quote:

Originally posted by Looney4Clooney i'm talking about good music, not successful. The kind of producer that can sleep at night knowing they aren't a complete piece of shit.

ah thats me

quote:

Originally posted by Looney4Clooney i'm talking about good music, not successful. The kind of producer that can sleep at night knowing they aren't a complete piece of shit.

Problem is that you keep changing your story. Your original post clearly said "every successful artist" and also "I listen to so many tracks here and the one thing they all lack is something that is unique".

So you listen to the indistinct tracks, which makes the artists successful by some objective measure. Maybe you don't think they're good, but that's a subjective evaluation and also wasn't what you originally said.

Apparently all that's really being said here is "I don't like cookie-cutter tracks", or maybe "I don't think people who produce cookie-cutter tracks should be successful". Which is, well, great I guess, but it isn't really news to any of us.

Everybody hates when other people get a free ride, but the hypothesis that you need to be unique in order to be successful is simply wrong, and probably harmful if you're trying to make a living off of this. You should strive to make unique music because you want to make unique music, not because you think it will make you successful (which is actually less likely than the alternative - change is scary for most).

I'd wager that most of these phone-it-in producers actually sleep pretty well at night. People tend to sleep better when they're not starving.

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my definition of successful does not amount to only dollars. To be a a cutting edge artist while making a living is my idea of success. I haven't changed my argument.

And all the great artists thru out time have been those that had a sound that you can recognize. I often wonder why people that don't have a sound even bother. You are redundant.

It isn't rocket science. LIsten to lots of music, the second you are doing something someone else is doing, stop and change directions.

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quote:

Originally posted by DigiNut Besides, anybody can take a particular sound and rationalize after the fact why it's unique. In reality artistic success is more of a combination of random chance and social effects than anything else, and the BS explanations people come up with after the fact are just the age-old introspection illusion. There really isn't any formula for what makes a hit track or style, no matter how much some people want to believe there is.

So what you're trying to say is that a 30 second song with just a kick drum on loop could make it to #1 for 30 weeks straight?

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quote:

Originally posted by dj_alfi change your avatar for fucks sake.

You can probably get some way following the cookie cutter mentality, but when it comes down to it, no one will remember you in 10 years. If you want long lasting stable success you need to work hard and long at it, develop your own distinct offerings and not expect everything to come at once.

Its the same in any industry IMO; building your business in a slow steady way yields long term success, while cutting corners will make you a flash in the pan.

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One thing that could be worth a mention in terms of originality, is I personaly look out for tracks with a personality stamp. They can be cookie-cutter in shape, but if they have just one or two highly original elements - perhaps just something the appears only for a second here or there, then that for me personally can be a deal sealer.

All subjective though of course.

SWM - according to an interview I saw, they can spend months on a track although the original germ and basic idea may have only taken a minute.

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Originally posted by Beatflux So what you're trying to say is that a 30 second song with just a kick drum on loop could make it to #1 for 30 weeks straight?

In theory, anything can happen. I would have been skeptical 20 years ago if you'd told me that people would pay good money for rocks or brine shrimp, but it happened.

Practically, I'd rank the probability of your hypothetical situation as pretty low, since social norms still tend to demand something on top of that kick. That being said, unless you've been living in a cave these past few years, you should know that the new trend is "minimal" and there's often very little looped over that kick, and some of the tracks are pretty close to 30 seconds long.

___________________
My party schedule:
2009-02-21 - DJ Attention @ I'm So Popular
2009-06-18 - DJ Annoying @ People Need To Know Where I'll Be
2012-11-32 - DJ Insufferable ɸ Or At Least the Stalkers I Complain About
2048-06-66 - Spastic & Whocares ¶ Although I'm Actually Flattered
9999-45-81 - Tweaker Gimp ☼ I Probably Won't Even Go To This But I Have To Make Sure I Fill Up All The Available Space Here

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Butler SWM - according to an interview I saw, they can spend months on a track although the original germ and basic idea may have only taken a minute.

sitting behind a monitor snorting coke isn't really considered work unless you are snorting it with Adrian Brody.

___________________
"This is why Superman works alone." GC
old stuff from days gone by (2001-2004)
Mad For Brad's gay little contest

How you can create something and have it fit within a genre?

This sounds like an interesting challenge actually. Here I go trying to learn how to sound like Deadmau5, when I should be learning how to sound like me.