Do you make music that you enjoy listening to or do you make music that you enjoy making?

I‘m pretty sure it’s techno :slightly_smiling_face:

I mean genres that people like to make but not listen to.

I think plenty of people listen to techno.

2 Likes

This is an interesting topic. I often imagine a type of music I should make but what I make is rarely exactly that.

I think there’s a certain sense of exploration in music making that if you fight against, and try and steer towards some vague notion of what you ought to make, the end result is worse than if you just went with the flow both in terms of enjoying the process and listening to the finished track.

I don’t mean you aim to write, say, techno but inadvertently end up with flamenco, but more the particular flavor of techno-esque music. Anyway, that’s a fairly loose reflection on the topic.

1 Like

What’s the difference between flamenco techno and techno flamenco?

2 Likes

‘Do you make music that you enjoy listening to or do you make music that you enjoy making?’

Yes.

4 Likes

When I was young (in the 80’s) I heard some (acid house/techno/electro) music that I really liked, I found out what gear was used and bought a few bits of gear, and learned how to use it.

There was very little information available and no internet, so it was a case of just getting on with it. Within a year or two I was sending out demo tapes, got featured in some magazines, got a few record deals.

Over the years just built up from there adding/changing gear, developing new techniques and working methods, branching out into other genres.

I guess I assume for most people the path is similar, although maybe the internet is a bit of a double edged sword these days?

I only make music I enjoy listening to and enjoy making, to me they are the same things. It would be hell for me to make music I did not enjoy listening to, and if I did not enjoy making it I definitely would not make it.

I really hate the idea of sticking to rigid genre rules, I think that stifles music and makes it really boring and formulaic, so consequently I neither make music like that myself nor listen to other artists who do that. I think this is probably a key reason why I like making and listening to the music I make, nothing to do with ego though - I think it is just about being honest to yourself.

14 Likes

I’ve spent at least the last year hating the music I’ve been making. I haven’t enjoyed making it all that much and I haven’t enjoyed listening to it all that much either.

Then I got drunk at an open mic, blasted the room for 15 minutes with my Lyra set to full spleen wallpaper and had an epiphany.

I’ve been so wrapped up in trying to make music that I think other people want to listen to that I forgot to make music that I want to make, which most likely isn’t going to be to everyone’s taste. But art is supposed to be about self expression, so I’m gonna start expressing myself instead of trying to please.

Yous are probably not gonna like it.

14 Likes

I’m mostly a metalhead that writes all electronic music. I like writing and playing with synths, but get bored with most electronic music these days. I’m sure if I could actually play the guitar I’d be rocking that, too, though, but I can’t and will never bother trying to learn.

4 Likes

I can’t make the music I listen to (Quavo, Takeoff, Tool, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, and 70s and 80s R&B and funk)

But I love making techno and house. I do go back and listen to my old jams but they’re not in any of my playlists on my Spotify. I’m on Spotify.

1 Like

I’ve heard your sound design. It’s excellent. I’m sure you’ll land on a process that gets you the music you want. IMO it’s definitely the lengthier process to get to (over the sound design portion), but it’ll happen.

We have both kinds! :wink:

Flamenco Techno is Techno all made on a nylon string guitar. Techno Flamenco is Flamenco made on Elektrons, Rolands etc.

1 Like

While true, I find that when I attempt to emulate someone else’ style, I can never quite get 100% there, and inevitably feel like they possess some type of genius that I don’t quite understand. Even though they are just people, their brains work differently, even within a similar musical aesthetic.

When I write music with only a rough goal or less in mind, and just go with it, the track turns out infinitely better than the former, and then I end up listening to it later, almost thinking the same thing, like how do I get back to that state of mind. :smiley: Never can quite emulate myself either. Hehehe.

3 Likes

It is an interesting idea, that I should try to make more ambient music while not always having the… state of mind to want slowly shifting textures without having ADHD beats slamming into them nonstop.

1 Like

I don’t wanna emulate. I can do that, well, more like copy. I wanna make something I like, and it would sit somewhere in that area of styles I mentioned. I wanna make music that I like. I could care less if no one likes it. The problem I have is, when making stuff…it steers away from where I wanna go. I just hate it. Flat out hate it.

I make music to deal with my anxiety issues, not sure if thats enjoyment but it works better than benzo’s(most of the time). If I can sell it thats great, but I mainly need to chill out and thats what it does.

7 Likes

If I wasn’t making music, I’d be doing some other method of manual, tactile activity (still prefer groovebox twiddling even if I’m using VSTs a good amount!)

One of my favorite alternatives over the last several years was helping cut and paint thousands of flowers for a dancer’s costume. I’d do more woodworking if but for the space…

6 Likes

Liberating isnt it?

Once I realised I had way more fun just doing what makes me happy, rather than questioning if people will like it… the game changed, and that album I made in 22 was the result.

5 Likes

I get a lot more compliments on music that I just make on the fly because I’m feeling inspired (regardless of genre) than when I have a goal in mind from the start, but wasn’t necessarily just going where the inspiration took me.

Typically the best “method” for me, is to sit down, design a sound that I like, and just start building something from there. Usually a big loop, then copy, paste, subtractively edit, then go back and add changes, sprinkles, candy coating, etc. afterward. Inevitably the genre changes part way through, because I decide that that initial sound works better in say, a break, instead of techno, or in space music instead of house. (or whatever…)

Very rarely going in with a mission works out nicely, but most of the time, I either stop part way in, or it changes wildly from where that mission was initially headed. If the creative progression was natural though, and not forced in any way, that’s when things turn out well. Then I just have to accept that I made something better, that wasn’t what I initially wanted, and try again another time.

5 Likes

As long as you do though, fuck those people :laughing:

2 Likes

Who knows, maybe the utes will dig it!

2 Likes