Uh, album titles && song naming?

TheLurker

TheLurker

New member
So to most people this is probably an easy question... I mean, how hard can it be to name an album and the songs on an album? Weeeellllllllll... I make electronic music. I mean there is no point to my music; generally no lyrics, and I make prog house. I don't like cheesy names; but I do like the thought of there being some kind of consistency that feels intentional... but I'm really struggling here. I may just start naming them what I call the projects, "yay FOR REAL 2 this time" :facepalm:

tl;dr: How do you name your music? What is your method? What are some suggestions you have?

Interested in your thoughts.

Thanks,

TheLurker
 
On the other hand . . . a name may not be necessary.

Many classical composers didn't name their compositions, for example, it was just "Symphony No. 4 in Bb major" by Beethoven.

So if there is nothing about the music that suggests a mood, theme, or subject, simply call it "Electronic suite No 23" or whatever.
 
For electronic songs I've written, there's usually a sound that reminds me of something so I name it that thing. Like, I wrote something that sounded like moody or solemn outer space, so I named it after the ship from one of my favorite space movies the lead character traveled in.
 
I did a couple recordings back in the day that had all the titles based on a word --

WOOD -- There were tunes like "We Offer Only Drums" - "Wonderfully Obscure Okinawan Dance" - "Wailing Orchestra Of Doom" and what not. There was another based on another word that -- I've had a few tonight and I can't think of it at the moment. But there you go.
 
gecko zzed said:
On the other hand . . . a name may not be necessary.

Many classical composers didn't name their compositions, for example, it was just "Symphony No. 4 in Bb major" by Beethoven.

So if there is nothing about the music that suggests a mood, theme, or subject, simply call it "Electronic suite No 23" or whatever.
Click to expand...

I've had this same thought before... it just feels boring though and a lack of effort on my part to do that. It worked for Beethoven, but unfortunately I'm not Beethoven...

ashcat_lt said:
Cult of Squid Random Name Generator. It's meant for fantasy role playing applications, but some of the things it spits out are pretty interesting.
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Ah yeah, the ole random generators. Good times... most of the time I always think I can get a better name and then never end up using any of them though.

skwee said:
For electronic songs I've written, there's usually a sound that reminds me of something so I name it that thing. Like, I wrote something that sounded like moody or solemn outer space, so I named it after the ship from one of my favorite space movies the lead character traveled in.
Click to expand...

This is what I usually do as well; maybe this is what I'll keep doing...

Massive Master said:
I did a couple recordings back in the day that had all the titles based on a word --

WOOD -- There were tunes like "We Offer Only Drums" - "Wonderfully Obscure Okinawan Dance" - "Wailing Orchestra Of Doom" and what not. There was another based on another word that -- I've had a few tonight and I can't think of it at the moment. But there you go.
Click to expand...

Huh this is a new one. Never thought about doing it this way.
 
TheLurker said:
Huh this is a new one. Never thought about doing it this way.
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"Whacked Out On Drugs" - "Winter Of Our Discontent" - "Wolves Outside Our Door" -- There were a bunch on that one. I remember another called "DIT" (not exactly a word, which is why I couldn't remember it off hand). "Dudes In Trouble" - "Driving Isolated Terrain" - "Daze In Tandem" --

If nothing else, it really made you think about the feel of the tune and then cornered you into a dictionary or something.
 
TheLurker said:
So to most people this is probably an easy question... I mean, how hard can it be to name an album and the songs on an album? Weeeellllllllll... I make electronic music. I mean there is no point to my music; generally no lyrics, and I make prog house. I don't like cheesy names; but I do like the thought of there being some kind of consistency that feels intentional... but I'm really struggling here. I may just start naming them what I call the projects, "yay FOR REAL 2 this time" :facepalm:

tl;dr: How do you name your music? What is your method? What are some suggestions you have?

Interested in your thoughts.

Thanks,

TheLurker
Click to expand...
The name just comes, man. Sometimes it's from a lyrics, sometimes it has nothing to do with the song or the subject matter. Alot if the times it's an idea for a band name I haven't used yet, kind of like the b list of my band name ideas. For electronic music, maybe think of something that CONTRASTS the style of the music. Instead of cheesy stuff I see out there like 'Blaze beat recovery' or intercontinental fraction ', do something like' soft mess ' or' slow hand ' or something, Idk.... CONTRAST
 
To add to what Skwee said, I usually name my songs based on some feeling/memory/place/object that a sound in my song reminds me of. I do this with rock type songs.

For instance, for one of my songs which has a kind of droney guitar riff I played just the guitar and asked my friend what it sounded like to him. He said it sounded like train tracks because of how the riff was kind of cyclic. I actually ended up using this as the basis for my lyrics as well and the song became "Train of Thieves." Another song of mine which has no lyrics but is again rock instruments, I wrote on an acoustic guitar in the desert. When I got home and played it, it brought the imagery of cacti, sand, and dust so it became "The Desert Song." I think every song's name just comes but if nothing appears obvious right off the bat, ask yourself what the sounds remind you of.
 
TheLurker said:
So to most people this is probably an easy question... I mean, how hard can it be to name an album and the songs on an album? Weeeellllllllll... I make electronic music. I mean there is no point to my music; generally no lyrics, and I make prog house. I don't like cheesy names; but I do like the thought of there being some kind of consistency that feels intentional... but I'm really struggling here. I may just start naming them what I call the projects, "yay FOR REAL 2 this time" :facepalm:

tl;dr: How do you name your music? What is your method? What are some suggestions you have?

Interested in your thoughts.

Thanks,

TheLurker
Click to expand...

You could imagine you are writing a 2- (or 3-, or 4-, etc.) word Haiku, in a way. Try to convey something meaningful yet open to interpretation in just a few words.

Or, depending on how old you are, a good prompt might be, if Twitter only allowed tweets of 2 (or 3, or 4, etc.) words, what would you want to say?
 
Without havin' lyrics, the songname sould descripe the song. I don't have this kind of problem, because first of all I think about what kind of Album I wanna make and from this point a whole story and pictures comes into my mind and this also influences my songs. So first I would say "I do an album with a mix of house and country", then I chose the albumtitle "Dancing on several farms" and one song would be called "Carrots on the dancefloor"... Well, that way... lol

Sure you could do the proposed "beethoven way", but naming a song 5679ED would be hard for the audience to remember a song, speak about it etc.
 
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