hi everyone,
i searched for this topic and saw some discussion but not specifically this? maybe i missed It?
for years i have been searching for my identity in my music. i worked on a “voice” i felt was mine, i thought about themes i wanted like “vulnerability” “brutal honesty” “melody”. and i played with genre words like lofi indie pop electronica. and have collected favourite sounds,songs, artists over the years that i relate to... but still it doesn’t all click together the way i imagined it one day would.
but when it comes to song writing... i feel like i can and will write anything, i have little control over it, the more i think about it the harder it is, and the songs aren’t easy/possible for me to sing, or they’re a genre i don’t really understand.
i get so jealous when i hear a girl on youtube covering someone’s song on acoustic guitar so beautifully and easily, but then i often realise they’re copying a popular style, and i can’t do that, it’s not in me... there’s a guy in my song writing group writing amazing pop songs but his style is totally mimicking someone like bruno mars... and it’s great for him, he’s writing all these great songs... but i just can’t... i have to be true to ME, whatever that is.
i think a big part of it is my voice, which i don’t understand well. and writing more until patterns start to form, “oh wait, this trick works for me, oh wait, this sound works for me..”. etc...
but i want to know how others have dealt with this problem, have you ended up in a totally different genre because the songs people responded to were the “country” ones or the “quiet electronic ones”?
do you persist to try to find a unique voice? or is that a waste of time?
do you write all kinds of stuff, or have you always had a strong identity...
when you found your identity or persona, how do you think it happened? are you happy with it?
for context
i’ve noted artist’s first EPs like Lorde or Courtney Barnett, they had five songs and each one was a completely different style. and then ONE song got radio airplay and that song became the map for their sound, their identity, how they sang... everything!
id love to hear your thoughts.
lu