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A History of FAWM

After 20+ years, the FAWM organizers think about its history in three eras:

FAWM Songs Over Time

FAWM songs over time ("Other FAWM Events" include the 50/90 challenge, explained below)

About this document

This history is incomplete, but hopefully provides a picture of how FAWM evolved, and when certain features or community memes and milestones came to be. It was mainly compiled by @burr with help from fawmers @nancyrost, @ericdistad, @tcelliott, @cowex, @charliecheney, a few others, and archive.org.

Takeoff

FAWM started as a small personal project among friends.

It was founded in February 2004, nestled just days between the debuts of GarageBand and Facebook, still years before YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok. While not initially conceived as an annual event, FAWM grew quickly in those early "pre-social media" years.

Pre-History

  • @burr wrote a novella for NaNoWriMo in November 2003
  • He couldn't find a similar challenge for songwriters, so he decided to make one!
  • Recruited 3 friends to join, spanning 4 states and 3 time zones
  • They picked February 2004 with an arbitrary 14-song goal

2004

  • FAWM 1.0 - Simple multi-author blog based on Greymatter (open-source)
  • 4 "founding fawmers" took part (@burr, @ericdistad, @willisfireball, @matthopper)
    • All 4 were "winners" (14+ songs)
    • A total of 66 songs
    • See the 2004 archives
  • Originally conceived of as one-off project... but others found the blog over the course of 2004 and emailed asking to participate in 2005
  • Registered fawm.org (it was available!)

2005

  • FAWM 2.0 - Hacked and customized fork of WordPress (open-source)
  • 500+ songs by 50+ participating fawmers
  • The group released a "fawmpilation CD" to commemorate the event
    • Compilation CDs were a thing back then
  • Something was happening!

2006

  • 1,300+ songs; 140+ fawmers
  • Added forums to prevent song comments from turning into full-blown discussions
  • Started accepting donations to help cover server costs
    • Added "rock hands" 🤘 badges for $10+ donors
    • Original design was a 12x12 pixel icon drawn in MS Paint!
  • The Presidents Project
    • 3 fawmers wrote songs about 14 historical U.S. presidents each
    • Released in 2008 election cycle to critical acclaim
    • One song appears on fawmpilation vol 2
  • First known collab: @nancyrost (lyrics) and @spinhead (music)
  • Post-FAWM "showcase" gigs in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maryland, others...
  • @ericdistad creates fawmers.com as an off-season community forum

FAWM 2006 Screenshot

The "FAWM 2.0" homepage (2006)

2007

  • 2,700+ total songs; 250+ fawmers
  • New features
    • Added watchlists (follows)
    • Added a streaming player (instead of downloading MP3 demos)
    • Added a streaming Jukebox (upon request; no longer supported)
  • FAWM spontaneously goes pink for Valentine's Day 💕
    • Tradition still known as "the pinkening"
  • The first viral forum challenge: "Strangle Disco"
  • We learned fawm.com became a pr0n site 😬
    • Redesigned all logos to clearly read FAWM.ORG
    • We eventually acquired the domain (see 2021 notes below)
  • Began cross-pollinating with the 50 Song Challenge community
  • The first ever "FOP" (FAWM Over Party) in London, UK
    • A dozen (or so) fawmers based in Europe crashed a series of open mics

London FAWM Over Party 2007

Candid scene at the first "FAWM Over Party" (London, 2007). Pictured L-R: @burr, @timehaven, @hoopshank (RIP), @helenseviltwin, @andydwyer (photo by Alex Pounds)

2008

  • 5,700+ total songs; 500+ fawmers
  • Being a leap year, FAWM was jokingly modified to "14½ songs in 29 days"
    • The extra ½ song being a collab (co-write with another fawmer)
    • Added soundboards (profile messages) to help coordinate collabs
    • Collabs become commonplace in future FAWMs (8-10% of all songs)
  • First Explore the Core songwriting experiment (3 bonus tracks on fawmpilation vol 4)
  • Term "zong" (zero-comment song) coined
    • Originally a typo, but worked as a portmanteau!
    • Started a community effort to give every song at least one piece of feedback
  • First merch: shirts, buttons, stickers, magnets
  • Partnerships with Acidplanet, Broadjam, CD Baby (did not pursue future partnerships)
  • Upon request, @burr hosted the 50 Song Challenge on FAWM, calling it "50/90"

