Greatness - Why good isn't good enough.

[bartekko]

A very interesting article, while about filmmaking, I'm certain also applies to music.
http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2012/08/15/greatness—why-good-isnt-good-enough/

"If you think being GREAT simply means rising above the BAD, you’re ignoring your biggest obstacle of all—the GOOD."

Ok, so you got good at making music. You can put out an enjoyable, well mixed song in the matter of hours. And you don't need to struggle to be good anymore. Why don't you have 50000 subscribers on youtube then? Well here's the problem. You don't struggle to be great.

You don't compete with your own limitations, because you're good. And now:
"Your real competition is the 5,000 other dramas shot with shallow depth-of-field and digital effects that go up every week."
The 5000 other musicians.


Thoughts?

[Dr_Dissonance]

I write weird orchestrations that have people confused, so I have no competition. WOOOO!!!

But obviously, the idea of 'standing out from the crowd' applies here. The crowd is good, so you need to be great in order to stand out!

[CommandSpry]

I don't make music

I play in FL

[XXDarkShadow79XX]

Hm. I'll have to think about this.

[ChromaticChaosPony]

Over the past 4 months, I've been spending a lot of time on EDM, mostly dubstep. I might try to avoid the Skrillex sound that everyone else goes for, but simply have the label "dubstep" on my song forces me into competition with all of them.

I'm considering taking my dubstep a step further by going full out experimental with a basis on a Datsik style of sound. It might become a mess of random noise, but it has the potential of being great.

I don't really think that it will be recieved well though. Producing a style of dubstep that nobody is used to will probably piss off a lot of people. As far as I'm concerned, fuck them. Genres evolve, hipsters and other douchebags don't.

[XXDarkShadow79XX]

Over the past 4 months, I've been spending a lot of time on EDM, mostly dubstep. I might try to avoid the Skrillex sound that everyone else goes for, but simply have the label "dubstep" on my song forces me into competition with all of them.

I really don't mind about sounding like everyone else. I think "great" and "original" can be two different things, but being original can really help.

As for the kind of dubstep I want to sound like at the moment? I want to be sort of darksteppy, with some mainstream influence. (Whilst experimenting every once and a while) I'm talking ending up on a top 10 brutal drops list. I'm quite proud of my most recent song so far, so we'll have to see where that goes.

[ChromaticChaosPony]

Over the past 4 months, I've been spending a lot of time on EDM, mostly dubstep. I might try to avoid the Skrillex sound that everyone else goes for, but simply have the label "dubstep" on my song forces me into competition with all of them.

I really don't mind about sounding like everyone else. I think "great" and "original" can be two different things, but being original can really help.

As for the kind of dubstep I want to sound like at the moment? I want to be sort of darksteppy, with some mainstream influence. (Whilst experimenting every once and a while) I'm talking ending up on a top 10 brutal drops list. I'm quite proud of my most recent song so far, so we'll have to see where that goes.

I'm a huge fan of originality. My opinion is that when everyone starts doing the same style of dubstep, it becomes a bit watered down over time. Even the best music can sound shitty if you've heard it too many times. So originality FTW.

Top 10 brutal drops list? Now that's cool. I wish you luck, but must warn you that you still have a long ways to go. Going "that hard" can get a bit difficult. Make sure to be extra creative with the modulation of the bass. And make sure to have some brutal music for inspiration *cough* real death metal *cough*. Also, try to be inspired. If you want brutal dubstep, try to synthesize what you think some sort of rabid tank sized zombie would sound like. Or any other monster of your choosing.

[Gnarrkhaz]

I'd probably be perfectly fine with being good.

[Freewave]

Yeah I think the point of making music by genre or in a style that hasn't been adopted by a load of other bronies (like Kyoga said) is a smart one to stand out but just as importantly to do it and present it WELL Then again I've seeen some people ascend quickly by doing dubstep or the same old same old by appealing to a larger audience but still with some quality control (of course sometimes shtick wins out). The key is still do be good at what you do to the best of your ability and there will likely be an audience for it. That's within your control, so is how you market yourself, so is the style of music you choose to release, and how often you release it. It's still best to please yourself though, as if i had to stick to one style to get ahead I'd likely be miserable; so if variety keeps you making music then stick with variety. Just still give people a reason to tune into your next track.

[XXDarkShadow79XX]

Over the past 4 months, I've been spending a lot of time on EDM, mostly dubstep. I might try to avoid the Skrillex sound that everyone else goes for, but simply have the label "dubstep" on my song forces me into competition with all of them.

I really don't mind about sounding like everyone else. I think "great" and "original" can be two different things, but being original can really help.

As for the kind of dubstep I want to sound like at the moment? I want to be sort of darksteppy, with some mainstream influence. (Whilst experimenting every once and a while) I'm talking ending up on a top 10 brutal drops list. I'm quite proud of my most recent song so far, so we'll have to see where that goes.

I'm a huge fan of originality. My opinion is that when everyone starts doing the same style of dubstep, it becomes a bit watered down over time. Even the best music can sound shitty if you've heard it too many times. So originality FTW.

Top 10 brutal drops list? Now that's cool. I wish you luck, but must warn you that you still have a long ways to go. Going "that hard" can get a bit difficult. Make sure to be extra creative with the modulation of the bass. And make sure to have some brutal music for inspiration *cough* real death metal *cough*. Also, try to be inspired. If you want brutal dubstep, try to synthesize what you think some sort of rabid tank sized zombie would sound like. Or any other monster of your choosing.

Thanks. :)

[ceresbane]

I write dark ambient music.
I'm kinda on the opposite side of the musical spectrum as Dr. Dissonance is, but at the same time this is something that very few ponies here are doing and even less can do well.
I'm kind of the "first" reeeeally dark ambient pony to start doing the kind of thing I'm doing and thankfully that helps me stand out tremendously.

Thankfully the art of being different puts me in a league of my own, so it's hard to miss me.

As far as my guitar stuff goes, I play faster stuff than most pony guitarists do, so those who like fast shredding, arpeggios and finger tapping tend to eventually crash into my channel.
My guitar stuff isn't that different from other guitarists who are doing the same thing except that it's faster and had a tad more emotion behind it. I figure my subs like that...

I... didn't even consider that type of music for ponies.

So there's that.