Get relevant or get out?
- Thread starter Iron Keys
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Fade
The Beat Strangler
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illest o.g.
It depends on whether you're making beats for fun, to make money, or to work in the industry.
For me I just make what I make, that's it. I never made stuff like all this "type beat" bullshit. That's like shooting 3's because everyone else does it. If you're happy shooting granny free throws, go for it. Have fun.
Honestly there's a place in music for everything. Relevance is what you make of it. Feelin' Boom bap? Make boom bap. Wanna sample disco and bang bang boogie said up jump the boogie? Go for it. Wanna have 808s smash your face in? that's cool too. I'm hard pressed to believe that a genre that has and always will sample old music should be concerned with modernity. There's a reason people still love spinning records.
On a more opinionated level, the majority of the "relevant" artists for the past two decades have been garbage at best, progressively getting worse and worse. Personally for me the biggest thing that can't be sacrificed is lyrics, even if the beat is dope as fuck, if dude can't hang lyrically it might as well not even get played in front of me. Most people just listen for the beat... probably why most of the opiate addled music these days don't even say words, they just slur their way through a track with some kind of cadence. Older stuff that are more simple I give a pass, because it was the times it was made in, but at heart I'm a big rhyme scheme nerd.
I think for me, personally. It's 'cause I feel my mixing/sonic is stuck in the 2000s era. With big drums. Drums that thump n slap. I do in ways like the new sound, but mixing it is odd. The old stuff is second nature to me. not sure how to approach today's mix, or if i should/have to. but i feel probably should. But how you make big dums in a era that leans towards small drums
Yeah fucked if I know, i definitely relate to that i find im the same way. Maybe i'm just transitioning into a behind the times curmudgeon who doesn't understand what the kids like (Who am I kidding, I haven't understood that shit for years). I just don't see a problem with that. I suppose if you're looking to get placements being concerned with modernity would be a big thing. That's just not on my radar, and there's still plenty of people out there who actively look for that sound, and actively make it, and I don't think that's gonna go away any time soon.
OGBama
Big Clit Energy
Relevance @Iron Keys is a word best reserved for products that are semi disposable like the latest phone, etc. and when it comes to music I’ve always hated how relevance is seen as and usually is, trying to return to a genre or genres out of desperation (financial and/or social). It’s why so many examples of irrelevance are the many singers, rappers etc. who once had their moment but reduced to reality shows or selling other things that aren’t music (in many cases many should have never had deals).
I feel music has tons of uncharted terrain to discover but I’m a self described “contempurist” (“contemporary purist” plus that’s my producer name) with discerning taste. I like modern sounds w/traditional vocals.
I’m a sucker for cohesion so the instrumental(s) should inspire the lyrics as lyrics are the missing ingredient unless the goal is vocal-less tracks. I grew up a lyrics and voice first listener and those plus the instrumental (and sound selection, arrangement and composition) has to keep me interested in the full song.
I feel music has tons of uncharted terrain to discover but I’m a self described “contempurist” (“contemporary purist” plus that’s my producer name) with discerning taste. I like modern sounds w/traditional vocals.
I’m a sucker for cohesion so the instrumental(s) should inspire the lyrics as lyrics are the missing ingredient unless the goal is vocal-less tracks. I grew up a lyrics and voice first listener and those plus the instrumental (and sound selection, arrangement and composition) has to keep me interested in the full song.
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Make what you want to make, there are no rules, its art.
If you want to make it a business then you have to follow the trends, if you are in it for your own enjoyment, do what you want.
If you want to find some balance between the two then thats probably the best option, this gear aint cheap and it needs to be paid for.
So do the work you dont like to pay for the stuff you do.
If you want to make it a business then you have to follow the trends, if you are in it for your own enjoyment, do what you want.
If you want to find some balance between the two then thats probably the best option, this gear aint cheap and it needs to be paid for.
So do the work you dont like to pay for the stuff you do.
One of the biggest things I always hated in art class as a kid was being told what I need to make. I actually reasoned with my teachers that the whole point in art is creativity, and being set within a medium or on a project that I have no desire to do isn't going to produce anything good and ended up getting my own curriculum where I chose what I wanted to do, within the teacher's allotted timeframe. I think that mindset applies here. I mean its really just re-iterating the point. Its all about what you want out of it. I didn't want to be told how I should be doing it then and I especially don't now. I see no purpose in relevance for myself, but I'm not you. You're the only one who can answer that for yourself, and learning how to do it is no different than learning how you make what you do now, albeit with skills that will most definitely translate.
OGBama
Big Clit Energy
What @iDeaLoGiK you hated was something needed and here is why: if you don't have context for how/why something is done a certain way you won't have a foundation for when it's time to break free from convention, it's the reason why when people study writing they don't start w/writing whatever, you have to know who/what came before you as everything has a lineage.
