TAKETHAT (popular music tournament) open for mirrors

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krollo
Lulu
Posts: 34
Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2017 1:54 pm

TAKETHAT (popular music tournament) open for mirrors

Post by krollo »

We’re pleased to announce TAKETHAT, a tossup-only tournament on popular music written by Joseph Krol, Theo Howe and Isaac Renert. The first mirror, played by UK teams, took place this weekend and was very well received, and we'd be delighted to have it mirrored in the US (we're also planning at least one more UK mirror). The set consists of eight packets of 22 tossups (plus a tiebreak in each packet).

The distribution is primarily chronological, with at least one question each round on pre-1950 popular music and at least two questions on each decade since (with one tossup a round ringfenced for jazz and modern classical music, respectively). The remaining slots in each packet mainly serve to ensure a good representation of genres in each packet, plus a few outright common links. The aim is to cover as broad a range of music as possible, with a healthy mixture of chart music, more cult stuff, and influential works from across the century. Although the vast majority of clues are about the music itself, there are a few questions about other aspects of popular (and academic) culture asked about through the lens of music. A few questions per round are somewhat British-biased, but the vast majority are accessible to all; we would be happy to earmark, say, the two most British TUs per packet for removal or replacement. This is a hard, specialist tournament – while most questions should be very gettable at the end, it does not shy away from asking about lesser-known things from time to time, and asking reasonably deep questions about major artists.

The first mirror was played by pairs, which seemed to work well, though mirror sites are free to adapt this. The mirror fee will be £15 per player. Feel free to message me here or on Discord if you have any questions!
Joseph Krol

Cambridge 2016-22
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The Story of a Head That Fell Off
Lulu
Posts: 87
Joined: Wed May 25, 2016 3:43 am

Re: TAKETHAT (popular music tournament) open for mirrors

Post by The Story of a Head That Fell Off »

This set has a lot of great deep cuts, and is definitely not for the faint of heart. Very fun and satisfying to play!
Jeremy "JJ" Tsai
Rutgers 2016-2019 (President 2018-2019)
"Maryland" 2019-2021
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Asterias Wrathbunny
Wakka
Posts: 121
Joined: Sun Jun 16, 2013 7:02 pm
Location: Boston, MA

Re: TAKETHAT (popular music tournament) open for mirrors

Post by Asterias Wrathbunny »

I'm about a year and a half late here, but I really enjoyed this event and think that many others who haven't played it would too. The set covers so many bases and far exceeds the quality of any other popular music/trash event I've played. It looks like it has unfortunately been mirrored only twice, once in the UK and once at Maryland, and I hope everyone has a chance to play at least an online mirror of this event before it's cleared.
Victor Pavao
Acton-Boxborough '14, Villanova '18
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