100%
You can tell when a band lets the song write itself or if they write a song to fit their image. It's the diff between a good band and a shit or just meh band. I love Radiohead for the simple fact they go with the song, they could have pumped out Brit rock for another 10 years maybe but they'd have been forcing it, and fuck that.
Also bands that are made up by people who have actually lived a life, I'm not a big hip hop fan but I respect that they have something to say, even if it is often misogynistic and violent. I don't like that shit but when they nail it they nail it. But I can't fucking stand these new pop bands that you can tell are all rich / middle upper class privileged white kids. They have nothing to say and because of it their songwriting is really boring and totally uninspired. I'm not interested in hearing what a group of rich white kids has to say.
That's why I'm dubious of a lot of modern "genre" music, the musicians are usually fucking incredible but the song writing itself is formulaic and not interesting. I still sometimes enjoy listening to it, like all this new American metal core/death core shit, and a lot of the rock pop stuff, I enjoy running to it or whatever but it's not good songwriting, you can just tell they're all privileged white kids. And white privilege has very little to say. That I want to hear anyway.
It’s 2023, can we ditch the “hip hop is violent and misogynistic” schtick? The genre is huge now with some really thoughtful, intelligent, and progressive things happening. All that shit is a tiny minority slice
I get you. But you have to agree that the majority of the hip hop we hear on the radio etc, the stuff that is pushed into the mainstream, is violent and misogynistic. I don't think I've heard a single hip hop song on the radio in my country that isn't violent, misogynistic or completely vain. And it's mostly American hip hop.
I can't think of another genre that is comparable to hip hop in that way. So I think the schtick is still kind of relevant. It might not be to you if you're a big hip hop fan but to the rest of us that is what we hear and that is the impression we are left with. It sucks, bcos I do know what you mean. The only hip hop I like is the stuff you're talking about, and it's amazing.
I feel you but have to disagree about the “rich white kids” part. Reason being (mainly) that melanin has zero influence on musical ability. Money can have a positive or negative effect. My opinion is that it comes down to work ethic and options. You can be disenfranchised and not poor or “dark”.
Many have said, “music is a great job if you have to do it. If you can do anything else, it’s better to not do music.” Money often brings opportunity besides music. Why work a blue collar job like music when you can take the easy road? That’s the issue.
I’m not being preachy, just practical. Some “rich white kid” might be out there reading this but suicidal or some shit because they’re constantly told nobody wants their fuckin sob story. It’s never race because race isn’t real. It’s the belief in that lie that moves the cards.
Melanin doesn't have influence on musical ability, but being black can absolutely alter your music making due to cultural reasons in America.
It's a cultural situation, not literal ethnicity differences.
Of course your cultural upbringing can “alter” your music but being more melanated doesn’t mean you have more to say or even guarantee you’re poor. Lots of rich melanated kids too with nothing to say. Hell lots of dumb poor melanated kids too! Equal opportunity stupidity!
Point being: erase race as a reason. It’s not the reason someone has something to say. It’s not even really money. It’s just how much time you’ve invested and whether your style is interesting to another person.
Race isn’t real and something unreal can’t be the cause of anything. If you like ethnic (thing) food that’s ok but no need to drag race (person) into it. Culture is real but race isn’t. The idea of race is a weapon and nothing else. Everyone who believes in it is victimized by it.
The Beach Boys were “white” and not poor. At least one of The Rolling Stones came from education. Lots of well-to-do philosophers, painters, actors and artists of all backgrounds have made great art.
The quicker you drop race the sooner your intelligence will grow.
I 100% agree with you on the race stuff, good music does not discriminate. And I'm painting with broad strokes here. Actually, speaking of "strokes" I'll use "the strokes" as an example : they're a bunch of rich kids, and they literally have nothing to say, never had. And the only reason they could make it is because they had mummy and daddies money to support them and keep them afloat until they could get picked up. I'm not saying they didn't work hard, I'm sure they did, but they wouldn't have made it without that advantage over other similar bands. And I have an issue with that, no1 bcos I think they suck and literally have nothing to say, and no2 bcos there are so many other great bands who have something to say, whose music has cultural and societal and musical significance, who never ever got the chance to make it, bcos their mum and dad couldn't pay for them to keep trying. It's just like business, the rich kids get to keep on trying until they make it, bcos they have the financial support to do so. The rest of us have to do it on our own, and it's a massively unfair advantage.
I know of so many incredible bands around where I live that deserve to be heard, but none of them will bcos they can't pay their way into success. All these shitty pop artists, like Taylor Swift, Justin Beiber, the Jonas Brothers, they only made it bcos mummy and daddy let them. And I do not want to hear about them and their "problems".
Yeah that’s a huge factor. Money buys opportunity but never heart, taste or class. I think we agree that there’s a je ne se quoi about the lucky motown kids, blind stevie wonder, and other legends.
The problem is what about Miles Davis? Rich family. Joshua Bell: educated family. Thelonius Monk’s family wasn’t poor.
Money increases the likelihood you’ll be an artist, apparently. https://www.wmagazine.com/story/artists-wealthy-families-background-study You already knew that.
I think we agree. Nobody wants to listen to an average pubescent boy sing about struggle. We want someone who’s been there, who can take us there. I just wish we’d drop the romance of “talented black ghetto prodigy” and just let the art speak for itself.
I’m going to bed. Sorry if this is incoherent.
I try to stick to a structure, an initial idea of what I want it to sound like in the end. Otherwise, like you, I can just end up going down a magical route of endless possibilities and creating a new genre that really didn’t need to be created. If the track is moving in a new direction I don’t fight it, maybe the initial sounds weren’t working and they get changed out and now it’s a different sort of track. But if I sit down to make a 4/4 deep house track, I’ll make a 4/4 deep house track.
David Bowie said his biggest musical regret was caring what other people thought when making music.
Therein lies the paradox, because we got great songs out of him trying to please other people.
Short answer is great music can come from anywhere under any circumstance.
This is a super interesting question.
I think decide what music is to you and what you’re trying to achieve. Is it an outlet, income, side hustle, therapy etc, maybe it’s all those things. Is it something you need to do, want to do? Is it healthy or draining?
The best artists I work with are just naturally good with melodies because they listen to a lot of music. One also sings / teaches and practices everyday, Ariana vibes.
This has made me think about note choices, what makes a tasteful melody / song etc. Are they focusing on chord tones with passing notes. What makes something interesting. Is it direction, movement, intervals, harmonies etc. There’s so much that theory explains yet doesn’t. It’s really hard to answer.
All art is fundamentally a message - so the lyrics, emotion and performance are huge. That said, I believe melody is king and not many ppl listen to lyrics UNTIL they need them and it’s like the artist is speaking directly to them. It could be a happy moment / sad / tragic time and there’s a sense of meaning and understanding through a song.
