Today and forever, the issue the entire music industry (and you as an artist) faces is a huge crisis. And this all comes down to the following word: ATTENTION. Why should we care? Because without a strong sonic identity, no one will hear you.
Quick history lesson. How much easier would it be to gain visibility on your artist project when there were only 70,000 releases per year pre-internet versus 1 million releases now, per week? (*Apparently this is the new rumored release schedule, compounded with AI.) Well, of course, you would also need to have been signed to a major label.
To say it another way, before streaming, when it was just all about radio via the different formats, you only had perhaps 40 (yes, 40) songs per week vying for your attention. Yes, I said 40! That’s versus 1 million songs now per week. And please note – we ain’t slowing down.
Music Release Volume Comparison
To put it mildly, this is insane.
Part of the attention deficit is also the exponential competition outside of music itself! You’re not just competing against other artists. No, you’re competing against the latest bingeable Netflix show, gaming, VR/AR, TikTok and Instagram infinite scrolls, etc., and . . . (drum roll) the entire history of music that has been released!
That’s right! You’re competing against Led Zeppelin, Notorious B.I.G., Fleetwood Mac, Miles Davis, Van Halen, Joni Mitchell, etc.!
You get the picture.
Add to this that with technology and AI, the ability to make music is truly in the hands of everyone and anyone. And I really mean anyone. Anyone can go on Suno, create a new finished song and master, and upload it – all in the matter of an hour.
So where does that leave you?
This is very important. I’ll give you a little mantra that I picked up from Tony Robbins – and not something he recently wrote. In fact, I was doing a program of Tony’s from 1995, and this really resonated.It goes like this:
“If you do a POOR job, you get NO rewards.
If you do a GOOD job, you get POOR rewards.
If you do an EXCELLENT job, you get GOOD rewards.
If you do an OUTSTANDING job, you get ALL the rewards!”
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“If You Do an OUTSTANDING Job, You Get ALL the Rewards!” – Tony Robbins
Does this sound like the streaming game right now?
That’s right – no one remembers who got the silver or bronze at the Olympics. Being the second or third best at anything in the Olympics doesn’t really matter, and the fourth best, well, that doesn’t even get recognized. All your hard work, blood, sweat, and tears, and training. Sorry, bub. It’s a ZERO!
This is the streaming game right now.
So, how do we fix this?
What we need is for you to manifest and create the DNA and BREAKAWAY zone for you as an artist. Maybe you’re already feeling out the perimeters? BUT NOW IT’S TIME TO GO ALL IN. Because if you do just a GOOD job of manifesting your artist direction, you get POOR rewards, and that’s not empowering, nor livable, and it probably takes even 80% of the work it does to do something truly OUTSTANDING!
Yet OUTSTANDING is truly achievable because not many people know how to get there or what OUTSTANDING really sounds like!
To say this another way, there’s MUCH less competition here in the OUTSTANDING category!
In my opinion, first we must figure out the SONG DNA and the CULTURE for your artist project – what’s going to allow you to stand apart completely. Make no doubt, this is the gunpowder to your “annihilation zone.”
This is the sonic (and visual) and cultural identity providing the bedrock for your “annihilation song” to take root.
What do you stand for sonically and otherwise? Tell me – why should we care?
And for sure, everyone gets caught up in having a HIT. And yes, a HIT will take you far. But if it’s a HIT that sounds like what everyone else is doing, or if you have 10 other well-known artists in this lane, then what? You can still be INVISIBLE long term! You’re part of the pack. You’re still on a crowded freeway.
Making your own sonic identity and “annihilation zone” and cultural importance that’s authentic to you is where you truly stand out and shine. Also a word here on cultural importance and identity.
I’m not saying your artist project has to aim to solve world peace and climate change – at all, though that would be nice. Let’s take LMFAO for example. I signed these guys back in the day. Say what you will about LMFAO, but Stephen (Redfoo) is a genius. And guess what? THEY ABSOLUTELY HAD CULTURE! It might not be YOUR culture, but they stood for something: “Party Rock Anthem!” That’s right – LMFAO did something no one else was doing.
“Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO
Other artists that have culture and stand for something? It’s usually the best and most iconic artists. For example: hip-hop (Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac), ’80s metal (Mötley Crüe, KISS), Billie Eilish (the anti-pop star, so much so that she counterintuitively became a massive pop star), David Bowie, etc. Basically, anyone who can sell out a show usually has culture – they stand for something. Their fans show up “in uniform.”
So take note here on my own personal mantra, which you must take to heart:
“COMPETE WHERE THERE IS NO COMPETITION.”
