Contemporary??? Whats is it really??

[Casey H]

If one can do nearly any style with authenticity, whether it be surf guitar, big band, or Mongolian choir music, it can find a home. It may not be used as much as contemporary styles (ie. hip hop) but potentially can have a longer shelf life.

Yes, exactly... So if you are not oriented to contemporary music, there is still opp for film/TV placement.

Now as far as contemporary and Taxi listings... Nothing beats the "a la" lists in the listings.

Casey

[ggalen]

Chuck,

I am glad to hear that!

It's good to know that all kinds of good, well-done music is needed.

[eeoo]

+1 to what Chuck said. There's a lot of music out there and it's not all "contemporary". If you're not comfortable sounding contemporary then the people who are will will slay you. Nothing wrong with working on stuff that's out of your comfort zone but I think in order to be competitive we have to play to our strengths.

eo

[mazz]

You mean my career as Mr. GaGa is doomed before it even gets off the ground! Dammit!!

[Casey H]

You mean my career as Mr. GaGa is doomed before it even gets off the ground! Dammit!!

Mazz just needs to work on his entrance, coming out of an egg.

[mazz]

With my luck it's hard boiled!!

[cardell]

But the truth is, like it or not, a big part of the film/TV music game is about imitation. TV shows can't afford the licensing fees for tracks by known artists. They will temporarily put in a known artist track in initial editing and then seek out "replacement tracks" from unknown artists to swap in and save the money.

Great news for us.

Stuart

[Casey H]

But the truth is, like it or not, a big part of the film/TV music game is about imitation. TV shows can't afford the licensing fees for tracks by known artists. They will temporarily put in a known artist track in initial editing and then seek out "replacement tracks" from unknown artists to swap in and save the money.

Great news for us.

Stuart

If one can do nearly any style with authenticity, whether it be surf guitar, big band, or Mongolian choir music, it can find a home. It may not be used as much as contemporary styles (ie. hip hop) but potentially can have a longer shelf life.

The key word in Chuck's post is authenticity. A track needs to sound like it truly came from that era in all aspects. If it's surf rock, does it sound like it really could have been on a car radio in 1966, for example?

As far as Mongolian choir music, I'm not sure how to tell if a track sounds like it could have been played on a Mongolian choir radio station in Ulaanbaatar.

Casey

[billg1]

I didn't read all of the posts here so I hope I'm not repeating someone . . .

There are also a lot of "contemporary" artists who try to sound more timeless; Spoon, Ryan Adams, Kings Of Leon, Wilco, Avett Bros, etc. (although Kings Of Leon sound very late 80's-90's to me) & my assumption is that for the most part this stuff will "wear" better years from now.

I think the ultra contemporary sound is that which is mostly associated with the top 20 pop charts and has as much to do with fashion as it does with music. This stuff is better left in the hands of younger artists. People who have written and recorded for awhile have experienced the regret of some of their attempts at being fashionable in the past, that's some pretty heavy baggage to shake. It's kind of like the old photo from 30yrs. ago that you hope no one ever sees . . . (you know the one I'm talking about!).

In the mid 80's I was co-writer for some songs that led to a record deal with MCA records. They were pretty much "of the era" and contemporary for the time, recorded in a good studio, good producer/engineer, etc. Even though I have to assume the songs were very good to have risen to the level they achieved, I would be too embarrassed to ever even post them here. IMO they sound stupid (and yes, I thought they sounded great at the time!)

So that's the double edge of contemporary "fashion" based music. You have to be young enough to not know that what you're doing might sound dumb in a couple of years. OR very talented, older, but just in in for the $$ and you don't really care if anyone will want to hear your songs down the road.

To answer the question; I think if we have to ask for a definition what "contemporary music" is we're better off just letting it be.

Just a thought . . . Rather than trying to define modern contemporary (if you just don't get it) it might be a more worthwhile endeavor to search for a common thread in older music that you understand & love & that still holds up today. For example, I can still listen to Buffalo Springfield. Although the "sound" is somewhat dated because of recording techniques & mastering for vinyl etc., some of the songs still sound brilliant. I'd love to hear their material re-mixed and mastered & my bet is that it would hold up fine today & be well received by fans of artists today like Ryan Adams, Wilco, The Avett Bros., Mumford & Sons, etc. That would really be a mind blowing accomplishment for music written/recorded over 40yrs. ago!

[mojobone]

Bill just hit on something I was going to mention, about how much fun I have watching That 70s Show and spotting wardrobe disasters that once graced my own closet; if you're too much 'of the moment', you may be prone to going out of style from time to time.

Almost all culture, whether dance, music or architecture, is imitative; it really takes a great deal of courage on the part of the artist to come up with anything new or innovative. As an artist, you're free to ignore commercial conventions in order to come up with the music of the future, not the moment, and that naturally involves a lot of risk; you could be dead wrong about where the music and the market are headed. I think of that as the David Bowie model. If you aim for the center of the pop mainstream, that's a moving target, and you'll need to totally reinvent your sound and perhaps your persona every third album or so; call that the Madonna model. Then there's the Clapton model, where you study a traditional music genre and adapt the techniques to current trends by recontextualizing, updating and refining your music as you go along; the trick there is to never go totally mainstream while having enough occasional success to stay in the game. (I think the third approach is most relevant to commercial music producers)

An artist really has to be fearless; it takes a lot of damn gall to get up on a stage in front of sober people and presume they're gonna be entertained. I think this is why most successful artists of my acquaintance are either keenly self-aware or supremely self-ignorant; there doesn't seem to be any middle ground. I think of that as a sort of dividing line between following your muse and serving a commercial market; artists seem to have blinders on when it comes to commerce and the needs of the market, they need to be well-liked more than they need to be well-paid. Waiter, I'll have some of each, please.