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What you like and what people want...
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| Coyke |
Oke, more or less, I think everyone who does produce music isnt into only one genre. Before I get into detail, please dont get me wrong here - I love Trance. I'm into the music now since the late 90s, producing and djing since nearly a decade now. From what the style developed into, I'm not into it anymore like I used to be. The last good year for me was like 2004 | 2005. Nowadays the music seems to be half of what I liked about the music for so long.
Anyways, back to topic. I know we got a lot of skilled people on here, with loads of gear, loads of sounds at your fingertips to make music for ages in nearly every music genre, especially electronic music. Would you be into having 2 projects, while in one you kinda produce the modern, squashed, sidechained, minimalistic, whatever sound and in the other you rather go for what is your taste, you as an artist. I mean we are all "producers". Sometimes its fun making something to see if I'm able to do this, like I did some keyboard and synth parts for the band of a friend. When I go down and just do tge music "out of my stomache", without "I gonna make trance" in my head, I drift into a kind of ambient, electronica, breakbeat music with a wider range of sounds and more experimental feeling which just seems to be what really comes out of me, what is what I sound like as me. On the other site, there is still a big passion for Trance and being a DJ too.
Like I said, I'm not really into the nowadays trance. I know this might be also because I heard so many tunes. Let's say, if I go to beatport or alikes, I might find one track out of ten to be worth buying it. But lately, I would just use this tune maybe in a set, listen to it for maybe 2-3 weeks, then forget about it. Back in the days, I was listening to tunes like for months or like now I still like to listen to tunes that are like 5 years old or even older.
Maybe this is just pure progression. Moving on to something new. I know a lot of producers have their hands on different projects, so I would like to know if some of you have one project which is more into the modern, commercial sound and other projects to express yourself. |
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| cryophonik |
Interesting topic. Personally, I pay no attention to what people want and I simply create what I feel like creating, which means that my style is all over the map due to my wide-ranging influences and experience with various musical styles and instruments. I'm not a DJ, but I played bass, keys, and vocals in dozens of bands in my younger days, so I understand that, as a performing musician or a DJ/producer, you need to have a good understanding of what the audience wants to hear and what will work in a set. That's the lifeblood of dance music.
But, fortunately for me, I'm at a place in my musical career where I don't need to care what people think of my music because I've had my 15 minutes of fame as a musician and now I can just do what I like with no pressure to please anybody except myself. That has both its pros and cons. It means that I probably feel less pressure to put out quality tracks than younger, more motivated producers do. OTOH, it also means that I can be a bit lazy about my productions. That said, we (the singers/collaborators and I) get songs signed to labels on occasion and have had a few relatively big names support our tracks, but that's not why I do it - I just do it because I love making music. |
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| adi_hanson |
There are modern tunes which I can listen too many times.But as you say, pre 2004 there are more palletable 'Trance' tracks.
I dont know why everything crossed over from melodic emotional dancey trance to the squished lifeless stuff which is embraced by umpteen realeases per day on beatport in which you refer.
I see trance as either a mellow experience.Easy listening , driving along etc....
Or as an excuse to dance along to epic melodies which make you feel good.
These days I dont have a clue what modern stuff falls into but as long is I produce for myself I will be fine. |
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| EddieZilker |
I had a friend who used to insist that a successful artist would put out stuff they didn't necessarily like because that was the only way to get signed. Of course, he would continue, that after the first or second album on a major label, the artist could start getting a little more creatively daring.
Personally, I just make music I want to listen to. Every now and then, my girlfriend will commission a song she wants, but I still make it a point to make sure that I like it. It makes it challenging.
Right now, those of you who visit the CoR, probably know I'm in the Snoop Dog Remix Contest. Again, even though the style is technically different, I'm still trying to make sure that it's going to be something that I'd want to be listening to. |
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| Zombie0729 |
i can say i've personally struggled with this A LOT. i mean A LOT. you go thru my beatport catalog i've had things tagged (some incorrectly) from minimal, to techno, to tech house, to house, to trance(???), to prog house, to indie, to electro. jesus am i missing anything?
i've had a tracks in the top 100 (genre) for electro, tech house, indie/nudisco & prog house. I really don't know the answer (though every week i think i do) as to whether or not i'm alienating myself by doing a XYZ genre track which all the DJs who play XYZ are supporting then the following week doing an ABC track. Do the XYZ Dj's simply skip over my new ABC track and do the ABC Dj's frown upon my previous XYZ track or does none of it matter?
i think ultimately what i've decided to try and do this year was make identifiable music for my name. When you put on a wolfgang gartner record you can say in a second "wolfgang gartner track!" or "Jerome Isme-A track!". those guys have sounds and styles that you can recognize a mile away. That's how you build a name and a brand very quickly. It might sound too 'niche' for some people but if you just focus on a single sound entity for a bit the masses will get behind you in that scene and you can grow from there (i think).
so yah, you've been thinking about this a lot, as have i. |
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| Coyke |
Nice inputs. Well let me explain a bit more.
I did got offered some agreements like last year from some labels, though I didnt was sending demos out. Its just been kinda of 3-4 minute long notepads what could develope into a full length track. Anyways, they been intrested and asked me to finish them. I was so stucked with the production. I couldnt really get into the projects anymore. Is this really want I want to do? How it gonna sound like? Make it a bit techy, housy? Sidechain? 3 minute break?
And with my other stuff, mentioned as like my 2nd project, it all naturally floats together. I dont feel that limited, by tempo, sounds, processing and what not. I would like to have some laid back trance tunes with my name on, but somehow I just get stucked how to let them evolve into something that still can compare to the stuff around these days.
I'm still working on trance projects nearly every day now, but honestly I really just try to get close to artists I like, like Boom Jinx, Jaytech, Paul Keeley. Its enough for me to learn anyways now, as I just switched to Cubase, so there is many left to learn (neverending process actually). I just feel its like one step for me to get something out there and have my name on it, but I am not really sure if I wanna have my name on it, uhm confusing... |
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| meDina |
Wow i feel like I am the queen of this feeling. I have been apart of about 5-10 completely different electronica projects (well a few are similar to eachother), along with singing in a death metal band. I have sort of settled down a bit though over the past year and am currently focusing on the most commercially appealing project of them all. Actually I havent touched most of them over the past year to be honest.
I do think it is important to keep both in mind when stepping into the studio. Unless of course you dont really give a who likes your music and are just doing it for you, which i do love doing sometimes! |
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| EddieZilker |
| quote: | Originally posted by meDina
Unless of course you dont really give a who likes your music and are just doing it for you, which i do love doing sometimes! |
I don't think it's that I don't care who and/or if they like my music. I just want to be able to make music I want to listen to - if that makes any sense. There's a satisfaction I derive, hearing a song in its completion, that it takes on a life of its own, outside of my efforts or my designs and becomes something I just enjoy for hearing it. |
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| user19503 |
| uhm.... sum up please? |
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| Villan881 |
I have earned my living from music (I don't anymore) where I played stuff I didn't particularly like as well as playing stuff I did like for free - or almost for free.
But as long as it was music, I was fine with it. Then one day I realised that I didn't want to continue playing music that I didn't particularly like anymore so I quit and now make stuff just for me and if anyone else likes it, then fine.
Doing music just for fame and fortune is a shallow aspiration; making music should be its own reward. You respect that fact and it will always take care of you. Its been my companion all my life.
So now I produce music for corporate presentations, powerpoint presentations, product launches and the like as well as recording singers and other musicians making their music which I also really enjoy. And I still have my pet projects going on; trance is one area, acoustic ambient is another and so on. The common denominator being that its what I want to do, not because of money.:) |
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