@benjamin.groff “Compete where there is no competition.” In places like Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, and London, the volume of professional-level songs made each day is wild. A thousand songs a day, all polished and pitch-ready. And most of them? Really good. But really good is also really common. Everyone is living in the same musical neighborhood: same toplines, same tricks, same ceiling. The fringe is where the magic happens. The left-of-center, slightly what-the-hell-is-this kind of songs. That’s where the juicy, jump-off-the-speakers moments are born. So I’ve been wondering: what happens if you stop renovating the same house and move to another block? More at BenjaminGroff.com. #HowToWriteASong #ProfessionalSongwriter #Songwriter #Songwriting #SongwritingTips ♬ original sound – Benjamin Groff
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Your Sonic Identity: An Annihilation Pillar
Let’s move on from culture and standing for something to your personal sound and sonic identity.
You see, everyone is generally competing in the same playing field and vying for limited attention. You need to create the lane where it’s just you. Sounds crazy? Sounds counterintuitive? Shooting for something OTHER than the juicy center?
Well, it absolutely is! You need to literally get outside of your own mind and contentness to get to this place.
- You need to GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE!
- You’re going to have to STRETCH THE BOUNDARIES of what you think is possible for yourself.
- You’re going to have to do some deep dives in transplanting your overall lane, going NICHE, and tapping into the future version of your artist project.
- If someone else is doing this sound currently and successfully (with emphasis on both those words), then you just might not have tried hard enough. In my opinion, you need to CREATE AND OWN YOUR LANE.
I’ll give you just a few examples of artists who’ve carved their own lanes in this manner and figured out (or had someone help them figure out) their own artist and song DNA. Let’s start with the late ’90s/early ’00s and then look at some other examples.
Destiny’s Child
The Writing’s on the Wall by Destiny’s Child
You might think Destiny’s Child and their sonic identity is über-pedestrian and common. Not so fast! For The Writing’s on the Wall, I was fortunate enough to hear this album before it came out. Somehow I was able to befriend Mathew Knowles back in, like, 1998. I was a mere mid-20-year-old. But Mathew came and played me the album, and I thought it was INCREDIBLE! Nothing at all sounded like this. It was light-years ahead of what anyone was doing.
Unfortunately, my superior at the time, who was running the R&B division of the company, asked, “Are you on a mission to sign Destiny’s Child?” I said, “Yes, Derek, I am.” His response was “Abort mission.”
Takeaway: never take no for an answer.
Even the experts (and your friends, social media, relatives, and colleagues) may not likely “get” what you’re doing. It’s going to sound completely foreign and like “WTF” to them. Make no doubt, that’s probably a good thing.
Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC
Baby One More Time by Britney Spears
In the mid- to late ’90s, pop music was not on the map on the radio, much less a five-boy band group or a new shiny female pop star. And that’s just one reason why Britney, Backstreet, and *NSYNC took off. It all came out of the Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, a sonic identity and sound largely invented and spawned by the late Dag Volle (Denniz PoP) and mentor to Max Martin. That song and artist DNA defined the next eight to 10 years of pop music. That’s also why Clive Calder was and is a genius and how he nearly bankrupted Bertelsmann with his $2.6 billion exit payout ($15 billion in our 2026+ dollars).
Katy Perry, Kesha, Kelly Clarkson
One of the Boys by Katy Perry
Love him or hate him, Dr. Luke knows how to crack the sonic identity and DNA code for artists. Take Katy Perry, Kelly Clarkson, and Kesha. I personally know and love those artists, but to be honest, before their massive songs with Dr. Luke, those artists had been around for a bit. Kesha had done all the local sessions. Katy Perry had written and recorded three separate albums that never came out! You’d have to give Dr. Luke credit for helping figure out what that sound was – and this is what I call figuring out the DNA of an artist. And to that degree, Dr. Luke was behind the mega-smash “Since U Been Gone,” a combination of Yeah Yeah Yeahs meets a pop-rock sensibility of 2005. The next 10 years of pop music was largely guitar-, rock-, beat-, and pop-based.
“Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson
We took a look here at some of the ’00s breakout stars, and I could go on and on, but let’s look at some other broader examples by genre.
The first person to have the breakout moment with a new sonic identity and sound largely became infamous; the others, not so much.
Let’s take a look at the below. And yes, many of these are niche and super-niche! But this is what I’m saying: if you can own your subgenre and do the OUTSTANDING work, as Tony Robbins said, you get ALL the rewards!
So, take a look at the below and let me know who stands out?
- Hyperpop
- Mumble rap
- Swing: yes, there really was a swing/’40s craze here in the US for a moment – i.e., Squirrel Nut Zippers and the like. Swing was very hot here 20+ years ago.
- PC Music: SOPHIE (one of my previous signings), A. G. Cook
- Reggaetón
- Phonk
- Electroclash
- Bounce music: Big Freedia is the godmother of NOLA bounce, and I’m proud to say she’s on our Brill Building roster, and I’ve been working with Freedia for 10+ years. Freedia owns this genre!