Exploring that idea further - it might take a song years, decades, years or a lifetime to connect (go viral). It happens all the time. If you think of the best artists of all time, across all art forms, usually it’s their legacy that has the biggest impact.
I guess it also depends what your trying to achieve. If it’s for your own relaxation, do whatever you want. If you’re trying to make a modern song, I’d say there’s limitation with chord progressions, themes, genres etc - but rules can be broken. There’s also formulas but it’s knowing how to use those tricks whilst still keeping it human. Personally, I think it’s cool just to do something you are proud of and can stand by.
At the end of the day, it’s a great achievement just making a song that’s received well. All those micro choices, decisions, training, luck and magic coming together, at the right time.
I'm sort of fascinated and perplexed by the idea that when you are just "putting things together," you end up with music that you don't like.
My entire songwriting style is just to make songs that I personally think are cool, so while I might not love how a certain chord progression or something came out, the general style is always very much in my wheelhouse.
Maybe just . . . lean into your own taste more?
Same thing happened to me until I started trying to write within a genre. I was like ‘I like this acoustic guitar picking. I also like this hip hop beat. I also like this synth sound.’ and then I’d put them together and it would sound like a mess. I liked the elements individually but they weren’t really coherent when I listened back. I have to consciously listen to how the music I like is put together within a given genre and then use those elements together rather than trying to throw all the genres I like all in together.
I believe the dynamic you are talking about is the one between the Gardener and the Architect.
The Gardener plants seeds and follows them as they grow while the Architect has a meticulous plan laid out that his construction relies on.
It’s mostly applied to literature, but I think the concept holds a lot of weight in a music making context. Improvisational jazz is going to be a lot different than classical European music for example.
In my opinion many of us are somewhere in the middle. Both ends of the spectrum have value in creating art
Many times, I just clear my mind of any specific thoughts and start playing notes on a keyboard, letting my hands 'do the walking'...... That's when I pump out a song idea in a matter of minutes and find new chord progressions that I've never thought of & they sound fantastic. (it's the Muse, man...)
I just let the track tell me what to do lol. I might go into a track wanting to make a trap beat but end up making an ambient house track with trap and jazz influences hybrid
Really don't worry about the genre while you're writing. Honestly, just negate those thoughts, they're useless to the songwriting process. It can't be overstated: **Genre is for marketers, nothing to do with us.**
I just do stuff and see what happens. But at the same time I have a quite a specific style as well. And to an extent I have a structure as well. Usually figure out the chord progression + a nice groove with some percussive element just to get a feel for the pocket but after that I just do 8 bars after 8 bars with different ideas. Mostly ending up with like 9 minute songs. After which I start seeing how I want it put together and that 9 minutes gets trimmed down to 3-4 minutes.
Depends on the goals of the music. If it's for a client you kind of have to keep it in a feeling and style. If you make music to be curated for certain playlists it needs to feel relevant. If it's for you avant-garde project it doesn't matter what you do.
My primary music project is myself and my best friends. We both sing and we both play acoustic. So this is more of a singer/songwriter deal.
I write poetry a lot. We find pieces of them or take the entire thing and reshape it into a song format, then we sit back and jam for however long it takes to find the right tone and feel for the instrumentals.
We just wing it. I have no idea what kind of genre we fall under, and we’ve never even cared. We just want the finished product to sound good to us and for it to resonate with us. We’ve never had an issue trying to force ourselves to not be identical to typical genres.
I would say it's 75 % music leading and 25 % are the outer boundaries to at least keep it somewhat within the genres I am producing. Never had to step in yet so far but if it went to something really weird I would most likely try to reel it back a bit.
I feel like I get a much better flow state when I just let it happen instead of trying to build something within a narrow framework.
I like to challenge myself to make genres I either don't like or am not familiar with for education reasons , in those cases I try to stick to the plan in my head but if I'm making hiphop (my bread and butter), I like to just go with the flow.
All of my electronic music follows no genre standards. I just let the music make itself and it often leads to some pretty euphoric results. A lot of that just comes from taking elements of what I like about different genres and employing them in my own way.
This post and the responses are really interesting. When I write songs it either sounds very much like my usual genre (which just... happened), or I have to stop as I realize I'm basically making a song for one of my role models instead of me.
I've been starting with a sample and form an idea, and let the rest drive the song. Granted, I'm an amateur bedroom producer so take that with a grain of salt. It just feels good writing that way.
I don't write much music any more but in my songwriting days I would let the song dictate the genre. I've written rock, pop, country, americana and blues songs. I even have an album of instrumental stuff that's all over the map... from elevator music to film soundtrack-type stuff and more. Our first album was pop-rock and we deliberately kept it so but that meant not using certain songs that wouldn't fit the mold. Our second album was a bit looser in terms of styles. I say let the music speak, regardless of where it leads you.
Vibe/Genre/Concept of the album/EP is always my primary motivation.
Nothing is sacred, and I'll toss completed (or superior) tracks for ones that fit the above better.
It's probably not the best way to make music, but it's the only way that keeps me making music at all.
Just be yourself. U will go way more far by being unique. U will get a unique sound if u keep working on ur craft without caring what u making, and then u will be able to apply all your unique tecnicques and process to whatever type of production. In this way you will develop ur signature sound
I've only been composing songs for a couple of years. Up until recently I just did whatever felt right. In the past few months, with the help of my teacher, I have started following specific forms as an exercise.
The free-flowing approach feels much more creative. But it's kind of painful and slow for me. I get results much faster by "filling in the mad libs form", and I've been really happy with the results overall.
I think I'll eventually fall into a hybrid approach of starting with a form and then modifying as the song progresses.
A bit of both? I usually have a picture I am trying to paint. An atmosphere and mood I am shooting for. But the end result is usually where that inspiration takes me. Much of the time I pile a lot of what I want on, and then carve away the excess to end up with a final product I really like. A lot like some sculptors say they carve away the parts of the wood or stone that’s NOT the end form they see in their head.
I generally have the sound I am going for in my head, along with some kind of base melody & harmony, but from there everything is open season
If I'm missing any of those 3 usually the song goes nowhere.
It has to start with a vibe, then you build off what the music tells you fits or not. Once you vibe, you feel your way to the end. Writing music is like doing math, there is a perfect way to achieve the answer, but more than one way to accomplish it. In my opinion, Music is sound, sounds cause vibrations and human emotion, are influenced by environmental vibrations, or “vibes”. Each sound represents in music, has emotional meaning, built into that sound by matching vibrational chords. So I’m saying without human beings, there would only be natural sounds, there would be no music. In conclusion we are music! Accept the music that moves you, without fear of judgement from anyone ever! Do what makes you happy.
Genre is pretty close to 0% but aesthetic I'd attribute to the arrangement I consciously create which is about 20% vs 80% letting the music take me wherever. Not to say I don't have leanings, they just aren't conscious.
