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We are coming up on SC2's 5th anniversary (not including the original beta) and I thought it would be neat to do a retrospective on some of the music that was produced by the SC community.
A Unique Phenomenon?
Starcraft is really the only gaming community I have been heavily involved in, so I cannot definitively say that this level of music creation is unique to our community alone. But it seems to me that the quantity and quality of songs were unparalleled even when compared to games that dwarfed our user base. Certainly at the height of our community's song creation (2010-2012 or so?) I can think of no close rivals.
Those Impudent Musical Peasants
Why Starcraft? What led to this burst of song creation? Pure speculation, but I think partially we had established a community of 'if you want something cool to happen, make it happen yourself' mentality. For most of our existence, Blizzard was very hands off on absolutely everything, from tournaments on up. Therefore, if we wanted it to happen, we had to make it happen. There already was a history of song creation from the BW days (I will link some examples at the bottom of my Top 10) and so SC2 acted as a multiplier to things that were already going on and we had a huge burst of creativity.
Combine the hardworking mentality to a sudden burst of optimism. I can remember the mentality in 2010- yes there were weird SCV rush games, but we were riding high and out to show everyone how esports was done. We had the invasion and domination of SC2 in MLG. SC2 felt like a tidal wave and amongst that flurry of SC2 going big time, a great many songs were created.
I also think we hit an ideal timing for spreading our songs across other communities, just in the way youtube's algorithms and the youtube homepage was set up. I don't know all the inner workings of youtube, but at the time there was actually a common homepage that everyone went to by default and a video could rise up and appear for the average viewer fairly easily. Now it is far more balkanized- by default I see recommendations of things similar to what I have seen before, which makes it harder to branch out. Personalized searching (I think) decreases your horizons and tightens your focus, compartmentalizing users based on interest. (I find it quite hard to find a semi-similar version of the homepage, clear of any recommendations of past viewing.) What all that means is something like Banelings had (I think) a far greater chance of being seen by a non-SC2 fan. While rather indirect, I think it helped build a sense that we were evangelizing about the greatness of SC2 to non-Starcraft fans. Furthermore, I am fairly certain when SC2 song parodies were coming out, there happened to be a lot of other youtubers that were also making popular song parodies. Therefore, there was an intersection of youtube and SC2 culture with this wave of song parodies, and we caught that wave. Maybe there still is an equal percentage of song parodies occurring now and my youtube viewing habits have simply changed. But it strikes me that there was a distinct wave of parodies that swept through.
And I also think we lucked out with some talented and hardworking musicians that were interested in Starcraft. I don't know Temp0's background in Starcraft prior to SC2, but we got a whole collection of guys like him that were just willing to get down and music because they could.
Preamble to the List
So in celebration of the crazy and cool things this community has created, here is my own personal Top 10 list of SC2 songs.
Rankings are inherently difficult and could really be switched around any way. One of my big factors when I was looking through a lot of the old songs is whether the song still has replayabilty. That is, could I see this in my iTunes list now. For me, that sometimes has a lot to do with the song they chose to parody- in most cases I had not heard the original song before, but the parody actually made me look up the original song to get on my iTunes list. In that scenario, I tend to heavily favour that parody over another simply because they chose a catchy tune.
Another factor on listen-ability is the vocal quality and how well it is blended with the rest of the music. Some songs I think 'neat', but I wouldn't listen very much except for the novelty factor, simply because however creative it was, the vocals don't sound very good. Or else the blend- when the contrast between professional sounding music and someone singing into a cheap mic sounds is too great. It's a little hard to explain except that when I'm listening, they don't sound like they go together. The ones on my list (although now exhaustive) are more likely to sound like the vocals and music belong together.
Finally, I have tried to include one from each of the big song creators, but there a few songs on here that I don't recall seeing originally in a big thread, but I found them a couple years after the fact and really liked them. So after five (or less years), which ones do I think still sound good?
TOP TEN (+1)
(This is the result of going through +90 songs. There are probably more out there.)
11) Play like a Toss: 609 Productions (Original)
Haha! A Top 10 list with 11 slots. Oh what a cheater am I!
The SC community made a lot of electronic songs- there are a fair number that are too busy for me. But this is a fun song with a nice beat to it.
