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A History of FAWM

Info

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).

FAWM Songs Over Time

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

  • 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
  • Something was happening!

FAWM 2006 Screenshot

The "FAWM 2.0" homepage (2006)

2006

  • 1,300+ songs; 140+ fawmers
  • Added discussion forums to the site
  • 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 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)
  • @ericdistad creates fawmers.com as an off-season community forum

2007

  • 2,700+ total songs; 250+ fawmers
  • New features
    • Added watchlists (follows)
    • Added a streaming player (instead of downloading MP3 demos)
    • Added streaming Jukebox (mid-month, upon request)
  • FAWM spontaneously goes pink for Valentine's Day 💕
    • Tradition still known as "the pinkening"
  • The FAWM D. Rockingfeller Foundation coined by @sapient and @swampjaw
    • Sponsoring another fawmer's rock hands 🤘 by donating on their behalf
  • The first "viral" challenge: Strangle Disco
  • We learned fawm.com became a pr0n site 😬
    • Redesigned all logos to clearly read FAWM.ORG
  • Began cross-pollinating with the 50 Song Challenge community (yahoo mailing list)
  • The first ever FOP (FAWM Over Party) in London, UK
    • A dozen (or so) fawmers based in Europe crashed a series of open mics

FAWM 2022 Screenshot

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 comments) 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)
  • 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 (50/90) using the FAWM platform

FAWM 2009 Screenshot

The "FAWM 3.0" homepage (2009)

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 (replaced predefined genres/categories)
    • Added third-party demo embeds from YouTube and other sites
    • Added archive feature (the website is wiped clean every year)
  • Term feasting coined by @willle
    • An attempt to write an entire album/EP in a single sitting
    • Term 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

2010

  • 10,200+ total songs; 1,000+ fawmers
  • FAWM proposed a goal to collectively write 14k+ songs
    • Fell short, but lots of positive energy!
  • 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
    • 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.

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
  • 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
  • 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 SuperSkirmishes (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: 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 spends all of its savings to finally buy fawm.com
    • After trying for 14 years! (see 2007 notes above)
    • It's safe again to spread the word about FAWM without fear of typo shock!

FAWM 2022 Screenshot

The "Avatargate" songs page (2022)

2022

  • 12,700+ total songs
  • Avatargate — FAWM forced to change webhost providers 2 weeks before February
    • Couldn't get image uploads to work in the new infrastructure in time
    • As a workaround fawmers were randomly assigned an instrument and background color (in a photocopier/zine "DIY" aesthetic) for profile avatars
    • In true FAWM spirit, many fawmers turned these limitations into a challenge:
      • Write a song using your assigned instrument (if you have one)
      • Collaborate with somone assigned the same instrument/color
      • See also: fiats.info (created by @mattgillooly)
  • 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
    • Many other requests from 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
    • Added built-in demo hosting for donors of $25 or more
    • Added built-in Skirmish feature (more accessible, decluttering forums)
    • Added more random song buttons and song filters
  • Created AI Statement in response to ChatGPT/Udio/Suno anxiety
  • Largest 50/90 ever over the summer, with 8k+ songs
  • First new merch since 2017

2024

  • Biggest. FAWM. Ever. 15,000+ total songs!
  • Added choose-your-own-rockhands & avatar colors
  • FAWM revived the old 2010 goal to collectively write 14k+ songs
    • Unlike 2009 and 2010, fawmers vocally divided over a collective goal
  • Added new song filters and "magic sort" options for 50/90
    • Requested by some fawmers to address growing number of songs
    • However, met with criticism/backlash from others, feature abandoned
  • FAWM mods decided to take a "sabbatical" from hosting 50/90 the following year

FAWM 2025 Screenshot

The "FAWM 4.0" homepage (2025)

2025 and beyond...

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