy of listening to songs, but that got kicked off real fast not until there was music streaming platform Apple Music to share my opinions and recommend songs, but that is not something to detail here.
Klassic Note fact: Recent singers (I could hardly call them artists) who got their first three CDs on my shelf pic.twitter.com/vuJDxA5TUf— Kaineng (@KlassicNote) March 5, 2014
『笑って せつなくて 泣いて— Kaineng (@KlassicNote) September 26, 2014
うれしくて もう一度泣いて』
So happy I could cry. TGIF, everyone.
From Kotobuki Minako - Chiisana Tegami
Yeah. She deserves to be higher in the ranks. I'll reconsider her position. pic.twitter.com/31XFuX8Wk2— Kaineng (@KlassicNote) December 30, 2014
Next up: The Klassic Note Spirit Part 9 - The Year 2015 and the Initiation Plateau
(Where things took a turn and did not come back, a resolution had to be made...)
(**All linked references ago were active at time of publishing this post. They are meant for educational purposes and not are not taken directly from any intellectual property)