I empathise with your post a lot, combined with the never-ending options of computer based music it’s lead to a lot of paralysis on my part over the years. Not that I feel I need to ‘choose a genre’ but I like a lot of sounds that aren’t necessarily complimentary so a lot of my actual productive time is spent after defining some (often arbitrary) limitations for myself otherwise everything would end up like this…
However, the stuff you’ve listed there is all very sympathetic to being mashed up as far as I can see? You could tie all that together just using break-y drum samples across the board and deep bass is ideal for all of them too. Skee Mask touches on all that and more and his records always feel very cohesive.
Wouldn’t a better way to learn be just making music without limitations and slowly developing a style instead of deciding on a style and thus limitations on what you can do beforehand?
I think some form of social categorization is unevitable when we address an audience. Our brains tend to categorize, like to sort, etc. Especially if we put music in the context of social practices - ritual, communitas, mating, etc - it is critical that audiences recognize and make sense of musical forms and styles. I am not defending the ‘genre explosion’ in popular music, but I think that the ‘just let your music flow’ approach either makes you reproduce some genres that you are familiar with, or will demand an extra effort to make your work ‘understandable’ for your audiences.
Agreed. I never think of genre when I’m jamming/writing. Sometimes I come up with stuff that I don’t know where the hell it came from. Not anything “new” or “out of the ordinary” but surprising even to myself. And those are some of the best moments in the entire artistic process! For example, several people noted a distinct rnb/soul influence in the vocal arrangements on my recent album - and I’ve never (actively) listened to a lot of that stuff. Weird but awesome!
But now that I’ve been sending the album to some labels I’ve struggled a bit with how to describe it to my audience. I’d be perfectly happy with saying it’s cinematic, electronic music but that’s not a very catchy or precise way to put it… I’d gladly have someone else do the pitching for me.
I also notice that since there’s so much (great!) music that people share on this forum, I’m more likely to press play on a track with a description I find interesting than a post that only has the Soundcloud/Bandcamp player on it. Doesn’t need to have a genre tag but perhaps a little back story or how it was created etc.
I also think that unless you go for a strict pastiche, the listeners will tell you what genre your music is. Or a label, or a friend you ask to write promo, or the Elektronauts community. For example there a lot of lame ass metal bands who describe themseles as “black metal” despite not having much in common with classic black metal bands in sound or aesthetics. What’s the use of the genre moniker there if it gives a false impression of what the music is like?
I might listen to a band that describe themselves as ”lame ass black metal”. Actually, a good friend of mine once described his band as ”adult-oriented black metal”. Obviously it was tongue in cheek but I found the description both accurate and funny. Of course there were people telling them they can’t describe their music like that…
well yeah, if it shows them being somehow conscious of not being actually the genre they don’t really sound like, hah. But like these lame ass shoegaze bands with blast beats saying they’re black metal, WTF?
I can sympathise with the OP. I find this pretty crippling - I like so many types of music that I find it hard to start a track. I knew that if I committed to a “genre” (however loosely) I would get so much more done over time… I’d have a starting point of sorts. It’s not about categorising the output, but motivating the input.
It’s similar to when people talk about too many options when working in the box. I like almost all music, and what I want to make changes daily… too quickly to get anything done.
I’m thinking this year I might just commit to a genre, and remind myself that it doesn’t mean I don’t like or want to make other styles of music… that probably sounds weird to a lot of you.
I think there kinda two types of humans … the ones that e.g. have a plan for their lives and go to university then graduate and become experts in their field or college dropouts who can’t decide …study half their life but don’t reach any of their many goals
It’s a good thing when you don’t know what to do to get into “lab mode” and experiment with genres, with as few limits as possible, to find out what you like doing and what you’re good at. That can help decide.
Also, it’s a breath of fresh air when you’ve been making a certain type of music for a while to just do whatever and try something new.
to become good at something you have to practice. If you can’t decide what to practice (be it those dubstep wobble bass or that space ambient pads) it’s a bad thing imho
Focus is key! If I let the autopilot decide what to do … it will always lead me to the same sh*t and I won’t evolve in the direction I once planned (true at least for me … YMMV).
I’ve heard a lot from church organ players that they were practicing 4-6 hours per day. Every f***g day. That’s how they became experts.
I think to keep the question could be rephrased as “where do I start” when making a track - in a way. Knowing what I was trying make probably wouldn’t make that much difference to the output - but it sure as hell would make getting started easier!
I feel you. I think this « genres » should have stayed locked within the marketing departments of majors.
Funny you post this since i thought i was alone torturing myself with this thought: « i have to fit somewhere in order to be coherent/sell/answer questions/contact specific festivals, … »
I come from instrumental music and still listen to this much more than electronic. So when i bougt an OT i was like « and now… what? » for like 2 years. I was equally thrilled by the endless possibilities of genresand by the fact i would not have to fit a gender as tightly as in instrumental music than scared and overwhelmed by having to choose what to do, where to begin.
At some point all this wondering prevents me from actually making music.
It’s endless. And totally reverse.
First comes the music then we’re suppose to try describing the result. And even though we find one (more like 4 or 5 for nerds) word to describe it, still as long we don’t listen to it, the labelling won’t mean that much.
I think it’s totally ok to have different « styles » in an album. I would consider working on transitions (sweet or harsh) between tracks just to give like a general coherence.
It’s like a journey, a travel. Who wants to have the same day over and over in a trip? We tend to forget than in playing music there’s the word playing and forget the first joys that drove us in the first place.
Another thing if that sounds too adventurous is to produce things as you like without wondering then classify them and pull out 4 EP instead of one. Different projects.
I discovered Flying Lotus in a Warp Records evening just because i was going there to see Battles. Same Label but very different labels
I remember Justin Broadrick saying that the too strict BPM limits and DJ’s having too much power as gatekeepers to what gets played are what drove him out of making drum and bass. The genre was evolving fast and the DJ’s started giving unwanted input to producers on how their music should sound to get played. I guess electronic music is seen much more as a commodity to be bought & sold than other types of music, like rock.
…especially remembering your recent comment on how Dungeon Synth with Digitone couldn’t be trve.
