How does one achieve originality while not just being compared to influences

[spunktronics]

I've been struggling to maintain some originality without my influences getting in the way and just being compared to my contemporaries.

 

I's been working on 3 albums for some time now and keep swapping up my pallete or structures as i think it's too similar to likeminded styles.

 

Can you create something unique without someone saying our thats just like X or Y?

[Entorwellian]

Is this a Flashbulb user account?

[sweepstakes]

Originality is probably inversely proportional to the amount of time you spend on the internet or taking in other influences. Maybe it's not about swapping things out as much as digging deeper into what you've already got. 

 

Is this a Flashbulb user account?

lol

[funkaholic]

do original ideas even exist? i thought it was about who does it best

[spunktronics]

Is this a Flashbulb user account?

Yes hello!

[LimpyLoo]

Being original is surprisingly easy but nobody actually wants to so they just open a piano roll and randomly click around for 30 minutes and then close it and bemoan how they're somehow not amazing after doing this sporadically every weekend for the last 6 months

[spunktronics]

do original ideas even exist? i thought it was about who does it best

Ive been consolidating all my styles and influences in to a singular project and melding them together.

When i listen back i just keep thinking banging track sounds too much like X or woo this one is nostalgic and lush and sounds too much like Y

 

Perhaps i don't have confidence in my own work even though i know its good, probably why ive never sent a demo in the past 15+ years

I mainly make music for myself and don't often share it but i am starting to be less precious and less anal about the finished product.

[Dpek]

I would suggest - if you don't have any dependencies or mental problems yet - to try drugs. Actually, do this: try drugs after you make a solid sketch of a track sober. You will probably mix it up pretty originally. My drug of choice is weed.

[spunktronics]

Think thats a great idea but you'll still be externally influenced by some form of music.

 

I had the idea of not listening to any other music but my own for a year and listening to nothing but that.

probably quite hard to do but as an experiment it would be interesting to see if you detach yourself from trends and gradually start to make something truly your own?

[sweepstakes]

I had the idea of not listening to any other music but my own for a year and listening to nothing but that.

probably quite hard to do but as an experiment it would be interesting to see if you detach yourself from trends and gradually start to make something truly your own?

Supposedly Squarepusher does this when he's working on an album.

[dingformung]

try:

- pause listening to music and creating music for a some weeks, when you come back your ears are fresh and your perception changed which is a good starting point for being original; hard to do that though

- change or creatively combine production methods

 

won't help though

[Adieu]

Being original is easy. RDJ has said this himself, "stay in the space between things".

 

Don't fall directly into a convention. If you use a break beat don't use a jungle bassline. If you make an acid lead don't use an 808 drum track.

 

Most importantly, make something that is an authentic expression, because it's obvious to people when you're just making something that fits into a genre so you can be a part of it. Make something that is high quality and has taken a lot of work and dedication. You can hear the hours someone puts into their craft.

[psn]

 

I had the idea of not listening to any other music but my own for a year and listening to nothing but that.

probably quite hard to do but as an experiment it would be interesting to see if you detach yourself from trends and gradually start to make something truly your own?

Supposedly Squarepusher does this when he's working on an album.

 

 

James Stinson talked about this too.

 

https://youtu.be/C-LoZho4HC8?t=18m42s

[spunktronics]

Possibly the problem i have is i'm trying my hardest not to fit in a genre although it would be labeled by someone

[Adieu]

well it's not a necessity to make something completely original. making something entirely original could mean that it's really not enjoyable which makes it more of a thought experiment than something you want to enjoy.

Being original is surprisingly easy but nobody actually wants to so they just open a piano roll and randomly click around for 30 minutes and then close it and bemoan how they're somehow not amazing after doing this sporadically every weekend for the last 6 months

 

yo one of my best chord progressions recently was from copy and pasting randomly in my piano roll

[joshuatxuk]

Originality is probably inversely proportional to the amount of time you spend on the internet or taking in other influences. Maybe it's not about swapping things out as much as digging deeper into what you've already got. 

 

Is this a Flashbulb user account?

lol

 

 

 

 

I had the idea of not listening to any other music but my own for a year and listening to nothing but that.

probably quite hard to do but as an experiment it would be interesting to see if you detach yourself from trends and gradually start to make something truly your own?

Supposedly Squarepusher does this when he's working on an album.

 

 

James Stinson talked about this too.

 

https://youtu.be/C-LoZho4HC8?t=18m42s

 

 

Great advice.

 

Another angle I would suggest is asking yourself what is you favorite and most important song / album / style etc. and focusing on that as your sole influence. Burial dove into UK garage, Boards of Canada pulled from 70s docs and media, Drexciya created their own fictional world, etc. A lot of metal bands do this as well, creating huge discographies and creative universes based on specific influences. Take one core influence / idea and expand on it until you've created your own sound. For example there was a wave of excellent bedroom electronic artists, Ulrich Schnauss, Manual, ISAN, etc. were influenced heavily by Slowdive's catalog, including their originally overlooked Pygmalion album. You could also do this in terms of musical equipment or method choice, even in very simple ways. 0PN did it with looping bars of pop songs on eccojams and the Field did a similar method coupled with 4/4 beats on his early albums. Same with DJ Screw back in the 90s. These are considered unique and influential artists despite their very clear connections to previous existing music.

[LimpyLoo]

1) See yourself as part of a larger musical lineage than just "electronic musicians" and the world is your motherfucking oyster

 

2) Messiaen obsessed over birdsong and used its rhythms and melodies...find your own "birdsong"

 

3) speaking of Messiaen...learn a Messiaen mode or two

 

4) learn the African/Indian rhythmic approach ("additive" rhythm...e.g. 3 + 2 + 2) instead of just working "subtractively" from 4/4

 

5) use articulations, dynamics, appogiaturas, tempo fluctuations, cadenzas, rhubato sections, isorhythms, polymeters, octave displacement, rhythmic augmentation/diminution...

 

6) use "found (rhythmic/melodic/mathematical) objects" from the world...whether it's the golden ratio or human language or the rhythmic habits of things in your environment or whatever

 

7) develop your own harmonic vocabulary beyond just drawing triads in a piano roll

 

8) approach polyrhythm and/or polyphony like an engineer/mathematician (e.g. Xenakis)

[spunktronics]

what everyone is suggesting here is too close to what i'm trying to get away from

applying methods that other musicians have used to achieve what they have done

I'm trying to not be ground breaking but attain a level of enlightenment where i'm as you saying in between the lines of everything.

Probably get labeled as a mishmash of styles with no clear direction.

[Squee]

This thread makes me sad. Just do whatever the hell you want and don't overthink everything.

[Real Human Bean]

Just don't copy conventions init.

[dingformung]

Maybe change the place where you produce your music

[LimpyLoo]

This thread makes me sad. Just do whatever the hell you want and don't overthink everything.

That's what he was already doing and (by the sounds of it) it wasn't working

[Guest]

Just do whatever the hell you want and don't overthink everything.

 

Yes. Work hard and have fun.

[LimpyLoo]

Squee, didn't you study music/sound design at uni?

[Squee]

Squee, didn't you study music/sound design at uni?

Yeah? :)