Technically speaking, I should be doing my homework now. But, before I do that, I wanted to share something real quick. I was walking out of my class and couldn’t help but come up with an analogy of the Eurobeat business with an already existing field of business. The after some thought, I realized that it was a fairly decent analogy of the Eurobeat business for someone uninitiated with the music business, so I thought I would share that here.
Eurobeat labels share a lot in common with the modern design firm; in this situation both are addressed with a creative problem and are given a certain budget of a resource to complete the task– that is, to solve the problem. The goal for both is similar as well— both ultimately strive to create a product to be consumed by a specific group of people or entity. Of course, with one being a design field and the other being an entertainment field, the scope and content for both businesses are quite varied and differ in quite a few ways, But the essence remains that the goal is to answer a creative problem and solve it in a financially reasonable, consumable, and desirable result.
Within both instances, the creative problem prescribed may vary in the scope of its details– for instance, for the design field, a client may want something that expresses a specific adjective, commonly one that the client wishes for consumers to associate with that company or product. Eurobeat finds itself in a similar position in the sense that the ultimate results of their work reflects the specific requests of avex in regard to their audience or a specific niche that may be absent in the album in question’s current lineup. (Though the exact contact avex has with their audience is debatable, there have been reasonable and substantial strides towards improvement within their relationship.)
Perhaps the largest difference between the Eurobeat label and a design firm is not the means of the completion of their work, but time frame with which both work. Because Eurobeat labels even music and are therefore subsidiary of the entertainment business, the time frame to complete a specific task is substantially smaller, and is on a more constrained time schedule. This is not to suggest that a design firm does not have struggles with its timeframe; rather, that the amount of time needed to complete a design task is a great deal larger than that permitted to a Eurobeat label. In most cases, assuming avex is releasing on a monthly schedule, a Eurobeat record label will often have less than a couple of weeks to complete their work. a design firm, on the other hand, may have as large as a year’s time span to complete their task. (To a lesser extent, the defining resource between both varies as well— whereas a design firm is given a specific budget of money, Eurobeat labels will usually work according to their timeframe alone, making the dollar the resource in question and not the hour. For a eurobeat label, time literally can be money.)
As well, eurobeat labels are also granted another layer with which they can solve the problem assigned to them— whereas a design firm’s identity is a much stronger necessity to solving the problem assigned (in most cases, a signature style with which they are often associated, or a previous successful work), the eurobeat label may resort to multiple number of identities to solve the problem at hand. eurobeat artists will often assume multiple pseudonyms for this very purpose— each one has a specific stylistic approach, lyrical approach, and audible aesthetic which will often either match or come close to the traits desired in the variety of song requested. in easier terms, eurobeat artists have a toolbox of different styles from which they can pick and choose to better fit the task assigned.
even further, the existence of independent contractors is prevalent in both. Freelance writers in eurobeat will often function similarly to an independent contractor in the design field— that is, they are often brought in as a specialist for specific task. In eurobeat this will come in the form of either writers, vocalists, or even producers— respectively, examples can be or have been found in the works of Vincent DeGiorgio, Gino Caria, and/or Roby Arduini, amongst a massive slew of others.
Whew! this post was a little bit wordy, even for me, but I’m trying out some new dictation software so the combination of my usual writing vocabulary alongside my traditional writing vocabulary may be a bit jarring in contrast to how I usually write. Don’t worry, my next post will definitely make a lot more sense. ;3
Reaction to “Entropy” was mostly positive, so perhaps there will be more sentimental works coming out of Odyssey Studio yet~