What makes a library piece of music "Timeless"?

[nomiyah]

[quote author=chrisbee board=general thread=1199682669 post=1199682669]I've been thinking about this for a while and wanted to throw this open to discussion; how do we write songs that are "timeless"? I'm talking more about instrumental pieces made for television and film more than vocal songs, though this can apply to vocal pieces too. What makes a library piece of music sound timeless as opposed to sounding dated?I was having a discussion with Mazz & Dave Walton one day and Dave mentioned that he and Matt had been discussing how important this concept is if you are trying to make a living doing music for television and film. ]At the Rally, I listened in on this subject several times. One of the few things I retained is that Matt mentioned it's difficult to make midi strings sound timeless because the sounds keep improving.

[lcmemusic]

I would have to add that the strength of the writing has to be there. When I think of timeless music, I think of music that has a strong melody and, if so written, strong lyrics. Think about songs that are listened to today that were recorded 20, 30, 40 years ago. Some examples (and I know these are obvious) would be "Hey Jude", or "Bridge Over Troubled Waters". When I think of just instrumentals, I think of "Classical Gas". These are the kind of songs that people will listen to over and over. That's what makes a song timeless - how does it relate to the generation listening to it, and are they moved by it? It's that song that when you listen to it you can't help but say, "WOW!!! What a great song!" IMHO

[chrisbee]

Quote:How about not using a click track?HA! Lyle, you just made my day!Reminds me of that old joke "To some drummers Time is only a magazine."cb

[chrisbee]

Quote:At the Rally, I listened in on this subject several times. One of the few things I retained is that Matt mentioned it's difficult to make midi strings sound timeless because the sounds keep improving. Yea Nomi - that is a point I didn't get to in my original long ramble. What I'm planning is to significantly upgrade drum sounds and guitar tone about every 5 years, just to stay current. Strings are actually pretty good now-a-days, at least compared to the string sounds I was using 5 years ago. Hopefully I don't have to replace strings, piano, etc at quite the same rate. But these sounds are electronic at their core, so Matt's pot is a valid one.cb

[mikegoudreau]

I've only been a member of Taxi for 1 & 1/2 years and signed 18 deals so far with libraries ,so I'm still a novice but here's my 2 cents about : What makes a library piece of music "Timeless" IMHO...I agree that a good song will always be a good song... I also think that using real instruments is key for the "timeless" thing...( I know that some of the computerized sounds of today are getting very close though )Ex:Bob Dylan's 1st albums are as fresh today as they were in the 60's. French composer George Brassens too...What they have in common is that they both used 2 or 3 instruments...Dylan used Guitar, harmonica, and Brassens used a classical guitar and upright bass...And even though the songs have few chords they communicate many emotions and feelings....There are tons of others but those were the first two that came to mind. Louis Armstrong said :" There are two kinds of music in the world...Good music and bad music " ...I'm with Satchmo !My 2 cents are up!Mike