u/Future_Burrito

I've always enjoyed kinda far out modes and sounds. I understand keys as tools/existing narratives that allow composers to create expectations, tension, release, and a sense of "normalcy."

My question is this- if keys are really just preprogrammed patterns, then why is it frowned on to just write music that sounds good to me? I'm not looking to write atonal music, because that doesn't sound good to me. But this is an example of a track I made that my friend who knows much more about music theory than I said isn't really in a key because the strings and everything else are doing different things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9UP-g3cI9Y&list=OLAK5uy_nAxfKvPmQKuoOEcmM2RjPinBjC9GOOhXA&index=9

I'm curious if maybe this song actually has a key. (I honestly forget what I was doing with the strings, but I know it made sense to me from my music theory understanding, with a little bit of tweaking by ear.

Can you provide other examples of songs that don't fit a key, but aren't atonal? Is it just different cultures that have different neural pathways programmed through repetition?

Any other words of wisdom for someone who has an extremely basic understanding of music theory but really enjoys the stranger yet beautiful noises in the world and in music, other than learn more music theory (I'm doing that, slowly but surely)?

I feel like there are two larger categories. Sure, you can be both, but you likely lean one way or the other. I don't think one or the other is "better."

1. Unpolished, less repetitive and a little blurry, maybe even muddy or dirty at times, still evolving (sometimes live or demo, but not necessarily), often unplanned or
2. Polished, professional, clean, very consistent, maybe quantized and autotuned, but definitely close to pitch perfect, much more structured, and finished for pop consumption

The best way I can express this, which I came across recently, is the difference between the demo for Human Nature by Steve Porcaro and the final product by Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones. The demo is at ~10:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK_16kD45X4

There's something about music that hasn't been tweaked, reduced, produced, and nudged to "perfection" that I just love.

Obviously, this is a pop reference, but for those who lean more metal, maybe something like the difference between the studio albums of Alice In Chains vs. something like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-scGZMgxp8 (live and unplugged).

But it's not necessarily just the difference between studio and live, or jam band/improv vs. playing it straight. It's a feel to the music, a sort of rawness. I've heard jam bands that didn't have that feeling and pop acts that definitely did.

For Jazz heads, we know where you stand. (Prove me wrong in the comments. 😉)

So yeah, I'm curious which kind of music lover are you, and why?

I know I'm not the only one. The genre question when I'm posting songs always trips me up. I'm guessing it belongs in a Hip-hop subgenre, but I'm not really sure. If you've got stuff that you feel is Hip-hop adjacent (but you're not sure where) please post your own songs.

https://open.spotify.com/track/18gSG39gTfiXxCFuOJEekk

I never noticed how minimal the lyrics of this song are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ace_0UpQ0MI

What are some other examples of non-instrumental songs that convey a full concept or narrative using as little actual words as possible?