I listen to music, but unless I’m using the music functionally - as in driving music or coding music - I usually prefer to play in the studio than to just listen to music.
This is partly because I’m better at buying cool synths than cool music. I rely on friends to learn about interesting music, but am somewhat lost without them.
I’m making music in the genre of “solo artist who could afford some nice gear but generally prefers to hunt for deals to better pack the studio full of gear” broadly with specific subniches such as “Lyra, what does it sound like?” and “This Syntrx is rad, but I’m a little afraid that I might be able to do all of the same stuff on the SE-02 (but I really love the Syntrx’ interface)”
My music is largely self exploratory, so I try not to inflict much of on my friends and acquaintances. That leads to the question of this topic: After maybe a decade of compressed noodling spread over two and a half decades of wall clock time, I ought to be able to make something that other people enjoy. I know, I should pick a genre.
The trouble with picking a genre is that every genre is deeply informed by proceeding and adjacent genres. To come in to any genre with a smattering of off-the-internet knowledge is profoundly different from moving from disco recording engineer to techno producer.
Part of the solution is to listen to more music. I have a large mp3 collection from back in the day, including a lot of material that I grabbed in bulk but never really listened to. I have a much more focused vinyl collection that I started building a little over a decade ago and then paused when I moved to California five years ago. Chicago affords me more space for home office and studio, so I’m buying a turntable equally for home listening duties and sampling duties. If that works, I’ll look at strategies for organizing the digital music collection.
At the end of the day, I’m very much OK with releasing weird stuff that only a few other people even attempt to listen to. There is value in making a few people happy.
Great question. I love techno. But don’t listen to it when I’m in my truck or doing things. I love making it though.
I go to techno shows - actually I’ve only been to see Carl Cox and Derrick Carter in the last like 10 years. Carl Cox twice in the last several months in LA. Probably going to fly down to San Diego to see him in September. I live in Seattle.
But yea. I make techno. But don’t “listen” to it the way I listen to Tool or Migos or E-40 or Too-Short
Not generally because I tend to be so inspired by what I’m listening to that I want to work in that genre…promlem is I listen to so many genres that I end up making loops and ideas that all go in different directions, one day I’ll make a dark kind of dub techno thing then another day I’ll make a straight up garage thing then another day I’ll be making 4 to the four hard techno with a 303 style instrument then another day I’m going all in with chiptunes on LSDJ or MSSIAH it sucks because I never get anything substantial done in terms of song writing.
Conversely that’s helped me tremendously in sound design gigs, having the ability to hear something and just know how to recreate it or at least how to get very close to the source material has been invaluable as a sound designer but as a musician not so much.
I’ve spent years trying to decipher what “my sound” is and I’ve came to the conclusion that it’s probably somewhere between UK garage and dub techno or some kind of amalgamation of both, I think one of the hardest things to do is to find “your sound” as in what’s authentically yours, I figured it out (more or less) by just going back and listening to all the ideas I’ve had over the years and realizing that even though I make random stuff all the time the roots of the stuff I make the most frequently and what I tend to lead towards stylistically is UK garage/dub techno.
I can’t say that I’ve really spent much time making stuff that’s a genre that I don’t listen to though but I have done it when a company has paid me to lol
One gig I had they had me making “EDM” sound packs which at the time meant making what I would call brostep, I did it and I went though a bunch of tracks analyzing the drums in particular and recreating the synth stuff it was an interesting exercise in my sound designing muscles but I also kind of hated it because it felt expressionless imo though I would recommend trying it to anyone who’s trying to sharpen their sound design skills, maybe pick a genre that you really dislike and try to recreate everything that defines it. That way you’re sculpting the sound purely by ear and not with any emotional sense, I feel like it’s a useful exercise for when you return back to creating stuff that actually means something to you
Earlier on I was more experimental, but now I gravitate toward retro influences and danceable stuff in the music I make. So I do listen to quite a bit of dance and retro music. For example, I’m on a Purple Disco Machine and A.L.I.S.O.N kick right now. I dig other genres including more avant-garde stuff (for instance, when I discovered SOPHIE, that was mind blowing) but I’m kind of obsessed with making and listening to retro groovy stuff that keeps people (including me) dancing.
Yea I do agree that techno and most dance genres don’t necessarily translate well to everyday listening and are better experienced on a sound system bigger than most have at home or in their car.
I listen to DJ mixes regularly but it really doesn’t compare to being there at the event for lots of reasons.
+1 on the Carter and Cox love. Too Short was my surprise best performance at Movement in Detroit about seven years ago.
naw, i also make electronic/ambient and only listen to old jazz or reggae. i feel lame but i got sick of most contemporary music other than like mark fell or andy stott (neither really that new.)
btw, it was not easy. took me two or three years to start.
the main problem was finding some role models – because they are absolutely needed to start with any genre. it’s not that easy even with music one actually listens to, if one doesn’t want to sound cliché, and of course it’s much more difficult to do with some alien kind of music.
anyway, i managed to find some, and after some recombination exercises in my brain i realized what to do, what elements from familiar genres can be re-used, and what are no-go.
Sometimes it can be good to work in a vacuum, a lot of artists do this and often, ironically, those go on to become genre defining artists I think.
I think the worst most boring music is too derivative, where you can listen to 20 random songs in a row and it all sounds like it was made by the same person. Same sounds, same fx, same arrangements, same fills/breaks/drops etc.
The easy access to information we enjoy today is a double edge sword when it comes to creativity, because it can make people a bit lazy I think.
I’m not suggesting to ignore completely the genre you work in, but in some cases it isn’t necessary to know/care what your peers are doing, and sounding too derivative is very boring and unimaginative anyway, not to mention it won’t take you very far artistically.
That said it can be fun and useful to recreate a favourite song, or a variation of one, but generally deep analysis and compliance to rigid rules are what make for very boring music. IMHO.
Yeah I agree. There’sa difference between someone who creates music according to their own limitations/creative process and then tries to find the genre / labels which this works with and someone who is just creating “genre cliched “ music because they think that’s how to behave / get releases etc
same (+punk).
i learned arrangement analyzing AC/DC – and to my surprise it works very well (as a foundation) in any genre, with addition of some gene-specific bells & whistles.
I do not listen to Techno hardly at all, but have been producing it as a side project for over 25 years. My main genre of interest as a music creator has and always will be R&B.
I do make some piano house, melodic techno, hip hop… even though I never listen to any of that, but I do it because I get paid to do so.
For my own music projects I make house music, minimalistic, deep, techy, which is what I intentionally listen to the rare times i do have time to do so these days. But I’ve listened to so much of that and other types of dance music for most of my life that I think it counts as having done my homework already so
