Genres are Dumb (if you're looking to find YOUR sound)
In this one, I take a look at the negative impact that composing with a particular genre in mind can potentially have on your ability to find your own sound--especially early on. Enjoy!
I don’t agree at all. Composing with a particular genre in mind when you are a new producer is a great way of developing your own sound.
If you know how to differentiate And produce a house song and a techno song it is much easier to start develop your own sound.
If you don’t know the Basics of dance music How are you suppose to develop it?
I'm very old. I remember having intense discussions in high school as to whether something was "hard rock" or "heavy rock" (I don't think "metal" was a thing yet) or just regular "rock". "Rock and roll" was thought (by my small peer group) to be a term reserved for, like, Elvis-era stuff. Apart from splitting the "rock" hair a bit finely (eventually adding "progressive" to the list), the rest was blues, folk, jazz, classical, maybe "world" although we didn't call it that back then. Sitar on Beatles songs, that kind of thing. That was about all, we thought, and hierarchically it was all fairly loosey-goosey.
Suddenly (it seemed) decades later, and the splitting of genres into sub-genres and sub-sub-genres had reached what I took to be insane levels of detail. A difference of 5 bpm could mean the difference between one sub-sub-genre and another. The level of specificity was and remains staggering to me, and a bit silly.
But I don't dismiss or dissuade the pursuit of knowledge or skills of any kind, and if people want to become proficient in what makes something trap-house vs techno-house or whatever, as part of their chosen path, then gawdspeed -- S'all Good, Man. And I will magpie bits and pieces of whatever, from here and there, but I'm still in loosey-goosey land as far as genre goes. When I put my songs to mp3, in the metatags I label everything "progressive rock" because (as I used to say, mostly kidding) "If it's not Prog, it's CRAP!"
Suddenly (it seemed) decades later, and the splitting of genres into sub-genres and sub-sub-genres had reached what I took to be insane levels of detail. A difference of 5 bpm could mean the difference between one sub-sub-genre and another. The level of specificity was and remains staggering to me, and a bit silly.
But I don't dismiss or dissuade the pursuit of knowledge or skills of any kind, and if people want to become proficient in what makes something trap-house vs techno-house or whatever, as part of their chosen path, then gawdspeed -- S'all Good, Man. And I will magpie bits and pieces of whatever, from here and there, but I'm still in loosey-goosey land as far as genre goes. When I put my songs to mp3, in the metatags I label everything "progressive rock" because (as I used to say, mostly kidding) "If it's not Prog, it's CRAP!"
- TritoneAddiction
- Competition Winner
- Posts: 4219
- Joined: 29 Aug 2015
- Location: Sweden
In my younger years I tried to copy styles I liked and always felt like I failed. I just wasn't very good at sounding "like it should". As soon as I said to myself "Fuck it, who cares if it doesn't fit in a certain genre?" my music quickly became better imo. I thought "I'm just gonna do me, embrace whatever comes out." And I'm so glad I went through that mental transition.
Of course I get influnced by other people and different music like everyone else, but I don't care if I break any "genre rules" anymore. It's very liberating.
Of course I get influnced by other people and different music like everyone else, but I don't care if I break any "genre rules" anymore. It's very liberating.
Breaking the rules is perfectly acceptable.TritoneAddiction wrote: ↑29 Nov 2020In my younger years I tried to copy styles I liked and always felt like I failed. I just wasn't very good at sounding "like it should". As soon as I said to myself "Fuck it, who cares if it doesn't fit in a certain genre?" my music quickly became better imo. I thought "I'm just gonna do me, embrace whatever comes out." And I'm so glad I went through that mental transition.
Of course I get influnced by other people and different music like everyone else, but I don't care if I break any "genre rules" anymore. It's very liberating.
But I think the most important thing about what you've said is to embrace what you create.
Music is an art form and like any art it's more important that the artist creates for expression than critics criticise the creation.
that’s exactly the point. why try to make something that already exists?
anybody can cop an existing aesthetic. that’s easy. letting go of what’s expected and finding your own sound? that’s hard.
there’s nothing wrong with making a specific genre of music, if that’s what you want. but if you want to sound like you—in the way that nobody else can—pigeonholing your work into a particular bucket right off the bat is the wrong way to go about it.
100%. this is one of the things I was hoping to get across. humans don’t fall into neat little buckets, and it’s no surprise that as we explore our creative side, neither does our art.TritoneAddiction wrote: ↑29 Nov 2020In my younger years I tried to copy styles I liked and always felt like I failed. I just wasn't very good at sounding "like it should". As soon as I said to myself "Fuck it, who cares if it doesn't fit in a certain genre?" my music quickly became better imo. I thought "I'm just gonna do me, embrace whatever comes out." And I'm so glad I went through that mental transition.
Of course I get influnced by other people and different music like everyone else, but I don't care if I break any "genre rules" anymore. It's very liberating.
learning how to make music in a specific genre can be super useful, but it’s unnecessarily limiting, for all the reasons mentioned, and more. the interesting thing is that if you let go of genre and start making what you like, without regard for such arbitrary rules, you’ll end up learning about your favorite genres along the way anyway.
edit: sorry, this was actually rgdaniels’ post I was trying to reference....and I got a chuckle out of your prior post about the fairly recent genre explosion. that was actually one of the reasons I wanted to make this video. it really is funny how we’ve devised so many ways to label things that the labels are all starting to become meaningless. I have no idea what genres my music are. rock? sure, but that’s about as granular as I can get without giving myself a headache.
couldn’t agree more. the most important critic is the one making the music.Billy wrote: ↑29 Nov 2020Breaking the rules is perfectly acceptable.TritoneAddiction wrote: ↑29 Nov 2020In my younger years I tried to copy styles I liked and always felt like I failed. I just wasn't very good at sounding "like it should". As soon as I said to myself "Fuck it, who cares if it doesn't fit in a certain genre?" my music quickly became better imo. I thought "I'm just gonna do me, embrace whatever comes out." And I'm so glad I went through that mental transition.
Of course I get influnced by other people and different music like everyone else, but I don't care if I break any "genre rules" anymore. It's very liberating.
But I think the most important thing about what you've said is to embrace what you create.
Music is an art form and like any art it's more important that the artist creates for expression than critics criticise the creation.
-
- Information
-
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 10 guests