because Everfree Northwest has a guideline that a music set should be 70% related to pony (or something like that, i forget the exact wording).
Some ad-hoc attempts at categorization, to demonstrate the problem
It's a remix of a pony song
This is clearcut pony music. It's got the ponies in it, there they are! There's a lot of these. Here's one: Foozogz - HEARTS♥RMX
the core of the song is pony sample chops.
This sort of straddles the line of "remix", especially since the chops might not even be from lines that are sung in the original show. PinkiePieSwear, SoGreatAndPowerful are fundamental to this, but a lot of pony EDM is like this.
The song is about MLP canon directly
Again, very clearcut. many such cases. Odyssey Eurobeat's Discord famously is in this category, or Exclusive Royal Canterlot Wedding Playset.
It's a song tied to a pony fanfic/parody
We are a step removed from pony but very firmly in pony. Friendship is Witchcraft music is a good example of this.
The core of the song is pony sample chops but it's difficult to tell by listening that they are pony sample chops unless you already knew that
This is how our new song is. The fundamental core of this is pony chops, but they're really micro chops. The vocal snippets you do get are from G3 too rather than G4. Some of them might not even be pony-sourced, since this is a chop of someone else's pony sample chop. If you further chopped this, what does that make that? But also I made a PMV for it!!! :D
Certainly I have bias, but to me, this song is pony.
The song is basically its own thing but it throws a few pony samples in there
Similar to sample chops, but we are a stage removed now. There's ponies in there, but pinkie pie saying "BOOOOOORING" or trixie saying "Watch in awe!" is about the only thing tethering it to pony. You could take them out and it'd still be about the same song. Actually my first time hearing "Boooring" was a version without the pony samples at all which is what osu! has for some reason. Still, I've never had questions over whether this counts as pony music or not
The song has nothing to do with the show, but is textually sung in pony perspective
I'm thinking of a lot of Vylet Pony's music when I think about this. Some of her music is about show characters, but some of it is just, music sung by a pony. You only pick up on this when you get an "anypony" or "everypony".
I'm also thinking of hooves up high. The only thing grounding this song to pony is "hooves", but it's made by people who were active in the pony music scene at the time, and you absolutely would drop this in a set at a convention.
The song has pony track art, but it has nothing to do with ponies textually, and doesn't use any pony samples
Prototype by Glaze/WoodenToaster is something I'd count here. The art for it on youtube is their pony OC, it was made for a music jam that was mostly pony musicians. and that's basically the only pony related things about it. (Technically, I have no idea if it uses pony samples at all, but I doubt it). You might still consider this pony music though. The artist is well known for making other pony music, so there's a close connection. I'd imagine this one gets some debate. I'm not sure how I'd count it.
The song has nothing to do with ponies at all but the artist used to make pony music
Now you definitely get into debates on it. Is Life As We Know It pony music? This is under the Andromulus name, which is Alex S.'s rebrand to explicitly get distance from pony stuff, along with Odyssey on vocals.
But I have heard this played in many pony sets. Is it pony?????????????
The artist is pony-kin but the music has nothing textually or musically to do with ponies. You'd have no way to know by listening.
I have wondered whether all music I make counts as ponies by nature of being a pony. I don't think this would really matter to a listener in a live setting unless they know you already.
The artist has never made pony music, but they're friends with people who do
Many such cases! Frequently they're furries and so you might just call it furry music at that point. Sometimes they're just someone who happens to have a lot of friends in the pony music scene.
The music is very popular with people in the pony fandom- it has nothing to do with ponies
In particular I'm thinking of porter robinson. Go to an MLP music event and take a drink of water any time someone plays a porter robinson or madeon track. You will stay hydrated.
Maybe it's just vibes, yo
The thing is that for a lot of these, if the artist is even remotely connected to the pony music scene, they're influenced by it musically. If they're particularly influenced, I think that shines through with people familiar with it. I've had our track "Apotheotic" called out as being directly inspired by and in the same vibe as WoodenToaster, by people who barely knew me and didn't have any way to know how right they are about that.
And like, the way I personally experience whether something is "pony" or not is not by analysis, but by context.
If someone plays some songs that are very explicitly pony, and then they move on to play some unrelated stuff that's in the same musical vibe as what they were playing, I tend to accept it as all one thing. The pony-ness of the pony stuff spreads to the other music around it by association, especially if both things are made by the same person.
Whereas, if someone shows up and just plays like Caravan Palace or something, that doesn't really feel pony to me. It's cool music, but like, i dunno!
Much to think about...
(src https://www.deviantart.com/cloudyrei/art/What-Pinkie-Pie-is-Thinking-505544623)
