The track should be “sufficiently” xenharmonic, occurring in Billboard Hot 100 (as an arbitrary measure of mass popularity—advice me a better one) listings before 2024-01-01. Xenharmony (for the sake of this question) is the usage of musical tunings other than 12edo. Terms what substitutes for differences from 12edo might be stretched so decide at your own risk if I consider the track you think is far from traditional 12edo usage as plain 12edo.
If I find a way to externalize feelings in the future, I could make the notion clearer. What I definitely won’t treat as xen is trolling like “this piece is in 1200edo but uses steps 0—399—708 for a major triad” as this is quite indistinguishable from 12edo major triad if instruments allow slight detuning. So if the sound is quite strange to an untrained ear, this might be it—also, consult what the artist says about the tuning, as it’s common now to describe not only that a piece is xen/microtonal if it is, but also to name tuning(s) or frameworks used.
[2023-01-05 addition:]
I expect the overal harmony be far from diatonic. E. g. I don’t think I’d consider it just to call a song essentially xen if there are just few moments in just one part that are non-12edo (like an ascending major third divided into 3 or 5 equal-ish steps but not 4 or 2 steps like the only possible way in 12edo). I guess I’m aiming more for xen-ness than exactly microtones (or “macrotones” like in Bohlen—Pierce tunings and others), which neccesitates harmonic movement impossible in 12edo. Or that there are microtones galore, all throughout the music. This still makes for a lot of subjectivity in deciding, of course.
And also I’d wish to retcon that the song should be new—for a soft bound not older than 2000. It is unfair to the question as stated, so I’ll not be restrictive to your picks—but FYI it’s just my interest in the new prospects and the future state of affairs.
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/These_Boots_Are_Made_for_Walkin%27
Recorded by Nancy Sinatra, peaked at #1 on Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. Don't know if this is "sufficiently" xenharmonic, but the bassline is uses quarter-tones aka 24ET.
@Hei That’s interesting, thank you! Prior to listening, I’d say it’s probably diatonic through and through, possibly using 12edo puns, if you say 24edo is just in the bassline. Now I’ll take a listen and will add something after that; also I’ll ask folks at Xenharmonic Alliance Discord server what do they think about it. But based on my read, don’t set hopes too high!
Meanwhile I’ll add to the desctiption that I expect the harmony be far from diatonic. I don’t have a strict definition for what this should constitute but maybe it’ll be still of minor use as clarifications go.
@Hei My poor ears think they hear micro just in descending segments. So I’d say it’s more ornamental than core. I know I haven’t said anything about being ornamental or core but that’s just words I probably couldn’t define right now anyway. Now that I mentioned the song in XA Discord, I was bombarded with many examples and I’m almost finding what to place in the bucket I delineated here! 😰
@Hei All in all, thank you for making me to elaborate my stance at what this market should be about. Hopefully my intentions wasn’t too far from those of bettors!
