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How to label your bands "Sound"

G

gabrams

Guest
Dec 18, 2012
45
3
New Brunswick, Canada
#1
Recently my band and I have been trying to figure out what sub category of rock/hard rock/metal, my band fits into. wondering how with so many influences your bands labelled your sound.

heres a rough cut from our upcoming album and our band page

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

https://www.facebook.com/ACodeofSilence?fref=nf

if you happen to give us a listen let me know where you think we fall.
 
#2
I wish we didn't have to categorize ourselves. I hear about 4 different influences at first listen, including heavy metal, classic heavy metal, message-rock, and blues. The clips and playing sound really tight.

This might sound counter-intuitive, but I went to your facebook page to see if your look would give me some clues as to your 'label'. I wasn't expecting to see a friendly bunch of guys having a good time with obvious stage rapport. I'm happy to see it, but based on these two tracks, it did strike me as a little incongruent.

Maybe I should ask the question: are you sub- ing yourselves for marketing yourselves to managers, club owners, etc., record stores/itunes, or so it's easier to talk about your music to fans?
 
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#3
Thanks for the response, We are trying to define our sound so when ppl ask what type of music we play, we dont respond with "metal" or "hard rock", or some other very broad spectrum response. We were hoping that finding our sub category would both help us understand our audience and have a solid response for clubs, labels etc. so to answer your question both.
 
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#7
gabrams said:
Recently my band and I have been trying to figure out what sub category of rock/hard rock/metal, my band fits into. wondering how with so many influences your bands labelled your sound.

if you happen to give us a listen let me know where you think we fall.
Click to expand...

Sorry to be so contrary, but if you yourselves don't know how to characterize your own music, then how can you expect anyone else to do it for you? I mean, it's your music. Surely you must have had some kind of concept in mind when you created it, no?

As an artist, it's extremely important that you never allow anyone else to define you - ever. Serious artists have struggled long and hard to maintain control over their own identities and their own public images - because it's so fundamental to their entire work. Why would you ever want to just give that away? Surely you must have some capacity for conceptualization. Maybe you need to think much more deeply about this than you have done thus far. :eyebrow:

MM
 
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#8
If Karen Carpenter went insane, had a gender reassignment surgery, and hired Ginger Baker on guitar, Jimi Hendrix on drums, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir on bass; if all of these people put together a mix of punk/opera/country/progressive with a dash of R&B; if they played this on non-traditional instruments, such as a drum kit made of old shopping carts, a theramin and a ball of earwax; if all of these were recorded underwater using a crystal mic, that is pretty much NOT what my band sounds like.
 
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#9
Mystic Michael said:
Sorry to be so contrary, but if you yourselves don't know how to characterize your own music, then how can you expect anyone else to do it for you? I mean, it's your music. Surely you must have had some kind of concept in mind when you created it, no?

As an artist, it's extremely important that you never allow anyone else to define you - ever. Serious artists have struggled long and hard to maintain control over their own identities and their own public images - because it's so fundamental to their entire work. Why would you ever want to just give that away? Surely you must have some capacity for conceptualization. Maybe you need to think much more deeply about this than you have done thus far. :eyebrow:

MM
Click to expand...
I completley understand where you are coming from, however; as we are in the Band Management forum at times we must market our music to Promoters, Labels etc. for this purpose having a defined sound helps deliver the ART we are making to people who will appreciate it the most. Labelling your sound or having "Recomended if you like" similar artists in a press kit is not anti-art, in my particular case we looking for the best description to name our sound. its a bit rock a bit metal but saying something like that is not going to get people listening.

an Artist allows their influences and experiences to shape them, there is no written rule saying asking for outside opinion is not allowed i believe in artists helping artists, however; thank you for your Criticisms.

p.s we are not trying to fit into any sub category for prosperity we are simply interested in finding out where the people think we fall into
 
#10
The flavour of the month is post something.... post-grunge, post-metal, post-music? Or maybe alt? alt-country, alt-punk?

In all seriousness, to me, I don't see what you're playing as fitting into a modern "metal" genre, so look around the hard rock genres and shoehorn yourself in lol.

I know we all try to fit ourselves into a genre so that we can find other bands to share bills with. I wish you luck, I liked what I heard.
 
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#12
Female singer, upright bass that's plucked, slapped or bowed, electric guitar, drums. All else is negotiable.

The band is new enough that we are testing names. Some of the suggestions would pigeonhole us as a rockabilly band, a country band, a jazz band, or something else. We touch on all those things, so the name has to be a bit ambiguous, too.
 

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