Changed the title a bit.

When I watch any artist's music on YouTube, I see that they just invest on a particular style and work on it for years or maybe for their whole life.

1- Is this the only way for getting a pro in today's industry? or they don't know how to switch to other styles?

2- How does an artist find a style more promising for himself/herself than others? Self-satisfaction, audiences' love, market's shortage or non of them and just lack of knowledge and stupidity?

3- Music industry isn't like other art industries that the artist can be employed easily on different and sometimes dissimilar genres. Is this a right statement?

Thank you.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Dec 12, 2017

Depeche Mode, Leaether Strip, Ministry. I don't like or depend on "styles" too much.

And Sinatra up to a point. [I like "My Way" by Sex Pistols]

 

1- How do you ponder about music?

I try to think I'm Brian Eno and imagine myself painting a piece of abstract music in certain colours.

2- Which styles of music are you interested and want to make a masterpiece in that style or genre and why?

I am a latecomer to Metal. In particular, Devin Townsend. If I could even fractionally emulate the power and melody of his recent albums, I would be very happy.

3- What does influential music mean to you?

Hearing something and knowing you have never heard anything like it before. Of course, it is different for everyone. But for me songs like Laurie Anderson's "Oh Superman" were moments when I actually pulled the car over turned off the engine and just listened in amazement to the radio.

 

Style and genre don't mean anything. You should be able to take a melody and arrange it in any imaginable way - good melody stays good regardless of the accompaniment.

 

1 pondering
As a musician/producer I don't ponder about music itself (maybe that's why I'm an awful composer), I'm more concentrating on the sounds, how they work, how they have been made (when listening to) and how to (re)create, improve and adjust them to my personal taste and aim - and the journey continues.
As a consumer I don't ponder about music at all, I'm just listening and enjoying.

2 style
I'm interrested in some different styles of HM, EDM and classical music as long as it has power and melody or is relaxing and of course touches me!
I'd love to produce a masterpiece in symphonic metal because it's an ingenious connection between our musical roots (classical) and power (metal).

3 influence
The early electronic heroes like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream or Jean-Michel Jarre, Mozart's reqiuems, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple's Live in Japan, Judas Priest's Painkiller (are they nuts?), Skid Row's Slave to the Grind (especially the ballads), Dream Theater's Images and Words, Ayreon's Universal Migrator (hell, this is awesome!), Rammstein (almost everything), Arch Enemy's War Eternal just to mention a few between old and recent. They all enriched my life.

And although I'm totally into the technical aspects of producing, music has only one purpose for me: to enhance or change my moods and the different aspects of my emotions.

 

Hi Foster. Are you doing some kind of master/PHD thesis?

I ask because I always notice two behaviors in you: 1) you seek to discover what people think/fell about certain musical genre/styles and 2) a certain promotion of less conventional repertoires.

 

1.I wonder where they got that movement or line from.
2. Bebop, electronic umm.... shit man, good music is good music IDK.
3. Music that has crossed generations without losing its relevance. Musically & or lyrically. Sometimes the most unpopular music can be more relevant in my opinion than whats "relevant" today...

 

1. EVERY ASPECT OF MUSIC. (knowledge is power, ignorance is weakness)the more you know about language of music is the better at it you will be.
2. all of them (they all share the same emotional states)
genre has nothing to do with music , and no connection to music at all. genre is a categorization , a human culture.music is a language, in that language there is no genre. genre is a after the matter organization through human culture.
3. music that has had an influence

i dont think a genre can be pointless outright because genre is about culture it has no connection to music, but instead a connection to the person involved .
yes, production is not more important than the music , its an icing on the cake type thing
(can't polish a turd)
but the best song in the word could have terrible or no production and not even effect impact emotionally on the listener. (some music is better with poor production or no production say a gritty poor type music think gutter punk, or acoustic folk for example)
but if you have great production on the best song in the world it will be a fine polish making it shiny and more appealing.(effecting the listener sense of fine art)

the most important thing is to set your expectations , what do you want to accomplish? do you want 1 out of 5 people to be a fan?(music for billions of people) or an underground of 14 people?
if you want to make music for massive fan-base you have to deal with the way music actually effects the average person and what they want out of music. you making it for them not JUST you.or if its underground then its just whatever thing you want and you dont care who likes it.
those are so different outlooks that effect everything.
those two having no things in common.
that is are you making music for billions to listen to? or just yourself with no consideration of others?
if i make you a painting with no consideration of your tastes and what you get out of art, than is the painting really for you in any meaningful way? compare that to if i made you a painting entirely based on what you enjoy out of art what matters to you , now it can be said i made it for you.
to me this is the most important question for any person making music.
compare these , music for billions vs music for underground

 

Last edited: Oct 22, 2017

David Hasselhoff

 

I like both kinds of music. Country and Western. Yee hawh, y’all!

