Are you addicted to a genre of music?

Ask general music theory or songwriting questions, get feedback!

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Dominique
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Re: Are you addicted to a genre of music?

Post by Dominique »

AlexTheBassist wrote:
Dominique wrote:But generally, what make me feel a music have a meaning is its lyrics
But that's totally against the core idea of music: to transmit a message without using a single word. If a musical piece requires presence of lyrics, then it's plainly weak. That's the reason I still haven't put online any of my own sounds. Despite I've got some deeper theory knowledge than most do, I still can't always write music that speaks for itself.
I really prefer to play popular music, not in its commercial meaning of being popular because it's sells a lot, but in its ancient meaning of it speak to the hearth of peoples. It can be about anything, love, passion, revolution, birds, cars, whatever. As example, if you talk about love and mix freedom with it, you get a revolutionary song because real love is true revolution.

I also have a relatively good understanding of the musical theory, but most of my song are relatively simple, that mainly because it must remain playable with a good rhythm when I sing. Some can be more complicated, as example I made my own arrangement of Moon of Alabama. For that, I used the original piano partition. This resulted in very unusual guitar chords for the lyrics parts, so unusual I don't even remember their names without looking to my notes. The main difficulty was to find chords which are both playable, and which respect the amazing dissonances and rhythms of the original partition. The chorus was a lot simpler, nothing to change from the original. For another song, I stated playing 2 chords and experimenting with substitutions. The result is a song with a lot of chords, but which can be simplified in no time in order to play it with other musicians. For another song, I started from the wikipedia description of the Gregorian kind of music, and improvised something. Even if the result is following the same tonality, it is certainly my most complicated song because the lyrics are the longest of all my songs, and they made me to explore different modes of that tonality.

For me, to follow the lyrics help me to make the music. I know that many other musicians begin with the songs and put some lyrics on it. I really prefer the opposite way. To make a music that speak for itself is the most difficult. First you must know what kind of feeling you want to bring to peoples, and you will never know if the feeling you want them to feel is the feeling they feel. With the lyrics, it's different. Some peoples will like them, when others will find them scandalous. I don't care because I sing for the peoples, and if someone find that to be scandalous, it implies he or she is just a rich bastard that must go out of its ivory tower and that, in the main-time, just deserve to be scandalized. Politics is boring because you have to be politically correct, which ultimately will impeach you to think. With arts, you don't have that limitation, at least as long you are giving enough context for peoples to understand or feel what you are talking about.
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nickture
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Re: Are you addicted to a genre of music?

Post by nickture »

I have "phases" where I'm into a particular type of music pretty intensely. Like for a little while now (since the beginning of the summer) I've really been into synthwave pretty heavily (OST's especially). It depends on what catches my ear and what state of mind I'm in when I hear it. It goes so far as to even influence how I write my own music, or inspire me to try my hand at writing in that style.

As funny as it sounds, this time of year (fall in the eastern US) has me searching out more relaxed, mellow sounds. Like folk (and all it's subgenres) and jazz. Something that just sort of slows everything down, you know?

That all being said, I guess I do have a revolving door of a few select music genres I cycle through time and time again.
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GraysonPeddie
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Re: Are you addicted to a genre of music?

Post by GraysonPeddie »

nickture wrote:As funny as it sounds, this time of year (fall in the eastern US) has me searching out more relaxed, mellow sounds. Like folk (and all it's subgenres) and jazz. Something that just sort of slows everything down, you know?

That all being said, I guess I do have a revolving door of a few select music genres I cycle through time and time again.
What about "Rejoicing (A Journey to the Inner Being)" by Manish Vyas?
https://play.google.com/music/listen#/a ... ner+Being)
--Grayson Peddie

Music Interest: New Age w/ a mix of modern smooth jazz, light techno/trance & downtempo -- something Epcot Future World/Tomorrowland-flavored.
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Re: Are you addicted to a genre of music?

Post by jonetsu »

Dominique wrote: First you must know what kind of feeling you want to bring to peoples, and you will never know if the feeling you want them to feel is the feeling they feel.
Quite a good text, although I'd like to point out the above. Since it's not possible to be totally, 100%, certain about how one will feel (or how a 'population' will) about a song, except if the song is made to be extra-cheesy to the point of being an overdose, like too much sugar, then why bother so much with that part of the equation ? In other words, when the author is aligned in his/her feelings about the song being created, and has a drive to share the creation with people, then the process goal is satisfied: putting one's heart into the creation.

Cheers.
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Rainmak3r
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Re: Are you addicted to a genre of music?

Post by Rainmak3r »

I do have genres I consistently get back to: late-romantic classical music, for instance, and lately a lot of black, viking, gothic and doom metal. In general, I guess it's safe to say I'm addicted to intense and solemn music, that somehow manages to trigger powerful emotions. The first movement of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony is a very good example of that. But what I'm really addicted to are particular songs, and the genre in that case can vary wildly, even from day to day: more than addictions, they become obsessions, as I regularly find tracks that I end up listening to hundreds of times per day! Until another one comes, and there I go again :mrgreen:
Dominique
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Re: Are you addicted to a genre of music?

Post by Dominique »

jonetsu wrote: Tue Nov 05, 2019 10:26 am
Dominique wrote: First you must know what kind of feeling you want to bring to peoples, and you will never know if the feeling you want them to feel is the feeling they feel.
Quite a good text, although I'd like to point out the above. Since it's not possible to be totally, 100%, certain about how one will feel (or how a 'population' will) about a song, except if the song is made to be extra-cheesy to the point of being an overdose, like too much sugar, then why bother so much with that part of the equation ? In other words, when the author is aligned in his/her feelings about the song being created, and has a drive to share the creation with people, then the process goal is satisfied: putting one's heart into the creation.

Cheers.
Sure. I agree with Jaques Brel about talent. Talent is when you want to do something, after it's just the needed work to do it, a lot of work. Also when I play in public, I know than very often, peoples are much more receptive to the energy I put into my music, than about the perfection of the playing. "Perfect" playing can be good with acoustical songs, but with singing, to have a good energy and feeling is more important. Even with acoustical songs, if you are able to follow your feeling and improvise on them, even if it is just small variations, peoples will like it. You can even make mistakes, if you don't loose the theme and return to it, peoples will fell it like an improvisation. That imply than, with music like in life, if a good practice is a must, we can also learn of our mistakes.
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