The Phaedrus Blog

Do you make vanilla music? What the hell is vanilla music?

Vanilla music is music that sounds like everything else that is around or has been. Vanilla music is what dominates mainstream music around the world. Vanilla music is constant, boring, dull, lifeless, with no character at all.

Have you ever met a vanilla person? That guy or girl who knows the right thing to say at the right time with correct execution yet still seems inauthentic? This is what we’re hearing.

Vanilla. It’s a nice flavour. It’s there. It does the job. No surprises. We might even be able to tell the difference between some of the blends of vanilla. But it is still vanilla.

Is your music vanilla? Is that what you want? Having the right chords and the right rhythm so you don’t really stand out? Verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus chorus. Is that you? Are you even trying to do it in an interesting way?

This is what today’s musician needs to think about. This is what I constantly think about.

I don’t want to create vanilla music that everybody around the world will enjoy and find pleasant. This is what everybody is else is trying to do, and the results speak for themselves. Look around you. Do you hear bands with a unique sound and a unique way of writing in mainstream music? I personally don’t. I hear mediocrity compressed in tiny little portions to fill the spaces between commercials. Sometimes they are even used in commercials.

I want to create Phaedrus flavoured music.

To quote master poet and singer Craig David, what’s your flavour?