When thinking about your song’s genre, ask yourself if there is a known style or sub-genre that describes your song better than the primary genre alone. For example, a good starting point is telling someone that you created an Electronic piece of music. But you’ll paint a better picture if you are more specific with terms like Trip Hop, Glitch or Drum N’ Bass. A music supervisor or record label professional is much more likely to be specifically looking for Trip Hop than simply Electronic songs.
A benefit of looking at your song through this lens is that you can ask questions about the choices you make. Should my Trip Hop song be in a major key? Should I have background singers in my Industrial song? Should my Trance song be in a ¾ time signature? Maybe or maybe not but at least you’ll be asking yourself the right questions when you can compare your song to others in the same genre and style.
Everyone wants to be original. Keep in mind that there is plenty of room in each genre to create original, groundbreaking masterpieces that sound like nothing that’s been done before. The vast majority of new and influential music is easily identified by the genre it fits squarely in. This doesn’t detract from its originality. Established genres benefit the music by giving it known channels to reach listeners that are already looking for it. Your potential fans are already making choices that will lead them to your music – that’s if you know what genre to put your song in.
Genres benefit you. They provide a preexisting avenue from you and your music to your potential fans. Don’t be an elitist artist that ignores the categorization that currently exists. That’s a road to nowhere filled with malcontent musicians that don’t understand why they haven’t “made it.” You can frown on industry conventions after you’ve become well established. Until then it will serve you to accept and understand the industry and the way it operates within genres.
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