How hard is it to experiment with genre as an artist in 2018: From the musicians’ mouth

From All Time Low’s frontman to The Vamps here’s how it really feels to try out a new sound
Last Young Renegade: Gaskarth discussed the importance of pushing themselves
Getty Images for iHeartMedia
Safeeyah Kazi3 February 2018
The Weekender

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It no longer takes a music mogul to appreciate the level of pressure on musicians to stay at the top. The Spotify-Apple Music generation, although profound for it’s ability to give so many more people a platform, also leaves room for artists to easily become one-hit wonders.

In a culture that focuses primarily on number one singles rather than albums, how difficult is it really for artists that have already paved a way for themselves in the industry, constantly competing with the ever-evolving charts? And are the charts really becoming more open to different types of music?

Here’s how hard it is to experiment with genre as an artist in 2018 from the mouth of a musician:

1) All Time Low frontman, Alex Gaskarth, discussed the complexities of genre in retrospect to the more-alternative sounding 2017 release of Last Young Renegade

Speaking to the Standard, he said: “We made kind of a different sounding album, we took some chances with this one. At first there were some people that were not sure what to make of it, it was pretty daunting for some.

“What was amazing is that we saw people really come around to it, people were like ‘I hate this band, they’ve ruined everything what have they done to me, I hate them forever’ and then those people after a few weeks I noticed the same people being like ‘okay I get it, it’s starting to click’.

“That was really special to me because we want to push ourselves we don’t want to make the same album over and over again.

“I think it is easier to experiment with genre than before, I think in general people are listening to a wide range of music, not even that long ago people really only listened to one kind of music. It’s how it was for me growing up, once I found this punk-rock world I remember showing people and they would be like you listen to this and this that’s weird and it’s like you weren’t allowed to listen to different genres.”

2) The Vamps lead singer Bradley Simpson, divulged the details to the Standard Online of progressing into a more EDM-based sound, despite their more pop-rock driven routes

Ahead of their album release he said: “We’ve been lucky to have been given a free pass into that (EDM) world via the avenue of Matoma and Martin Jensen, Mike Perry s it doesn’t feel too weird. If we had just done that it would have felt quite contrived I think. We were really nervous because it was a world that we didn’t really understand in terms of Spotify, it was almost make or break for us. It was like either it’s going to work for us or it’s going to fall short and people are not going to enjoy it but something clicked and from there on we wanted to follow that trend.”

3) Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz recently opened up about genre in reference to their latest album Mania, which dropped earlier this month

“We were always trying to incorporate different styles and bend it a little bit but I just think now we live in a world where someone like Diplo will do songs with Justin Bieber but then he will go on a song with a Brazilian artist. As long as it’s interesting, it’s a cool world to live in (for experimenting with genre)”, 38-year old Wentz told Standard online.

“We don’t feel pressure to evolve but it’s hard to go backwards and a lot of times we see bands that are trying to recapture their youth it’s weird because you just behave differently at a different age. I think there should be some pressure on pop artists to push the whole thing and that’s what they should do is evolve.

“Like when we put out Young and Menace we were like ‘this is going to polarise people’ and that doesn’t feel good but at the same time in order to move our creative vision forward you’ve got to do that sometimes.”

4) American DJ Steve Aoki spoke about how genre influences his work as a producer

The Just Hold On producer said: “One of the things I do is work outside the box, build a bridge between two worlds that work because when you go from one genre to another 9/10 it doesn’t work because people don’t want that or because it’s hard to do but when you can find that soft spot in the middle where both worlds can make it their own song it’s like a grand slam.

“It’s a big victory for everyone. Whenever I have the opportunity to broaden the base, I love being able to tap into new communities and new worlds.”

5) The Script frontman Danny O’Donoghue, on the release of their much-anticipated comeback single Rain

The 38-year-old Irish singer-songwriter said: “It was an intentional move coming back with this (more EDM-based track), you don’t want to get bored of yourself and you want to evolve as a band and you don’t want to end up in that position where you get stale. All of our music is fairly drastic from each other. It reflects the time more than anything else.”

6) Matt Thomson, of The Amazons, discussed genre in relation to the new generation

He said: “For sure it’s easier now to mess around with genre with things like Spotify and Apple music all music recorded is pretty much at your fingertips so there isn’t as much division in terms of genre, and people listen to more things now.”

7) Deaf Havana’s lead singer James Veck-Gilodi talked about transitioning between genre

In a way it is easier for artists to experiment with genre and to transition between genres because people are hearing so many different kinds of music on a daily basis”, the 27-year-old said.

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