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SHOULD I PRODUCE MORE THAN ONE GENRE OF MUSIC?

Multi-Genre Music Producers

By Kevin MckinneyPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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By Vania Shows On Unsplash

Music producers, how many of you create or produce more than one genre of music? Through the years I've produced Hip Hop music, R&B, and Electronic Dance Music (Deep House, EDM remixes). How and when do you come to the decision to expand and try your hand at other genres? What makes you internally want to produce other genres? I know quite a few music producers who have produced a particular genre so long they feel "pigeon whole" or they feeling like they can't change because their brand has been built already around their main genre. Let's explore the question of should you produce more than one genre of music .

What Do You Call A Producer That Creates More Than One Genre Of Music

What do you call a music producer who creates music in multiple genre? I call those of us who can do that a Swiss army knife, others call us multi genre producers, and others don't know what to call us. What I mean by that is, since most producers are known to "specialize" in the genre they produce, when you are able to create more than one genre of music , some people almost want to consider you "generic" You know the sold saying, jack of all trades master of non, that's how a lot of others look at it. I am one of those producers who have created different styles of music and I personally don't look at it that way. To me being as versatile as possible is a good thing. I understand that back in the day your who fan base was built on those who loved you because you specialized in hip hop, or Rock, or Metal etc. Fast forward to today , to me its not the same. If you are good enough to be a multi genre producer, you will have a lot more work on the table for yourself. You can producer a few hip hop artists, then maybe go to EDM for a while and maybe either another genre. Now how you will promote yourself, is another question. Will you use the name you are known by, will you create other brands for other genres, or will you just use your government name and just market those other genres under you name. You can decide that part, but the skills you gain from mixing, and learning other genres is underestimated. It builds more confidence in your overall production abilities. Also if you ever get in music industries such as sync licensing, you have the potential to make a lot of passive income, as all types of music is needed for TV shows, commercials, ads and promos. That is actually one of the main reasons I made it a point to learn multiple genres, it opens up other doors.

How Do You Go About Learning To Produce Other Genres Of Music

You are ready to produce other genres of music, ok sounds good, so how do you go about doing that? Well YouTube will definitely be your best friend. There are so many music producers of all genres who have tutorials based on the genres they produce. Once you decide you are ready for a change, you need to find some"reference " songs, meaning songs that are produced in the way you would like to sound like. From there , you might be good enough to create just based of these references, if not then again go to you-tube and find the tutorials on the style you are looking for. You might also have to add more sounds to your collections. If you've been a hip hop producer for a while, you will need new drums and kits that are more based in the new style you are going to produce. I used to believe that my hip hop drums would be good enough to use in EDM production, but even with all the tweaking in the world, they didn't have the tone or punch I needed them to have to sound like EDM style drums. Once you have your references , sounds and tutorials together, it's time to learn and COMMIT. That word commit, is the most important part of all this. Things won't be easy because its a new style to learn, things wont sound as good as you want obviously at first. This is the reason you will need to commit to learning and stay positive on this new production journey. I will also add that even though I advocate learning new genres, do , get one main genre down pretty proficiently before jumping, yes if possible become a master, or as close as you can to becoming a master at one genre, then move to others. You may not master them all, but you can become very proficient in more than one genre, which will again open up more work and potential opportunities, which as a music producer is all we can ask for !

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Kevin Mckinney

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