PHILOSOPHY ON MAKING MUSIC
BY: PETER LAKE
The greatest song ever recorded in human history has not yet been recorded.
Musical genres no longer exist.
A result of the breakdown of walls that previously separated musical styles is that new music can draw from all genres without alienating listeners.
By combining genres, the range of song creation has increased. A song that successfully incorporates and connects the positive aspects of different musical styles has the potential to be more universally appealing than any song in history. The opposite is also true.
A song that follows PMM incorporates at least three musical styles in a single song.
Songs should, as much as possible, draw from historical archetypes in human music or from the sounds of nature.
When a track is played without a vocal it is “catchy”; the instrumental track is of such a quality that it could be released as a successful instrumental single.
The key line of the chorus is (1) repeated, (2) memorable, (3) singable even for nonnative English speakers, (4) in the song title.
In the production process, a track has one or more electronic hooks added to it, regardless of whether or not they organically emerged in the initial creation process.
The (1) verse and (2) chorus have different and clear melodic hooks.
All songs have a noticeable drive and/or can be clearly danced to, or “swayed” to.
Production and creation are merged processes that place a high emphasis on rapid iteration and experimentation, rather than excessive focus on lengthy creative processes.
PMM is based on the premise that musical excellence is a merger of art and science; however, it also recognizes the danger of “art” as a source of excuses and justification for the creation of music that lacks general appeal.
Mediocrity in music does exist and cannot be justified in the name of art.
The existence of persistent musical archetypes that reappear across time and cultures suggests the existence of certain objectively “attractive” sounds that can be empirically identified as being more widely appealing to the human ear than other sounds.
Much like a rocket requires high-quality engineering and fuel for liftoff, a song—to achieve its potential in any way—requires (1) high-quality creation/production, (2) market awareness.
The history of art demonstrates example after example that suggests art, or mastery of technique, in isolation, is an insufficient goal.
While a song can have an impact on an individual or a small room, so can the movement of a butterfly’s wings. The existence of chaos and disorder in the universe implies the need to define a line, before which music is merely a part of a chaotic world, and across which it solidifies as a distinct entity that impacts the world at a meaningful scale that rises above the chaos.
Music is regularly created that enlightens the soul and causes positive change.
However, recognizing the positive impact of music on a small scale only begs the question as to whether positivity can be created on a larger scale. Attempting to create music whose impact is large is the natural ambition. Seeing the positive impact of music on a small scale is the seed of PMM’s ambition to create music whose positive impact is large, large in terms of the number of listeners, and large in terms of duration of the music’s popularity.
Creating music at a scale that can rise above the noise of other musical endeavors is, by its nature, a competitive human goal. Sir Edmond Hillary was asked, “Why climb Mount Everest?” His answer: “Because it’s there.” The desire to push the limits of discovery and creation is fundamental to human curiosity. Human nature seeks to grow and extend its capabilities and limits; why should artistic creation be any less ambitious in its goals?
Setting out to create music that rises above normal chaos is equivalent to a fundamental desire for excellence. Why climb the highest mountain? Why explore the unknown? In this way, PMM is a reflection of humanity’s desire to push the outer boundaries of art for no better reason than the fact that it challenges the spirit, and that, given the right circumstances, anything is possible.
Art must be (1) created with high-quality parts so that negative perception isn’t introduced due to technical factors that could be controlled, (2) the art must be presented in a context that creates the assumption of legitimacy (“positive confirmation bias”) for the potential listener.
The basis of PMM is change. It has no clear vision in terms of what music should be, but rather it suggests a process to achieve optimal outcomes.