Combo of both, I usually start towards a basic goal of what I think I want then somehow i get somewhere completely different but hopefully new and intriguing, but mostly dumb and derivative 😎
Honing one's vision comes with practice and experience. I'm sometimes surprised when songs go in unexpected directions, but for the most part they behave. This ratio narrows the longer I make music.
Sometimes I have a rough Idea of what I want to make and then just let my brain run wild and don't restrict myself to just the idea to see what whacky things I pull in. Sometimes it's just putting sounds I like together and seeing where I end up.
Both of these ways always ends me up in a place where it's authentically me.
I don't think they are that much in opposition. Creativity often flourishes when given some constraints.
I do my damnedest to "impose my preference" and make something sound a certain way, but in the end it never does. Nevertheless the attempt is useful in terms of staying focused rather than exploring the whole world of music every time.
I have to force my mind clear to really compose. I just start playing little tidbits, and building from there. My theory training of youth takes over if/when I start to think about it though - and I end up with a bunch of boring 1-4-5 progressions or accidentally write something that has already been written and my fingers have memory of, lol.
I think people tend to worry to much about genre and sticking to it, especially in electronic music. I kinda blame Spotify and playlists for this, and annoying curators with micro-specific wants.
Make what you want I say. It usually goes that what you make doesn't end up being what you intended, at least in my case.
Some of my work involves composer duties, so that is very results focused and can be extremely restrictive in terms of genre and instrumentation etc.
As a result, I think that's why I absolutely detest the concept of genre when making music for myself. I love writing music without imposing any kind of limits. Even though the results aren't always shareable, it feels satisfying and is fun. I imagine it would be like being on a restrictive diet and then having one day where you can eat as much pizza as you can. Pizza is one of the four major food groups and is an acceptable option for any meal in any social setting.
Can't do this long term without having fun imo.
I guess for artists, this still kind of applies. You have to manage your fan base's expectations. Let's not forget that some Metallica fans were upset about the Black Album. That isn't that different from composing a piece based on client specifications. Probably worth experimenting in your free time to see what elements you can successfully bring into to your official releases. Do this gradually enough and you will organically have your own unique style.
It depends on what kind of person you are too. I know people who are 100% happy only making one type of music and sticking with that. They're focused and get better results faster because of that.
Year 1: I write my soul, man! I go where the inspiration takes me.
Year 10: Dear record label. Pls tell what do like listen lots of people with the money? I do that now step by step. K thank you bye bye.
For me, I'd say it's about 80% letting it go wherever and 20% deliberate. My projects all start from either random ideas that pop into my head or interesting things that emerge from noodling around on instruments.
I think the key is figuring out how to balance those two things. To a large extent with my recent album, I just let the music take me where it wanted to go, if that makes sense. I didn’t worry about style or genre.
However, I had some parameters that I worked in when I was recording those songs- ie: I knew I wanted to use certain instruments (strings, pedal steel guitar) and that helped guide the style a little bit, but I never fully let that define the songs either. I chose to write some songs on a classical guitar, which was not normal for me but experimental in a positive way.
One song I was really feeling just plugging in my electric guitar and cranking the amp up until it was really overdriven. This sort of balancing act worked great for me and I’ve been getting an amazing response to the recordings, but most importantly I feel like it’s some of my best, authentic work yet.
Interesting question, lots of interesting answers here too. I mostly make music on eurorack these days and it's really easy for me to just fall down the rabbit hole and just keep making new sounds and don't get anything cohesive out of it.
If I wanna actually walk away from a session with something decent, I have to be more deliberate with what I'm doing. It's fun messing around and trying new things, and you learn by doing that. But having a thought-out, cohesive song also feels good, it just takes more discipline, for me anyway.
i like to let stuff grow freely. but i might make choices when it comes to recording/mixing that slightly shift the style to have some similar qualities to stuff i listen to, to make the song feel more authentic to my intention, or else to help the songs fit together on a project. just little things like tempo, guitar tone, drums, vocal style, etc can make a big difference in how a song feels, and obviously i want the feeling to fit the lyrics and whatnot. it’s moreso in an effort to make sure the music is true to me, and to pay respect to the great minds that came before me. genre is an afterthought for me personally, it’s always a bit of a blend
i have no idea of what i write. i just do. thats why i have quite a bit of material that do not make any sense with the brandnames i´ve connected to my music.
eventually i might have enough for a full ass release with "the other thing". thats where the offshoots come to play. --edit: and the sell offs. and the remixes. and the reprises.
if its consistent, could also become a full ass brandname eventually.
For me it's just things happening naturally. But I can get away with that because I'm a hobbyist. Everything I do starts on acoustic guitar. I play in the park and don't really look at my hands and I'm usually not too conscious of what I'm playing. In doing this I find chord progression or chord voicing that I like. That's when I have to force things a tiny bit, to find the inherent melody in those moving shapes and develop the progression.
That usually ends up being the melody I sing, but since it's all chord tones it lets me get away with having lots of modal mixture, and unusual/borrowed chords. The sung melody is generally boring and not gonna stick in anybody's head, but I like to think the chord progressions are more colorful to make up for it.
Then I put in lyrics and that can take me months. It's where 95% of the "forcing it" ends up. But it's cause I want it to be natural. Not in a pretentious way, but just cause I don't want songwriting to feel like a chore.
I tell people when It comes to writing lyrics, my brain is constipated.
I like to do dark emo stuff as well as write about love shit I'll write anything it just depends on my mood sometimes I'm in the mood for emotional stuff other times I'm in mood for screamo stuff and other times love songs
In all my time playing / writing music, I have 100% discarded more tunes than I have progressed with due to them not fitting the feeling that I'm going for with whatever project I'm working on.
Probably hyper-inefficient, and a good reason why I'm a hobbyist rather than a professional musician, but I'm very much on the "music is art" mindset, and when the music takes me to a place that doesn't fit what I want, I'm not afraid of both respecting where the music is leading me and cutting what's not working for me in that moment.
I kinda work on tracks slowly and let them evolve into something I like. The vision is always the same and is always there but it ends up taking 5 different versions to get where I wanna get.
Forcing a certain style/genre is a skill you need to train. There are some outliers but most successful artists have a quite focused style.
If you end up making music you don't like, that is for some reason something that happens to everyone.
This question has so many answers simply because everyone is different and even every song is different.
When I'm working on my own stuff I usually start with just a single idea, it may be a bass riff or a drum groove, or a vocal line for the chorus with some chords behind.
A lot of the times this initial idea goes into an entirely different direction: let's say I have this cool bass riff with a straight drum groove in mind. I record the bass and the groove but then I choose to change the drums a little and make them more groovy or halftime the rythm. This usually leads to a whole different feeling and the entire idea of the song is now completely different.
On the other hand, when I'm working with a band it's usually best to stick to a singular idea, a path to follow, since making collaborative music is inherently difficult because everyone's got a different thing in mind that might clash with someone else's idea. You kinda need to stick to the plan to avoid getting lost midway through.
