Know Your Genre
What is your genre? Why is it important?
So let's begin with why it's important….
I want you to imagine that you in a lift, in a big building and you get chatting to another person in the lift who just happens to be the head of the A & R department in Sony Records. The head of the A & R department gets chatting to you and realises that you are an artist and says to you 'amazing, what sort of music do you make? What's your genre?’ Now this is what I want you to think about. There is no particular ‘right’ answer to this question but in this scenario the ‘wrong’ answer would definitely be ‘dunno really’.!
This is what we're going to explore. We are going to fill in four boxes. In the first box I want you to brainstorm and write down any artists who influence you to sing and influence your music. People that you look up to, people you listen to, people that you aspire to be like and write them down in box one.
Then I want you to do some searching on those artists, stick them into google, look up their Spotify profile, maybe look to see if they've got a website, stick them in Wikipedia and notice how they are described in genre and style...and write that down next to their name in box one.
Following on from that I want you to investigate, to put in box two, who influenced and inspired the people that you put in box one. Box two is the people who inspired the people in box one. For example, if you put Amy Winehouse in box one...we know that Amy Winehouse was inspired by lots of the old jazz great, Etta James, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, so they are the artists you would be putting in box two. Then I want you to describe their genre. In that scenario you would be putting Jazz, Blues. Yours will be different.
Following on from that, in box three I want you to write down anybody that you are comparable with as an artist. So, this could be somebody that you think you are similar to, it could be somebody that other people have said you are like. It could be that you've done a gig and somebody has come up to you after the gig and said ‘you know what, you really remind me of…so and so’. You might not even be able to see it but if it is somebody that you have repeatedly been told you are like then write them down in box three…and then again see how they are described in genre and style and write them down next to it.
We're starting to get a pattern and a family tree here, there should be some similarities.
Taking the answers to one, two and three in mind I want you, in box four, to describe your own genre and style.
Write down any words that you think are suitable. It could be that you write down label type genre words like indie, electronica, pop, soul, grunge. It could be that those words flow freely but if they don't flow freely then look for descriptive words. It could be that you sing chilled out pop, or uplifting soul, or atmospheric cinematic music, or something like that, anything to describe your genre and style and write those words in box four.
Spend a little bit of time to brainstorm doing this exercise and just to recap;
Box one- people who influence you
Box two- people who influence them
Box three- people who you are comparable with
Box four- your genre and style.
I would love to know what genre you are and how you describe your style so please share with me!