Pick a Genre, Any Genre

Today, musician friends, let’s talk about what genre your music falls into.  Even though you might not want to.

Quite often I hear young musicians make one of two critical errors when they are asked to classify their music:

ERROR #1: “We don’t fit into any genre.”  “We are original.”  “We don’t sound like anybody.” (Usually one of those three sentences.)

or…

ERROR #2: “We sort of cross over (or have a blend of) a lot of genres.”  (Usually some derivative of that sentence.)

Error Number One generally happens because the band or artist wants to be seen as a genuine original, not comparable to anyone, a trailblazer–The Next Big Thing, able to invent a genre all their own.  (Not a bad thing to want, actually.)  Error Number Two happens because the band or artist is trying to get everyone in the world to listen to (and like) their music, and is afraid that adopting a genre label will narrow their audience.

Now, I totally get why you don’t want to get labeled or pigeonholed.  I do.  But let me explain why those two responses are huge mistakes when it comes to promoting your act.

First of all…people need to know who you are, and part of how they do that is by labeling things.  You’ll sell more records to the public if they feel they can identify you with other artists they already like.  It’s not about liking the label you wear, or about copying others; you can be as original as you want to be.  But only a few superstar artists have been able to shun the genre thing and create their own niche–and while you might actually be that good, chances are, you aren’t yet.  Refusing to be labeled sends one of two bad messages to the public, maybe both: 1) It says you are arrogant; and/or 2) It says you don’t really know who you are.  Neither is a good idea when it comes to public image.  It’s better to pick a genre, and then work on breaking the mold.  At least you can sell some records while you work on becoming iconic.

Second–Claiming to belong to every genre out there (Error #2) actually works against you.  It almost smells of a jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none kind of thing.  You will actually sell more records if you narrow your audience a bit by claiming a genre–and if you are good, you’ll generate more loyalty from your fans, which will mean more consistent record sales down the road.

Now, if you don’t give a crap about selling records, and you just want to do this music thing for the sheer joy of it–be as standoffish as you want when it comes to classifying your music.  I’m not here to tell you who you are as an artist; I’m only saying that from a music-business standpoint, it’s in your better interests to pick a genre, or at least let one be picked for you.

I’m thinking about Johnny Cash; he was one of those few artists whose music can’t really be labeled.  He was sort of placed in the country category, but he really wasn’t country.  His music was kind of like rockabilly, but perhaps too slow for that. But the thing is, he never made a big deal about where people thought his music fit; he just played it.

For that matter, there are actually a couple of productive ways you can deal with this issue as an artist if you are just categorically against the whole classification thing:

1. Make something up.  That’s right; if you want to invent a new genre, go ahead and invent one.  (Just don’t act like you had to invent one to describe yourself–that goes back to the arrogance problem.)  The idea is to create a label, and if you don’t like any of the labels out there, make up a new one, and see if it catches on.
2. Just be quiet about it.  Don’t get in a huff when someone asks what kind of music you play, and don’t be belligerent about it.  Just don’t make it a big deal; instead, when you’re asked how you classify your music, you could try turning it back into a question: “What do you think it sounds like?” Give people the freedom to decide for themselves who they think you are in their own minds, even if you don’t agree with them.  The idea is to get them to buy your music, and their money spends the same whether or not they chose the right genre for you.

So, what have we learned today? We learned that classifications aren’t inherently evil when it comes to your music.  Like anything else in the biz, you just have to learn how to make this part of the music business work in your favor. You can be part of a genre without that having that genre lock you in as an artist.  You can be who you are, no matter what they call you.

No related posts.