Big Freedia
And we can go back further in music decades. How about these:
- Disco
- New wave
- Industrial
And of course a huge one: hip-hop! Who were those pioneers, and who took it even further?
So, I have a question to ask: WHAT LANE DO YOU OWN? What genre are you creating?
Seriously – think about that.
There was a point in time where none of these genres existed. Yet the originators of these genres who did an OUTSTANDING job got all the rewards! And those songs are still being played on the radio today!
And guess what – by doing an OUTSTANDING job back in the day, they’re STILL getting ALL the rewards!
The way there is the ARTIST DNA + A REAL HIT – that’s where the juice is.
Are you getting where I’m going here? It’s up to you to create the SONG DNA for your artist project and perhaps even REINVENT the future.
Let me say this another way: you’re going to need to REINVENT the present to meet the future on its terms.
How to Do This
This is something that you and you alone must work on, play with, experiment with, research, and do some of your own private soul-digging.
I’ll give you a hint. Stop f*cking around :).
Secondly, if the direction you want to go in instantly brings up negative self-talk like “That’s crazy; no one would be into that” or “That style is just not in fashion right now” or “I just don’t have the resources to do that,” then you might be on the right track.
What we’re referencing above is called “the Resistance,” as famously coined and illuminated by Steven Pressfield. And if you’re on this journey, I highly recommend that you walk – no, run – to your local Amazon (heh) and buy Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art. There will be answers there for you, for sure.
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Now, when it comes to the answers to the above, you might be disappointed to hear that, quite frankly, I don’t have answers SPECIFICALLY for you. But I might have all the right QUESTIONS!
You see, the quality of your life and where you’re heading depends on the quality of the questions you’re asking yourself.
Here are some ideas to get started:
1. What type of music genuinely “lights you up?” We’re talking broadly here. If that’s ’70s ABBA vibes, fantastic – what kind of new twist can you put on it? Is it ’80s (meaning the 1980s or even the 1880s!)? Or if it’s hardcore industrial, awesome. Or ’90s hip-hop? Great. We must first begin where you feel the most passionate and pick a lane that’s going to light you up – where you jump out of bed each morning to live in this world you’re creating.
2. What does this LOOK like? Yes, you heard me right. What does this look like? That means with each sonic identity, historically, the biggest icons also had a visual identity going for them. Just think of your favorite icon. It’s likely that they (and their fans) have a look and aesthetic that MATCHES the sonic direction. You’ll also see these fans a mile away.
David Bowie
3. What music or genre is NOT in fashion right now? I mentioned some previous genres like ’90s hip-hop. If you’re in the R&B space, could that be a genre and lane to reignite? Maybe it’s not your entire artist direction, but maybe it works for an EP or an album. This means you must study that genre, capture the best moments of it and why it worked, understand what the moves of those producers and songwriters and artists behind the wave of hits were, and make it your own.
4. What genres could be a great mashup? If not for an entire career, maybe for a few songs? For example, the aesthetics of “’80s new wave” meets “hip-hop” or “industrial metal?”
5. Can you use AI to work on this for you and “audition” sonic identity, direction, and aesthetics? You bet! That’s right – sure, maybe you don’t want AI to write your songs, but could you get AI to audition the aesthetics and get some broad strokes, macro genre blends going, and keep going until you find something that is just incredibly brilliant? Let me illuminate how powerful this could be.
Why not use AI as a powerful Y Combinator of sorts for your music direction, hack something together that’s just absolutely brilliant, and 1000% defines you?
To say this another way: Steve Jobs, former CEO and genius behind nearly everything Apple is today, didn’t give his customers what they “thought they wanted.” He gave his customers what they didn’t even know existed – AND THEN MADE IT! You must do the same.
I think, actually, this is the most powerful thing you can do for this journey.
Steve Jobs
6. Can you flip old classics into your lane that might not “fit,” but in a new genre or new lane become undeniable? One idea just off the top of my head is Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.” When this came out, it was so cool and weird and indie. In fact, it was on all the cool indie stations (i.e., KCRW in Los Angeles) before it really went mainstream.
So what was the sonic identity here? It turns out producer Danger Mouse really knows his music and sampled the very obscure track “Nel Cimitero di Tucson” by Gianfranco and Gianpiero Reverberi.
Can you do the same?
Here’s just one other idea: Record label K-tel in the early ’80s came up with something called Hooked on Classics. They took all the best hits of classical music, made a medley, put a disco beat behind it, and the rest was pop history – a top-ten Billboard Hot 100, in fact. K-tel manifested this and mashed up genres. You can do this too!
