Music Analysis - Data Needed!!!

[Nimble]

Hey Folks, I'm a musician that's currently working on an analysis video of Animal Crossing New Horizon's Hourly Music. Not to get all jargon-y on you, but the specifics of it involve the Motivic Development of the Welcome Horizons Theme (The main theme of the game) and how it's broken down into bits and pieces throughout the rest of the soundtrack. In the process though, I wanted to get a general gauge of opinion on how the rest of the community feels about the music in the game, so I did what any sane human would do and made a Tier Maker page for this. So, What am I asking for you to do?

Two things, super simple -

1. Make a Tier List on the Hourly Themes
2. Post them in this thread or private message me your tier list!

I figure this could also serve as a good discussion thread for the music in the game in the process, so I guess I'll post my own tierlist here and what I rated music on - The main part of the research is on creative techniques used to make more music out of fewer material, so I gave good marks to tracks that are creative in their presentation of the Welcome Horizons theme. Of course this might take a little bit (1~2hrs), so I appreciate any and all time you put into this.

 

[yuujinchou]

someone made a survey previously for the music, if that helps! results included in the thread.

 

[Nimble]

someone made a survey previously for the music, if that helps! results included in the thread.

this actually helps immensely , but the one thing that is missing from that post is the current number of people surveyed - I just sent them a message asking about that and the dataset at large. Thank you for sharing the link, it was super helpful!

 

[AshdewCrossing]

This was fun

 

[senbeiiscool]

As you can tell, most songs I'm pretty neutral about. Honestly 9pm and 1 am can go to B tier as well but I hate 3am music with a passion

 

[thegunpowderincident]

This was fun! Made me realize how much more fond I am of the AM music than most of the PM music. And also that I wish I was ever up at 5 AM to hear that track lol.

 

[Le Ham]

Of note is that I already contributed my opinion to the poll linked above, so probably don't count this unless you want a repeat, but I decided to do this anyway lol. It more or less reflects how I scored them on the poll, except the poll is more detailed because it forced you to rank out of 10 with words like "Average" or "Good" or "Awful" instead of numbers. I believe 5/10 was average? I could've replicated it here but then I also have a long post in that thread detailing my responses to all of them so

 

[Nimble]

Of note is that I already contributed my opinion to the poll linked above, so probably don't count this unless you want a repeat, but I decided to do this anyway lol. It more or less reflects how I scored them on the poll, except the poll is more detailed because it forced you to rank out of 10 with words like "Average" or "Good" or "Awful" instead of numbers. I believe 5/10 was average? I could've replicated it here but then I also have a long post in that thread detailing my responses to all of them so

You put up a good point. I think what this type of data collection might provide is a comparison to the other hours - with the poll, you don't necessarily need to compare the tracks to each other. Getting access to the dataset of the poll will still be useful though, I think it's just a matter of approach.

 

[mkyoshi7]

I don't want to be that "I hate the popular thing because I'm so quirky XDD" person, but I really dislike 5pm. It just doesn't really match my vibe.

In general I really don't like the mid morning and mid afternoon tracks because it sounds like the develop the motif in the same way. They just copy the first 3 beats of the main theme and paste it in a new song. All of the hourly tracks in general seem to blend together for me because of the repetitive instrumentation (the same bass/guita/drums/synth patch). I think this is why 3am stand out so much. I think the late night tracks are much more unique, which is why I placed them so high. I'd be happy to talk more about the jargon-y stuff because I've taken music theory and am a musician as well and love to talk about this kind of stuff lol

 

[kiwikenobi]

If this thread was specifically for people who understand music theory and music analysis, then you can disregard my input. ^o^;>

I tried really hard to figure out that tier-making site, but I just couldn't get it to do what it was supposed to. I hope a typed list is all right.

S Tier: 6PM, 12noon (the playlist on the Youtube video calls it 12AM, but it's really 12PM...), 2AM, 3AM
A Tier: 10AM, 11AM, 1PM, 4PM, 12midnight (really might want to make the noon/midnight thing clear somewhere for the sake of your analysis), 5AM
B Tier: 6AM, 9AM, 3PM, 5PM, 7PM, 8PM, 9PM, 10PM, 11PM, 1AM, 4AM
C Tier: 7AM, 8AM
D Tier: 2PM

I really don't know much about music theory, so this is all just my purely emotional reaction to the songs, both the ones that I never hear because I don't play the game during those hours, and ones that I've heard many, many times while playing the game. Of particular note is 2PM, which I started out thinking was fine, but after a few days of hearing it during that hour every day, I got really, really sick of it; none of the other songs did that to me.

