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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 16, 2016 0:13:52 GMT
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 22, 2016 0:31:53 GMT
@meta Four, if he's around: I was wondering if you'd be willing to be a guest writer for a tiny bit of my Vinyl/Octavia fic. Part of the latest chapter involves Octavia reading a review of Vinyl's latest single, and since I know all of nothing about electronic music, I was wondering if you'd be willing to take a swing at writing the review blurb, since I'm not sure that what I currently have is all that interesting. It's only a few sentences (I highlighted the bits I think need improvement), but if not, that's fine. In any case, any feedback you have would be great. In particular, Vinyl references a few reviewer archetypes, specifically the guy who gives everything a zero because of his Bias Steamroller (I wanted to name the character after Robert Christgau but I have no clue how to ponify that), and the magazine that gives everything way too generous marks (I ended up going with Rolling Pone because I couldn't think of anything else).
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Post by Mezzaphor on Jul 22, 2016 3:59:25 GMT
How about this:
It's a Pitchfork parody, hence that particular rating scale. Also, I referenced some actual passages from their reviews that stuck in my head for how dumb they were. That's where "comes across like an old mare struggling to keep up with the young roughnecks" and "goes loco for every frequency except bass" were adapted from.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 22, 2016 12:55:14 GMT
Okay, that sounds pretty great. Thanks.
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Post by Mezzaphor on Jul 23, 2016 2:36:26 GMT
Thinking about this makes me want to write a longer in-character review of a DJ PON-3 album, from the same head-up-his-butt reviewer. But I doubt there'd be room for it in your fic, so I'd publish it as a separate thing, I guess.
So what exactly did Vinyl's second album end up sounding like?
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 23, 2016 3:08:22 GMT
It's actually technically her first full-length. At this point in the story she's released an EP and a few singles. I haven't given too much thought to the exact sound it would have (mainly due to my general ignorance of most electronic music), but the general concept is that her opening EP was a largely "safe" thing where the tracks generally lie within the limits of the genre, though very well-executed. The fact that she samples Octavia's cello gives it some uniqueness, but it doesn't deviate that far from the norm. Then, having established herself, when she starts to work on the full album she starts to experiment more and some of the tracks (like the song she's talking about in this chapter) deviate so much that it's debatable that it's actually the same genre as her other stuff.
Basically, think a situation where someone puts out a New Sound Album and everyone starts fighting over which one is better.
As far as specifics go, all I really have is that the original EP was very much Dubstep with the heavy bass and the WUBS and very rhythm driven, whereas this one has more melodic tracks (though it still has its fair share of wubs). Also, the EP was largely Vinyl just doing what she wanted, while the latter is subjected to more Executive Meddling.
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Post by Mezzaphor on Jul 23, 2016 4:26:26 GMT
Actually, now I want to do 3 in-character reviews, all by this same reviewer, to show the progress of Vinyl's career.
First EP: Guy praises it to the heavens, but a close reading reveals that he's projecting his own mental image onto DJ PON-3. That he loves the EP because he's mistaken Vinyl for the torch-bearer of some revolution that only exists in his head. To further drive home his solipsism, he spends half of the review talking about one time his mom took him to see Princess Celestia when he was 8 years old, before he gets around to mentioning the artist or the EP. And he'll make some factual error that anypony who does the slightest bit of research would immediately notice was wrong: perhaps he'll claim that DJ PON-3 is a duo consisting of Vinyl and Octavia. ("Octavia only plays cello on one track, but her formal training in modern classical is evident throughout the EP; clever references to <pony Steve Reich> and <pony Philip Glass> abound.")
First album: Overall, his feelings for the album are amplification of his disappointment with that one single that didn't have enough bass. He's weirdly entitled here, because he thinks his glowing review of that first EP was crucial to Vinyl's success. Perhaps for maximum stupidity, he'll comment on the few tracks that are reminiscent of the first EP—and criticize them for sounding too much like Vinyl's old sound. But all of this will be buried under meandering style experiments: in the middle, he turns his review into a letter to Princess Celestia, and then the review ends with a short fanfic where Daring Do argues with Ahuizotl over this album.
