“50/90” is a challenge that started decades ago on Yahoo! Groups, with the goal of writing 50 songs in 90 days. It starts on July 4th, and goes til October 1st. These days the challenge is hosted on the FAWM website.
I know you’re probably thinking “there’s no way I can write 50 songs in 90 days!”. And yeah, it’s not easy, and usually less than 10% of participants make it to 50. I’ve been doing the challenge since 2016, and in a few years I wrote only 3 songs.
The important thing is that if you write one more song than you’d normally write, you’re already a winner! 50/90 is an incredible supportive community, with prompts and challenges for inspiration. It’s a great way to get feedback on your songs, and to practice finishing songs!
The website is live, and the challenge starts in a week… who’s up for it? 🙂
Have it any criteria what is a song? Should it be stricrtly with lyrics? Can some annoying dissonant chords produced with sawtooth waves and named like “symphony of misery” also accounted as song?
The criteria is very loose: all it needs to be considered a song is a title, everything else is optional.
There’s a lot of weird and experimental stuff. Last year I did a song that was just modulated feedback from a no-input mixer. Another year I did a song that was composed of “silences”: I used the quiet part of samples from a cathedral, a funeral, radio static, etc., to make a song that was almost completely silent.
I like the challenge because the fast pace encourages creativity and experimentation. Any idea gets transformed into a song.
There is no prize at the end and other than a few “congratulations” from community members, no point in hitting 50 just to hit it. If you write 50 songs that you consider songs, you have done it.