Australian producer, songwriter and DJ, TyDi, recently went on a rant on Facebook. A passion filled, fiery and heartfelt rant that accurately sums of up what most of us feel about dance music today.
He addresses the mundanity and the commercialism behind the kind of productions that dominate the dance music charts today. Knowing that he can’t change what’s already going on, he’s addressed the new age of upcoming producers, telling them not to create sounds that are “dumbed down”. He says he can say that the audience is tired of listening to the same kind of music.
“I can already see it in the fans eyes, people are getting over this trend of making every song sound exactly the same. The audience is tiring. Are we focussing too much on branding a cheap product instead of working towards making music that is actually memorable?”
If the trend of making this aggressive similar sound is continued, people will lose faith in dance music. Dance music was initially about passion, emotion, beautiful melody and clever song writing. It’s about conveying emotion, feelings and taking the listener on a journey with you. Throwing samples together and making a song out of that is just unimaginative, boring and plain lazy.
“In every interview I always get asked – ‘What advice would you give to an up and coming producer’, so here’s my answer: Learn music theory, please guys… actually learn it. Know the difference between key signatures, chord changes, thirds, fifths, jazz chords, dissonance..etc. Learn how to use dissonance to your advantage, learn about cadences and why a certain resolving cadence will make you feel a certain way, or why an unresolved cadence leaves you with a feeling of mystery or concern. Learn how a compressor actually works, learn why dynamic range is so important in giving ‘impact’ and power to big drum sections. Learn that it’s not always good to just simply ‘SLAM’ your songs to the point where they distort so badly it literally fatigues the ears of the listener after three minutes. Find out about syncopation and even rhythmic dissonance. I know it seems like a lot but I promise you it’s soo much more fulfilling than just throwing samples together. I don’t want to see music with soul turn into music that’s just painfully mundane, cold and overdone. We must stop teaching people that it’s okay to just get a sample pack and make an entire song out of the same loops that everyone else is using. Throwing a few loops together doesn’t make you a songwriter and it certainly doesn’t make you an artist. Songwriting is about constructing a piece of music from start to finish, something that actually has a musical element to it – not just a kick drum with a loud bendy sound that distorting over the top. I mean this with all respect, I want people to admire music again. I want people to not just love a song in the club environment, I want them to remember the song, to fall in love with it and then go home thinking about it.”
He goes on to add that today’s Pop, has more feeling and melody than the current trend in EDM. He rightly states that Music can be like a drug, it can send shivers down your spine. He urges producers to have an open mind while producing and actually THINK about the kind of record they want to make. Not just follow what’s selling nowadays. He ends perfectly with:
“You have to know the rules of music… if we keep telling people that making dance music is as easy as ‘making a fat beat’ with a few random sounds then this whole EDM scene will fall like a tower of lego. I want the listeners to value not just songs, but the music theory that causes them to make you feel the way the way they do.”