I am a UK singer-songwriter, I make music in a wide range of styles. Ask me for my musical 'raison d'être' and I could just say that I sometimes feel compelled to write music, so that's what I do. However, that doesn't really explain enough about why I make music. The short answer is that I enjoy music, music has given me lot of pleasure, it lifts my spirits and makes my World a better place. I want to make music that gives pleasure to me and to others.
While this is a fairly good answer, I think that the reason that I make music merits a longer, fuller and deeper explanation. One that answers not only why I make music, but also why I make music in a wide range of musical genres, and what I'm ultimately aiming for.
I make music because I love music. Music has, and continues to give me, pleasure in many forms including excitement, relaxation, escapism and solace. The music I love has come from very many different styles of music, and from many artists. Some music has touched me very deeply, some music has simply given me a brief tiny lift in spirits. Most of the music I enjoy falls between these two extremes. Another reason I make music is for the joy of creating something.
I tend to lean towards trying to make music that touches people and makes them think, but I know that there's also value in music that gives a little lift. I'm up for creating music across the full spectrum. What I do aim for is music where everything comes together perfectly. That is I believe that the lyrics, melody, genre and arrangement should all complement and enhance one another. I believe that this is the way to produce a great track.
It's not as simple as putting a sad melody to a sad lyric and using a sad arrangement. That might work fine, but there are instances where a sad lyric can benefit from being lifted a little by a fairly bright melody and/or by a bright arrangement. It's about getting the whole thing to feel right, music is about emotion, about the way you're trying to get people to feel when they listen to it.
I want all musical elements, including genre, to blend as perfectly as I can make them. I see no sense in limiting my repertoire to just one or two genres. I use any genre that I think I'm capable of making good music with; the genre(s) that are the 'best fit' for the track I'm working on.
I don't stick with only writing my own music. Taking something good that someone else has written can be creatively satisfying if I can do something worthwhile with it. By updating and/or changing someone else's song I might end up with a new version that people really like.
What am I aiming for with my music? What is my ultimate goal? My goal is to create something in a completely new style that becomes a 'standard'. By standard I mean a songs that most people know and like. By new style I mean a style that no-one has heard before.
I've probably got very little chance of achieving my goal, but that's ok. Often gaols are important because of what's achieved while trying to reach them. Not reaching a goal needn't be a failure at all. Just maybe I'll create some tracks that some people really relate to and enjoy while I'm working towards my musical goal.
David
