Ways to STAND OUT as a Music Composer?

Hello Composers! :slight_smile:
So I have been thinking. In the pop music world (all styles) the recent decades it has increasingly become more important to stand out by all means necessary.

Generally not so much with the music itself (except using explicit language and insanely bad lyrics), but more about the “artist image”. Which can for example include your look, outfit, what you say/do, how you act and present yourself, crazy music videos, and so on.

How can we composers stand out in the same way?
But in the “Soundtrack & Instrumental Music World”?

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I suppose you still need to create a brand for yourself and also if you look at say film composers there’s a lot of very distinctive approaches - From Junkie XL to John Carpenter to Hans Zimmer. Also you notice this a lot in Game music. People put there own musical stamp on the projects there working on.

With pop music its always suggested you stick with one genre - I’m not sure how true this is as you see many bands and artists crossing over into multiple genres.

I think even as a composer you still need to create your own image and sound to some degree.

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I agree, it can benefit a lot to build a brand, and to develop a sound that people recognize. But what can we as composers do for that “chock and awe”-factor that is so important for pop artists these days? :stuck_out_tongue:

Since we are not in music video, not on stage etc. We need to find another way to “break it”. Or perhaps we SHOULD do music videos with instrumental music too? :stuck_out_tongue:

PS. I remember when I first saw a Lindsey Stirling music video on YouTube back in 2010 or thereabouts…completely instrumental, yet amazing visuals and “performance” (not live of course since it is a music video). And she became a phenomenon on YouTube. It seems playing an instrument as a composer could be one way of “standing out”. :slight_smile:

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Well, the cello is nice and big to hide behind, and you pretty much need to sit down (or at least stand in one place) to play it properly, so that’s an excuse to avoid dancing…! On the downside, one does not leisurely sit back and strum on it while singing or something. People expect virtuosic solos and stuff! Working on that… :smiley:

But on a more serious note, I started learning the Unreal Engine toolchain and researching megascans libraries and whatnot, and I’m starting to have some vague ideas about what all this might add up to eventually.

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2Cellos are an amazing act on YouTube though, however as many artists they blew up with covers (Iron Maiden on 2 cellos for example). Oh, and they look like crazy headbanging metalheads which I guess also makes them stand out even more! :wink:

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