How To Answer the Question: What Does Your Music Sound Like
This seems like the never ending and most cliche question that any musician or singer will ever be asked. No one wants to here that you sound like yourself unless your name is plastered on every billboard in every city in the country and even then you may still get asked. The best thing to do is to figure out what your answer is. Much of this answer can be figured out once you understand what your niche is.
1. Think About The Music You Like
Like everyone else, musicians will listen to other musicians that they like or are inspired by. As musicians we often listen with an even keener ear to little subtleties in music that really separate different musicians. We try to emulate these differences and even perfect them. Many times you will take on these little or big nuances in your own music.
Pay attention to what it is that you gravitate to. Take note of how certain sounds and dynamics make you feel the next time you are listening to the radio. You can start integrating these ideas and new found revelations with another "sound identifier"...
2. Listen To Your Own Music
You know your music better than anyone else so think about what you have aimed to make your music sound like. Did you find inspiration in Mozart or Mick Jagger on your latest song? Were you leaving the movies and here your favorite Motown song on the radio during the ride back home? How have you made your music your own? What mood were you in when you when you wrote the first song on your project? Take some time to delve into your music and think about what it says to you.
Do you sound like a mess of your favorite artists. What is your most dominate genre? Is it a mess of Electronic and R&B or Pop and Country? Let your music tell you what your sound is.
3. Listen To What Your Audience Tells You
While you are going through your daily routine pay attention to what your audience is saying about your music. They like your music for a reason and most likely it is because your sound is
something they like. Ask them what they like about it. Often times you won't even have to ask them to tell you, they will offer up their ideas on what they think your music sounds like to them. What they tell you are prime ideas you should be considering in forming your answer of what your music sounds like.
After you've gone through what the answers to the above questions are, you'll be able to define a more concrete answer for others to be able to identify your music and your sound. Understand that this is not to place you in a box, you should feel free to let you music evolve but people want to get an idea of what they are about to hear and answering these questions will help them do just that!
