Ateno
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Memphis, TN

An event in my life has inspired the project I'm currently working on, and I intend to attempt and break the event down into a few stages that are then represented by songs. I know it's not uncommon to tell a story with your music on an album or EP or what have you, but the question is, is do you sacrifice making a song conventionally appealing to make it more effective at telling your narrative? Should the music first be made to listen to and then arranged in such a way that it tells a story, or should music be created with the full intent of telling the narrative if that is what is inspiring the music? I understand music is what you make it, but I think what I'm actually driving at is does an album/EP specifically designed to tell a story, possibly at the cost of conventional musical 'value',  have a place being released for the purpose of listening, or should it remain a personal musical novel for the writer?

Kind of a weird question, but it has been bothering me as I have worked on this project, as I don't know whether or not sacrificing the musical 'value' for the narrative 'value' is worth it to make the album/ep a more specific experience or not.

Boner
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United States
Ateno wrote:

music is what you make it

if you make it and you say it's music that's all that matters

if you aren't doing this for a record label or sales, you have no one to answer to other than yourself.

rvan
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I feel that the best music is music that forgoes 'conventional' appeal for a greater purpose.  For me, music should fist and foremost be a form of expression, and so if your music is expressing something--such as telling a story--then it is succeeding at this.  If your music is 'conventionally appealing', but doesn't really express anything, it is perhaps only mediocre.

If you feel that you need to forgo conventional appeal, then it perhaps means that your music has a more powerful or important message to express.  I suspect that this is often how new genres arise--artists feel that they can't express themselves within the existing musical frameworks.

Mrwimmer
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Los Angeles, CA

From my own experience, if the musical parts of your art, and the narrative parts of your art are separate enough that you can ask this question, maybe you should do some self-editing.

For me, that connection you can form, when the story you want to tell is told as best as you could ever possibly do, because it is so tied to this other element that you cant imagine the story being told any other way.

But I'm just some fuck, every artist is different, make something you're proud of smile

sandneil
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i think people will appreciate that

ultimately your whole creative output over your whole life tells a narrative of its own and if you plan to do conventional music before and after then this project becomes part of that whole

maybe this will be your very own "metal machine music" / "on the corner" / "the dreaming"

breakphase
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Earth
Ateno wrote:

do you sacrifice making a song conventionally appealing to make it more effective at telling your narrative? Should the music first be made to listen to and then arranged in such a way that it tells a story, or should music be created with the full intent of telling the narrative if that is what is inspiring the music?

If you aren't chasing your muse, you risk being boring. If the music isn't interesting to you, it probably won't be to anyone else either. You just have to try, and then maybe fail (which in this case would be making music that isn't good, I guess) ...Pretty generic advice.  C-

Ateno wrote:

Should the music first be made to listen to and then arranged in such a way that it tells a story, or should music be created with the full intent of telling the narrative if that is what is inspiring the music?

I think it happens both ways. But I think all music should be made to listen to.

Alpine
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UK, Leicester

I've only written one song with any kind of story or narrative, and it was for a friend. What I did was I wrote a little story, then thought "how do i make this clear with the music" It was all in time with the tracker, and it's not like I changed tempos. I kind wanted to make it still be music, but to also be a story as well. Idk, it all depends on what you're trying to do.

sugar sk*-*lls
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nashville,tn

I've started and abandoned my share of concept albums. Music should come first. There's a reason why you would choose a medium over another. It is up to you to figure out why music over prose as your vehicle. Take a listen to concept albums you think are successful. I think every album by Pink Floyd is a concept album, but Piper at the Gates is my favorite by far. Philip Glass has done some fantastic music only concepts, check out Augas de Amozonia it is brilliant. There are a number of ways to tell a story within the medium of music, lyrics, melodies, song titles, extra writing in a booklet, etc. Write tons of ideas and then filter out the best. It is maddening fun to try to make something like you are talking about, so be patient and don't be afraid to fail!

an0va
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Mrwimmer wrote:

make something you're proud of smile