Share your inspiration!

[Whitetail]

Hmmmm not sure where exactly would be the best place to put this, but:

Know any particularly creative musicians that you often draw upon for inspiration during the creative process? Have a soft spot for a specific genre of technique that you thoroughly enjoy using that's outlined well in another track? Share these sorts of things here.


As far as rock goes, Karnivool has to be the most interesting rock band I've heard for a while, I'd say they come close to or even match Tool when it comes to creativity and non-conventional rock sound. Some of the tracks are fairly interesting on the composing side when you get down to breaking them down, like a track that opens up alternating between 12 16, 10 16 and 13 16 timing in the drum intro.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnHkXUkkabw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDKsosOvVmw

When I normally think of IDM, I normally think of random samples arranged in no particular order - that is until I found Cex, who actually manages to turn glitchcore into beautiful music. I just find his ability to turn more unsavory sounds into working percussion fascinating.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQUDB1oD ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4PcdrkB ... re=related

Aphex Twin pretty much seems to have done every single type of ambient electronica out there, and on top of that done it well. He's done a huge variety of work so the albums are pretty good sources for inspiration if you're dry on ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kNTGsX3aj8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dh-EU-HbPQ

[General Mumble]

Wow, I'd seen the name Karnivool here and there but sort of ignorantly tossed it aside, thinking it would be just another metal band, but wow. The first link didn't work, but the second, Goliath, impressed me a lot.

As for my own inspiration, I love the music that accompanied the Jazz Jackrabbit games, and Unreal Tournament games, which, if I'm not mistaken, are both mostly composed by Alexander Brandon.




I'm also a big fan of The Mars Volta, you may not be able to detect their inspiration in my works, mainly because I love how a lot of their songs play around with effects in different places to sound real trippy. I do this occasionally in my music, and have a song that I haven't uploaded that contains a sample from...



No idea if this sort of stuff will inspire other people, but it does me, so I shared it.

(I also rip off Deadmau5 beats from time to time >_> )

[NotACleverPony]

@poowis
Oh my goodness, I love jazz jackrabbit too.



The synth melody at 0:58 ringed in my head for months.

...

I was a strange kid.

[General Mumble]

I hadn't heard that one before (due to playing Jazz Jackrabbit 2 more than the first), but I'm glad you showed me, I'm gonna go on a listening spree of all of his older work now.

[Pinkie Cake]

- that is until I found Cex -

You have just earned 500 respect points from me.

Cex is a very good inspiration for someone who likes IDM, glitchcore. But IMHO only the 2 first albums were good. Later when he tries to experiment with into not experimental side it just gets boring.

Well my biggest inspiration ever was and is and will be - Renard.
Mainly because of him I started composing music myself.

I can't really say any more inspirations because I have just too many. Since I listen to a lot of music styles I have a lot of inspirations, but more songs than artists. For each style I could list some artists and their tracks.

[[voodoopony]]

Haha I have some Cex on my playlist, good stuff!

My main influences was the music I listened to from when I was 11-13 years old, and since then my playlist has grown but not a lot has impacted me the same way music did when I first listened to it.

I think the fact that I pretty much listened to Dj Shadow on repeat 365 days a week as a kid affects my music to this day; something about the grooves, arrangement and style of the songs he made has a niche in my head.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afCDR5kZTZg

Other than that I listened to a bunch of beat-heavy abstract hip hop music [not just that, but mostly]. These are some songs I grew up with in middle school that I'll probably never forget.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyqSToY1oFM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ1O7M0-2DQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbINYprB3K8

There are loads of others but I don't want to go on a link binge haha.

[Makkon]

Wow, Jazz Jack rabbit has some good stuff! But dang, is anyone else having trouble with youtube today?

I'm an orchestral sort of guy. If it tells a story, and puts imagery into my mind, I love it. Movie soundtracks, some classical music, and orchestrated metal (preferably without english lyrics). I've taken a recent liking to folk music as well.

I'm sure you've all heard of John Williams, Hans Zimmer, and Danny Elfman so I won't link to them, but there are a few others that I want to mention that have particular influence on my music.

Jo Hasaishi- he's the principle composer for all if Hayao Miyazaki's films. He work is so beautiful that it makes me tear up on occasion.

tags don't work on this one, checking the code now...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uduCfpXUjCw

Freaking LOVE Grant Kirkhope and his whimsical work, he's been contracting the Prague City Philharmonic Orchestra to perform. Classic, nostalgic tunes that I grew up with fully realized in orchestrated form. I can't get enough.


