- Burn Him Down: A song about the U.S Forest Service’s Woodsy The Owl mascot, and their requirement to rid of the old costumes.
Asymptotic: A lighthearted, yet tragic song about an unrequited love paired with various mathematical concepts to explain the situation the lovesick singer is in.
Falling for you (a gravitational love song): A fluffy love song comparing the singer’s deep feelings for another person to different physics and astronomy concepts. It’s similar in concept to Asymptotic.
Louie Zong is present on various social media sites, all listed in the “about” page on his website. This website also serves as a portfolio, where you can view all the different types of art he creates. YouTube seems to be the site where he is most active, with his activity on Twitter decreasing after Elon Musk purchased the site.
A song of Louie’s that stuck out to me recently was “Number Go Up (A Nubby’s Number Factory Song),” inspired by the aforementioned game, Nubby’s Number Factory. The genre of the song is something that I’m going to call “video game parody music,” because I don’t know if it has an actual name. This type of music was popular in the early 2010’s, but has since faded out of the public eye. Video game parody songs are usually about a specific game’s mechanics and/or plot, and typically parody an already existing song; But can also have original instrumentals and rhythms of their own. Popular artists who dabbled in this genre back in the day were TheLivingTombstone, TryHardNinja, and CaptainSparklez. The most popular games to make songs of were Minecraft, Undertale, and various mascot horror games like Five Nights at Freddy’s and Bendy And The Ink Machine.
The song follows Nubby and their journey throughout the game, accompanied by an image of Nubby drawn by Louie Zong along with gameplay footage to go along with the music. The style of Nubby’s Number Factory is distinctly early 2000’s, with low quality graphics and cartoony 3D models. It looks like an amateur flash game made for kids, but I mean that in the best way possible. I find this kind of style very fun and nostalgic, and it’s interesting to see it being brought into the present day and being mixed in with Louie’s style. The tone of Louie’s song matches the silly and childish nature of the game, with short and simple sentences and the occasional bit of improper grammar (ex: “number go up,” “Nubby go down”). At the same time, he also reflects the early internet theme of the game within his vocals by applying some kind of static-sounding filter as he sings. It makes the song sound more aged, like it could have been a bit of recorded audio from an old game. Somehow, Louie has also made the scratchiness of the vocals not sound completely irritating, it’s quiet and blends in with the music rather than obnoxiously standing out.
As the song gets closer to the end, the chorus of the song changes in tone. It’s sung in a much harsher tone, and the ends of the lines end in a lower note rather than in a higher and more cheerful one. The “number go down” section of the chorus is then followed by a countdown, lessening by an interval of one each time the line is sung “five more tries to keep the sun around.” The last two lines of the song are shouted out, and once the countdown reaches zero the song abruptly stops with a shout and really funny explosion sound and gif on the screen. This ending reminds me of a song from Mr. Bungle’s 1999 California album, Pink Cigarette. The ending to Pink Cigarette is also a countdown of sorts, starting with “There’s just 5 hours left until you find me dead,” and repeating that line while decreasing the number of hours in increments of one as it repeats. Once the countdown for zero begins, the singer is cut off almost immediately by the blaring sound of a flatlining heartbeat monitor. I don’t think Louie was specifically inspired by Mr. Bungle or any of their songs, though. There’s plenty of songs out there that end with a bang rather than slowly petering out, I just thought it was a fun coincidence how similar the endings were. The ending of the song which is so starkly different from what was previously being played, along with lyrics such as “search for answers, in the coffee shop or black market, jumbled up life now” give an air of mystery around the game. It hints that the game contains some darker themes or hidden lore that’s sprinkled throughout the game for you to discover. It left me very intrigued and wanting to check out the game for myself. I hope to learn why the existence of the sun is solely dependent on Nubby’s factory staying successful.
If I were more knowledgeable on the process of creating music, different instruments, or music theory, I’d be able to describe why the song is a pleasant listening experience in a more compelling way. The song just sounds nice. It wouldn’t appeal to a more general audience due to the subject matter of the song, the video game parody music genre has always had a target audience of children. The song isn’t horrible by any means, though, it’s just not something that the public isn’t interested in anymore.
Number Go Up can be compared to many songs within the video game parody music genre, but there’s actually very few songs of Louie’s that could really be called similar to Number Go Up. Louie has made many videos and songs that are inspired by video games, the most famous example being the previously mentioned “Rhythm Hell” video which is a clear nod to the video game “Rhythm Heaven.” His previous video game inspired works feel more like they’re trying to fit into the universe they’re based upon, rather than actually being about the game or the character’s within it. His video, “K.K What A Fool Believes” isn’t about the animal crossing character K.K Slider and his journey making music, it’s meant to be a song that K.K has written and sung. This is Louie’s first step into making songs of this genre, and it was a nice surprise.
Nowadays, society’s standards for art, music, and entertainment in general have grown to be much higher than they used to be. More and more artists have grown anxious about their own skillset and the work they put forward, wanting each piece they put out to be the best it can possibly be. So, why make a song like this? It’s not that Number Go Up isn’t a song of low quality, Louie clearly has a lot of technical skill that has been built up over his years of creating art. But, Nubby’s Number Factory is a game with a niche audience, and the video game parody music genre had fallen from popularity a long time ago. The song is clearly self indulgent, and would not be able to appeal to a broader audience. The lyrics of the song don’t directly have any secret or deep hidden meanings within them, that point to some kind of epiphany related to whatever the game is about. On a surface level, it’s incredibly hard to find a way to relate this song to one’s own personal experiences or view it as a reflection of society in some way. But, writing this song off as meaningless would be a very grave mistake. Number Go Up teaches an incredibly important lesson to its viewers, and that is to make art just for the sake of it. Creating something of your own gives you the satisfaction of seeing the finished piece after all of the time and effort that went into it, allows you to release whatever emotions you felt before and during the process of creating your piece, and gives you the opportunity to connect with other artists from all around the world now that you understand what making art is like. With the way our society is in the U.S, it can be easy to forget that you don’t simply exist to work to put more money in another man’s pockets. You exist for yourself. Number Go Up doesn’t exist to appease the specific interests of another group, it exists because Louie adored a game and put those feelings into something. It must have felt great to be so carefree, and I think Louie wants the viewer to have the opportunity to feel the same way.
I don’t think this song is one for the history books. As of now, the video sits at around 30,000 views after 9 days. I don’t expect the view count to suddenly increase into the hundreds of thousands. Louie has a reasonably large and active audience, if they were interested in this type of music, it would be much more popular. However, the message that I picked up from this song is something that will stick with me for months and years to come. It will inspire me to keep creating and living for myself.
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