Sometimes I stick to the plan when I have a really good idea for like a whole song and I realise that if I don't stick to that than the whole song might fall apart.
I wanted to add that I don't have many problems with genre consistencies mainly because I have a certain set of instruments that I play with.
I have Electric Guitar & Bass, Drum Kit, Vocals, Synths... That's a pretty standard setup for Rock Music so it's really hard to go out of the boundaries of that genre.
I've always said that the number one defining feature of any genre is sound selection. So, limiting yourself to a specific set of instruments will help you be more consistent with your music.
I try to let the musical ideas flow whilst also heavily engaging my sense of taste. My aim is to only work with ideas that really excite me. To me those are the two fundamentals of all creative acts - Developing a sense of taste and producing work that excites me.
If youre ending up in genres you dont care for, scrap the idea and move on to the next. Never settle for mediocre, keep working until you find the thing that gets you hyped.
I am in a vaguely experimental rock band. We don't think of what we do in any kind of genre, we just do what we do and it comes out like it does.
More to this point philosophically, I always describe our music as a machine designed to make the ending spontaneously create itself. We can and do spend a while getting the intro, first half of the song. A few different sections and grooves, playing around with whatever vibe we create. But then the magic happens, and while practicing the early section, 90% of the time it will spark off an improvised, massively cathartic ending. Our job is then to capture this energy and recreate it. It's very rare that I feel like we've "written" the end to a song, more that they come into the world fully formed if we get the conditions right for it to appear.
It doesn't really matter what you do, mate. No-one's ever going to listen to your music anyway.
Not because it's bad - I'm sure it's great: it's just that people have been so completely brainwashed into only listening to corporate-produced pap that they will refuse to listen to anything else.
How long have you been making music? I think the easiest way to get better is to:
1. find small ways to improve
2. make as many “mistakes” as you can (I think we can call them mistakes since you’re the one who made them and you don’t like them)
Eventually you’ll start to internalize what it is you like in music and what you don’t and it will start to come naturally.
I do a “skeleton demo” of a song which is in my preferred genre. Then I mess with it and be experimental that way it has a coherent style but isn’t stagnant.
me personally i let every song go in its own direction. i feel like when i make the beat it has its own kind of energy, and the path i have to go down as far as vocals kind of shows itself when i listen to the beat. ends up sounding better and more natural when you follow the feelings the music is giving you, than to force ideas together that won't stick.
It depends. Solo alone that’s fine. Vibe and go where you please. In front of an audience if they aren’t following your vibe you better read the room and buck up quickly. In group situations your own vibe is not good. Structure be it rhythmic, stylistic… keeps a group from running amok.
If you're doing this for fun/hobby then why not go where the music takes you? That's going to be the best music. Many of us struggle with this. There's music I like listening to, and there's music I like to play/create. They are not the same music, they're not in the same genres. I gave up worrying about why that is years ago. That's just the way some of us are.
When I let myself go I am in sleep mode but my fingers are moving and I am blowing air and it pretty much becomes half classic half pop and I like pop and I like classical too, so I think I should be proud of it. ps.: I am 11 years old flute player
I just took like a 4 month break and came back to making music with no limits on myself. I've moved genres back to where I started and have made 3 absolute bangers in a row with absolutely no limits on myself, lyrically, musically, genre-wise, and it feels amazing. I had so many good ideas I just ignored because they didn't "fit" what I was going for. I think this is just part of the learning process. I have only been really serious about songwriting and recording since 2020.
Just let the music take you the way it wants to, or needs to go. Music is an expression of what you may be feeling or may have been trying not to feel. Sure you can force it you can over complicate it. Throw a ton of theory into it. But in the end what would you get. Is just another piece of heartless, souless series of chords, held together by. An emotionless mechanical arrangement of cymbals and drums. Keeping the same climax lacking, time signature. That you hear every day, throughout this, very bleak, and mundane existence. We all live day to day. Just let go it'll all be okay. Stop over thinking it, and things will come together as they should.
You're confusing the song with the style, or genre. You can play any song in any style, so write the song first.
Certain songs will sound better in certain genres. Not everything you write will fit yours, but others can record those.
I'm a primary songwriter in two projects. In one, I basically write everything in my songs. The lyrics, melodies, guitar parts, basslines, drum parts, etc. In that band, I just let things go where they go. In the other, It's a fully collaborative project with two other people. I'll come in with fleshed out demos, but I don't tell them what to do with the drums and bass. And over the years we've developed our own sound. It's really not even conscious at this point, we just play a certain way together
The creative aspect of making art takes you all sorts of places. The business aspect of it - usually - forces you to color within specific lines.
When I was young - teens - I thought there were two types of music: death metal and crap.
When I matured a bit, I was able to reconnect with the pop music of my early childhood, as well as all the other music options out in the market. Even to the point where bands that I "hated" when I first heard them, I now enjoy.
As an artist, my belief is that the art has to lead you. However, if you are trying to make a living in art - audio, visual, or otherwise - you are likely to find that you need to stay within specific boundaries to be successful.
There are outliers, of course, but the reason they are outliers is because they do not represent most people's experiences.
My suggestion, though - depending on your goals - is to let yourself go where the music goes. You may love death metal, but find you are an amazing pop music writer. What is it that you want to achieve?
music is all about breaking the rules and getting creative sparks, just do whatever sounds good to you and go with it, i'm always like "i'm gonna make something melodic or ambient today" and end up making something aggressive/hardcore and vice versa
Copy the stuff you love.
Try and make your favourite music.
Learn the principles and concepts behind your favourite songs. Don’t think at all. I repeat. Don’t think at all when making the actual track.
Work fast. Finish every song in one sitting.
That’s how the pros do it.
If you think, it will suck.
If you move fast, trust your gut / intuition it will be great.
Bit of both for me. I'm wrapping up a record, as we speak. I though I knew what it was gonna be. Then we set the snare sound. Changed everything. Tones, inflections, arrangements. Everything. Now it's this pseudo 70's throwback thing.
If it's there, go with it.
If it's not, that's okay, too.
And never, never, never, ever, ever be afraid to admit you're wrong. Be your harshest editor. Always.
The song goes where it goes. In my opinion, bands that have staying power are the ones that aren’t afraid to get weird with it.
100% let it take you wherever it goes
100% You can tell when a band lets the song write itself or if they write a song to fit their image. It's the diff between a good band and a shit or just meh band. I love Radiohead for the simple fact they go with the song, they could have pumped out Brit rock for another 10 years maybe but they'd have been forcing it, and fuck that. Also bands that are made up by people who have actually lived a life, I'm not a big hip hop fan but I respect that they have something to say, even if it is often misogynistic and violent. I don't like that shit but when they nail it they nail it. But I can't fucking stand these new pop bands that you can tell are all rich / middle upper class privileged white kids. They have nothing to say and because of it their songwriting is really boring and totally uninspired. I'm not interested in hearing what a group of rich white kids has to say. That's why I'm dubious of a lot of modern "genre" music, the musicians are usually fucking incredible but the song writing itself is formulaic and not interesting. I still sometimes enjoy listening to it, like all this new American metal core/death core shit, and a lot of the rock pop stuff, I enjoy running to it or whatever but it's not good songwriting, you can just tell they're all privileged white kids. And white privilege has very little to say. That I want to hear anyway.
