15th May 2012
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#1 | | Moderator
Joined: Dec 2003 Location: London, innit
Posts: 5,254
Thread Starter  | topline writers in EDM
What is your approach to songwriting in this genre?
Are you writing the whole song in the "traditional manner" I.e. with a typical structure?
Do you find the hook first and fill in the blanks later?
Melody first, words later?
Subject matter is pretty generic most of the time (at least in Trance)... It's always about finding those visual twists in the verses that's the challenge IMHO
Thoughts?
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30th May 2012
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#2 | | Gear addict
Joined: Dec 2011 Location: Underneath Your Mom
Posts: 354
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I often write without vocals or lyrics at all and then shop it to preferred vocalists. Any style, too, doesn't matter what but they all require a different approach depending upon what you are trying to end up with. (pop-ish? club stuff?) Sometimes the vocalist is in the room but often times they're in LA or something.
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1st June 2012
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#3 | | Gear interested
Joined: May 2012 Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 3
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it's the same process as songwriting for any genre, but more keyboard intensive (this is because midi controllers are mostly designed as keyboards). the most straight forward way of writing would be to sit down at a piano and compose a chord progression.
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1st June 2012
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#4 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Dec 2004 Location: Lake Charles
Posts: 1,405
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I'd say the vast vast majority of vocal dance music has the producer come up with the beat first. If the vocalist comes up with a melody beforehand, you run the risk of it not fitting on top of one of the twelve or so generic dance progressions.
The hook is everything--coming up with a new spin on an old cliche. The verses are just an afterthought that fill in the rest of the details. So with Gaga in "Just Dance", the verses explore in more detail her predicament of being messed up at the club. With trance, it's all about reflecting what the 18-22 year old club goer is feeling on whatever concoction of substances they've taken. Typically: immediacy (tonight this..tonight that...), celebration, freedom, euphoria, rapture, heaven, love/unity/timelessness (constant references to 'forever').
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1st June 2012
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#5 | | Moderator
Joined: Dec 2003 Location: London, innit
Posts: 5,254
Thread Starter |
Lol... you should write an e book!
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1st June 2012
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#6 | | Lives for gear
Joined: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,739
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Pop/most vocal-based music: If no decent-to-great melody hook, delete the project.
Non-vocal stuff, like most EDM: Anything goes, have fun. Actually avoid making it too complex so the dancers don't get confused.
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1st June 2012
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#7 | | Gear Guru
Joined: Mar 2005 Location: Long Beach, CA
Posts: 17,410
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Wonder what kind of music "bath salts" will generate... although given recent events, maybe the black/death metal guys have that sewn up already. So to speak.
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2nd June 2012
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#8 | | Lives for gear
Joined: May 2011 Location: Norway
Posts: 504
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Hook first nowadays. Earlier i wrote on top of a 4-chord progression and the melody HAD to fit the chords. A lot of writers have great success with that; Ryan Tedder is one - but I like to think melody first nowadays.
Take a listen to the chorus melody of Super Trouper (ABBA). Watch the chords that goes along with that melody. No doubt in my mind Benny A. wrote the melody first on that one. He also did; judging from an interview I saw with him a year ago.
Chorus/Hook first. After all it´s the only part of the song that is gonna be repeated over and over again.
Last edited by Heyclown; 2nd June 2012 at 04:59 PM..
Reason: The normal Mumbo Jumbo
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2nd June 2012
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#9 | | Banned
Joined: Mar 2011 Location: Portland, Maine
Posts: 1,553
| Quote:
Originally Posted by jdsowa  I'd say the vast vast majority of vocal dance music has the producer come up with the beat first. If the vocalist comes up with a melody beforehand, you run the risk of it not fitting on top of one of the twelve or so generic dance progressions.
The hook is everything--coming up with a new spin on an old cliche. The verses are just an afterthought that fill in the rest of the details. So with Gaga in "Just Dance", the verses explore in more detail her predicament of being messed up at the club. With trance, it's all about reflecting what the 18-22 year old club goer is feeling on whatever concoction of substances they've taken. Typically: immediacy (tonight this..tonight that...), celebration, freedom, euphoria, rapture, heaven, love/unity/timelessness (constant references to 'forever'). | Yes, please write an e-book on the subject!  | |
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2nd June 2012
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#10 | | Moderator
Joined: Dec 2003 Location: London, innit
Posts: 5,254
Thread Starter | Quote:
Originally Posted by theblue1 Wonder what kind of music "bath salts" will generate... although given recent events, maybe the black/death metal guys have that sewn up already. So to speak. | Man... that's dark! 
apparently one of the nicknames for that stuff is "scarface"
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