Is it okay to compare your music to others?

[estevan carlos benson]

Try a thought experiment: imagine yourself in the best social situation you can, you've had a few drinks / whatever is your poison, and you are surrounded by your kind of people. This is a great night.
Some music is coming on, it is perfectly fitting to your mood: What is the music ?
Make that music.

I like it! Great advice... gonna get my head into this space next time i sit to write some beats

thanks Angstrom this made a lot of sense!

Yeah, that sounds interesting. I should imagine who "my kind" of people are.

[9V]

Try a thought experiment: imagine yourself in the best social situation you can, you've had a few drinks / whatever is your poison, and you are surrounded by your kind of people. This is a great night.
Some music is coming on, it is perfectly fitting to your mood: What is the music ?
Make that music.

I like it! Great advice... gonna get my head into this space next time i sit to write some beats

thanks Angstrom this made a lot of sense!

http://youtu.be/80DtQD5BQ_A

[UnCL0NED]

I say: Listen to contemporary artists!!!

If you make music only for yourself:
Make sure you know what's going on around you, because you can pick up some nice tricks along the way to incorporate in your own music.
There are a lot of good musicians out there nowadays. And it would be a shame to miss out on their music, by trying to live in a bubble.

If you want to become famous with your music:
Make sure you know you what the general public like nowadays. Steal, copy and improve these things from their heroes. Especially in your case: you should have built up a nice bag of knowledge to become better than what's around at the moment. What's the worst that can happen? So you make a song that fits in a certain genre? Or it has the same arrangement structure as the number one hit at the moment? Who cares?

Anyway, I think it is inevitable and even mandatory to check your contemporaries!
Also, I believe its a good thing to be part of a movement (in any art form).
Just make sure you're having fun during the process...

[The Carpet Cleaner]

<snip> ( lots of valid points)

Yeah, I understand all your points. Valid points. I suppose the issue then becomes, who do we, as artists, want to have conversations with? If you're as unsocial as I am, it's a confusing question. I've been having conversations with myself for so long now... I'm just not sure who interested in listening to the topics I want to discuss.

I think that is definitely the problem.
there is an unfortunate truism that an artist must please themselves first in order to make valid art, but this flat statement fails to take into the account that musicians often love the process of music making.
If you are making music whose theme is 'the pleasure of solitary technological music making', then you should not be surprised with an audience of one. or at least, an audience of similar people.

I often find myself in social situations, usually clubs, where the music does not match I would want it to be. I usually think "I wish this music was dirtier, more expressive, more individual, more funky" (etc)
It is that imaginary music which I later try to reproduce. Music which fits a certain sitation.

It seems to go counter to the "make music for yourself" dictum, but really - this 'social' music is for yourself. It benefits your self if you make some music which is liked by people. especially if those people are hot young sleazy tattooed women.

Or perhaps that's just my motivation

Try a thought experiment: imagine yourself in the best social situation you can, you've had a few drinks / whatever is your poison, and you are surrounded by your kind of people. This is a great night.
Some music is coming on, it is perfectly fitting to your mood: What is the music ?
Make that music.

Angstrom president !

[mbird21]

<snip> ( lots of valid points)

Yeah, I understand all your points. Valid points. I suppose the issue then becomes, who do we, as artists, want to have conversations with? If you're as unsocial as I am, it's a confusing question. I've been having conversations with myself for so long now... I'm just not sure who interested in listening to the topics I want to discuss.

I think that is definitely the problem.
there is an unfortunate truism that an artist must please themselves first in order to make valid art, but this flat statement fails to take into the account that musicians often love the process of music making.
If you are making music whose theme is 'the pleasure of solitary technological music making', then you should not be surprised with an audience of one. or at least, an audience of similar people.

I often find myself in social situations, usually clubs, where the music does not match I would want it to be. I usually think "I wish this music was dirtier, more expressive, more individual, more funky" (etc)
It is that imaginary music which I later try to reproduce. Music which fits a certain sitation.

It seems to go counter to the "make music for yourself" dictum, but really - this 'social' music is for yourself. It benefits your self if you make some music which is liked by people. especially if those people are hot young sleazy tattooed women.

Or perhaps that's just my motivation

Try a thought experiment: imagine yourself in the best social situation you can, you've had a few drinks / whatever is your poison, and you are surrounded by your kind of people. This is a great night.
Some music is coming on, it is perfectly fitting to your mood: What is the music ?
Make that music.

Have to say thats really is obvious but fuck amazing i never thought of it that way, its amazing we caught up so much with the technology that we forget what we aiming for some times.

[memes_33]

every artist, no matter how original, has influences. without influences, there is no starting point, really. there is a HUGE difference between having influences that subconsciously steer your music in a certain direction and trying to copy someone. i think that one person's music is really an amalgamation of all of their influences, with a little bit of one's own personality/ideas/experiences contributing as well.

i also think the purpose of art is to communicate with others on a level that transcends language- be it spiritual, emotional, whatever. i doubt there's anyone alive that makes music only for themselves- at some point, there is always a desire to share it with others.

i get ideas from listening to other peoples' music all of the time. not like "oh, that synth sound/line is awesome and i'm going to try to copy it;" more like "that was cool how she traded different samples of that string bass line to give it some character." then i try it. it never sounds the same as the track that influenced the idea.

as far as comparing my music to others', i think that's helpful when mixing (as a reference) and sometimes when arranging a song. if i'm having trouble with a song's arrangement, i'll reference another similar track and actually sometimes draw out a track sheet of that song to see where different parts come in, etc. it doesn't always work, but it has pulled me out of a compositional rut more than once.

my $0.02