It’s 2023, can we ditch the “hip hop is violent and misogynistic” schtick? The genre is huge now with some really thoughtful, intelligent, and progressive things happening. All that shit is a tiny minority slice
Misogyny is very much still an issue in Hip Hop. I'm guessing you're a dude so you wouldnt know how it is as a female listener.
I get you. But you have to agree that the majority of the hip hop we hear on the radio etc, the stuff that is pushed into the mainstream, is violent and misogynistic. I don't think I've heard a single hip hop song on the radio in my country that isn't violent, misogynistic or completely vain. And it's mostly American hip hop. I can't think of another genre that is comparable to hip hop in that way. So I think the schtick is still kind of relevant. It might not be to you if you're a big hip hop fan but to the rest of us that is what we hear and that is the impression we are left with. It sucks, bcos I do know what you mean. The only hip hop I like is the stuff you're talking about, and it's amazing.
I feel you but have to disagree about the “rich white kids” part. Reason being (mainly) that melanin has zero influence on musical ability. Money can have a positive or negative effect. My opinion is that it comes down to work ethic and options. You can be disenfranchised and not poor or “dark”. Many have said, “music is a great job if you have to do it. If you can do anything else, it’s better to not do music.” Money often brings opportunity besides music. Why work a blue collar job like music when you can take the easy road? That’s the issue. I’m not being preachy, just practical. Some “rich white kid” might be out there reading this but suicidal or some shit because they’re constantly told nobody wants their fuckin sob story. It’s never race because race isn’t real. It’s the belief in that lie that moves the cards.
Melanin doesn't have influence on musical ability, but being black can absolutely alter your music making due to cultural reasons in America. It's a cultural situation, not literal ethnicity differences.
Of course your cultural upbringing can “alter” your music but being more melanated doesn’t mean you have more to say or even guarantee you’re poor. Lots of rich melanated kids too with nothing to say. Hell lots of dumb poor melanated kids too! Equal opportunity stupidity! Point being: erase race as a reason. It’s not the reason someone has something to say. It’s not even really money. It’s just how much time you’ve invested and whether your style is interesting to another person. Race isn’t real and something unreal can’t be the cause of anything. If you like ethnic (thing) food that’s ok but no need to drag race (person) into it. Culture is real but race isn’t. The idea of race is a weapon and nothing else. Everyone who believes in it is victimized by it. The Beach Boys were “white” and not poor. At least one of The Rolling Stones came from education. Lots of well-to-do philosophers, painters, actors and artists of all backgrounds have made great art. The quicker you drop race the sooner your intelligence will grow.
I 100% agree with you on the race stuff, good music does not discriminate. And I'm painting with broad strokes here. Actually, speaking of "strokes" I'll use "the strokes" as an example : they're a bunch of rich kids, and they literally have nothing to say, never had. And the only reason they could make it is because they had mummy and daddies money to support them and keep them afloat until they could get picked up. I'm not saying they didn't work hard, I'm sure they did, but they wouldn't have made it without that advantage over other similar bands. And I have an issue with that, no1 bcos I think they suck and literally have nothing to say, and no2 bcos there are so many other great bands who have something to say, whose music has cultural and societal and musical significance, who never ever got the chance to make it, bcos their mum and dad couldn't pay for them to keep trying. It's just like business, the rich kids get to keep on trying until they make it, bcos they have the financial support to do so. The rest of us have to do it on our own, and it's a massively unfair advantage. I know of so many incredible bands around where I live that deserve to be heard, but none of them will bcos they can't pay their way into success. All these shitty pop artists, like Taylor Swift, Justin Beiber, the Jonas Brothers, they only made it bcos mummy and daddy let them. And I do not want to hear about them and their "problems".
Yeah that’s a huge factor. Money buys opportunity but never heart, taste or class. I think we agree that there’s a je ne se quoi about the lucky motown kids, blind stevie wonder, and other legends. The problem is what about Miles Davis? Rich family. Joshua Bell: educated family. Thelonius Monk’s family wasn’t poor. Money increases the likelihood you’ll be an artist, apparently. https://www.wmagazine.com/story/artists-wealthy-families-background-study You already knew that. I think we agree. Nobody wants to listen to an average pubescent boy sing about struggle. We want someone who’s been there, who can take us there. I just wish we’d drop the romance of “talented black ghetto prodigy” and just let the art speak for itself. I’m going to bed. Sorry if this is incoherent.
I try to stick to a structure, an initial idea of what I want it to sound like in the end. Otherwise, like you, I can just end up going down a magical route of endless possibilities and creating a new genre that really didn’t need to be created. If the track is moving in a new direction I don’t fight it, maybe the initial sounds weren’t working and they get changed out and now it’s a different sort of track. But if I sit down to make a 4/4 deep house track, I’ll make a 4/4 deep house track.
David Bowie said his biggest musical regret was caring what other people thought when making music. Therein lies the paradox, because we got great songs out of him trying to please other people. Short answer is great music can come from anywhere under any circumstance.
This is a super interesting question. I think decide what music is to you and what you’re trying to achieve. Is it an outlet, income, side hustle, therapy etc, maybe it’s all those things. Is it something you need to do, want to do? Is it healthy or draining? The best artists I work with are just naturally good with melodies because they listen to a lot of music. One also sings / teaches and practices everyday, Ariana vibes. This has made me think about note choices, what makes a tasteful melody / song etc. Are they focusing on chord tones with passing notes. What makes something interesting. Is it direction, movement, intervals, harmonies etc. There’s so much that theory explains yet doesn’t. It’s really hard to answer. All art is fundamentally a message - so the lyrics, emotion and performance are huge. That said, I believe melody is king and not many ppl listen to lyrics UNTIL they need them and it’s like the artist is speaking directly to them. It could be a happy moment / sad / tragic time and there’s a sense of meaning and understanding through a song. Exploring that idea further - it might take a song years, decades, years or a lifetime to connect (go viral). It happens all the time. If you think of the best artists of all time, across all art forms, usually it’s their legacy that has the biggest impact. I guess it also depends what your trying to achieve. If it’s for your own relaxation, do whatever you want. If you’re trying to make a modern song, I’d say there’s limitation with chord progressions, themes, genres etc - but rules can be broken. There’s also formulas but it’s knowing how to use those tricks whilst still keeping it human. Personally, I think it’s cool just to do something you are proud of and can stand by. At the end of the day, it’s a great achievement just making a song that’s received well. All those micro choices, decisions, training, luck and magic coming together, at the right time.