“Nel Cimitero DI Tucson” by Gianfranco & Gianpiero Reverberi
7. What types of new instruments can you try out? Or if you’re a producer, can you rent out the new keyboards with the latest sonically advanced synth patches, or buy the latest native synths that will give you some inspiration to create something new?
Example: When Roger Linn gifted Prince (and a handful of other artists) the new Linn drum machine (then known as the LM-1 Linn Drum Computer), what did Prince do with that? Prince sculpted a sonic identity and lane that ultimately only Prince really owned. It turns out Roger Linn also gave his drum machine to Leon Russell, Gary Numan, and Michael Jackson, but it’s Prince whom we recognize for leaning into those sonically standout drum sounds of his early hits, which still sound amazing today.
What new instrument, music invention, or tool can you lean into today to give you inspiration? Note: See No. 5 above, as this really could be a key answer for many people.
8. Who are your heroes and “giants” of the genre you’re in that you can model? Note: we’re not saying to rip off. We’re saying to learn from those greats, analyze and figure out what made those songs great in the first place from all angles – the music, harmony, melody, production, lyrics, etc. – and then model them. Take what you liked from them and then make your own. There’s a whole article of resources that you can read right now on how to do this called “The Songwriting Vocabulary Expander.”
This is essential for all artist and writer growth.
9. Can you tap into your inner eye, your inner voice, and manifest this outside of actually sitting in front of a keyboard, music instrument, or DAW? That’s right. It’s what Dr. Joe Dispenza calls “stop creating in matter and start creating in energy.” I call it “writing in your mind’s eye.” The thing is, our fingers can only play the chords we know and that we’re familiar with.
We’re also likely to create only out of our past vocabulary and what we know. So can you create out of energy instead of matter? Can you close your eyes and visualize and hear – literally like your mind’s eye turning on a radio – what this might sound like? I have a whole article on this here as well.
10. Who not how? You might be asking yourself: How am I going to create this lane for myself? Or, I’m not a superstar producer – how am I going to do this on my own? First, that’s the wrong question because, with AI, you don’t need a producer (really) anymore, at least at this stage of the process. See No. 5 above.
Second, you’re asking the wrong question. Instead ask: Who? Who can I partner with and seek out to make this vision a reality? I’ll give you some further lessons here on the famous “whos” behind some of the biggest artists of all time.
Take Alanis Morissette – a fledgling, semi-faceless emerging pop star from Canada.
She found her “who,” who was none other than writer and producer Glen Ballard. Glen and Alanis together manifested the classic album (and sonic identity) called Jagged Little Pill. Glen was Alanis’s “who” (and also vice versa). They created their own lane. And Alanis stood for something! She was the Billie Eilish of her day.
And guess what – she got ALL the rewards! Hell, they even made a musical about this album! She’s still getting all the rewards!
Here’s one other (and I can go on and on): how about Eminem? We all know who Marshall’s “who” was. It was, of course, Dr. Dre. It often takes an introduction of these two talents from a third party, which is genius in its own right.
In Alanis’s case, I think it was Leeds Levy, who was an executive at MCA Music Publishing at the time and knew both (also a proud Canadian). In Eminem’s case, it was, of course, Jimmy Iovine, who helped connect the dots.
Remember to value these people, too!
“Without Me” by Eminem
11. What’s your vocal personality? In Suno they actually have a “vocal personality” feature. This is where you can shape a vocal personality as a preset and save it so that every time you make a song, you can choose and grab your premade “vocal personality.” But that’s a big thing I want to bring up here: today, most artists and vocalists don’t have much of a vocal personality.
Not just in the sense that when you hear them you know it’s a certain artist, but also that you tune into their actual vocal delivery, nuances, and affect in how they deliver. Especially if you listen to the best artists of the ’80s – all or most artists had a vocal delivery specific to them, often with a certain level of “sell” on each vocal line.
For the best example of this, check out Rick James’s “Super Freak.” No one – I mean no one – sings like this except Rick James. But you know someone who kind of delivers with an ultra-inflection? Nicki Minaj! Nicki has an affected voice, a personality that is authentic and amplified. She stands out!
Can you create a specific vocal persona? What is this for you?
“Super Freak” by Rick James
And make no mistake: today this is something you must, MUST, must do! You MUST STAND OUT, STAND OUT, STAND OUT!!!
Otherwise, invisibility (or at best, topping out at 100,000 Spotify streams, or even worse, the dreaded sub-1,000 Spotify purgatory) is not just a possibility – it’s GUARANTEED!
You have the tools. And now you have this insight.
What kind of disruption are you going to create?
Learn the art and secret science behind hit songwriting whether you’re an artist or aspiring pro songwriter for others.
Discover 16 never before shared hit making secrets (that you won’t find anywhere else) to elevate your songwriting.
Credits:
Boris Yaro, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Matthew Yohe, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
