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Ad Infinitum - MP3!
🕑 Added 2022-02-10 22:24:51 +0000 UTCWhen the name 'Spamton' started appearing en-masse in my comments feed I was initially hesitant. I knew Deltarune was a big deal but it hadn't really piqued my interest and I wasn't planning on covering it.
It wasn't until I off-hand mentioned it to fellow nerdcore artist, Shwabadi, and his immediate exclamation that Spamton was the perfect character for me, that I looked into who or what this little ad-gremlin actually was. And boy, was he right!
If I've managed to typecast myself as anything it is 'sinister capitalist' (and/or ominous bureaucrat, though often they are interchangeable.) so this glitchy little amalgam of adware, marketing jargon and broken dreams was fascinating to me. A character as much a victim of this system as he was an agent of it. A character still very much seeing themselves as high status but living out of a garbage can, clinging to the system that put him there in the hopes of regaining past glories.
Yes, he WAS perfect for a song, but how do you write a song in-character as a character who can't even form a full sentence half of the time?
By making the song WEIRD, that's how.
I had to throw convention out of the window on this one. I am the first to confess that as a piece of music? Riddled with broken speech patterns, unresolved rhyme schemes, random and sporadic changes in flow and tempo? It is a challenging listen.
But as a character piece? I'm fairly certain I got Spamton bang-on.
If the song's reception on YouTube is anything to go by, folks seem to agree!
I wanted this track to feel relentless. It's a bombardment of advertisement. An 'advertism schism cataclysm'. Not just to mirror how we are constantly attacked by adverts in our daily lives, but also to feel like Spamton's fights in game, where he literally throws adverts at you. The track was designed from the ground up to feel like a boss fight.
The chorus, of course, is incredibly annoying. It's a jingle. It's designed to be catchy. It's a respite between waves of the boss fight, but it's not content to let you rest. I was 100% channelling 'It's a Small World' here, the most infuriatingly catchy melody of all time.
Ad Infinitum is my own take on a 'patter song'. If you're not familiar with the term, a patter song is a song with a typically fast tempo, where every syllable of the lyrics is rhythmic and corresponds to one note of the melody. One of the most famous examples of this is Gilbert and Sullivan's 'I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major General' from 1879's 'The Pirates of Penzance'. Or to write it rhythmically:
'I-Am-The-Ver-ee-Mod-el-Of-A-Mod-ern-Ma-jor-Gen-er-al'
Every syllable evenly spaced and on beat in an even pattern.
https://youtu.be/hlTisI_HSgw
This track being a rap there's less melody to work with, but large chunks of the song use this sort of pattern, most notably the 'gotta have it' section in verse 4, rigidly sticking to evenly paced syllables.
Another MAJOR influence on this track is 'The Music Man', Meredith Willson's 1957 musical about Harold Hill, the salesman/conman who comes to town to sell you trombones by any means necessary. I drop multiple references to it through the video, both visual and musical. The song 'Rock Island' is another iconic patter song in which a troupe of salesmen discuss their business whilst the rhythm of their lyrics form the sounds of the train they are traveling on:
https://youtu.be/JZ9U4Cbb4wg
You'll hear a lot of lyrics in 'Rock Island' that I borrowed or re-worked for Ad Infinitum, particularly as his odd [[interjections]] as the song consists mostly of characters shouting at each other they worked great as little outbursts for Spamton.
And the other song I referenced heavily is 'Ya Got Trouble', I especially love this song, where Harold Hill is able to swindle the whole population of River City into believing that a pool table in their billiard hall is enough to drag their children into a life of sin and debauchery.
You'll immediately notice that I borrowed the entire opening dialogue for the song and rewrote it for Spamton, I just couldn't resist, it worked too well.
There are times Hill gets so excited in his own pitch that he changes track mid sentence in a way that just made me think of Spamton and his [[tangents]].
You'll also see that the environment for Cyber City in the video is a straight visual pastiche of the River City scenery of 'Ya Got Trouble' from the 1968 movie adaption, from the statue around which the scene takes place down to checked suit and bowtie. (I may have added a hat in spite of the fact that Hill is clearly shown removing his hat before the song starts. I just like hats, okay?)
You may ALSO notice a little melodic reference to the song '76 Trombones' at the very start of the song. ;)
The unhinged nature of Spamton, his poor control over his outbursts and frequent, random self interjections, made this a very fun, if challenging song to write. I made heavy use of 'word salad' style writing as he flits from topic to topic, advert to advert on a dime, but between the more meaningless chunks of lunacy, in his more lucid moments, I was able to weave in themes of online tracking and targeted advertising ('Moist delicious cookies' anyone?) As well as the cyclical nature of consumerist culture. The endless carousel of being advertised the next big thing, wanting the next big thing, getting the next big thing, being advertised the NEXT next big thing in an ongoing loop.
A loop that repeats... ad infinitum, one might say..?
Comments
Selim Hjorthall
"This song is awful, who would make something as hideous as this?" This was my initial reaction. A "challenging listen" indeed. After a few days the the weird song popped into memory so I sat down and gave it another go. It's terrible. Another listen. It's not great. Another, it's ok... The more I listened to it the more it grew on me. A couple months later it showed up on my Spotify top listened list in first position. It is now one of my favorite songs! I find it relaxing and excellently executed. It's so fun, chaotic and messy I can't sit still to it!! π
Cole McCall
It is so interesting learning about seemingly weird and out-of-place lyrics like "gone with the sugar barrel, pickle barrel, milk pan" and seeing where they came from. I certainly appreciate those lyrics much more now.
AdmAnim
Love the song, especially the βhad itβ part. It put a big smile on my face when it became a patter song.
The_JPhantom
Honestly getting these song breakdowns is one of the best parts of being a patron
Insane Ian
This song is nothing short of brilliant, sir. And yes, it absolutely is a boss fight assault (in fact I think I said as much in my reaction) which left me dumbstruck and brain-melty on my first viewing. Tho I definitely caught a few of those musical theater references, I didn't catch all of them, and this breakdown is an awesome look into what was going through your mind in writing this. You captured the essence of those songs (and the character, as far as I can tell) PERFECTLY. Bravo, sir. Bravo indeed.
