Are Rules REALLY Meant To Be Broken?

[Robert Randolph]

Okay, so then where can I see video tutorials where industry pros are actually breaking the rules? I have yet to run into one. Seriously, I would like to see one video where the producer is doing something innovative or at least different from the same old same old.

Why would pros break from the norm? They're trying to attract the largest audience possible so they can generate income?

Clearly if you want to attract the largest audience, then it makes the most sense to deviate only very slightly from what's currently popular.

[JJ_Jettflow]

There aren't any rules. No-one forces the edm musicians to use supersaws, to sidechain, to keep the kick mono and dominant, to layer or to have rolling basses. But these are things that help to hear a pleasant sound in sub-genres. Then there are things that are just modern and successfull (some melody patterns, bass sounds, drops and even a certain clap/snare sound) and many edm musician are copycats at least once.

You can extend your thesis to any genre. I found tutorials for rock, hiphop and even jazz that sounded like they're doing and explaining the same. And we can agree that jazz has no rules

To have no rules is a rule as well.

[Robert Randolph]

Okay, so then where can I see video tutorials where industry pros are actually breaking the rules? I have yet to run into one. Seriously, I would like to see one video where the producer is doing something innovative or at least different from the same old same old.

Why would pros break from the norm? They're trying to attract the largest audience possible so they can generate income?

Clearly if you want to attract the largest audience, then it makes the most sense to deviate only very slightly from what's currently popular.

To expand on this even further: people making educational content also want to reach the largest audience, so it makes sense for them to target the most common music.

So at some point you have to realize the target audience of these folks. It makes sense for them to all be trying to produce similar sounds, but that doesn't mean it's necessary. It's only necessary if...

[Tj Shredder]

If I listen to music, there is no genre I am seeking. The creative pros do not make tutorial videos, they make music and even if they are moving within a genre they don't think genre.
That is why mainstream fashion genres like EDM are so boring often (sometimes I think its not music, its just sounds that allows you to you dance).

Rules are a frame which helps to focus on specific parts of music. For example if your main focus is sound, you keep the harmonies and melodies simple by following some rules. But within the sound you go crazy, or the other way around...
Musical expression is all about surprise. Easy to create if you follow rules and then suddenly break them and maybe come back. Breaking rules needs a reason though, you don't do it arbitrarily, just to break a rule. You can create tension for example. It is like in real life. We follow rules and break them sometimes by following a rule on a higher level - but we know why we breake rules and can justify it...

[kelvyn]

Breaking rules is part of the evolutionary process... Debussy and Satie broke what traditional composers of the day thought were the rules as do most creators who think outside of the box. But are there hard and fast rules in music? Aren’t what some people call rules or theory just a framework, a template for creatives to use as a starting point for their own creative expression. For example, look at free jazz or abstract art, these art forms were based on what came before them but were expressing an evolution - not necessarily hell bent on breaking rules - but more to do with moving away from accepted norms and finding new forms of expression. Some might see it as evolution not revolution, a natural flow from one form to another that is not breaking anything but adding something. A lot of the time the autodidact functions without rules and just creates and in that scenario the idea of rules just become moot. It’s only when the other/the populace put rules on that persons creation that rules become pertinent. If people didn’t evolve or break the mold then we would be living in boring mono culture were everything is generic and in the end boring... just look at today’s popular music where a lot of it just sounds the same, artists and record companies all trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator. If we don’t watch out we’ll find ourselves living in Generica.
Bit of ramble...

[Burillo]

"do not distort the amplifier" was once a rule. most of the "rules" you're used to now at some point were either happy accidents or deliberate rule-breaking. that's how new ground is broken.

[dellboy]

The main rule with EDM is you are not allowed to be old.

The rule is that anything over 20 is old.

Anyone over 20 is too old to understand EDM.

If you do not understand EDM, guess what ?

By the way, I am way too old

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

The creative pros do not make tutorial videos, they make music.

Well that ain't true

[Tj Shredder]

You are probably right, even Hans Zimmer is making and selling videos, but who wants to learn from him anyway...; - )

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

You are probably right, even Hans Zimmer is making and selling videos, but who wants to learn from him anyway...; - )

I'd learn his rules just to break them

[chk071]

Are Rules REALLY Meant To Be Broken?

No.

[Scotty]

I'd say more accurately that rules are destined to be challenged. It's instinctive... tell a bunch of school yard kids to stay out of the puddles and you'll see what happens and then there is that Adam and Eve thing.

[sjm]

Are Rules REALLY Meant To Be Broken?

No.

Yes they are. It's the one rule that rules them all, and shall not be broken. Not even by you.

[Distorted Horizon]

Guess you need to follow some "rules" to fit your song in a category.. But when I make a song, I've selected a scale that I stick with. But if the lead needs to borrow a note that is not in the scale, I borrow it.

[thecontrolcentre]

Of course "the rules" should be broken. There would be no progress otherwise.