Simple music is called 'minimalism' and it tends to be largely based around loops and repetition. Complex music is called 'maximalism' and involves avoiding repetition as much as possible.
You can sub-divide music writing into different parts and make each of them minimal/maximal. e.g.:
-
Minimal/maximal drumming patterns (simple 4 to the floor or similar with no fills vs intricate breakbeats with many variations and fills, Aphex Twin Style)
-
Minimal/ maximal arrangements (Only 1 or two instruments vs lots of instruments at the same time)
-
Minimal/ maximal sound design (Basic subtractive synthesis with no processing vs crazy stuff)
-
Minimal/ maximal chords (a few triads on a loop vs 32 bar chord sequences with jazz extensions and lots of key changes)
-
and so on...
The key point I find is most people can't take too much maximalism, it gets too hard to hear what's going on. So if you're going to use really complex harmonies and rhythms, like a jazz piece, you have to strip the arrangement back to only two or three instruments otherwise people can't hear what's going on, and not do any complex sound design.
I personally quite like really minimal music (every aspect as simple as possible, like minilogue's music) but a lot of people find it boring... to be a crowd pleaser you need the right balance
Thoughts?
Submitted December 04, 2016 at 08:56AM by Scrapheaper https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/5gf4da/minimalism_vs_maximalism_personal_ideas/?utm_source=ifttt