How Do Artists Find Their Sound?

 Artist like Twenty One Pilots Billy Eilish and other top of the bill artists have a seemingly such an individual sound and it has to be tough to evolve overtime musicwise. Fans are huge in terms of merchandise being bought, concert touring sizes, meet and greets, and album packages. There's a huge amount of opportunity for engagement with fans. 

And music trends in general have changed over time in how people consume music and how new fans are being introduced to music. People used to physically pass out CDs with their music and now it's streaming. Like radio used to individually select songs for the radio and a lot are more playlists and prerecorded filler. In terms of TV like it feels like it was huge to be on Disney or Nick, like a Britney or Justin Timberlake or Christina Aguilera, Ryan Rosling. and become a massive star and maybe still is with people like Jenna Ortega, Olivia Rodrigo, and Sabrina Carpenter and Dove Cameron. 

Before then in terms of pop music, the boy bands from singing competitions. Not just boy bands but individual acts. Daughtry, One Direction, Little Mix, Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert, Carrie Underwood, But it feels like the new child stars are social media stars originally  Netflix and HBO are in and Cable is out. Retro is back though for music, like Record players are in still, CDs are sort of out, cassettes too, radio is out, but SiriusXM Spotify, Apple Music are all in. 

Like how do artists make money now and stand the test of time? Streaming doesn't pay from what I hear. Through Merch, fans, ticketing, meet and greets, producing credits? Once you build an audience how do you stay relevant? How to you build an audience? 

In terms of famous people, like you can see who is "famous" by who gets invited to sit courtside at basketball games. What is famous the the older demographics are ex-sports players, or musicians or comedians, now it feels digital with TikTokers. 

If you think of it in terms of comedy, comedians used to work at open mics and work their way up but now social media famous people can go and get immediately booked with their built in audience. Businesswise it seems better, and more secure way of making money knowing people have a social audience regardless of being vouched for or building a personal reputation.

 It has to be tough for older and younger acts to be booked together on a bill because of the new category being added in. It used to be the best safe comedy act, the best edgy comedy act, the best nostalgia, the best girl, the best guy, now it involves the best YouTubers, the best actors, the best tiktokers, the best musicians, the best TV comedian, the best comedy writer, the best diverse act etc. It has to be so easy as a booker business wise but tough on the individuals using the old school path and aren't getting the social push. 

All that has to translate toward music as well right? This is across the board in entertainment music, movies/TV, social media, sports, radio, video games, comedy. Everything did trend toward online since the smart phone but the shutdown and covid expedited  everything faster. And things are slowly balancing out now but I also feel incredibly removed from social media trends. 

You'll see similar trends and social media strategies across the many mediums as well such as F1 driving with fan pages similarly marketed like boybands like one direction or before that Tik Tok creator houses or before that was the YouTubers which got over saturated. The NFLxTaylor Swift cross over was huge financially for everyone. The NFL of course has the history and dedicated male audience but Taylor Swift brought a fandom that bought mercy, brought engagement, and the fans brought a huge amount of free press. There's a reason WAGS are known for sports fandom because you're giving an inside into your favorite players that men don't care for generally besides them being hot but wives do love seeing their livestyle, and reality shows. You can see what people wear, what their family and friends are like and feel like you're involved as a fan. 

Social media has been the new word of mouth forever and the past few years were Tik Tokers trend has moved to building out podcasts to live event podcasts and live streaming has been huge this whole time since before covid. There would be fan compilations, fan pages, for anything. 

And I'm such other companies are utilizing these trends as well with advertising like clothes, sports but you need a leader/personality to bring a new fanbase in for ad deals or commercials. Businesswise, it should feel easier to get a sense of a personalities by the public analytics like follows likes and engagement. exaggeratedly like famous actors and comedians are in Super Bowl commercials, walking in fashion shows and other collaborations. 

So how do artist find their sound? how do media personalities find their sound because realistically, you could just chase the trends and make money from the highest bidder. Content turnaround time is tough with timing everything so ultimately you just have to have a loyal fanbase. It's good to find new avenues and try new things and also sample and cover artists. 

It has to be tough though with newer acts trying to be like an artist like Twenty One Pilots cuz acts like NF, Blackbear, and AJR all have very similar sounds vocally as well as production wise as well. They all seem like a fusion of a white guy rapping, electronic introspective distopian backtracks. NF focuses more on the rapping lyrically it seems like for some songs where others are so similar. Blackbear seems to be more poppy/angsty, and AJR has more melodies and poppy. It this interview the singer Tyler Joseph said the two of them focuses more on them and don't really notice similarity that a consume might. They said jokingly they feel flattered by the question of others copying them. He said later it's great that other artists have the freedom to write whatever they want to. And that's a great way to thing of anything creative. It is incredibly easy to get competitive and negative about the process but there is a choice in doing whatever you want as an artist.