2009

  • 7,300+ total songs; 750+ fawmers
  • FAWM 3.0 (complete software rewrite from scratch by @burr, January 14-28)
    • Added official collab support (for 2 collaborators)
    • Added tagging (replacing pre-defined genres/categories)
    • Added third-party demo embedding from SoundCloud, YouTube, etc.
    • Added archive feature (the website is wiped clean every year)
  • Term "FAWM D. Rockingfeller Foundation" coined by @sapient and @swampjaw
    • Act of sponsoring another fawmer 🤘 by donating on their behalf
  • Term "feasting" coined by @willle
    • An attempt to write an entire album/EP in a single sitting
    • Derived from a typo (inaugural EP was titled "Pigbeast")
  • FAWM proposed a goal to collectively write 10k+ songs
  • Year of "FAWM supergroups" and meme accounts
    • High Fructose Corn Syrup Girls, SugarKrew, Whambi, others
    • A few bonus tracks on fawmpilation vol 5
  • FAWMcast: @charliecheney hosted a nightly live call-in radio show
  • Helga the Duck first appeared (courtesy of @karan in Germany)
  • Upon request, @burr again hosted 50/90 using the new FAWM platform

FAWM 2009 Screenshot

The "FAWM 3.0" homepage (2009)

2010

  • 10,200+ total songs; 1,000+ fawmers
  • FAWM proposed a goal to collectively write 14k+ songs
    • Fell short, but lots of positive energy!
  • The "FAWM Ukulele Club" (#FUC) coined by @timfatchen
  • FAWMcast: @charliecheney continued nightly call-in radio show
  • First ever "song skirmish" on Valentine's Day 2010
    • Idea adapted from songfight.org by @cowex
    • First prompt titles by @nancyrost
  • @burr created Titular & LyriCloud as a mini research project in "computational creativity"
  • @burr gave a session about FAWM at SXSW in Austin TX, March 2010
  • The final "regular" fawmpilation CD (vol 6)
  • First ever Fawmstock in Toronto, Canada
    • Real-life weekend gatherings of fawmers
  • @ericdistad repurposed fawmers.com to host 50/90 since @burr was too busy

Cruising Altitude

For the next decade, organic search-driven traffic to fawm.org dropped 50% year on year, as search engines and the "attention economy" consolidated to social media. FAWM and 50/90 stopped growing exponentially, but did maintain a steady rhythm of musical output.

New features and website updates were comparably minimal during this era, as the volunteer devs were too busy. As requests piled up, fawmers began to refer to the "Great FAWM Rewrite of Whenever" (some future point when the software could be rewritten from scratch).

FAWM 2013 Screenshot

The "FAWM 3.5" homepage (2013)

2011-2020

  • ~10,000 total songs and ~1,000 fawmers each year
  • FAWM started offering demo file hosting for donors of $25 or more
    • Managed by @ericdistad
  • Term "FAWM Escape Velocity" coined by @willle
    • Point at which more FAWM music is created than there is time in February to hear it
    • Estimated to be 28×24×60 = 40,320 / 3 minutes = 13,440 songs
    • FAWM never exceeded "FAWM Escape Velocity" during this time
  • Term "fawmling" (a first-year fawmer) coined, although we forgot by whom? 😬
  • Various FAWMcast live radio/podcast shows (hosted by @tcelliott and others)
  • Various FAWMtalk live YouTube talk shows (hosted by @ianuarius and others)
  • Rise of "super-skirmishes" (weekend-long song skirmish marathons)
  • Spam accounts became an increasing problem, @burr and @ericdistad enlisted more moderators, starting with @nancyrost and @helenseviltwin
  • A few highlights:
    • 2011: Added @mention and #hashtag "auto-links"
    • 2011: Several fawmers crowdsourced a 9-volume fawmpilation (vol 7) box set
    • 2011-2013: @burr experimented with FAWM as an academic research project in "online creative collaboration" (peer-reviewed papers here and here)
    • 2013: Redesigned interface to be "responsive" (more mobile-friendly), although the core infrastructure was the same
    • 2013: Jukebox deprecated (not compatible with increasing number of YouTube/SoundCloud demos; http vs https issues for most browsers)
    • 2014: First 4-track cassette challenge collabs (organized by @zecoop)
    • 2015: Term "century club" coined, inspired by @popmythology commenting on 1,000+ songs
    • 2019: The "EasyShed" spam/SEO account "won" FAWM
      • More than 30 fawmers jokingly "collabed" with it
      • Allegedly without the knowledge of the Australian company being promoted
  • FAWM continued hosting 50/90; organized by @ericdistad
  • Many more Fawmstocks
    • Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Delaware, others
    • "Virtual Fawmstock" organized in 2020 by @ductapeguy

