Create Your Own Style, Your Own Sound!

During dinner, I was recounting to a multi-Grammy-award winning producer the other day that another engineer/singer/friend was advising me not to use a lot of harmonies in the R & B songs that I write for other artists. This singer-friend was telling me the R & B song I wrote was "wrong" because I was using a lot of harmonies and according to this singer-friend, R & B doesn't use a lot of harmonies, only gospel. According to this singer-friend, R & B uses mostly octaves. And while some of what the singer-friend was saying had some truth in it, my multi-Grammy-Award winning producer friend disagreed. The producer then started naming off groups such as Boys II Men as an example of an R & B group who are known for their rich harmonies. So he said that what the singer-friend was saying wasn't true for all R & B.

And then this multi-Grammy award winning producer (I like saying that and I'm sure this producer liked getting them) said, "Thedy, find your own sound and stick to it! It's YOUR sound. It makes you, you. It makes people recognize YOUR songs and YOUR style from others. So if the songs you write have lots of harmonies, do you!" And when I thought about it, he's so right!

Think about it: Any fan of a particular person's music can almost immediately recognize their favorite producer or songwriter's style. For example, fans of Quincy Jones, Babyface, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis can recognize them as producers of a song. A fan of Timbaland's music will know when the beat or music they hear is a Timbaland beat, a Swizz Beat beat, a Dark Child track, or a Jazzy Pha track. Same is true for Bryan-Michael Cox, the Clutch, and many other producers/songwriters. Why? Because not only have those producers/songwriters built their brand using their name, but they've built their brand using their sound! Sometimes even during the intro or the outro of the track, some producers will even put their "name imprint" into the track so that listeners will know this is their track. And because these producers have built their sound and name up and been successful hitmakers, recording artists who like that producer's particular sound will call these producers when they are ready to record their next project. It's that simple: the artist like the sound and style, and they used that producer or production team.

So regardless of the advice that I or any other "professional" give you, do you! Be you! Create your own style of music! Create your own sound! And stick to the sound that you love and that hits home with YOUR fans! While there are some fundamentals to making a hit song, some rules, and even some do's, (and that's what I am attempting to help songwriters see in this blog), there are also a lot of creative things you can do with your music and still be "right."


Thedy B, Attorney/Songwriter
Hits A Million, LLC
http://myspace.com/hitsamillionllc