Last week on tyDi’s personal Facebook account – which nearly 900 fans follow – he posted a short essay about the future of electronic dance music. While his thoughts are inspiring and eye-opening, many people have been thinking what he has stated below for sometime. I applaud Tyson, tyDi, for having the courage to openly talk about this issue. EDM needs a change, this time of massive, loud, overwhelmingly recycled drops needs to end. I would love to see artist take their work to a more melodic, meaningful realm. Regardless, read tyDi’s passage below and feel free to share your thoughts with us on Facebook, Twitter, or in the comments section below.
“I’m legitimately worried about the future of EDM… If producers don’t change this whole approach of copying what’s ‘cool’ we could collectively sink this ship very quickly. I can already see it in the fans eyes, people are getting over this trend of making every song sound exactly the same. The audience is tiring. Are we focussing too much on branding a cheap product instead of working towards making music that is actually memorable? I’m talking about the idea that every song needs to be as simple as it possibly can. Music that is dumbed down so much that it’s lost anything ‘musical’ about it; a loud kick drum, bass and a screeching syncopated sound that acts as some sort of lead – Yes it works, yes it sounds ‘loud’, yes it ‘kicks’ in a club… but will you remember it a year later? This kind of EDM has been done over and over, at what point will people realise that it’s no longer innovation but instead a brain numbingly obvious imitation and a sad attempt to sell as many copies as the last guy who did it? I can’t bare listening to ‘EDM’ charts anymore because the innovation is gone, where are the new ideas?
Anyway, I diverge. I’m supposed to be writing this for the new producers… the kids out there who want to make their own music. In every interview I always get asked – ‘What advice would you give to an up and coming producer’, so here’s my answer: Learn music theory, please guys… actually learn it. Know the difference between key signatures, chord changes, thirds, fifths, jazz chords, dissonance..etc. Learn how to use dissonance to your advantage, learn about cadences and why a certain resolving cadence will make you feel a certain way, or why an unresolved cadence leaves you with a feeling of mystery or concern. Learn how a compressor actually works, learn why dynamic range is so important in giving ‘impact’ and power to big drum sections. Learn that it’s not always good to just simply ‘SLAM’ your songs to the point where they distort so badly it literally fatigues the ears of the listener after three minutes. Find out about syncopation and even rhythmic dissonance. I know it seems like a lot but I promise you it’s soo much more fulfilling than just throwing samples together. I don’t want to see music with soul turn into music that’s just painfully mundane, cold and overdone. We must stop teaching people that it’s okay to just get a sample pack and make an entire song out of the same loops that everyone else is using. Throwing a few loops together doesn’t make you a songwriter and it certainly doesn’t make you an artist. Songwriting is about constructing a piece of music from start to finish, something that actually has a musical element to it – not just a kick drum with a loud bendy sound that’s distorting over the top. I mean this with all respect, I want people to admire music again. I want people to not just love a song in the club environment, I want them to remember the song, to fall in love with it and then go home thinking about it.
I fell in love with EDM because of the songs that were genre defying, clever, intriguing, and powerful. Yes they were dance songs, but they had feeling. Even if the feeling was simply “I WANT TO PARTY”… that’s fine, my fans know I love a good pop song every now and again (even today’s pop often has more musicality than the current trend in EDM!!). Music speaks so loudly, it really can act like a drug, it can send shivers down your spine. I urge any new producers to PLEASE open your minds when you produce records, don’t reference what’s currently selling, just think about what you want to achieve. Do you want that loud slamming dance song? Do you want a powerful vocal that works perfectly harmonious with your chords so that the hairs on your arms stand up? Do you want your song to have an influence of rock, jazz, classical or pop? YOU CAN DO THIS, and you don’t need loops or sample packs for it! You have to know the rules of music… if we keep telling people that making dance music is as easy as ‘making a fat beat’ with a few random sounds then this whole EDM scene will fall like a tower of lego. I want the listeners to value not just songs, but the music theory that causes them to make you feel the way the way they do.
Sorry for the rant.”
– Tyson
This article was written by: Follow @TyGuyMusic
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