SmokeyJoe

So, my question is: what are the compositional elements that give a musical genre it's distinctive "feel?" I'm particularly interested in swing and surf, but information on other styles of music would also be appreciated. This question is something I've been struggling with for a while now, and one of the main reasons I decided to seek out songwriting forums like this one. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, but although I can easily tell one genre from another, I have an extremely hard time pinning down what separates the sound of, say, Big Band Swing from Industrial or Surf Rock. I don't mean the obvious things, like instruments, tempo, use of synths, distortion, etc. You can play a heavy metal riff on an acoustic guitar or even a trumpet and it still has a distinctively metal feel to it--nobody's going to mistake it for swing just because you've switched instruments. From what little I know of musical theory, I'm guessing it has something to do with the scales, chords and rhythms commonly used in each genre. But although I've done a lot of research on the subject, I've never been able to find a list of elements common to a specific musical style--or even much discussion on the subject. Mostly I just come across people saying "if you want to play [X] style of music just listen to a lot of bands that play that style and you'll pick it up." My problem is that I've been listening to surf and swing for pretty much my entire life, and apparently I can't "just pick it up." I can recognize a swing or surf melody when I hear it, and I can even recognize elements of one genre in another style of music, but I can't for the life of me figure out what about a song gives it that distinctive feel. The upshot is, I can't write swing or surf music "on purpose." I have to just wait until I stumble into a melody that sounds right with no clear idea of why it sounds that way--and it doesn't happen often. As someone who deeply loves both genres and would like to write songs in them, it's more than a little frustrating.

1. Do you sing, play an instrument or instruments? I sing, and have been known to futz around with a keyboard or guitar/bass on occasion without really knowing what I was doing. Been doing it on and off since I was a toddler, and what little I know is primarily self-taught. If you count DAW's as an instrument, that's the one I'm at least somewhat good at--mainly because you can take your time with it. 2. Are you in a band or bands? I've done a few solo projects in the past, but about a month or so back my wife and I decided get more serious about making music and form a band. We settled on the name The Screaming Catz, as sort of a self-depreciative in-joke. That and it sounded cool. Honestly, we're not that bad, promise! What do we play? Well, nothing yet. We've both got a huge variety of musical interests so we're just trying to get some songs together and see what direction we end up growing in. Our current notion is to create some bastard hybrid of surf, punk, electronica, and swing. Basically combining surf-inspired punk like Agent Orange with swing and electronica the way trip hop and electro-swing combine swing and electronica with rap. We'll see what we eventually come up with. Currently we're working on putting together covers of Tom Wait's "God's Away on Business" and Cole Porter's "Let's Misbehave", as well as some original numbers to get a feel for our band's sound. As far as instruments go, we've currently got two voices, a keyboard, and a metric ton of synthesizer software. We're planning on buying guitars, (both acoustic and electric) electric bass, and possibly even a cello and/or trumpet as well. We don't have any kind of website up yet, since we haven't really recorded anything yet, but we do have a facebook page up as a placeholder. (Meant to make it private until we were ready to debut, but apparently facebook doesn't let you create a page without immediately publishing it anymore.) 3. Do you write songs? For as long as I can remember. I mostly write lyrics, simply because that's what I can get out of my brain and into a tangible form. Currently I lack the knowhow to reproduce what I hear in my head on paper or with an instrument. My wife/bandmate helps me, and vice-versa. We've both dabbled in songwriting to some degree or another, and tend to complement each other well. 4. Do you record your music? I'm strictly home studio, due to budget constraints. For me recording means stringing cords across the living room from various microphones/instruments/devices to a computer, and then mixing the tracks together in FL Studio. I have a running joke of saying that the name of my record label is "Jerry Riggs Studios." I've got a few tracks from one of my solo projects floating around on a website somewhere, but honestly I'd be a little embarrassed to share it. Not so much for the musical quality as much as the persona I adopted while doing it. Suffice to say there was a lot of in your face attitude involved. Not that that's nessecarily a bad thing, but it can present a barrier to social interactions when you come across as a raging, antisocial punk. 5. What other roles do you perform in the music business? Well, with my last project I was basically my own mini-industry. I wrote, performed (or programmed/sequenced), recorded, and mixed/produced the music in my living room. Burned the cds with my home computer, designed and printed out disc labels/case art. Put the whole thing together and talked the local record stores into carrying them. I also handled promotion/management duties for myself and booked a couple of venues, through all but one fell through and the one that actualy happened was more of a DJ job than a live performance. I also managed an online presence via a soundclick site, forums, and an online radio station. 6. Are you a tech head? God yes. Computers and electronics I understand. Music theory and analogue instruments not so much. I'm still waiting for someone to perfect DNI so I can just stick a plug in my head and record straight from my brain. Cut out the middle man, y'know? 7. What country do you live in? U.S.A. Home of the worst intellectual property laws this side of the Death Star. 8. What are your ambitions? Just to make music and share it with those who will listen. The major record labels are a bunch of con artists and thugs who can go die in a fire, so I'm not really interested in signing with one--which pretty much limits what I can hope to achieve. I'd love to travel around and do shows eventually, but that's nearly impossible without a major label backing you. Being "internet famous" wouldn't be bad, and money would be nice simply because being broke sucks, but mostly I just want to get the music out of my head and into people's ears. 9. Do you draw/paint/write stories/computer art/dance or other creative pursuit? All things, all the time. Name anything creative or artistic and chances are I at least dabble in it. 10. What would you like to get out of Songstuff? Mainly I'm just looking for a community I can participate in. People I can talk to, learn from, share and recieve advice with, and grow alongside as a musician. I have a lot of questions about making music that lessons, practice, and research have not answered, and I'm hoping that just being able to ask questions and talk with people will prove more effective. Plus, it's always good to have people who share your interests to "talk shop" with.