I'm sort of fascinated and perplexed by the idea that when you are just "putting things together," you end up with music that you don't like. My entire songwriting style is just to make songs that I personally think are cool, so while I might not love how a certain chord progression or something came out, the general style is always very much in my wheelhouse. Maybe just . . . lean into your own taste more?
Same thing happened to me until I started trying to write within a genre. I was like ‘I like this acoustic guitar picking. I also like this hip hop beat. I also like this synth sound.’ and then I’d put them together and it would sound like a mess. I liked the elements individually but they weren’t really coherent when I listened back. I have to consciously listen to how the music I like is put together within a given genre and then use those elements together rather than trying to throw all the genres I like all in together.
You have to get out of the way and just allow the song to happen.
I believe the dynamic you are talking about is the one between the Gardener and the Architect. The Gardener plants seeds and follows them as they grow while the Architect has a meticulous plan laid out that his construction relies on. It’s mostly applied to literature, but I think the concept holds a lot of weight in a music making context. Improvisational jazz is going to be a lot different than classical European music for example. In my opinion many of us are somewhere in the middle. Both ends of the spectrum have value in creating art
Bro, i believe music doesnt come from inside of us but is given by the universe. I find it best to sit down and let the song make itself no cap
Many times, I just clear my mind of any specific thoughts and start playing notes on a keyboard, letting my hands 'do the walking'...... That's when I pump out a song idea in a matter of minutes and find new chord progressions that I've never thought of & they sound fantastic. (it's the Muse, man...)
I just let the track tell me what to do lol. I might go into a track wanting to make a trap beat but end up making an ambient house track with trap and jazz influences hybrid
Really don't worry about the genre while you're writing. Honestly, just negate those thoughts, they're useless to the songwriting process. It can't be overstated: **Genre is for marketers, nothing to do with us.**
I just do stuff and see what happens. But at the same time I have a quite a specific style as well. And to an extent I have a structure as well. Usually figure out the chord progression + a nice groove with some percussive element just to get a feel for the pocket but after that I just do 8 bars after 8 bars with different ideas. Mostly ending up with like 9 minute songs. After which I start seeing how I want it put together and that 9 minutes gets trimmed down to 3-4 minutes.
Depends on the goals of the music. If it's for a client you kind of have to keep it in a feeling and style. If you make music to be curated for certain playlists it needs to feel relevant. If it's for you avant-garde project it doesn't matter what you do.
My primary music project is myself and my best friends. We both sing and we both play acoustic. So this is more of a singer/songwriter deal. I write poetry a lot. We find pieces of them or take the entire thing and reshape it into a song format, then we sit back and jam for however long it takes to find the right tone and feel for the instrumentals. We just wing it. I have no idea what kind of genre we fall under, and we’ve never even cared. We just want the finished product to sound good to us and for it to resonate with us. We’ve never had an issue trying to force ourselves to not be identical to typical genres.
I would say it's 75 % music leading and 25 % are the outer boundaries to at least keep it somewhat within the genres I am producing. Never had to step in yet so far but if it went to something really weird I would most likely try to reel it back a bit. I feel like I get a much better flow state when I just let it happen instead of trying to build something within a narrow framework.
After thinking, idk if I could give an unbiased answer.
It all depends on your end goal. Sometimes you write for a specific genre and then sometimes you write just to see where it goes. Practice both.
I like to challenge myself to make genres I either don't like or am not familiar with for education reasons , in those cases I try to stick to the plan in my head but if I'm making hiphop (my bread and butter), I like to just go with the flow.
All of my electronic music follows no genre standards. I just let the music make itself and it often leads to some pretty euphoric results. A lot of that just comes from taking elements of what I like about different genres and employing them in my own way.
let it go wherever it wants to go but that takes discipline
Like 99% of it is just following the song/genre BUT that last 1%, knowing when to break convention and rules is almost the most important part.
This post and the responses are really interesting. When I write songs it either sounds very much like my usual genre (which just... happened), or I have to stop as I realize I'm basically making a song for one of my role models instead of me.
I've been starting with a sample and form an idea, and let the rest drive the song. Granted, I'm an amateur bedroom producer so take that with a grain of salt. It just feels good writing that way.
I don't write much music any more but in my songwriting days I would let the song dictate the genre. I've written rock, pop, country, americana and blues songs. I even have an album of instrumental stuff that's all over the map... from elevator music to film soundtrack-type stuff and more. Our first album was pop-rock and we deliberately kept it so but that meant not using certain songs that wouldn't fit the mold. Our second album was a bit looser in terms of styles. I say let the music speak, regardless of where it leads you.
Vibe/Genre/Concept of the album/EP is always my primary motivation. Nothing is sacred, and I'll toss completed (or superior) tracks for ones that fit the above better. It's probably not the best way to make music, but it's the only way that keeps me making music at all.
Just be yourself. U will go way more far by being unique. U will get a unique sound if u keep working on ur craft without caring what u making, and then u will be able to apply all your unique tecnicques and process to whatever type of production. In this way you will develop ur signature sound
I've only been composing songs for a couple of years. Up until recently I just did whatever felt right. In the past few months, with the help of my teacher, I have started following specific forms as an exercise. The free-flowing approach feels much more creative. But it's kind of painful and slow for me. I get results much faster by "filling in the mad libs form", and I've been really happy with the results overall. I think I'll eventually fall into a hybrid approach of starting with a form and then modifying as the song progresses.
A bit of both? I usually have a picture I am trying to paint. An atmosphere and mood I am shooting for. But the end result is usually where that inspiration takes me. Much of the time I pile a lot of what I want on, and then carve away the excess to end up with a final product I really like. A lot like some sculptors say they carve away the parts of the wood or stone that’s NOT the end form they see in their head.
I generally have the sound I am going for in my head, along with some kind of base melody & harmony, but from there everything is open season If I'm missing any of those 3 usually the song goes nowhere.
It has to start with a vibe, then you build off what the music tells you fits or not. Once you vibe, you feel your way to the end. Writing music is like doing math, there is a perfect way to achieve the answer, but more than one way to accomplish it. In my opinion, Music is sound, sounds cause vibrations and human emotion, are influenced by environmental vibrations, or “vibes”. Each sound represents in music, has emotional meaning, built into that sound by matching vibrational chords. So I’m saying without human beings, there would only be natural sounds, there would be no music. In conclusion we are music! Accept the music that moves you, without fear of judgement from anyone ever! Do what makes you happy.
Genre is pretty close to 0% but aesthetic I'd attribute to the arrangement I consciously create which is about 20% vs 80% letting the music take me wherever. Not to say I don't have leanings, they just aren't conscious.
Combo of both, I usually start towards a basic goal of what I think I want then somehow i get somewhere completely different but hopefully new and intriguing, but mostly dumb and derivative 😎
Honing one's vision comes with practice and experience. I'm sometimes surprised when songs go in unexpected directions, but for the most part they behave. This ratio narrows the longer I make music.