Harry Gregson Williams does all of the soundtracks to the MGS series, I love his use of synthesizers in conjunction with orchestral, it's a style I want to work at.


And I love this group... I have yet to glean any sort of influence from them as of yet. Probably helps to be able to play the guitar.

[Mundius]

*claps*

Wonderful, I don't know any of this stuff. I doubt I'll know any of it, either.

[penguindf12]

Oh boy, here we go. My favorite rock music usually involves odd time signatures, odd tonality, odd everything. Everything changing, a lot. My favorite band is Thinking Plague:





^ Dear God these are my two favorite pieces of music ever. The 5uu's also play this kind of music, but with even more "punch." THIS SONG IS THE GREATEST:



I also really like Mr. Bungle:



^ About as metal as my tastes get. It ain't rock without clarinet!

I like some Aphex Twin, but most of his stuff seems overly repetitive & bland to me. However, I do REALLY like "Selected Ambient Works 1985-92," which is amazing. Everything else is kind of hit-or-miss with him. I like Daft Punk more, mainly Discovery (my #1 favorite electronica album, of course), and some bits of Homework & Human After All. I can't stand the Tron 2 soundtrack. Dan Deacon is cool too - I couldn't help but get hooked after hearing his live demo of "Ohio"!

The Mars Volta are cool. I LOVE "De-Loused," "Frances," bits of "Amputechture," and their early demos/Tremluant pieces. I cannot stand most of "Bedlam in Goliath" - it's mastered VERY poorly, despite the fact that many songs are quite good - and I just plain don't like "Octahedron," which just sounds really weak to me. I also really like Radiohead.

My favorite video game music:
Donkey Kong Country 1, 2, & some of 3 (Dave Wise = God)
Earthbound (some of the most creatively experimental I've heard)
Mystical Ninja (traditional Japanese + pop + good songwriting hell yeah)
Chrono Trigger (tuneful & excellent)
+ all the obvious classics, Mario, Zelda, etc.

Hmm... also Captain Beefheart:





Van der Graaf Generator:



Yes:



Dear god, GENTLE GIANT:




This music always reminds me of Paper Mario 2 for some reason.

CLASSICAL MUSIC!!!:

CHARLES FUCKING IVES


SHOSTAKOVICH:


WEBERN:


Man, I should stop.

[Whitetail]

Penguin - hmmm the thinking plague is really interesting, reminds me of like a cross between Giraffes? Giraffes!, God is an Astronaught and Queen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZqZCS0rCmE (GG)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEDhsDoq ... 2C5EB4CC59 (GiaA)

Cex is a very good inspiration for someone who likes IDM, glitchcore. But IMHO only the 2 first albums were good. Later when he tries to experiment with into not experimental side it just gets boring.

Yeah, I had found them via this map of electronic music someone linked on another site and listened to that first album and was thinking "awesome," so I subscribed the channel - later I see he released a new song, thinking "Awesome" again until I listened and it sounded like typical poppy electro, I was pretty dissapointed.

-----------------

VG tracks can be pretty inspiring, I've always been particularly impressed with this track for some reason:

[General Mumble]

SO. MUCH. MUSIC to listen to when I get home from work.

[Dr_Dissonance]

Well, I really need to go sleep, but I'll leave a quick post here:

This piece always inspires me, regardless of when, where and what I'm doing!



Always good when I'm writing choral music anyway...

[PinkiePieSwear]

I think quite a lot of my inspiration came from Starfox games. This one is by far my favorite Starfox track of all time.



And as meh of a game as Starfox Adventures was, it did have a few really good tracks. This one in particular always made me feel like I was exploring on another planet.




And speaking of exploring other planets, the music from the following game did a fantastic job of making the exploration of the incredibly bad graphics scenery actually seem pretty awesome. The music just added soooo much to this game, and is 90% of the reason I want to go back and play it.



As you can probably tell, I really like pads and strings... a lot.

[Overkillius]

If I do get inspired by certain composers... it's always been, so far,

Mozart
(I assume you know him, he is a pretty cool guy)

Z. Randall Stroope
This guy was the clinition for the 2010 region mixed choir in my region. I love singing his stuff and I often look to it to learn. I met him face to face between rehearsals too. Cool guy as well.



I am pretty sure this is him conducting one of his songs. For the record: we had better musicians over all than the ones in the video when we performed this IMO. Also we might have had better recording quality... makes me wish I bought the CD.

