What is “forcing” a song?
Not every song produces a useful power. Most have no (obvious) effect. (This is not to say that they don’t have any effect at all; I used to joke that whenever he played one of these songs, a star on the other side of the galaxy went supernova.) Some have trivial or useless effects, or have so many conditions and side-effects that they are essentially useless. A little less than 20% of all songs backfire (see below). “Forcing a song” is something Doug does when he wants a new song to produce a specific power. (The desired power has to be supported by the lyrics of the song!) If it works, he gets the power he wants. If it fails, it backfires immediately. This is essentially Doug trying to coerce his subconcious mind into manipulating his magegift the way he wants it to; sometimes his subconscious mind resents the coercion and gets even.