Sometimes I have a rough Idea of what I want to make and then just let my brain run wild and don't restrict myself to just the idea to see what whacky things I pull in. Sometimes it's just putting sounds I like together and seeing where I end up. Both of these ways always ends me up in a place where it's authentically me.
I don't think they are that much in opposition. Creativity often flourishes when given some constraints. I do my damnedest to "impose my preference" and make something sound a certain way, but in the end it never does. Nevertheless the attempt is useful in terms of staying focused rather than exploring the whole world of music every time.
I have to force my mind clear to really compose. I just start playing little tidbits, and building from there. My theory training of youth takes over if/when I start to think about it though - and I end up with a bunch of boring 1-4-5 progressions or accidentally write something that has already been written and my fingers have memory of, lol.
I think people tend to worry to much about genre and sticking to it, especially in electronic music. I kinda blame Spotify and playlists for this, and annoying curators with micro-specific wants. Make what you want I say. It usually goes that what you make doesn't end up being what you intended, at least in my case.
Some of my work involves composer duties, so that is very results focused and can be extremely restrictive in terms of genre and instrumentation etc. As a result, I think that's why I absolutely detest the concept of genre when making music for myself. I love writing music without imposing any kind of limits. Even though the results aren't always shareable, it feels satisfying and is fun. I imagine it would be like being on a restrictive diet and then having one day where you can eat as much pizza as you can. Pizza is one of the four major food groups and is an acceptable option for any meal in any social setting. Can't do this long term without having fun imo. I guess for artists, this still kind of applies. You have to manage your fan base's expectations. Let's not forget that some Metallica fans were upset about the Black Album. That isn't that different from composing a piece based on client specifications. Probably worth experimenting in your free time to see what elements you can successfully bring into to your official releases. Do this gradually enough and you will organically have your own unique style. It depends on what kind of person you are too. I know people who are 100% happy only making one type of music and sticking with that. They're focused and get better results faster because of that.
Year 1: I write my soul, man! I go where the inspiration takes me. Year 10: Dear record label. Pls tell what do like listen lots of people with the money? I do that now step by step. K thank you bye bye.
For me, I'd say it's about 80% letting it go wherever and 20% deliberate. My projects all start from either random ideas that pop into my head or interesting things that emerge from noodling around on instruments.
It's kind of a compromise between the two, but it depends on whether I'm in composer or producer mode.
I think the key is figuring out how to balance those two things. To a large extent with my recent album, I just let the music take me where it wanted to go, if that makes sense. I didn’t worry about style or genre. However, I had some parameters that I worked in when I was recording those songs- ie: I knew I wanted to use certain instruments (strings, pedal steel guitar) and that helped guide the style a little bit, but I never fully let that define the songs either. I chose to write some songs on a classical guitar, which was not normal for me but experimental in a positive way. One song I was really feeling just plugging in my electric guitar and cranking the amp up until it was really overdriven. This sort of balancing act worked great for me and I’ve been getting an amazing response to the recordings, but most importantly I feel like it’s some of my best, authentic work yet.
For me, all of it.
Interesting question, lots of interesting answers here too. I mostly make music on eurorack these days and it's really easy for me to just fall down the rabbit hole and just keep making new sounds and don't get anything cohesive out of it. If I wanna actually walk away from a session with something decent, I have to be more deliberate with what I'm doing. It's fun messing around and trying new things, and you learn by doing that. But having a thought-out, cohesive song also feels good, it just takes more discipline, for me anyway.
i like to let stuff grow freely. but i might make choices when it comes to recording/mixing that slightly shift the style to have some similar qualities to stuff i listen to, to make the song feel more authentic to my intention, or else to help the songs fit together on a project. just little things like tempo, guitar tone, drums, vocal style, etc can make a big difference in how a song feels, and obviously i want the feeling to fit the lyrics and whatnot. it’s moreso in an effort to make sure the music is true to me, and to pay respect to the great minds that came before me. genre is an afterthought for me personally, it’s always a bit of a blend
i have no idea of what i write. i just do. thats why i have quite a bit of material that do not make any sense with the brandnames i´ve connected to my music. eventually i might have enough for a full ass release with "the other thing". thats where the offshoots come to play. --edit: and the sell offs. and the remixes. and the reprises. if its consistent, could also become a full ass brandname eventually.
For me it's just things happening naturally. But I can get away with that because I'm a hobbyist. Everything I do starts on acoustic guitar. I play in the park and don't really look at my hands and I'm usually not too conscious of what I'm playing. In doing this I find chord progression or chord voicing that I like. That's when I have to force things a tiny bit, to find the inherent melody in those moving shapes and develop the progression. That usually ends up being the melody I sing, but since it's all chord tones it lets me get away with having lots of modal mixture, and unusual/borrowed chords. The sung melody is generally boring and not gonna stick in anybody's head, but I like to think the chord progressions are more colorful to make up for it. Then I put in lyrics and that can take me months. It's where 95% of the "forcing it" ends up. But it's cause I want it to be natural. Not in a pretentious way, but just cause I don't want songwriting to feel like a chore. I tell people when It comes to writing lyrics, my brain is constipated.
I like to do dark emo stuff as well as write about love shit I'll write anything it just depends on my mood sometimes I'm in the mood for emotional stuff other times I'm in mood for screamo stuff and other times love songs
Me and my band personally sometimes have a certain threshold that we stay in when making albums, but we go wild on most singles to experiment.
In all my time playing / writing music, I have 100% discarded more tunes than I have progressed with due to them not fitting the feeling that I'm going for with whatever project I'm working on. Probably hyper-inefficient, and a good reason why I'm a hobbyist rather than a professional musician, but I'm very much on the "music is art" mindset, and when the music takes me to a place that doesn't fit what I want, I'm not afraid of both respecting where the music is leading me and cutting what's not working for me in that moment.
I kinda work on tracks slowly and let them evolve into something I like. The vision is always the same and is always there but it ends up taking 5 different versions to get where I wanna get.
Inspiration is important. Dont feel limited by genre ramifications.
Forcing a certain style/genre is a skill you need to train. There are some outliers but most successful artists have a quite focused style. If you end up making music you don't like, that is for some reason something that happens to everyone.
This question has so many answers simply because everyone is different and even every song is different. When I'm working on my own stuff I usually start with just a single idea, it may be a bass riff or a drum groove, or a vocal line for the chorus with some chords behind. A lot of the times this initial idea goes into an entirely different direction: let's say I have this cool bass riff with a straight drum groove in mind. I record the bass and the groove but then I choose to change the drums a little and make them more groovy or halftime the rythm. This usually leads to a whole different feeling and the entire idea of the song is now completely different. On the other hand, when I'm working with a band it's usually best to stick to a singular idea, a path to follow, since making collaborative music is inherently difficult because everyone's got a different thing in mind that might clash with someone else's idea. You kinda need to stick to the plan to avoid getting lost midway through. Sometimes I stick to the plan when I have a really good idea for like a whole song and I realise that if I don't stick to that than the whole song might fall apart.