Second album: Rates it a 2.3/10; instead of writing a review, he just embeds an image macro of a sad puppy captioned "SORRY".
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 23, 2016 14:01:44 GMT
That would be hilarious, and if you want to do it, go ahead. ;p
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Post by Mezzaphor on Jul 25, 2016 15:20:01 GMT
@jt: How dark were you planning on going with your Vinyl Scratch fic? Specifically, were you planning on the record label ripping off Vinyl financially, in addition to frustrating her artistically? If you want to go that route, Steve Albini has written quite a bit about the predatory practices of most record labels: tricking the bands to go into debt, and using wonky accounting to ensure the musicians are the absolute last people in the company to receive any profits from their own album sales. There's "The Problem with Music", which he wrote in the 90s, and then a speech he gave in 2014 to talk about how little the record labels have changed, but how digital distribution is giving more power to the musicians.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 25, 2016 21:23:14 GMT
Nah, I wasn't going to go quite that far. Vinyl is savvy enough to avoid getting outright ripped off. I wanted to focus more on her emotional issues with the situation. She had a good idea of how the industry works going in, but she also assumed that she'd be skilled enough to work it to her advantage and tough enough to not let it get to her. Mainly she's just getting hit very hard by the fact that there's a big difference from knowing how the industry works and actually getting put through it. Like she knew that the producer would probably try to muck with her music, but she assumed that she'd have the skill to be awesome anyway, and now it's really getting drilled into her that it is not that easy.
The TL;DR version that the story is more about how Vinyl and Octavia's experiences are changing them rather than an docu-drama about the music industry. I do want there to be a sense of verisimilitude though, so your input has been really helpful.
The idea of having Vinyl have to fight the record label outright is interesting and could definitely result in a good fic, but for this particular story I want the conflict to be mostly emotional on Vinyl's part.
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Post by Mezzaphor on Jul 26, 2016 4:10:51 GMT
Fair enough. I thought that aspect would probably be a bad fit with the tone of what you've already written, anyway. First draft for the review of Vinyl's debut EP is finished. (The review of her album is very much a work in progress.) I reread your fic to make sure details like the record label name and release date were consistent, but I also had to just make up a bunch of details, like song titles.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 26, 2016 20:52:55 GMT
Okay, that's pretty hilarious. I love how he assumes that DJ PON-3 is the name of a group and not just Vinyl's stage name, even though Octavia is only on one song.
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Post by japaneseteeth on Jul 28, 2016 1:19:28 GMT
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Post by Mezzaphor on Aug 2, 2016 4:26:25 GMT
Drafts of all three reviews are done.I think this needs something extra, though. I want to write an epilogue of sorts, set after Vinyl's third or fourth album, where she goes clubbing one night, hits on a good-looking stallion... and he turns out to be Spilt Ink. They talk and air their grievances—at the end of the night, they still don't see eye-to-eye, but they have a little more respect for each other. And then, about ten years later, Spilt Ink writes up the "50 Best Albums of the '00s" list, and #12 is DJ PON-3's first album, the one he complained wasn't as good as the EP. His writeup also acknowledges that nearly any of Vinyl's albums could have made this list, and disses "the tepid reaction from small-minded contemporary critics" in a way that makes it unclear if this is a subtle apology for his old review, or if he's completely lacking in self-awareness and just doesn't remember that he was one of those critics.
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Post by Applelight Limited on Aug 28, 2016 9:21:19 GMT
I'm sorry I've not been able to read your works guys. I really want to but I barely get the time to myself to do anything I want these days.
Just a quick question though; ultimately with ponies these things don't really matter but does the name Tough Cookie sound ok for a stallion?
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