John Rutter
I'm not a religious person, but I love this music. I don't think I'd be even interested in composing if it weren't for this awesomeness. Singing this evoked man tears.
For some reason the Youtube for these songs aren't working on this site.

Movement 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PHBhDyi6nA

Movement 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxIr_cvUfwM&NR=1

Movement 3 (the important one)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUoN27W6hQ4&NR=1

Paul Rardin
Another person who, without his music, I probably wouldn't have the will to compose. He is directing the song and he is also the composer. This video actually has me in it. My theory teacher from high school (also one of my choir directors also back in high school) can be found at the piano. He was very supportive and taught me a lot.

Here is the explanation for the song:
Sound Off is a whimsical, rhythm-driven dialogue between an R&B singer and a member of the British aristocracy, as moderated by a U.S. Army drill sergeant. The latter invites each of the four sections of the choir to "sound off" in their unique range and style (R&B singer), in hopes of persuading the other three sections (aristocrat) to embrace the notion of the "house party." By the end, the aristocrat joins in the good-natured fun, albeit with some embarrassment afterwards, and the piece concludes with a final sound-off that fades into the distance.



Many video game musicians also inspire me... but I feel like I am using too many youtube videos for one post.
The ones who inspire me most are Johan Lindgren,
http://www.magickagame.com/media/music#

and Russel Brower


Last but not least:
Pretty much anything Nintendo has put out since the beginning. Take you're pick.

Not to mention you guys. There is no way I'd have some of the plans I did if it weren't for this fandom.

[Makkon]

Wow, reminded me of this!



This guy does a lot of stuff down here a Brigham Young University, and he never learned to sight read music (my hero!). Gives me a little hope.

[Dr_Dissonance]

Wow, reminded me of this!
(insert Whitacre video here)

W-w-w-Whitacre! He's written some very good stuff!
I guess I'll expand on what inspires me!

Classical-wise, I listen to a lot! Per Norgard continuously amazes me and his 3rd Symphony is my most favourite symphony ever!



As Rainbow Dash would say: "So awesome!"

I'm also constantly inspired by pretty much every classical composer in the past century, including, but not limited to:
Stravinsky:



Schoenberg:



Orff:



And Schnittke:



For more modern stuff, I quite like Muse and similar bands, and the raw power found in metal music constantly drives me forward!
Also, any and all video game music, I won't add any more, as there's some fine examples up here already!!!

[Senator Myth]

Alright, I'll do one of these. This is going to be pretty eclectic and will likely evoke many "WTF"s from everyone, but that's okay.

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First off, I love the music from Earthbound. This here is a remix from SSBM of one of the themes, and it's just so upbeat and cheesy and beautiful. I love it. But if you aren't familiar with the game, you really should play it, or at least check out the music. It's incredibly unique. Whoever the composer was really did a LOT with the medium available (the Super Nintendo).

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Emerson, Lake, and Palmer. All three. Awesome. They can do simple and lovely songs like Lucky Man (I love the vocal harmony in the chorus here. Just saying.) But they can also do epicly long songs like Karn Evil 9. They're just amazing.

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I would post something by King Crimson, but I just can't choose one, and this post is likely too long anyway.

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I also quite like Coldplay, in fact when I was a bit younger they were about all I listened to. I seriously don't understand how people can think their songs "all sound the same". Coldplay was my first real musical influence, and I still really like them, though not quite as much as I used to.

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...And now for something completely different. Yeah, someone made a PMV of this song. Why? Well, why not? But seriously, I'm not into music like this usually, but this song is just so well-done and dark and beautiful. Looking into A7X more is definitely on my to-do list.

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Neutral Milk Hotel is pretty awesome too. I love how they take familiar elements (like the chord progression in the song above, which is very popular and is seen in many, many songs) and mix it with the wild and interesting (like the saws that play in the background in the same song. They sound kind of like a theremin). Also, the lyrics are excellent. They're more than a bit weird, but I love them.

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Chris Squire is probably my favorite musician. I love Yes as well, but someone else already posted some Yes. So here's a track from his solo album, Safe. It may be my favorite song ever. It's pretty long, I'll admit. But definitely worth listening to, if you can find the time.

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Debussy is amazing. I mean, really. Nothing else really needs to be said.
In terms of other classical composers, I also love Bach, Beethoven (Grosse Fuge FTW), Ravel, Stravinsky, and probably several others who aren't coming to mind right now.

