Writing For A Cd - Do You Think A Band Has To Have " A Sound"

[BriSmi75]

Consider a band is writing songs for an upcoming CD (or just writing songs in general, maybe writing their first 12-15 songs). Do you think bands have to have "a sound"? Like a certain style? Is it weird or good if a band has some different sounding sounds - style wise? Do you think a band should sacrifice a good song because it doesn't fit a certain style?

[john]

Hey

Short answer is it is easier if there is a sound with variety within the sound. If you are an urban dance act would a folk song work? Possibly, but then it would only have a passing resemblance to a folk song. Ditch a good song, well you could:

• Re-work it so that the song sat better with the rest of your album
• Shelve the song to come back to later
• The songwriters could try and license it to another act through a brokering service

The reason is that for all record exec's and radio programmers like a degree of variety and versatility, they don't want the band to be confused. For a start if the song has a widely different listening demographic it is a large risk PLUS there is little chance of building on existing fans, so for one song it is like starting as a new band all over again with the huge cost in attracting fans that goes with that.

Once you are established, and depending on your genres etc there is more room for cross-over album tracks, or even odd singles. That does not mean you cannot have lots of flavours running through your music, just as long as the sound remains distinct. These days that is as much down to the musicians, the vocalist, the songwriters and arrangers and the producers!

Remember: The most expensive thing you ever have as a band is the cost of recruiting new fans. Think about all the promo money involved, including radio plugging, poster runs, adverts etc etc etc.

I hope this helps.

Cheers

John

[BlackhawkFan]

People identify with a "sound," IMO. With a band like Journey, it was the singer. Likewise with the 'Stones.

Queen managed to flit across several genre (thanks to Freddy), but even so, they had two signature sounds for people to identify with...Freddy's voice and Brian's guitar.

[Gangleri]

It's certainly safer to have a sound. It depends where you are in your musical career I think. I think my answer to the question in your title though, which concerns when you're in a process of songwriting a set of songs, whether it's for an album or not, it really depends on how you see yourself as a band or how you want to see your set of songs. My guess is that if you're asking that question then that means you have the heart of experimentation in you and I believe you should be allowed to yield to it. However, as John says, there's a worry for people like producers or maybe promoters that your audience might see (or hear) you as being confused and this is certainly a danger in some cases. In other cases not having a sound that can be quite pinned down is good. A band that I was in for the last year and a bit had songs and sections in quite a lot of different styles and though on the one hand I think we sort of made it work, it was quite hard describing ourselves to other people and to promoters or potential hirers. One thing that I learned from being in that band is that people like to know what bands or styles you sound like, they need that frame of reference to "picture" your sound. In this sense, it's good to have a sound. BUT, I think it's possible to make your band work without having a sound, but it's a lot more effort I imagine. Then again I suppose the musics a bit more fun if you've got that variety going.

[Tambarskjelve]

I think you need to have a sound. That beeing said, I don`t think it is crucial to have a "style".

Queen is mentioned as a good example. Led Zeppelin is another. In the catalogue of Zep you can find examples of heavy metal, blues, folk, reggea, country and some crossovers.

[Prometheus]

Led Zeppelin kept constantly changing their sound and sound engineers, apparently because Jimmy Page would not tolerate anyone other than himself being credited as the sound of Led Zeppelin.

That said, each album did have a sound... It's important to have some kind of consistency across an album. Or is it? I don't know. You can find compilation albums that work very well where there is no real connection between the artists on them.

[Roflcopter]

I think 'sound' and 'style' is an accumulation over time of the things that 'worked' for that band. That could well be less than 20% of all the things that they tried, and got booed either by the other band members, or the fans - and died a quick, silent death, never to be mentioned again.

This of course covers only things that *can* be replaced/altered. Other things are just 'them', which is why you can pick out David Bowie's voice in 2 seconds flat, when he does guest appearances. Even in a Queen song...

[beatpoet]

If you're struggling to find a sound just through writing, you might want to try and look for a theme amongst your songs instead. If you're writing for an album, it's better to write more songs than you need. With a bigger batch, you can pick the best ten or twelve songs which are connected together by a particular theme. Out of the theme, will come a sound!

[SoloSolo]

The way i look at it is this. 50% of your stuff has to be very stylistically similar and have a clear focus of what the band is about. 25% can be to the left of that spectrum, and the other 25% to the right. So the songs that are furthest away from the center on the left and right may not sound similar at all, yet they are both connected in some way to the core sound. The Beatles did this from album to album. Your mother Should know and I Want You She's So Heavy couldnt sound less alike yet they both sound like The Beatles. A modern band that does this quite well is the Foo Fighters. It all sounds like them but maybe not so much song to song. I am not a fan of bands who sound like they keep doing the same song over and over. Alice and Chains seemed to go to the same well once to often for me, although it is a distinct sound and super recognizable it was real easy to get tired of the parrallel harmonies. Dirt is an amazing record though for that style of music.

[MissCountryMusicStar]

I don't think you should get too worked up over creating your "sound." Just write what you feel, pick what you feel are the best songs, and since it's all coming from you then that's what will create your "sound" on its own.