Should Artists Experiment With Multiple Genres or Keep to One?

We all love certain artists with their individual styles and ways like Imagine Dragons and their powerful and heavy drums, or Twenty-One Pilots with Tyler Joseph's distinct voice, which can be heard immediately within all of their songs. But what would happen if these artists experimented with their definitive genres and styles... what would happen?

I believe that if an artist changes their style for their new album or in an attempt to re-invent themselves, they usually get a lot of hate because of it, as their fans became fans due to the music they were releasing at the time, and if the artist has changed their music style... they are not the same artist you fell in love with.

That is why a lot of artists and bands rarely change their genre or style so drastically or suddenly, as they want to increase their fanbase, and stay in the safe zone of the industry, and changing their already accepted styles is a huge risk. But what if you began your musical journey experimenting and altering your sound drastically to begin with... What if you were in the danger zone from day one?

We are Foundry13. We define ourselves as an alternative indie trap band, as we typically shift between the worlds of indie, alternative rock, and pop, trap, and hip hop, as well as fusing all of those genres together to create our own distinct style. Because of this, this allows us a lot more freedom with our music creation and production, as we do not need to limit ourselves to the chords and typical beats of one genre, and instead we can view our song writing and producing like a pick 'n mix of genres and styles.

Over time, we have discovered that if we enter this music industry with an experimental and diverse mindset, we may have more of an allowance to change and alter our music as we progress with time.

This is quite similar to the fantastic artist Billie Eilish, as she began her career with the beautiful "Ocean Eyes" in which is a soft ballad song pouring with emotions. Now, in 2019, Billie is viewed to be linked with the world of trap due to her beats and heavy 808 and bass sounds within her songs, and the majority of her fans are ok with this... So what makes Billie have the allowance to change her style?

It's all about the clout.

Billie has grown so huge over the last couple of years along with the music, fashion, merchandise, and companies, and this has all fused together to give her huge audience numbers and clout, and because of this, she could hypothetically create a song with only one note being played for three minutes straight, and it would amount quite a large number of streams just because... It's Billie Eilish.

So far, we have discovered two ways in order to have the freedom of experimenting with genres and sounds for an artist. One, start experimenting from day one, so that people view your experimenting as the norm, and love you as an artist for it. The second is to keep to one genre, holding a sense of consistency within you artist profile, which in time will gain fans, and then once you've reached a large enough audience (and I mean large), you can then create clout and a fanbase clique for yourself, then whatever you do, you will have people backing you up all of the way.

So in other words, that is why we rarely see this form of experimentation within the industry. It is so hard to get your fans and audience to support new styles from an already defined artist.

Unless you are defined by your differentiation in music.

Below is evidence of our experimentation with genres and styles within our music. This is something we have been doing since we first began producing music. I use the term "producing" instead of songwriting, because although we have been writing songs for a lot longer than we have been producing, I believe it is easier to experiment with genres as an artist who also produces their own tracks. This gives us more freedom to test new styles out. This could be another reason why there are many artists who do not experiment with genres. We found that it is easier as as producer to experiment, as there are so many more instruments to play around with in these new DAWS (Digital Audio Workstation) using Midi instruments to explore different musical cultures and sounds within music. Where a songwriter tends to have a specific instrument they use to write songs with, and therefore this can limit an artist's style and their experimentations.

Above is one of our earliest releases, titled "Sins and Tragic Flaws." This song is defined as Alternative Rock due to its strong rock influence within the chorus' with a strong electric lead guitar playing over a fast, sharp, and dry studio drum kit. In the verses, more melodic sequences can be heard on the electric guitar, however, the drum beat remains consistent, strong, and sharp, adding that iconic alternative vibe that the likes of Imagine Dragons typically explore.

"ROME" on the other hand, is one of our newest releases, in which we wanted to test the waters with a more alternative pop feel for our future songs. Rome uses strong, bass-fulfilling drums, which compliment the anthem like vocals within the chorus sections. We also made sure that the verses in this track were a lot less active when compared to the chorus, as we wanted to created a sense of a drop once the pre-chorus kicks into the chorus, which worked quite well. As you can see, we do experiment with our styles and genres... to an extent. We have also created jazz compositions, which again, presents the range of styles we are willing to use and explore.

In conclusion, we find that not having the limits of keeping our music to only one or two styles and genres allows us to release music on a more rapid basis, as well as increasing the quality as we see no walls or barriers to hold us back when we are producing.

It would be much appreciated if you check out our music on Spotify and other platforms @Foundry13, and let us know what you think...

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