3AM also is of particular note, because I like it a lot purely because I can just hear Kazumi Totaka's sense of humor throughout the whole song. This is the Totaka's song guy, he has a very good sense of humor. Even if he didn't actually compose that exact song, since he's credited as the "sound director" rather than the composer, whoever wrote that song was channeling his energy and style, like back from Mario Paint.

 

[lPeachy]

So I’m most definitely not the most musical person, but 3AM just makes me smile<3
The late night/early morning tracks are definitely the best imo, and majority middle of the day tracks are honestly forgettable But like... fine? I guess.
12am and 2pm make me hate life. They are my F tier but I gave up a bit towards the end there
Oh and I adjusted the noon/midnight issue the video had, so my times are correct here

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

I like most of the music in the game! I would say C tier is music that is boring to me, and D tier is unlistenable. B tier is listenable, A tier I really enjoy, and S tier is my favorite.

 

[sdw4527]

Great idea! But I think you need criteria for each tier in the starting post, otherwise people could have different opinions to what certain tiers mean. To me, B tier is just average, but maybe some others will interpret it in a different way.

 

[kiwikenobi]

Might as well explain the reasoning I had behind my tier choices:

S = Love
A = Like
B = Indifferent
C = Dislike
D = Hate


And I also want to say that it's not so much Mario Paint that 3AM sounds like but Super Mario Land 2's "Graveyard" theme. Has that sporadic, quirky bursts of different instruments going on. And I like it, probably mostly because of nostalgia. ^o^;>

 

[sdw4527]

I wish there was more separation between the top tiers. As of now, my rating system is the same as the others. There's only 1 real track that stands above the others and that's 5am. The rest I listed in S are just "great". I can't say I hate any track in this soundtrack besides 3am, most just sound average to bad.

 

[thanat0aster]

This was fun. All I knew before this was that 5am is GOD TIER and I absolutely hate 3am... It was fun to carefully listen to all the other ones that didn't stand out as much to me and rank them.

 

[Nimble]

I don't want to be that "I hate the popular thing because I'm so quirky XDD" person, but I really dislike 5pm. It just doesn't really match my vibe.

In general I really don't like the mid morning and mid afternoon tracks because it sounds like the develop the motif in the same way.

Hoo buddy, you're pressing the right buttons. There are a few different things to say about the soundtrack that you mentioned that rings true:

A - The hourly music overall feels same-y instrumentation-wise
B - The hourly music at large uses the Horizons motif in near-complete chunks.

In most cases nothing is done rhythmically to the motif which allows it to be easily recognizable, which is good for the masses, but when you mix that with the lack in variety of harmonic decisions like the same bVII13 as a cadence over and over (7am, 9am, 11am, 5pm, off the top of my head) and you get real stale real quick.

Like I had mentioned in the OP, the way I made my own tierlist was based on the ways that specific track took fragments of the New Horizons motif and applied it in new contexts. The Hours in S tier use those motifs in medium/large chunks but they pivot or deviate away from those melodies into something else - which is the entire point of a motif. The tracks in B tier by comparison for the most part use the motif verbatim and don't care to deviate.

I really don't know much about music theory, so this is all just my purely emotional reaction to the songs

This is perfectly okay! I love and prefer seeing a more emotional, layman viewpoint to what people think of music, because it adds to the perspective of what I hear. I came here to talk to Animal Crossing fans about Music, not Music Theorists about Animal Crossing

Great idea! But I think you need criteria for each tier in the starting post, otherwise people could have different opinions to what certain tiers mean. To me, B tier is just average, but maybe some others will interpret it in a different way.

I think leaving it to personal interpretation leads to better results, personally. Letting someone figure out what an "A" tier track sounds to them is exciting, and in turn helps inform themselves on why they like (or dislike) a particular track.

 

[Quagsire.]

I pretty much have all the tracks which sound the same/ are very boring to me in D tier

I like the gentle night time themes especially 2am bringing out the piano


Nimble perfectly explains my feelings towards most of the soundtrack in this game!
I just really do not like the ost in this game

 

[Acies]

 

[Nimble]

small bump for the afternoon crowd, and thank you already to the folks who posted their tierlists! I have a lot of good data to comb through already