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But Mussorgsky is probably my favorite. Love Night on Bald Mountain, love Pictures at an Exhibition, and the Great Gate of Kiev actually probably is my favorite song ever. I adore it on piano, I adore Ravel's orchestral adaptation, I adore Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's version... I think when I saw this in concert in the sixth grade, that was the moment that I really started to love music the way I do now. Or at least it planted the seeds. God this song is awesome. Never gets old.

[Kie]

Oh wow, so much stuff to listen to. MUSIC DIVERSE AFTERNOON HERE WE COME!

Aphex Twin pretty much seems to have done every single type of ambient electronica out there, and on top of that done it well. He's done a huge variety of work so the albums are pretty good sources for inspiration if you're dry on ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kNTGsX3aj8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Dh-EU-HbPQ

Oh man I absolutely love Aphex, he does some amazing stuff. I still can't get the video for Window Licker out of my head, was some crazy weird stuff. Also at Cex, that was some crazy good stuff, I was not expecting that to be such a chill track. Reminds me slightly of we are ocean by Venetian Snares. Wasn't too fussed with the metal, not a huge fan.

As for my own inspiration, I love the music that accompanied the Jazz Jackrabbit games, and Unreal Tournament games, which, if I'm not mistaken, are both mostly composed by Alexander Brandon.

OH GOD I REMEMBER THOSE GAMES! I remember playing the hell out of them when I used to be a kid, sadly the discs broke but I remember them being awesome. I didn't realize just how awesome the soundtrack was. Never really played that much UT myself, the OST sounds awesome though. The Mars one was pretty interesting, not really my kinda thing but know a couple of friends who'd like that.

I'll give the rest a listen later, otherwise this'll end up turning into a complete wall.

Anyway for a couple of my musical inspirations I have Feint and Netsky for Drum & Bass, love the liquid melody that Feint brings to the game and Iron Heart by Netsky is absolutely bob your head rave crazy. Figure and Bare Noize do some amazing dubstep and I always want to blare my speakers when I listen to their stuff, KOAN sound does some pretty interesting dubstep and gets me thinking about ways to be more unique. Also listen to a lot of Chemical Brothers, but they don't so much inspire me as they're just flat out awesome:


Feint
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32pHvXsxa9o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLwRmmVRMuw

Netsky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4rt6Nxdm4Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-jGJgKqP00

Bare Noize
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU_6ZvMJIBU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAoH2a3lf7U

Figure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjM-YhLPiWA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJYZiDrGN4M

KOAN sound
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFy2X43MSOM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqLN8XKkONA

[Interrobang Pie]

I don't particularly care for most of today's music.

VIDEO GAME MUSIC HOWEVER AWWWWW YEAH

This has got to be the best thing in the world. I love the progression and the melody and everything. The best song.


I also like the progression in this one. Glover is a great game.


I also love this game and it's music. Good times. (Someone made a pony YTPMV of this but I forget the URL)


Of course, ot forgetting my biggest inspirational source EVER. Let me post a few of my favourites:



I love Mega Man's music. All of it. The melodies are catchy and get stuck in your head, and often the end sound is good despite the massive limitations compared to today - its the sort of music I want to be able to compose. In addition, the classic games are great fun to play. I'd recommend downloading Mega Man 10 RIGHT NOW.

[Overkillius]

I can't believe that, until now, I didn't even realize one of my greatest inspirations... not directly in music but he has had an effect on how I learn to write. This may not make sense right now, but Day[9] has had more of a hand in my writing music than any other individual. For any of you who haven't heard of him... he doesn't even do music stuff. He casts and teaches Starcraft2.

Here is a scary video of him dancing before one of his live shows, just to give you a perspective.

[Makkon]

SO MANY SONGS, SO LITTLE TIME. GGGGGGGGUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHH

I am seriously impressed with the good taste of our community already

[Dr_Dissonance]

Oh, HOW COULD I FORGET SUN RA???



Truly a god of keyboarders!!!

[Kie]

Oh, HOW COULD I FORGET SUN RA???



Truly a god of keyboarders!!!

Just watching his fingers blew my mind, then I listened to the song and couldn't help but think "GOD AMONG MEN!"

...And then he plays backwards. My..Dear god what?

[Pinkie Cake]

Perfect for inspirations.

[penguindf12]

Oh, HOW COULD I FORGET SUN RA???

How could -I- forget The Residents???