A short reflective monologue from a YouTube video exploring why many music producers sound and look alike. The speaker argues the industry has many rigid 'rules' and formulas that make it easier for audiences to understand music quickly but that over-conformity suppresses individuality. The core message: find a balance between fitting into useful standards and cultivating what makes you unique; enjoy the creative process and remember your original motivation when in doubt.
Why are so many music producers literally carbon copies of each other, both in terms of sound and image? Well, I think we've reached a point where there are too many rules in the game. Everything is very rigid, and, mind you, because that's partly a good thing. When something fits into a formula, it's easier for people to understand it right away, and that can benefit you as an artist. But there's a huge difference between conforming to standards that fit into society at the time and literally doing what everyone else is doing, or what many people are doing without making a single bit of a difference. So how disruptive you want to be is entirely up to you. But I think there's room for improvement between conforming to standards and giving space to what makes you truly unique. That's something that, by the way, is discovered along the way. And finding that balance is really the key, and it's what's going to set you apart from the rest. There's no need to reinvent the wheel. Far from it. Finding this balance will allow you to increasingly open up your horizons to what makes you unique and less to what is set in stone or what you have to do to fit in. But if you never get out of that frame of mind, it's very difficult to end up finding what makes you unique and what you might find attractive to someone else, because there are a lot of people doing the same thing, right? And that's music. It's about trying, it's about enjoying, it's about breaking things. So my reflection for today, if you're dedicated to this, is don't take it too seriously. Enjoy the journey, which is the most important thing. And when you have doubts, remember why you started.