YMMV / Nick Bertke

• Archive Binge: Thank God for BSHFTW, who has not only searched for and found tracks hidden in the most obscure parts of Nick's discography, but has uploaded them to share with the world.
• Archive Panic: Holy hell. Let's just say that if the only Pogo music you listen to is from his channel, you have a big storm coming. He's released tons of additional EPs and albums, and even if we were to list them here, there would still be some left out, because apparently Nick's released some EPs that are extremely rare to find.
• Broken Base: Real-life mixes like "G'Day G'Day" and "Perth Milks It" have polarized most of the audience, with some enjoying the beats and sound and others disliking it being different or just ultimately inferior.
• Awesome Music: You better believe it.
  • What can be deciphered of the "Toyz Noize" lyrics qualifies:
  Own the star, we own the star
  In my own
  Be brave
  Have faith in me
• First Installment Wins: His earliest songs are usually his most recognizable, considering this applies to his very first song, "Alice", which he thinks is a Tough Act to Follow.
• Heartwarming Moments: See here.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • "Wizard of Meh" has had its fair share of this, considering the amount of fun people have had with all of Nick's weird facial expressions.
  • "Living Island" has started to gain a memetic connotation since the late 2010s.
• Nightmare Fuel: His old song "Satan in the Room", made to encapsulate the feeling of the Devil's presence.
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Around the mid-to-late 2010s, to go against a prevailing culture he described as overly reliant on safe spaces and trigger warnings and "swinging too far to the left", he made several deliberately offensive public statements. He released a video in 2015 deriding feminism, and in 2018, mass-scale attention was drawn to a leaked 2016 livestream of him voicing explicit hatred of the gay community to the point of fist pumping about the Pulse nightclub shooting. While the former got him in a fair share of hot water, the latter made for a massive controversy, with the backlash not being mitigated much by the various rationales he gave — that his statements in the livestream were intended as a satire of the far right and separate from his actual beliefs, the livestream was never meant for public release, he has a "muddled" sense of humor and empathy due to having Asperger's syndrome and bipolar disorder, and he himself identifies as bicurious. While he still has a steady following, his chances of working with a company again seem slim, not to mention the blow his reputation has taken such that bringing him up in a popular online space at all will likely incur some people convinced that he's a homophobe.
• Signature Song: "Alice" is his most viewed video of all time with 29 million views, and has remained popular throughout the years since its release.
• Signature Style:
  • The beat usually kicks in or pauses with a short one-liner. But these lines are special because, unlike other voice/sound effects, they can easily be understood as referring to the music itself, kinda Breaking the Fourth Wall and Lampshade Hanging:
    • In Swashbuckle: "That's not good enough!" and "I LOVE this SONG".
    • In Bloom: "[...] beautiful."
    • In Bangarang : "[...], do something intelligent!", "[...], feel this!" and "Just listen!"
    • In Jaam: "You got that right."
    • In Lead Breakfast: "Hey, kids.", "Let's go!"
    • In Yoda Yodel and Hoo Ba Ba Kanda: "Watch this!"
    • In Wishery: "Don't get excited...Here we go!"
    • In Boo Bass, a longer Lampshade Hanging. After settling the fast rythm (one of his fastest), a smooth Hawaiian-style piece pops in and breaks it. The monsters, as if they heard it, react : "- What was that ?? - I have no idea, but it would be really great if it didn't do it again". Cue the fast beat restarting.
    • In Upular, a variant with "- That doesn't even rhyme! - Yes, it does!". Cue rhyming voice effects.
  • Lots of sources from Disney, especially from Alice.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: "Doo D'Doo" sounds a bit similar to "The Whistle Song" by Frankie Knuckles.
• Sweet Dreams Fuel: Lots and lots. The SDF is mainly pumped in from the Nostalgia Filter that the songs provide to listeners.
  • "Buzzwing", which has a blissful foundation and even manages to make seemingly incoherent voice samples of Buzz Lightyear sound heavenly.
  • "Davyd", which is a lot more in the Tear Jerker territory considering its source material.
  • "Upular", which is a happy and upbeat sort of "sweet dreams"-y.
  • Nick has made some legitimate full-on ambient tracks, such as "Counterpoint" and "Standing Before the Earth". The latter sounds like it would fit on an Aphex Twin album, and also bears lots of resemblance to Radiohead's "Treefingers", which is similarly an ambient interlude.
  • "Living Island", which takes you back to the days of childish innocence and imagination.
  • "Alice". It really fits perfectly with Alice in Wonderland's verve of fantastical wonder, and the choral additions don't hurt.
  • "White Magic" truly lives up to its name. I mean, try sleeping to it.
  • Even "Splurgenshitter", which is louder and more active production-wise, still brings a soothing effect, especially in its ending.
  • "Mary's Magic". Then again, its main instrumentation is of samples of children singing and music boxes, and has a Windows 95 startup sound playing both forwards and backwards at select points in the background. How could it not be here?
  • "Adios Amor" can only be described as a driving-all-night type of song; very mellowed out and relaxing, and it's especially enchanting when the additional sonic textures come a good way into the song.
  • Bite Size Candies is a literal example since it invovled M&M's.
• Tear Jerker: Most of his songs; usually the sadder ones are mixes based off of old-school movies, and the tearjerkiness is packed in the nostalgia and power of the song. See here.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: "Data & Picard" has received wide and well-deserved acclaim for its impeccable green-screening, lighting, and makeup, including a Data getup with an outfit and contact lenses that were digitally recolored to yellow in post and look spotless.

---