Opinions on sticking to 'your sound' vs experimentation

[Covant]

Ok, so I listen to all kinds of music and am constantly discovering new styles of music that I end up loving. Seeing as pretty much every producer has a certain sound or style unique to them (i.e. you can tell a Xilent track apart from anything else almost instantly) what is your opinion on sticking to a certain genre or style that you are comfortable with vs experimenting with new genres or styles, like a brostep producer who decides to try their hand at a Progressive House tune.

[Riddles]

Different alias is best imo. Doesn't upset any of the fans.

[pete_bubonic]

It probably makes more commercial sense. But I'm more in the 'do what you feel' camp and fuck off all the extra aliases.

[Riddles]

It probably makes more commercial sense. But I'm more in the 'do what you feel' camp and fuck off all the extra aliases.

Haha yeah I understand that, but if you're making big changes in genre I think aliases are the way to go. Look at skream, took so much flack for his decision, compared to say...Headhunter.

[OGLemon]

Experimentation is good.

[jaydot]

It's always good to have that "signature sound" but I do agree that it gets stale.

[Covant]

Different alias is best imo. Doesn't upset any of the fans.

Yeah, I've definitely thought of this before. It's one solution, but trying different genres with the same alias isn't always necessarily a bad thing. I know I've had those moments before where I'm like "No way! [Artist Name] made an Electro House track? That's awesome!" I just think sometimes it's cool to see an artist with an established sound try new genres because it often won't sound as generic and stale as other songs in that genre.

[Covant]

It probably makes more commercial sense. But I'm more in the 'do what you feel' camp and fuck off all the extra aliases.

Haha yeah I understand that, but if you're making big changes in genre I think aliases are the way to go. Look at skream, took so much flack for his decision, compared to say...Headhunter.

Yeah, I'd say that if you're just trying out a new genre, or putting your own unique spin on one, then you don't really need a new alias. However, if you're taking your sound in a whole new direction and drastically changing the type of music you're going to be releasing, it would be safer to use a different alias so as not to anger any fanbase you've already established. I do agree with Riddles though in that a lot of people make this into a much bigger deal than it should be. No artist is obligated to stick to a specific genre. At the end of the day, your music is your music and you should produce what you want to. Nobody starts out making music for the goal of getting famous or pleasing people (although those are both nice bonuses). They make music because it's fun and they love to do it.

[rickyarbino]

I don't see why an artist's sound and experimentation need to conflict. Isn't the point of experimentation to discover your sound in unfamiliar contexts?
Mark of a true sound is consistency within stylistic variations.