The Song Fight Bulletin Board

Try Me
Due: Sunday, 11/17/19 9:59am PST
optional challenge: ASMR
yourbandname_tm.mp3 sent to fightmaster@songfight.org
Subject: Try Me
Body: (your band name)

I just want to remind people that ASMR is not about whispering and making gross lip-smacking sounds, it's about making sounds that tickle certain peoples' brains in certain ways. It's just happenstance that people seem to have gotten the mistaken belief that it's just about whisper-talking, which then led to an explosion of "ASMR" videos on YouTube where people started to focus on the trappings of poorly-done ASMR and not actually making things that are likely to trigger ASMR in someone.

If you've ever had an eargasm or a ticklish feeling from hearing anything, that's ASMR.

That is an extremely interesting optional challenge. No pressure or anything. Hahaha! Ideas are percolating...

I feel like I should have something to say for this fight, but so far I don't.

I'm not entirely sure if anything I'm doing for this fight is going to trigger an AMSR response but I've got some sketches recorded...I am not a good violinist.

I reckon this means I'm in, with despair as my co-pilot

Never even heard of AMSR until this challenge... then while watching a Youtube video later that night about a video game no less... the Youtuber mentioned AMSR... and then the next day in my Youtube Algorithm feed... some weird AMSR video showed up... I didn't watch it... but WTF, eh?

ASMR has been a huge trendy thing, and it's possible that you just never noticed it and now that it's been pointed out to you you're noticing it everywhere. It's a similar effect to how after someone buys a car they suddenly notice all the other people with the same car.

fluffy wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 14, 2019 12:34 pm

ASMR has been a huge trendy thing, and it's possible that you just never noticed it and now that it's been pointed out to you you're noticing it everywhere. It's a similar effect to how after someone buys a car they suddenly notice all the other people with the same car.

It's a trendy thing but I just...never really understood it. I mean there's this one ad on Spotify that I keep hearing that's for some beer or something and the whole thing is close-mic'd whispering and bottle opening noises and beverages pouring.

So I guess it's already jumped the shark if the alcohol companies are using it for profit :p

I am NOT A FAN of asmr. Has exactly the opposite affect on me than that intended. I specifically used whispering in a track a few weeks back because I find it so disorienting and creepy. So for this, I'm doing the challenge, except with "me" asmr; as in, the types of sounds I like the most.

Æpplês&vØdkã wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 14, 2019 12:58 pm

fluffy wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 14, 2019 12:34 pm

ASMR has been a huge trendy thing, and it's possible that you just never noticed it and now that it's been pointed out to you you're noticing it everywhere. It's a similar effect to how after someone buys a car they suddenly notice all the other people with the same car.

It's a trendy thing but I just...never really understood it. I mean there's this one ad on Spotify that I keep hearing that's for some beer or something and the whole thing is close-mic'd whispering and bottle opening noises and beverages pouring.

So I guess it's already jumped the shark if the alcohol companies are using it for profit :p

yeah I know a lot of people who are really put off by that ad. I haven't heard it myself but knowing about it makes me not want to listen to Spotify.

The trendy belief of ASMR has nothing to do with actual ASMR but the misconceptions around it are astounding. And any time a YouTuber has a soothing, relaxing voice, people always ask them to do an "ASMR video" and it always ends up being this really annoying breathing-on-the-mic thing.

I dunno maybe some people actually have breathing-on-the-mic as an ASMR trigger, but it sure the heck isn't what the phenomenon was about originally.

crumpart wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 14, 2019 1:39 pm

I am NOT A FAN of asmr. Has exactly the opposite affect on me than that intended. I specifically used whispering in a track a few weeks back because I find it so disorienting and creepy. So for this, I'm doing the challenge, except with "me" asmr; as in, the types of sounds I like the most.

see that's what I'm talking about, you're not a fan of what YouTube calls ASMR, which doesn't have anything to do with the real thing

OK, so how do we find "real" ASMR videos on Youtube and not just "Youtube ASMR videos"?

I have a friend who told me she had this, and was SO relieved when it became a thing in the mainstream because she had always thought there was something wrong with her, and had never realized it was a known quantity that other people had as well. She had a coworker whose voice would trigger it and she could never get any information from her in person because she would just bliss out listening to her voice and be unable to actually listen to what she was saying. (But she would also manufacture excuses to go talk to her, which sounds so creepy now that I'm describing it.) She would also have to pull her car over sometimes if something came on the radio that would trigger that response. Anyway... I haven't talked to this friend in years and would feel sort of weird asking her to link videos she thinks are legit.

I mean the thing is that ASMR is about the response, like, that's what the R in ASMR stands for. There's no one trigger that will work for everyone, even everyone with the response. For me it's certain chord progressions and musical notes, normally, and I often incorporate those into my music; Feed is basically me being horny on main. But there's nothing particularly special about that nor is it something that'll likely trigger others.

There's also certain binaural gimmicks that can commonly (but not universally) trigger it too, and some of those work on me (like having an electric shaver come up right behind the listener's head), which is where things started to gain visibility.

A lot of people report having an ASMR reaction to parts of this video:



Funny thing is the parts that people say are "ASMR" (for them anyway) don't really do anything to me (except make me feel annoyed), but some of the synth notes in the background music? Heck yes.

This is also nice (although YouTube's crappy compression makes it a lot weaker for me than the original CD):

Here's a classic binaural recording that is pretty problematic come to think of it:



The bit with the shaver, in particular.

Er I mean the bit with the shaver tends to be ASMR-triggery, it's the rest of it that's problematic

fluffy are you going to enter the fight or just tell everybody what ASMR is/isn't???? (This is a joke. I appreciate the information. Also it would be great if you entered the fight too.)

I want to but I am really heckin' busy the next few days and have no song ideas. Which means I'll probably have an idea at the most inconvenient time.

Phlebia has joined the fray!

That first video you linked, fluffy, did give me what I've always called a chill, particularly when he was whispering "sweet nothings" in my right ear. I noticed some super interesting things, and not things I've noticed before.

It was very localized on the right side of my neck and upper back, like almost right where he was speaking.
It lingered a long time. Listened 15 minutes ago and the sensation is still there.
I get night terrors, and it felt EXTREMELY similar to that. I always feel like something is biting me, usually on my lower right back, and I wake up right as it bites down, with the exact same uncomfortable lingering feeling. Interesting that it's always on my right side too.
The night terror feeling is quite awful, but the one in response to the video wasn't, at first. Now it is getting more unpleasant as time passes. Very uncomfortable now honestly. I want to wring the feeling out of me somehow!

So this probably doesn't interest anyone but me. I found it quite fascinating though. Now whether we can incorporate all this into a song or not is another matter entirely...

FYI I'm out of town and won't be replying to folks' emails with their songs till Monday night.

fluffy wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 15, 2019 1:13 am

. . . I'll probably have an idea at the most inconvenient time.

Hmm, that gives me an idea. And it's midnight on the day before the deadline. . .

Lunkhead wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 16, 2019 12:08 pm

FYI I'm out of town and won't be replying to folks' emails with their songs till Monday night.

Oh, well then! Maybe I can squeeze something in.

okay fine I'm in