by Dan Katz
Answer: ROBERT EDWARD CROZIER LONG
Problem: Christmas Town/​Halloween Town

Each of the twenty-three audio clips linked from the large grid comes from a poorly conceived original song parody. The titles of these songs do not appear in the excerpted portion, but they are implied by the lyrical content, and each is the original title with a consonant sound replaced by another consonant sound. The songs appear in the grid alphabetized by title of the original song.

(Note: The intention is that the new title appears later in the song in the same context as the old title. So for example, the lyrics to “Swede of Sound” do not simply clue the title, but rather the entire transformed chorus phrase “Birds go flying at the Swede of Sound.” Poor Sven.)

Each of the consonant sounds in these transformations is the first sound in one of the words in the small grid, so the sound change in the song title is equivalent to a sound change between words in that grid. For example, the first clip in the grid is for “Carry On My Wagered Son,” which used to be Kansas’s “Carry On My Wayward Son.” The equivalent transformation in the small grid is from “why” to “jai,” which is a shift one row upward and five columns to the left. Applying the same shift to the cell containing this link leads to the R in the leftmost cell of the second row.

The original artists of these songs each have one-word names, with different first letters from A to W. Extracting the "transformed" letters as described above and sorting these letters alphabetically by artist name gives the puzzle answer, ROBERT EDWARD CROZIER LONG.

Clip NumberArtistOriginal SongParody SongOld soundNew soundShiftExtracted Letter
10AdeleRolling In The DeepPolling in the DeepRPleft 1R
12BeyonceSingle LadiesShingle LadiesSSHright 1O
15ColdplaySpeed of SoundSwede of SoundPWdown 1, right 1B
18DidoThank YouRank YouTHRup 1, right 2E
4EuropeThe Final CountdownThe Vinyl CountdownFVdown 2, right 1R
13FoghatSlow RideSnow RideLNright 2T
6GenesisI Can’t DanceI Can’t LanceDLdown 1, left 1E
16HozierTake Me to ChurchTake Me to LurchCHLdown 1D
9INXSNeed You TonightWeed You TonightNWdown 1, right 2W
3JourneyDon’t Stop Believin’Don’t Stop Relievin’BRdown 1, right 5A
1KansasCarry On My Wayward SonCarry On My Wagered SonWJup 1, left 5R
17LordeTeamBeamTBup 2, left 2D
19MadonnaVogueRogueVRup 1, right 1C
5NickelbackHow You Remind MeHow You Rewind MeMWdown 1, right 3R
23OasisWonderwallThunderwallWTHleft 2O
7PinkJust Like A PillJust Like A MillPMleft 2Z
21QueenWe Will Rock YouWe Will Shock YouRSHdown 1, left 4I
8RoxetteThe LookThe HookLHup 1, right 4E
2StyxCome Sail AwayCome Veil AwaySVright 4R
14ToolSoberSolarBLdown 1, right 1L
22U2Where The Streets Have No NameWhere The Streams Have No NameTMup 1O
20VengaboysWe Like To PartyWe Bike To PartyLBup 1, left 1N
11WeezerSay It Ain’t SoSay It Ain’t GoSGup 2, right 4G