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A History of FAWM

Note

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

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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 and asked to participate in 2005
  • Registered fawm.org (it was available!)

2005

  • 500+ songs by 50+ participating fawmers
  • "FAWM 2.0" - Hacked an modified version of WordPress (open-source)
  • The group released a "fawmpilation CD" to commemorate the event
  • Something was happening!

2006

  • 1,300+ songs; 140+ fawmers
  • Added discussion forums to the site
  • Started accepting donations to cover costs, added "rock hands" 🤘 for $10+ donors
  • "The Presidents Project"
    • 3 fawmers wrote songs about 14 U.S. presidents each
    • Released in 2008 election cycle to critical acclaim
    • One song appears on fawmpilation vol 2
  • First known song collab: @nancyrost (lyrics) and @spinhead (music)
  • @ericdistad creates fawmers.com as an off-season community forum

2007

  • 2,700+ total songs; 250+ fawmers
  • New features
    • Added "watchlists" (follows)
    • Added embedded streaming player (instead of downloading MP3 demos)
    • Added streaming Jukebox (mid-month, upon request)
  • @burr spontaneously turned the site pink for Valentine’s Day
    • Many fawmers still avoid "the pinkening" to this day
  • The "FAWM D. Rockingfeller Foundation" coined by @swampjaw and @sapient
    • Sponsoring another fawmer’s "rock hands" 🤘 by donating on their behalf
  • The first "viral" forum challenge: Strangle Disco
  • We discovered that fawm.com had become into a pr0n site
  • Began cross-pollinating with 50/90 community (at the time a yahoo mailing list)
  • The first ever FOP (FAWM Over Party) in London, UK

2008

  • 5,700+ total songs; 500+ fawmers
  • As this was a leap year, the challenge was jokingly modified to 14½ songs in 29 days
    • Added "soundboards" (profile comments) to help coordinate collabs
    • Collabs start to become commonplace in future FAWMs (8-10% of all songs)
  • First "Explore the Core" songwriting experiment (3 bonus tracks on fawmpilation vol 4)
  • First merch: shirts, buttons, stickers, magnets
  • Partnerships with Acidplanet, Broadjam, CD Baby (did not pursue future partnerships)
  • Upon request, @burr hosted the 50/90 challenge using the FAWM codebase

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" (as opposed to predefined genres/categories)
    • Added third-party demo embedding from YouTube and other sites
    • Added activity archive feature (the website is wiped clean every year)
  • "Feasting" coined by @willle
    • Attempting to write an entire album/EP in a single sitting
    • Term derived from a typo (inaugural EP was titled "Pigbeast")
  • @burr issued a challenge 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

2010

  • 10,200+ total songs; 1,000+ fawmers
  • @burr issued a challenge to collectively write 14k+ songs
    • FAWM fell short, but lots of positive energy!
  • FAWMcast: @charliecheney continued nightly call-in radio show
  • First "Song Skirmish" on Valentine’s Day
    • Adapted from songfight.org by @cowex
    • First prompt titles by @nancyrost
  • @burr created Titular and LyriCloud as mini research projects in "computational creativity"
  • @burr gave a seminar about FAWM at SXSW in Austin TX, March 2010
  • The last regular fawmpilation CD (vol 6)
  • First ever Fawmstock in Toronto, Canada
    • Fawmstocks are 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.

2011-2020

  • ~10,000 total songs each year; ~1,000 fawmers
  • FAWM started offering demo file hosting for donors of $25 or more
    • Managed by @ericdistad
  • "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
  • Various FAWMcast live radio/podcast shows (hosted by @tcelliott and others)
  • Various FAWMtalk live YouTube talk shows (hosted by @ianuarius and others)
  • Rise of "SuperSkirmishes" (weekend-long song skirmish marathons)
  • Spam accounts became an increasing problem, @burr and @ericdistad enlisted more moderators, starting with @nancyrost and @helenseviltwin
  • Some annual 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 subject for "online creative collaboration" (see here and here)
    • 2013: Redesigned interface to be "responsive" (more mobile-friendly)
    • 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: "Century Club" coined, inspired by @popmythology commenting on 1,000+ songs
    • 2019: The "EasyShed" spam/SEO account "won" FAWM
      • More than 14 fawmers jokingly "collabed" with it
      • Allegedly without the knowledge of the Australian company being promoted
  • FAWM continued hosting 50/90; as organized by @ericdistad (until 2022)
  • Many more "Fawmstocks" - Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Delaware, others
  • "Virtual Fawmstock" organized in 2020 by @ductapeguy
    • Fawmer-led webinars, online open mics, etc.

New horizons

Then COVID happened. With many "FAWM-curious" musicians, lurkers, and lapsed former fawmers stuck in lockdown, FAWM began seeing an uptick in music and energy. Much of this 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 2010 goal to reach 14k+ collective songs...
  • More than doubled the number of moderators to help deal with the (1) deluge of spam accounts and (2) increase in snarky/trolly behavior in the forums
  • @burr and @zecoop organized "4 TRACKS 1 TAPE" YouTube series for fun
  • FAWM spends all of its savings to finally buy fawm.com
    • Shuts down pr0n site; redirects to fawm.org
    • It’s safe again to spread the word about FAWM without fear of typo shock!
    • See 2007 notes above

2022

  • 12,700+ total songs
  • "Avatargate" — FAWM was forced to change web-hosting services mid-January
    • @burr couldn’t get image uploads to work on new servers in time
    • Fawmers randomly assigned an instrument and color for their avatar
    • Fawmers turned these avatar limitations into a variety of instrument-based and collaboration challenges (see also fiats.info)
  • "Slothcore" coined by @candle
    • "Very slow (like 20 - 40bpm), dirty & with long pauses to simulate naps. Perfect music for that overworked college/university student in your life."
  • "FAWM 4.0" (complete software rewrite by @burr, with @beto and @ericdistad, in June)
    • "Mobile-first" responsive web design
    • Added #hashtags to anything (profiles, forums, etc.)
    • Added arbitrary number of collaborators for songs
  • 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
  • Website redesign: evoking a "zinelike" or "DIY" aesthetic
    • Added built-in demo file hosting for donors of $25 or more
    • Added built-in Skirmish feature (more accessible, decluttering forums)
    • Added more "song shuffle" buttons and more song filters
  • Created AI Statement in response to ChatGPT/Udio/Suno anxiety
  • Largest 50/90 ever in the summer, with 8k+ songs
  • First new merch since 2017

2024

  • Biggest. FAWM. Ever. nearly 15,000 total songs!
  • Added choose-your-own-rockhands & avatar colors
  • FAWM revived the old 2010 challenge to collectively write 14k+ songs
    • Unlike 2009 and 2010, community was divided over arbitrary goals like 14k+ songs
  • Added new filter/sorting options for 50/90 to address growing total song output, which was also met with criticism from some in the community
  • FAWM mods decided to take a "sabbatical" from hosting 50/90 the following year

2025 and beyond...

  • Added this help site!
  • Added more donation options!
  • Added new custom audio players!
  • Added tabbed home feeds!
  • Added block/ignore features!
  • ???