Where is Music Innovation Coming From?

Innovation in the music industry is guided by non-music companies: Apple, YouTube, etc. Technology companies. To use an old metaphor, technology is the horse, and music is just the cart.

An article on Digital Music News is where I got this little insight (it’s #83 in this article: https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2016/07/22/music-industry-99-problems-2/).

Almost all of these problems listed in the article have to do with what musicians face in the post-Internet world, and have little or nothing to do with music itself.

Here’s a list of 50 questions musicians could be struggling with (if life is problems anyways and it’s a matter of having better problems but that’s another philosophical article and let’s stay focused). The point is, when will musicians take on the Rubik’s Cube of music itself, instead of the square peg – round hole conundrum of adapting music to a digital age?

50 Issues Musicians Could Deal with More if they wanted to:

  1. What is a bridge, truly?
  2. Which two notes sound best together?
  3. What are 4 ways of creating rhythm on a non-rhythm instrument?
  4. What are 4 ways of creating melody on a rhythm instrument?
  5. What’s the best length for a song?
  6. What’s a way to write lyrics backwards and why would you do that?
  7. How can you write a song on just the bottom half of the piano?
  8. Or the top half?
  9. What’s a tune you could write on one string of a bass, cello, violin, guitar, etc. (stringed instrument)?
  10. How many notes does something have to be to be considered a melody? (This isn’t a legal question).
  11. What is the difference between talking and singing?
  12. What makes a voice or isntrument sound fierce? Gentle?
  13. What would a song sound like if it included two genres and not one?
  14. Why not have chorus, verse, instead of verse-chorus?
  15. How would you set a poem to music?
  16. How can you turn a scribble into a piece of music?
  17. If you chose a painting by Picasso or Van Gogh, or your favorite visual artist, and had to write a song that corresponded with it, what would the colors sound like?
  18. How would you start freestyling lyrically about what you are looking at right now?
  19. How can you write a verse of lyrics based on a photograph?
  20. What are three chords that sound the best together, why?
  21. How can you jump between notes in different ways?
  22. How can you glide between notes in different ways?
  23. How can you make a drum beat on a chair?
  24. Which one of your friends would you most like to write a song with? Which one would you least like to write with? Choose the latter and get cracking. Why did you think it would be hard? Co-write a song with a non-songwriter. Ask them to help you with a song. I guarantee they will love giving their input.
  25. How can you combine a song style from another era into your writing?
  26. How can you make a melody in monotone?
  27. How can a musical theme be adapted until it no longer resembles what it started as?
  28. If you were going to play or write something that was all about groove, what would it sound like?
  29. Listen for 5 minutes to your environment. Now listen to music for 5 minutes. What’s the difference?
  30. What’s a random sound that you’d like to hear in a song or recording?
  31. What makes music classical? Can classical music be played on an electric guitar?
  32. How can electricity be more invovled in your next song or performance?
  33. How can electricity be less involved in your next song or performance?
  34. How can you use random numbers to make a composition?
  35. How can you use a newpaper article to make a composition?
  36. Should an album show a mix of songs or evoke a singular mood?
  37. What’s the benefit of learning cover songs / or trying to?
  38. What’s the benefit of writing an original tune / or trying to?
  39. If someone from another country asked you to describe the music you listen to, how would you explain it?
  40. Imagine the music of another country. How can you translate the style?
  41. How can you collaborate with musicians of other genres and styles and scenes and ages?
  42. How can you make an instrument out of plastic or glass bottles?
  43. How can you write a song based on whistling?
  44. If you had to make a melody to represent the Grand Canyon, what would it sound like?
  45. If you had to make a melody represent machines clashing what would it sound like?
  46. What is the purpose of harmony?
  47. How many instruments does it take to make a song sound complete?
  48. What’s the most number of instruments you could imagine playing with, or writing for?
  49. What’s the simplest bare bones type of song you can imagine?
  50. What is the most complex, rich, tapestry of sounds you can imagine?

Ok so that’s not 99 but you get the idea.

Until we as musicians take charge of the innovation within our industry, by out-creating ourselves with ideas, innovations and curiousities we will continue to be chasing our tails, checking our social media numbers, streams, and more while wondering how to truly make revenue…I challenge any musician reading to ponder this. And to think of ways to innovate so that technology is trying to keep up with us. Artsits and musicians are the eyes and ears of humanity. We also need to be the heartbeat and the forward-moving feet.