The Genre Debate?

Hello,

Today I wanted to talk about genre.

Specifically whether or not you should pay attention to what genre you're writing for or not.

For most of my musical career I've been writing for the rock and metal scene. I started out by learning guitar and the first accessory I bought was a distortion pedal.

That being said however there are several people that feel you don't need to distinguish genre preferences. I both agree and disagree with that statement. You might be asking yourself if I have lost my mind completely but hear me out!

When writing your music I feel that you should approach it from an emotional standpoint but when selling it or marketing it to other artists pick a genre group.

It does sound a bit confusing talking about music from an "emotional writing" standpoint. How do you write emotion? How does one even go about quantizing something that is intangible?

That's what music is all about. Unfortunately most people though they might say that they know this never try to write this way. It is severely possible and almost a requirement for great music, however if you try to write emotionally without good technique your chances of writing something useful will be severely limited.

Sad to say the greats that can pull it off without knowing music theory like Hendrix are few and far between. That's why they are legends and most of us are mere mortals.

So the first step is of course to know your music theory and know the instruments you are writing for. All that boring preliminary stuff.

But to write from an emotional standpoint you need to change the way you think first.

Don't think based on the standard instrumentation for your usual style of music. Try to open up your mind a bit, and think about what kind of "colors" to use to paint the sonic picture you want to create.

If you want something angry and aggressive, try some distortion on a guitar and palm muting. Or if you want something to imitate sheer beauty. Maybe a severely sparse high pitched piano doing slow solemn notes.

Once you're equipped with the techniques and the knowledge of the instruments you're writing for the possibilities are endless!

The second part of the equation is to market based on genre. I heard once that if you want to make it in music focus on the music first then the names after.

You can learn a good bit from that, focus on the music but then worry about branding later.

Remember you can love the music but if you actually want to make a living with music you also have to think of it as a product at a certain point. Keep in mind being the big fish in a small pond is much better than being the small fish in the big ocean!

So the 1000 fans rule definitely applies here!

However you choose to write your  music, brand it when you're prepared to sell it! So just go with whatever matches your overall sound.

I will have more on both of these concepts later but this is just to get you thinking.

As usual I hope you leave inspired.

Get out and write some amazing music!