This may be a weird problem, I’ve never talked to any other musician or producer that’s struggled with this particularly but does anyone else have issues deciding which genre to write when you go to actually write a track?
Anyone else I’ve talked to just makes whatever genre they make, occasionally they work in maybe two similar genres max but I’ve never heard of anyone who’s all over the place with genres to the point where it’s a problem. I listen to a huge range of music and even if I were to just narrow it down to electronic music only it’s still a massive range from Chiptune to J-pop to jungle/DnB to UK garage and Bassline to hard techno to dub to whatever.
I’m not super hung up on genres because so much music is mislabeled and so many genres turn into something they’re not, like dubstep for example, I was/am super into dubstep as in Burial, Goth trad, Kromestar, Mala, Breakage etc etc and I absolutely despise Skrillex and all of the Brostep mid-range junk. So it doesn’t make sense to say I listen to dubstep when it’s become relabeled as an entirely different entity, a good argument why genres are a stupid concept yet we still need them to an extent so describe the general sound of a kind of music but even with my hang ups about parts of that concept it’s still a necessary term.
I’ve worked as a sound designer for years and I’ve done sounds (one shot drums, patches, effects, one shot samples, etc etc) for a very wide variety of electronic music, that’s one benefit of listening to and being able to make such a wide range of music but the real problem happens when I sit down to write something that I want to be part of an EP or full length album or a body of work.
Sometimes I write uk garage sometimes I write DnB sometimes I write classic dub sometimes I write straight techno and I love all of it but it doesn’t make sense for an album which is my goal for the year.
I have ADHD and it’s super prevalent when I write so I have a huge problem settling on a single genre to write when I want to make a cohesive piece of work, it’s such an issue that it often prevents me from taking an idea or beat and committing it to a full length track since I often take it into a whole other direction that inadvertently brings it into another genre. It’s either that or I start one idea that’s one genre then another idea that’s another genre and then I don’t commit to either of them because they wouldn’t make sense together.
So I’m wondering if this is something that any of you have struggled with and if so if you’ve found away around it to get to actually writing something?
I am trying to start the preliminary work of writing stuff that’s going to turn into an album but I can’t fucking decide which way to go. Even if you haven’t dealt with this personally do any of you have any suggestions on how to deal with this?
I don’t know if this is useful, but I’ve recently come to the conclusion that unless you are writing “functional” DJ/dance tracks that deciding on what genre you are going to write in before hand is kind of a useless and limiting exercise.
We all use the same instruments, samplers/synths/drum machines. If you want to write a album/EP just sit down and write. Develop the cohesive factor that will make the tracks fit together on the album by experimenting. Recently, I’ve been working on something and I’ve just been what feels like being wildly irresponsible with making beats that I know won’t make the cut. But its been a good exercise in figuring out what I want to write right now and what the cohesive element of the release will be.
The only reason in electronic music I can think of to decide before hand on what genre you are going to make is if you are trying to sell tracks on Juno/Beatport that stick to the expectations of a genre tag/trying to get DJs to play your music.
Sure, artists in other broad fields of music may decide “I’m a rock band” but there are a shtt load of flavors wrapped up in that decision. Be like a band. Say “I’m going to write an electronic music album” and just go for it. Unless you want to build the marketing in from the get go, I just wouldn’t worry about it.
FYI: this is not a judgemental statement…if artist want to bake in the marketing before they even sit down to write, I get that. Its just two different paths, doing that or not.
I’m an advocate of writing what you feel at the moment and over a range of time until you have a body of work, and then compiling your cohesive ep/etc… out of that. The chance that you could write music over a 90 day period and never revisit any of your prior emotions in that time is slim to none, and after writing 30- or more songs you’ll be able to put something together.
in addition to this, I would suggest never throwing away any music that you’ve made, putting music you made away is great, but keep all the music you make including the music you dislike the most because you’ll never know when you feel differently about it, or how different other people feel about it.
Let whatever comes out just come out and then label it with a genre afterward (if you even need to). If you find you have distinctly different styles within your own output, you can curate all your recordings into groups that match those styles and then sequence them into an album after you’ve amassed a decent amount of recordings. If that’s too open ended, try coming up with monikers or personalities for each style and always try to slip into that persona when you want to work in a particular style. It could be something silly like you only wear this particular hat when you make a certain style, or you only use a certain selection of instruments for a project. It’s all just psychological tricks to get you in a similar flow every time for that project.
I also think that while the goal of recording an album is great, building a habit of recording all the time can make it less overwhelming.
Never. I almost always start by designing a sound. That generally leads to an idea of what to make with it. Otherwise, occasionally, I just think, hmm… maybe I’ll make an 88 bpm break, or a 124 bpm techish thing. Usually already in my head when I’m in the mood to do it. I prefer designing sounds and going from there though. Usually takes me in interesting directions.
Setting the goal of writing a cohesive genre specific lp seems to be the actual issue, not that you can’t write tracks. I’d say scrap that for now and keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t set a time limit on when to make that lp and eventually you’ll have enough tracks of the same ilk to piece one together. This might also make the lp more interesting, as the tracks might span different periods and changes in moods, influences, thought processes etc. Still the same vibes, but from different perspectives in time.
This music labeling thing annoys me for a long time…It seems not possible to just label music and then not take it too serious.
Categorizing is necessary I understand, just not as important,why be angry when some music is " dislabeled". Just do not listen to it.
In every genre there are mainstream artist and “true” artists. So then some gatekeepers arrive and hate on the mainstream artist. yaaaaawn.
Just do some tracks and sort them afterwards. Maybe that LP is just not in you ATM why care?
Most artists lost their magic when they had to produce an Album for their label just because they had a contract to do so.
Could be different if you have a contract with yourself though…
Not when starting a track. I just start with a beat or melody and my mood of that day usually leads me somewhere where I want to be. Most likely to some place similar to styles I was listening to recently…
But I have a hard time generally commit to a style as a musician generally. So I don’t commit.
I usually have collections of tracks from various genres that couldn’t really exist on one EP or album.
Hip Hop, Trip Hop, Electro, something I think of as techno, glitch beats, ambient, but I also started out in rock bands and like to record driven guitars from time to time
I sometimes think about separating all that stuff under different pseudonyms but as long as nobody really knows me, I guess it really doesn’t matter at all
Yep, was thinking this yesterday! That electronic pop and post rock seemed a bit err… different when working on batch of ideas.
Think I’ll keep having fun with ideas and learning equipment for now rather than rushing to focus on collecting ideas into something finished. Taking the advice above I could create more than one thing too. Just goes against the grain of how I’ve done things before.
There’s nothing wrong with making an album that’s a bit “all over the place” stylistically. I think a lot of this might be your brain worrying about something that it doesn’t really need to be worrying about.
Generally I’ve seen many posters here stress about made up rules about music before even finishing a single track. There’s no rules, do what you want. If your music ends up being good, people will like it and listen to it. If not, well, at least you had fun! It’s just a hobby, in the end no one gives a shit about what some dude does with his expensive toys in his bedroom. Just have fun.