Say you want to learn a new language: You start w/consonant and vowel sounds before you eventually get to writing sentences that make sense and the line in between is pronouns, antecedents, verbs, etc.
Say you want to learn a new language: You start w/consonant and vowel sounds before you eventually get to writing sentences that make sense and the line in between is pronouns, antecedents, verbs, etc.
Wholeheartedly disagree. I knew what I was doing already, I mean most kids start creating at a very young age. and being forced to create in a medium I had no interest in did little more than stifle my creativity.
I don't need to study Van Gogh to draw a portrait. Learning a new language is kind of apples and oranges in this context. Modern hip hop isn't so different that the ability to create early 2000s sounding stuff doesnt translate. Sure, if you're starting from square one and have no idea what you're doing you've got to learn to walk before you run, but at that point relevance should be the least of your concerns. That isn't the case in this scenario.
i think it is different tho. 'cause i don't think the stuff i do now is merely about 'learning how to', it was about like years and years immersed in a sound, consuming constantly, etc. It's like someone's natural language vs learning a language. One is second nature, one will be maybe unnatural.
Also, I'm currently not keen on the 'make for yourself' concept people like to chuck around. If you wanna do something for yourself, have a wank or something.
Obviously I make music that I like, or how i feel it should sound (or at least try to, and fail miserably). But if you're sharing your art/music, then to say it's just for you is on some level bullshit. If you make music for yourself, why you sharing/posting it?
Obviously I make music that I like, or how i feel it should sound (or at least try to, and fail miserably). But if you're sharing your art/music, then to say it's just for you is on some level bullshit. If you make music for yourself, why you sharing/posting it?
OGBama
Big Clit Energy
My @Iron Keys ultimate goal is to hopefully have heads vibin' to my shit starting with the ill community but the make music I'd want/like to hear/listen to is the main impetus always.
I am a firm advocate in that to make music for yourself is to be your own biggest fan as the self is the main person you have to please until death. Everyone else is an addition or subtraction or distraction.
I am a firm advocate in that to make music for yourself is to be your own biggest fan as the self is the main person you have to please until death. Everyone else is an addition or subtraction or distraction.
I mean of course you hope other people like the shit you make, but at the end of the day if I like the shit I make I'm content with that. I mean really, I'm the dopest person I know hahaha
*edit* It's been a few hours, but I've spent a good portion of those hours actually contemplating on what you said here, and I don't think my answer was sufficient and I don't want to leave this at a pithy response. The point I've been making the whole time is there's plenty of heads that still like that early 2000s shit, particularly in context theres still an endless supply of new heads, and it isn't going away any time soon. Like I said from my second post (and basically everyone else here), depends on what you want to do with it, I'm just speaking from my own personal opinion. If you want to get big placements, yeah, stay relevant or get left behind.
For me its a matter of what do I want with music? I don't take it seriously and I'm certainly not there yet to even think about taking it seriously. If you do, thats on you to figure out where you want to go with it. I will say that you are very good at what you do. You and I are on similar wavelengths for the sound that we like, and you're definitely better than I am at it.
Granted if I was in a position with producing where I should take it seriously; I'd see it as a detriment on what I would want to do with music if what I made was on the tracks of someone who doesn't even enunciate more than the last word of a bar.... if that. I would rather strive for people who have bars. There's always underground fame (which TBH would be way less fucking work on social media, and doesn't require you doing shit you'd rather not be). From what I would imagine, doing so would allow you to find someone who is on the same wavelength as you when it comes to the shit you produce and you could actually be cool with the people you're around. From what little experience I've had seeing the people online getting their placements it's nothing but a means to an end. You make a beat, they buy it, and that's it. You're not making anything special, infact most of these dudes don't take any of it seriously at all and will treat you like a dancing monkey who's only there to entertain their bullshit because they're the new hotness. You disagree, they're out. No money, nothing.
I mean, I'm still a nobody, so I can only attest to what I think, but I don't think I'm wrong.
Having said that, if you want to modernize your sound the first step is learning how to modernize your sound. Obviously you're having some issue doing that when you try, but before you do that there's no point in concerning yourself with relevance. I know you can do that at the very least, you already know what you're doing enough to get that far, it's no different to learning how to make the shit you do now.
I tried my best to make a point in saying when something is a personal opinion, because this question is at its very core a personal one. Hence why the majority of the responses from people here weren't a "You should do this" over a "This is why I'm doing this, and its up to you what you feel you want to"
This is actually far deeper an philosophical dilemma than I thought it was when I first answered, not that I've really changed my opinion, but I think it made me understand a bit further why I look at things the way I do. If that means I'm falling behind that's fine I guess, but that's on me.
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