First of, I'm not this original pioneering artist. I make beats at home like everyone else. However, it happens all to often that I hear 20,000 people trying to sound like Madlib, Jdilla, Flying lotus and I ask, "Why not do you!?" I understand that in the beginning stages of development you will emulate the artists you admire. Although, I hope, the individual will develop their own style as the progress. Who wants to be known as xerox? This whole Beat Generation movement is blatantly influenced by Dilla, yet at some point these artists developed their own style. I know I'll probably get a lot of flack for this. I'm mostly interested in hearing peoples opinions and insights. I hope I don't offend anyone


Amable

you wont get flack from me. I agree. I had my flukes with imitation but I think I am back on to my own style again

it comes from overthinking the process I guess...

What's the point of avoiding sounding like someone else?
You're going to have a hard time finding sounds that haven't been done yet! and then what is the gain of finding a new sound?

It all depends on your motivation..

if you are driven by having to make something new.. to define yourself...

or if you make music for the enjoyment of making music, or as a tool for expressing yourself.

either is valid, they seem to relate with my changes in views about other things in the world, so I'd say theyre related to the way you see the world in general.. neither being right or wrong, just about what's important to you.


I used to be the first, now I'm the second.. I still think about new types of music.. but not as in 'new sounds'.. more like - a way to create a large-scale social change.

I never use music to define myself, it's simply something I love and enjoy. Yet at the same time music conveys feelings, whether it's excitement or sadness, and these feelings conveyed do give insight to the individual making the track. What I'm speaking of is people who emphasize on the fact of focusing on making a dilla, madlib, flylo,etc beat. Influence is one thing biting is another.

Listen to the man himself.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE91pxieT9k

the "nothing new under the sun" argument is a 100 percent cop-out

there may not be individual sounds that are brand new, but there is ALWAYS a new vibe or combination of factors that create a new vibe

i cant imagine getting the emotional release i make music for by just creating the best copy i could.

but then again, if your happy, your happy

Believe it or not, that is one awesome name.

OP: As to the people that just WANT to sound exactly like X famous producer... There are actually people in the world who are only interested in money and fame.. it sucks, but its true. I have a theory that there are some people in the world who aren't actually conscious.. they're just robots that look and act like humans.



I was very careful to not say that nothing new can be done here That was the other discussion where I was talking about creating every possible combination of music with a computer.


But since you want to go into that... I'm not talking about 'exact' copies here.. I'm talking about types based on emotion/thought provoked... EG. all uplifting trance with certain chord structures/keys/progressions, and roughly the same kinds of synth sounds... have the same effect.. Therefore if it is the resulting feeling that you are interested in, the actual specific sof the song is not important.. It depends on if you want to be the first person to arrange a kick and snare pattern that goes KS_S_KKKKK_SSKS_SKSKS_SKS_S_SK_SK_S_SK_SK_KS_K_K__SK_KS_SK_SKSKKKS_S_S_SK_S_SKS_SSSSKS_SKSS_KSKSK_SSSS_KS_SKSS____SKS_KS_KS_SKKS_KSS.

or if you want to be the first person to make someone feel something , or think or experience something, different to what music has ever done before.

If you want to create an emotion/thought based on music then doing something new... well I think that IS very very very hard.. Every time I would try, I'd have to stop and think 'wait .. no.. thats not actually new' - I'm talking here about the result of music, the purpose of it.. not the actual specifics of the song.. sure you could make up a pattern that nobody had ever thought of before, but would it actually be achieving anything different to another similar pattern that has been done before?

i know you didn't say that or else i would have quoted you

it just made me think of it, and under the thread its something that should have been addressed

as for the tarnce thing...

i don't think anybody making trance is worried about not copying someone...o
yea of course every , single, pattern has been used and reused since the dawn of man, thats just one element of the song though
its not too too hard to create something unique, its just that as humans we tend to overuse our brains like "is this good, how about that what if i did this etc etc" when really we should throw all that out the window and play from emotion
if you play from a direct feeling you are having based on your position in life or whatever you will neverrr copy anyone. i can almost guarantee that, unless your emotions are copy of that person too

yeah I agree, but we cant all be like miles davis....

There was a while were i was honing in on a sound i liked, which i thought was unique, then i joined myspace, started listening to more cats on there....and i found out there were plenty of people doing a simular thing, working in a simular style, but to be honest, much better then i was...so i swintched it up again started making diffrent beats, but then i found other people messing with that sound too.....so i wasnt biting them, because id already been making beats like that before i heard them...

so what do i do, not show people those beats, ones that i worked really hard on...

people shouldnt have to keep second guessing them selves , because they are worried someones gonna say, you are biting this guy or that guy...

I guess what im trying to say is, theres a diffrence between biting and simularity lol

i think youll find that if you practice on that "sound" your trying to achieve it wont sound like anything else

practice keys when your not recording, practice pads when your not recording

the originality comes from pushing SOMETHING to the limit, no matter what that is, could be sampling, could be sampling keyboard or a mixture or whatever you just gotta push and push and push

Yeah im constantly doing that kinda thing haha....
one day i do hope to do something more inovative...but for now im still learning my craft, so it would be counter productive to keep worrying about sounding like someone else....

i got a sound in my mind that im striving for, but im nowhere near there yet....and as far as i know, that is completly original haha

it always is unique in your head...no matter how "artistic" you are everyone is capable

they just put themselves down like "uhh this is taking too long" or "i suck might as well go do ____"

its disappointing to see

yeahh, i agree with you....

all im saying is there is a flipside, like from experience i can say i have had ideas, and then found out someone has done a simular thing first.....then i have had an idea, executed it and found out someone has done a simular thing, so i have left it burried even tho it was my best work upto that point...

so i guess what im trying to say is....thats not biting its just coinciedence lol

and yeah im geting closer to that sound with every beat i make

my goal is not to be original, its to create good music.