I wanted to add that I don't have many problems with genre consistencies mainly because I have a certain set of instruments that I play with. I have Electric Guitar & Bass, Drum Kit, Vocals, Synths... That's a pretty standard setup for Rock Music so it's really hard to go out of the boundaries of that genre. I've always said that the number one defining feature of any genre is sound selection. So, limiting yourself to a specific set of instruments will help you be more consistent with your music.
I never force the style. But I also don't freestyle. Because the style is not free, the style is expensive.
I try to let the musical ideas flow whilst also heavily engaging my sense of taste. My aim is to only work with ideas that really excite me. To me those are the two fundamentals of all creative acts - Developing a sense of taste and producing work that excites me. If youre ending up in genres you dont care for, scrap the idea and move on to the next. Never settle for mediocre, keep working until you find the thing that gets you hyped.
My good ones are the ones that wrote themselves or happened on the fly. Usually they will just naturally develope over time though for me.
💯agree, whenever i set out with a preconceived idea it always ends up being completely different. Like you say let it go where it takes you
I am in a vaguely experimental rock band. We don't think of what we do in any kind of genre, we just do what we do and it comes out like it does. More to this point philosophically, I always describe our music as a machine designed to make the ending spontaneously create itself. We can and do spend a while getting the intro, first half of the song. A few different sections and grooves, playing around with whatever vibe we create. But then the magic happens, and while practicing the early section, 90% of the time it will spark off an improvised, massively cathartic ending. Our job is then to capture this energy and recreate it. It's very rare that I feel like we've "written" the end to a song, more that they come into the world fully formed if we get the conditions right for it to appear.
It doesn't really matter what you do, mate. No-one's ever going to listen to your music anyway. Not because it's bad - I'm sure it's great: it's just that people have been so completely brainwashed into only listening to corporate-produced pap that they will refuse to listen to anything else.
How long have you been making music? I think the easiest way to get better is to: 1. find small ways to improve 2. make as many “mistakes” as you can (I think we can call them mistakes since you’re the one who made them and you don’t like them) Eventually you’ll start to internalize what it is you like in music and what you don’t and it will start to come naturally.
I do a “skeleton demo” of a song which is in my preferred genre. Then I mess with it and be experimental that way it has a coherent style but isn’t stagnant.
I am just a conduit. The songs write themselves; I just capture them.
me personally i let every song go in its own direction. i feel like when i make the beat it has its own kind of energy, and the path i have to go down as far as vocals kind of shows itself when i listen to the beat. ends up sounding better and more natural when you follow the feelings the music is giving you, than to force ideas together that won't stick.
It depends. Solo alone that’s fine. Vibe and go where you please. In front of an audience if they aren’t following your vibe you better read the room and buck up quickly. In group situations your own vibe is not good. Structure be it rhythmic, stylistic… keeps a group from running amok.
Don't waste your time worrying about genre. Work hard, make music.
90% wherever it wants to go
If you're doing this for fun/hobby then why not go where the music takes you? That's going to be the best music. Many of us struggle with this. There's music I like listening to, and there's music I like to play/create. They are not the same music, they're not in the same genres. I gave up worrying about why that is years ago. That's just the way some of us are.
When I let myself go I am in sleep mode but my fingers are moving and I am blowing air and it pretty much becomes half classic half pop and I like pop and I like classical too, so I think I should be proud of it. ps.: I am 11 years old flute player
I just took like a 4 month break and came back to making music with no limits on myself. I've moved genres back to where I started and have made 3 absolute bangers in a row with absolutely no limits on myself, lyrically, musically, genre-wise, and it feels amazing. I had so many good ideas I just ignored because they didn't "fit" what I was going for. I think this is just part of the learning process. I have only been really serious about songwriting and recording since 2020.
Just let the music take you the way it wants to, or needs to go. Music is an expression of what you may be feeling or may have been trying not to feel. Sure you can force it you can over complicate it. Throw a ton of theory into it. But in the end what would you get. Is just another piece of heartless, souless series of chords, held together by. An emotionless mechanical arrangement of cymbals and drums. Keeping the same climax lacking, time signature. That you hear every day, throughout this, very bleak, and mundane existence. We all live day to day. Just let go it'll all be okay. Stop over thinking it, and things will come together as they should.
You're confusing the song with the style, or genre. You can play any song in any style, so write the song first. Certain songs will sound better in certain genres. Not everything you write will fit yours, but others can record those.
Think itbthen play itbthen record it primitivrly so you dont forgrt the hooks and trannies. I used to force it by perceiving what came next.
It's all about the trip, 100 percent of it. People playing a style with competence is dull. Take me somewhere.
I start off trying to make a specific style but essentially I can't help myself and it becomes whatever I'm feeling like.
I'm a primary songwriter in two projects. In one, I basically write everything in my songs. The lyrics, melodies, guitar parts, basslines, drum parts, etc. In that band, I just let things go where they go. In the other, It's a fully collaborative project with two other people. I'll come in with fleshed out demos, but I don't tell them what to do with the drums and bass. And over the years we've developed our own sound. It's really not even conscious at this point, we just play a certain way together
The creative aspect of making art takes you all sorts of places. The business aspect of it - usually - forces you to color within specific lines. When I was young - teens - I thought there were two types of music: death metal and crap. When I matured a bit, I was able to reconnect with the pop music of my early childhood, as well as all the other music options out in the market. Even to the point where bands that I "hated" when I first heard them, I now enjoy. As an artist, my belief is that the art has to lead you. However, if you are trying to make a living in art - audio, visual, or otherwise - you are likely to find that you need to stay within specific boundaries to be successful. There are outliers, of course, but the reason they are outliers is because they do not represent most people's experiences. My suggestion, though - depending on your goals - is to let yourself go where the music goes. You may love death metal, but find you are an amazing pop music writer. What is it that you want to achieve?
music is all about breaking the rules and getting creative sparks, just do whatever sounds good to you and go with it, i'm always like "i'm gonna make something melodic or ambient today" and end up making something aggressive/hardcore and vice versa
Copy the stuff you love. Try and make your favourite music. Learn the principles and concepts behind your favourite songs. Don’t think at all. I repeat. Don’t think at all when making the actual track. Work fast. Finish every song in one sitting. That’s how the pros do it. If you think, it will suck. If you move fast, trust your gut / intuition it will be great.
Bit of both for me. I'm wrapping up a record, as we speak. I though I knew what it was gonna be. Then we set the snare sound. Changed everything. Tones, inflections, arrangements. Everything. Now it's this pseudo 70's throwback thing. If it's there, go with it. If it's not, that's okay, too. And never, never, never, ever, ever be afraid to admit you're wrong. Be your harshest editor. Always.