I spent years writing and recording metalcore and rock music. I played in bands, wrote most of the instrumentals, and handled guitar, bass, drum programming, synths, and everything in between. My entire producer mindset has been shaped by how rock and metal songwriting works.
Now I am trying to get into making rap, trap, pop, and R&B beats. The shift feels very strange to me. Not in a negative way. It just feels unfamiliar because of what I am used to.
In the metal world, writing a full song takes real time. If I think of a guitar riff, I have to physically play it, practice it until it is clean, track it, edit it, lock it in tight, and then figure out how it transitions into the next section. Then I repeat that whole process for the verse, chorus, bridge, breakdown, leads, pads, bass, and everything else. Metal songs have multiple sections with completely different riffs, different drum patterns, and different ideas. It is a combination of performance, creativity, editing, and arrangement.
When I make a rap or pop beat, the entire process feels much faster. If I think of a melody or synth idea, I just draw the MIDI notes. They are already in time and in tune. There is no practicing, no retakes, and no timing corrections. I can make a decent loop and full beat in under half an hour. It leaves me thinking that I am basically finished much earlier than I expect.
It’s like I can make 10 halfway decent rap or pop beats in the same amount of time it takes me to write a just ONE intro, verse 1 and chorus 1 in a metal song.
So this is the part I am trying to understand. Metal requires writing, performing, recording, and editing new sections. Rap and pop require creating one strong loop, arranging it properly, and building a vibe.
It is a complete shift in how the music is constructed. I am just trying to adapt and understand whether it is normal for people from a rock and metal background to experience this. Does beatmaking feel strangely fast or simple at first? Does it take time for your brain to adjust to the new workflow?
Basically what I’m getting at is:
Rock/metal: Song has totally different sections that takes a long time to create, record, transition and arrange.
Rap/pop: Song is basically one central idea that repeats for the whole song. It’s like you write 4 bars, loop it for 3 minutes and just have subtle variations such as taking out or added a part on top of what’s already there.
And because of this I can’t help but feel like I should be spending way more time on a beat and always get caught up in feeling like my beat isn’t complicated enough like how metal is.
Edit: I should mention I’m NOT saying beat making is easy and doesn’t take creativity. It’s just much different than what I am currently use to. It feels a lot more straight forward so when I’m writing stuff I feel like I’m not doing enough. At least in comparison to how long I would spend on one stupid guitar riff and agonize over how it will transition to the next section (verse 2) fluently lol
I have done both, and my opinion is that metal is significantly more about the music and arrangement, rap is more about the lyrics. Complicated arrangements can complicate the rapping/lyrics. That said, there are epic rap songs that do what you describe but those are not typically the hits
I've had this once. I wrote a bit of an ambient and mysterious tune in a sorta lo-fi techno sound using a motif I originally meant for a metal track.
I share your sentiment, but I also implore you that if it is that simple, perhaps switch it up a little bit. I listen to metal in large part because the music shifts, changes, and moves. Perhaps you can attempt the same. Take us on an instrumental journey. Don't forget you can add plenty of little background samples, sounds, instruments, and noises while you're there to add some seasoning to the mix.
Then again, if your clients just want something simple to rap over, that's that. It can be super easy.
Depends on what kind of rap and pop you're making and how much effort you want to put into it. Lots of rap and pop use real instruments and have multiple sections or beat switches.
I just posted a video today where I use a metal riff I wrote and "dj" with live fx on the guitar bus, trying to blend it into more of an electronic and beat making side! It's definitely doable, and they share a lot more similarities than you'd think
I do get what you mean because you can really pump out 4 bar loops and turn them into full songs within a few hours.
Although i must say, there's also plenty of famous metal and rock songs with literally two riffs through the entire song with a few alterations, with a focus more on vocals or the solo, which i feel you couldve written within a few hours too. There's also plenty of edm with tons of beat switches and changing melodies that might take ages to write.
I came from 80-90s trash metal but now I listen to almost everything except fro country music(sorry).
Now I produced hiphop, techno, rnb (hobby). I bought synths, samplers, grooveboxes and also softsynths for the Daw.
Metal usually starts with guitars. Now I start with synths or drum beats. The funny thing is when I create techno I still want to add a chug chug of guitars.
Maybe apply the music theory but its totally different arrangement.
Idk I feel like writing metal or rock is easier specifically because of this. You can just pick up a guitar, come up with a riff and some power chords and you got a song going on. Imo the only hard part is coming up with 3 different riffs that sound cohesive. But even then you can noodle around in the same key and find stuff, it's much faster to iterate.
Most technical stuff I've done has been some dnb tracks where it's all of this: very strong, melodic pop loops, but then a different riff/bassline for the drop, which needs to be even stronger. It's feels like you need to do both of these really well to be able to emulate something like The Caracal Project or Pendulum.
Yeah, trying to tackle a style that’s not natively in your wheelhouse can be a real challenge, especially if you’re coming from a style that involves tons of math. Here you just need to find the groove and backing melody and let the vocals carry the tune. Simplicity can be freeing, but it takes restraint and precision. I will typically break down a tune from someone in the genre that is appealing to me and analyze how the minimal parts add into a whole. It’s nice to get out of your comfort zone every now and again.
It’s the other way round for me, creating beats, house, trance, trap music etc, is super easy for me, but making a full on metal or rock track is 10x harder to mix and get right. Drums are much more dynamic and there is much more post processing to do on stuff like guitars and vocals. It’s much harder to get right in my opinion but that’s just me
It may involve less material, but that material has to be right on. Are you achieving the same quality with your beats as you did with your rock/metal tracks?
Imagine how easy it would be to make a metal song without having your high standards. Now imagine just spending the same amount of time you spend on a rock/metal track on just a few pop/rap bars, how perfect would those bars be?
And it may not involve less material anyways. Check out One Song's episode on "Get Low" with Lil Jon , there's a LOT more going on than it first appears. When they break down the individual tracks you realize just how much layering and ideas are happening and how it all contributes to the end result.
Trust me, you’ll get there.
I was in several rock/metal bands as a kid and recently got back into making music, only now I’m making drum and bass.
I started off trying to do everything in the DAW and like you, found it a bit tricky at first. But now I’ve got back into playing real instruments and sampling them in, even instruments I never knew I’d play (like a synth… fuck me if the NuMetal child in me wasn’t fighting against buying that…)
Just give it time, try some sampling of the instruments you feel more comfortable play and have fun!
I'm in the same boat. My perspective is this: metal/rock - very easy to START the song. I come up with a riff and start going from there. Where that riff goes, getting the flow right, transitioning ect - thats where it becomes harder. Making beats is harder to find 'THE' sample that cuts just right. Since you generally know what key you're working in, you let the samples kind of guide you from there. To be fair I've only been doing it for lile a week or so (its become a new hyper fixation), but find myself in flow state far more regularly and far easier when making beats, than I do with metal or rock. Maybe its because Im quicker to throw stuff away if its not working (as you say, making beats happens faster than writing, performing/recording) or maybe its because there are the limitations of only having the set of samples/chops in front of you, you're forced to work inside that box. There is also the inherent 'convention' that comes with rock and metal. The guitar tone for X genre is meant to sound like X, the kick drum needs to sound like X. Beats seem to be far more creative in terms of convention (of course the rules eq ect still apply).
Totally normal.
Metal trains you to build sections and performances; beatmaking is about feel, space, and repetition.
It feels “too fast” at first because the difficulty shifts from complexity to restraint and that takes time for your brain to rewire.