 

IMHO, if you think like this you'd never be a proverbial music maker among people. I was thinking like you but 20 century's art and after that are based on production.

PS:
In production, some stuff are getting legitimized that for a person out of the circle wouldn't be acceptable or even imaginable. Also in production, having a similar view to music like pure instrumentalists is rather an obstacle. In production you should let your brain do whatever wants to do. Of course by whatever I don't mean putting things meaninglessly next to each other.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 22, 2017

JAZZ
is one of the few "styles" which it it uses the language of music in its full . it uses everything that one can ever do structurally, harmonically and melodically. for this reason it is one of my favorites.

CLASSICAL
uses a fair decent amount of music language structure and is very dynamic expression and powerful for this reason i love it.

BLUES
is one style that uses a good deal of music language while also tapping into pure emotion and connection for this reason is why i enjoy it.

SOUL
is a style that captures the best of church music and decent amount of music language with great rhythm for this reasons why i enjoy it.

ROCK
is a style based on simplicity great melody and simple but powerful beats this is reasons why i appreciate it.

METAL
is a style based in very simple music language almost entirely made from rhythm (similar hip hop in that way) yet deeply emotional and catharsis for suffering and anger for these reasons why i enjoy it.

HIPHOP is a style with simple music language almost entirely made from rhythm yet emotional and draws from ancient african patterns for the raps these reasons why i enjoy it.

FUNK is a medium complexity music language and strong bounce with rhythm know as "porno music" a powerful feel good positive vibe reason why i enjoy it.

GOSPEL is powerful harmonic style with strong cultural and group and stomps and claps for rhythm the content is spiritually based and can feel the power of the people making it this are reason why i enjoy it.

ELECTRONICA
a umbrella term for all synthetic sounds , typically used for dance music of many genres, but can also used for industrial or many other things like electro jazz electro pop , it has a crisp clarity and powerful rhythms with mostly simple music language but great level of emotion for these reason why i enjoy it.


NOIZE
is a style of music derived from sounds with no music language no harmony and no rhythms instead based on complex harmonics and feedback loops giving rise to layers of chaos that sometimes can reveal traditional aspects found in music. noize is emotional form catharsis for feelings of alienation anger depression loneliness
these reasons why i enjoy it.

......................I could keep going for quite a while hahaha
I think you can start to see my point
I approach genres and styles but first understanding what they are and finding what i can appreciate about them.

 

shoegaze/dream pop.

ambient (like BIosphere/Geir Jensen style... not that vst-preset sounding nonsense).

Indie-rock (which is soo varied it's not as clearcut as others, and contains basically every style in some form)

now synthwave and dark wave

 

I guess I'm always playing a soundtrack in my brain, to whatever I'm doing. Does that count as ponder?

I guess any / all. I kinda enjoy listening to lots of kinda unknown artists, but commercial stuff liek Corduroy, Carpenter Brut & even Alt-J is on y playlist atm. Bit of retro wave? I'm mostly focused on electronic, jazz / funk and orchestral but I'm kinda doing a lot moar diverse crap atm. I'm also trying to improve my playing & knowledge of scales, just at gunpoint (trying to feed one of my SC an improvised "song" in diff scale per day). It's not going too well =( but at least I feel liek I'm learning!

Guess it's all the music I've shamelessly ripped off, so I guess it's mainly just friends who produce!

 

Progressive Rock/Metal and Jazz fusion and Heavy Metal/Hardrock and Pop dont care for that computer made crap that is played on radio stations today in my Country.
Artist/Bands like Frank Zappa,Emerson, Lake & Palmer,Rush,Yes,Dream Theater,Iron Maiden,AC/DC,Deep Purple,Uriah Heep,Mountain,Led Zeppelin,Judas Priest (the first 5 album after that i dont care),Rainbow,Dio,Shawn Lane,Dixie Dregs,Steve Morse band,Steve Vai,Joe Satriani,Oh i can go on forever

 

Depeche Mode, Babylon Zoo, R.E.M, The Cure, Genesis, Pink Floyd, INXS, Tangerine Dream, Madonna, Rammstein, Cypress Hill, Metallica, and many others.

 

tonal, modal, and poly-tonal have left a strong impression on me.

 

I love this categorization. Sommy donal, mony gosal, pussy yomal, boni horal ......

 

He had a twin you know.