I’m spending more time promoting my music and connecting with other musicians via social media, it’s fun. One hangup I have is I don’t know how to exactly describe and tag my music as far as mainstream genres go. I find my music has most in common with Oneohtrix Point Never, Boards of Canada, Fred Again, naturally my goal is to reach people who actually want to hear it!
labels I have tried:
IDM - somewhat accurate but the music is not tweaky and precise enough Electronica - I don’t even know what this means Electronic - too broad, conjures up EDM Dawless - ugh
If you want to take a swing at it, here’s a short selection
Godcloud
Cheer Up
Cannot Go
DK Taped
What genre labels would you give you an accurate impression of my music before you even hear it?
lol Birthday was our “jukebox” album, didn’t add it here initially because agreed it is a bit difficult to make sense of and my technical skills have improved since then. Still love it and since you mentioned Birthday | You Gottas
Not entirely sure what detroit means, but I’ve considered folktronica for sure. Not as much guitar in my recent stuff so I’m not sure it always applies.
Too accurate in a sense
With credentials like that you are quite convincing, still not sure what makes something electronica
I’m in denial about this
Thank you everyone so far, would still love to get more insight!
I say use genres and tags more as marketing tools than as a way to describe accurately the music. With that in mind, I would use “electronic” if I was N ur shooz.
most musicians whose output doesn’t conform to the rigid and formulaic micro-genre model of the current “music scene” will likely have a difficult time honestly labeling their music. being the product of one’s influences is not often a clean and clear way to determine what one’s own amalgamation and personal spin on that could be called.
Thanks, that’s how I’m trying to think. I’m not too worried about fitting into a label like “dark dub techno” or “yo gabber gabber”. So far my listener’s demographic seems to be stoned 20-40 year old men and the angry portion of the LGTBQ+ crowd (as expected). Would labeling my music electronic get me mixed in with the EDM scene in people perception? I know genres and labels aren’t absolute but I don’t think I will find my audience there.
Very good points! I don’t think anyone would listen to my music and think “sounds like fred again” so agreed I don’t think it’s a good way to present my music to new listeners
I think of bands like Spirit of the Beehive and @sweet_trip who have a reputation for being “shoegaze but XXX” I think a label like that would be go a long way for me.
And in lieu of asking you all to “imagine me singing on these tracks” I just recorded a very rough version of a song I’m working on with vocals. I’ll be singing on most songs. might change your thoughts a bit
Electronica. Not EDM. And does it really matter if you don’t know what “electronica” means? Most of us are calling it electronica, though we probably couldn’t define it accurately either. Half the genre names out there don’t make much sense… Wtf is synthwave?
SubmitHub has an AI that labels the genre(s) of music. I think that it’s pretty accurate. Maybe try it out?
I don’t think so. I think that currently there’s an implicit distinction, like the opposite of saying “I’m from California” instead of “I’m from the US”, haha.
Don’t label your own music. Make your music, and let other people categorize it if they must. Unless your goal is to make a specific existing style of music.
Half the genre names out there don’t make much sense… Wtf is synthwave?