Expand Your Boundaries

I was just reading a blog from Seth Godin entitled Out of Bounds and it got me thinking. Most musicians I know tend to pigeonhole their band unintentionally. They limit the styles of music they listen to by only listening to music that sounds like their band. They are afraid to add new sounds, instruments or arrangements into their music because it doesn't sound like the music they are listening to (an instant catch 22). They won't play at a venue because other bands that they like haven't played there before. I even heard of a band that tried to hand pick their audience by only letting people they thought were "cool" into the venue. These are the same bands that refuse to tell you what genre of music they play. Ask them and they will say it's a "brand new style" or a "little bit of everything", then you listen to their music and they sound exactly like the band on their t-shirt.

I have no problem with artists emulating their idols, this is the natural progression of most every artist. What I find disheartening is the limited amount of variety that a musician is willing to pull influence from.

I started this blog with a link to a non-music blog, go read it, take influence from it. Just because you listen to what a business professional might have to say, doesn't mean that you need to become a businessman. Just because you write a guitar riff after listening to Jerry Reed, doesn't mean that you are country or that you can't incorporate that riff into your bands music.

If you truly wish to create a brand new style then you need to put together a mix of styles that no one has ever heard before. Before you can do that you need to open up your boundaries and let the world in.

Good luck