Fawmstock 2013

Live group skirmish at Fawmstock 2014 (Emlenton, PA). Pictured L-R: @ericdistad, @burr, @debs, @leslie (photo by @nancyrost).

New Horizons

Then COVID happened. With many "FAWM-curious" musicians, lurkers, and lapsed former fawmers stuck in lockdown, FAWM saw a surge in new music and energy. Much of this new energy seems to have continued through the present day.

2021

  • Pandemic bump: 13,977 songs!
    • First time the community exceeded "FAWM Escape Velocity"
    • Only 23 songs shy of the old 2010 goal to reach 14k+ collective songs...
  • More than doubled the number of moderators to help manage the (1) deluge of spam accounts and (2) influx of more shouty behavior in the forums
  • @burr and @zecoop organized "4 TRACKS 1 TAPE" YouTube series for fun
  • FAWM spent all of its savings to finally buy fawm.com
    • After trying for 14 years! (see 2007 notes above)
    • Simply redirected it to fawm.org
    • It was now safe again to spread the word about FAWM without fear of typo shock!

2022

  • 12,700+ total songs
  • "Avatargate" — FAWM forced to change web hosting providers in late January
    • New server problems prevented image uploading from working
    • As a workaround, fawmers were assigned avatars (profile images) of a random instruments and colors (in a "DIY" photocopy/zine aesthetic)
    • In true FAWM spirit, fawmers turned these limitations into challenges, such as:
      • Write a song featuring your assigned instrument (if you have one)
      • Collaborate with somone assigned the same instrument/color
      • See also: fiats.info (created by @mattgillooly)
    • This inspired FAWM's current "zine-like" avatar/profile images
  • Genre "slothcore" coined by @candle in a forum challenge
    • "Very slow (like 20 - 40bpm), dirty & with long pauses to simulate naps. Perfect music for that overworked college/university student in your life."

FAWM 2022 Screenshot

The "Avatargate" songs page (2022)

  • FAWM 4.0 (complete software rewrite by @burr, with @beto and @ericdistad, in June)
    • "Mobile-first" responsive redesign (60% of traffic was mobile by then)
    • Added #hashtags to almost anything (profiles, forums, etc.)
    • Added arbitrary number of collaborators for songs
    • Added many other long-standing feature requests postponed for the "Great FAWM Rewrite of Whenever" (see above)
  • New FAWM platform used to host 50/90 in the summer
  • Virtual Fawmstock of webinars, online open mics, etc. (organized by @ductapeguy)

2023

  • 12,700+ total songs
  • New features
  • Created an AI Statement in response to ChatGPT/Udio/Suno anxiety
  • Largest 50/90 ever over the summer, with 8k+ songs
  • Fawmstock in Washington USA organized by @ericdistad
  • First new merch since 2017

2024

  • Biggest. FAWM. Ever. 15,000+ total songs!
  • Added "choose your own" rockhands & avatar colors
  • Despite being an objective success, there were multiple contentious forum discussions related to AI, disagreements over new website features, differing opinions about collective songwriting goals, etc., leading to an unusual level of disharmony

2025

FAWM 2025 Screenshot

The "FAWM 4.0" homepage (2025)

2026 And Beyond...