10) Thank God for Day9: Temp0 (Original)
I could put a lot of Temp0 songs here- I wanted to include Why Noobs Don't Get Ggd by suspense ft Temp0 (or When I'm Grandmaster), but there was only so much space. So not only does this song still sound good, but it captures a time when the Day9 Daily was THE place to be for your SC2 entertainment and strategic tips. Great times
9) Torn Battlenet 0.2: mahini ft. Smix (Torn parody)
This is a parody of Natalie Imbruglia's Torn. I had never heard the original song before and the parody made me immediately look for the original. I think that speaks well of the parody quality- this is a great example of vocals that match the music behind it. The song also captures some of the community's ongoing frustration with the piecemeal roll out of the Battlenet features.
8) Fly Like Aiur: Underline (MIA Paper Planes parody)
This is an example of a parody that I thought I would like the original song. However, upon looking up the original... nope. So in my opinion, this song is impressive in that it takes a song that I do not like and made a parody that I actually do like. It's an odd song as well, because on the surface I wouldn't have thought I would like it as the vocals largely stay on two notes for most of the song. However, it is an earworm that to this day will pop in my head when thinking about Starcraft.
7) Hydralisk: Bengt (Original)
This is a song I did not know existed until a half year ago when I thought about making this blog. It's hard hard to describe, except that's electronic music and I have a soft spot for electronic music. I have no idea what they are saying because I'm pretty sure it's in German. I might suggest a harder voice of the Electro-industrial sort, but it works I think.
6) Dan: Temp0 (Stan parody)
I think this is a really great pairing of original song to parody song. Choosing a hardcore fan of Idra as the topic of the parody, I think is a brilliant way of using the original them work in new ways. Choosing Idra, the bad boy of SC as the parallel to the Eminem persona, I think works well. That the original song is so good, also helps this parody.
5) Ghost Assassin VIP SC2 : Maduk ft. Veela (Original)
This is another song that I did not know existed prior to researching this list. Electronic music again. Musically this wouldn't be out of place of a lot of the trance music I listen to.
4) Pylo the Pylon: Houghtoonz (Original)
This is storytelling country in the vein of Johnny Cash. It's an original song that I somehow missed back in 2010. It's a really catchy song.
3) Care About Bronze: Viva La Dirt League (They Don't Care About Us parody)
Viva La Dirt's schtick is that they are a parody boy band. That didn't lend me to liking them musically as there tends to be a fair amount of weak/ subdued sounding music- particularly 90's boy bands. (Viva's Eight Pool song captures a lot of what I dislike about 90's boy bands- so very successful parody
). I liked them for the novelty factor, but I'm talking about replayability. But then they came out with this song. I didn't listen to Michael Jackson and so didn't know what it was a parody of. But as soon as I heard it, I had to look up the original song- I have since started listening to Michael Jackson (growing up, he was Wacko Jacko, so it took a bit to get into his music.) All in all, a great parody song.2) Nerdy and I Know It: Nerd Alert (Sexy And I Know It parody)
Now we come to the titans. You likely knew these were coming. I debated back and forth between putting this one first over Banelings, but decided to keep it here due to Banelings overwhelming popularity. This is a great song: catchy in all the ways those darn LMFAO songs won't get out of your head. It is well produced and so sounds great upon repeat listening. It is hard to beat it's pure excitement for all things Starcraft and its unapologetic celebration of nerdiness. 10/10 would listen to again.
1) Banelings: Nerd Alert (Baby parody)
Here it is the King of SC2 Parodies (in my opinion.) I heard the parody far before I heard the original and even then, and even after I suspect I could count on one hand how many times I have heard the original. Hundreds of Bieber parodies came out around this time, but this is my favourite of those parodies, and I think it stands on its own. And at 10.5 million views, this was our number one on the Starcraft billboard.
Three BW Songs That (Nearly) Escaped
The musical tradition goes further back than SC2 so here are a couple tributes to songs that came out of BW.
Queen of Blades: Avatar (Original)
This is a real band. I like metal (Although I probably don't like the right sort of bands to be considered a metal fan) and I really like this song. You can't kill the Metal.
Starcraft Techno Track
There are a few of these- take a techno song and add Starcraft quotes. In this case Atomic Dance Explosion.
Starcraft Terran Theme 2: VKgoeswild (Piano Cover)
Very relaxing version of the music you have heard so many times.
So. What do you think? What songs do you think still hold up today? What is a better ordering? (And more importantly: why.) My list likely reflects my own strong preference for electronic music, then again electronic and hip hop were, by far, the most common forms of SC2 songs. In addition, is this musical phenomenon unique to Starcraft and if so, why do you think so?
Here is a thread that attempted to collect all the SC2 songs created. It is likely incomplete as it was last updated in 2011.
Collection of Starcraft Musichttp://www.teamliquid.net/forum/starcraft-2/149754-collection-of-starcraft-music
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