thing I learned today

[rikibeth]

There are very few song-intro riffs interesting enough to make it worth waiting more than 30 seconds to get to the vocals.

This discovery brought to you by the need to free up some space on my hard drive. I spent the day going through my iTunes library and listening to all the songs by the artists whose names were unfamiliar (I have a lot of samplers in my collection). I got rid of about 1.5GB worth of songs that ranged from mediocre to sucktastic.

The pattern emerging in the songs I kept:

1. Intro riff I liked

2. Gets to the vocals in 20 seconds or less

3. The singer SINGS instead of screaming

and

4. The singer can CARRY A DAMN TUNE.

Now, most of the samplers I was vetting were alternative/punk or indie/pop. I didn't bother vetting the goth/industrial ones, because I tend to have broader tolerances in that genre, and I was also pretty sure I'd already deleted the songs I really didn't like off the samplers and compilations I do have.

Still. If you have a band?

GET TO THE VOCALS IN THE FIRST 30 SECONDS, or you've probably lost your audience.

Comments

[goldwax317.livejournal.com]

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<<GET TO THE VOCALS IN THE FIRST 30 SECONDS, or you've probably lost your audience.>>

I take you don't listen to a lot of blues, jazz, funk or soul?

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

As a matter of fact... no, not much. Some blues; there's definitely a Koko Taylor album in the files. When I've listened to blues shows on the radio, it's been my impression that the riffs are sufficiently appealing to be worth listening to for more than 30 seconds. Jazz? I have tried. I really have. I've come to the conclusion that unless it's a vocalist doing Cole Porter or George Gershwin standards, I might as well not bother, because I tune it the hell out. (Weirdly, this doesn't happen with surf guitar.) Funk -- disco-era standards to dance to, otherwise, not much. (Although I keep meaning to buy the soundtrack to Muppets From Space, because that's pure fun.) And how are we defining "soul?" I've noticed with my affinity for ska bands that a horn section tends to make a song worth listening to for beyond that initial 30 seconds; the stuff I think of as "soul" also tends towards horn sections, and induces the same willingness to listen.

Other genres I don't spend much time with: prog-rock, and technical metal.