Keep It Simple Stupid
Have you ever heard of “The Kiss Principle”? KISS is an acronym for "Keep it simple, stupid" as a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy in 1960. The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore, simplicity should be a key goal in design, and that unnecessary complexity
should be avoided.
Although this concept originated in the Navy, in the 1960s, in the context of design, it can be applied to many aspects of life. People often have a tendency to over complicate
and over analyze things. We often make tasks more complicated than they need to be.
“The Kiss Principle” is entirely relevant when it comes to writing music for sync licensing. Keep this acronym and idea in mind when you sit down to write music for
licensing. When in doubt, remind yourself: Keep it simple stupid.
Less Is More
Music that is used in tv, films and ads, is typically used either underneath dialog, or as a supporting role for the dialog and overall theme and mood of the scene. Music is
rarely going to be the “starring role” in sync. There are of course exceptions. Things like theme songs or songs used to transition from one scene to the next are going to be featured more prominently.
But, generally speaking, music used in the context of licensing, is going to play more of a supporting role. Therefore, it’s important that the songs you write for licensing
purposes aren’t overly complicated. If there’s too much going on musically it will interfere with the dialog and be too distracting.
Of course, you need to strike a balance, and make sure the music you’re composing still develops and unfolds in a way that captivates the listener and pulls them in. There
really is an art when it comes to crafting music for television in film. If your music and compositions are too complex and have too much going on, they’ll be too “busy” to work at all, but on the other hand if your songs don’t develop in an interesting way, they probably won’t pull the listener in enough to interest them.
To see an example of what I’m talking about, check out this clip from a recent webinar I did with Eddie Grey on the topic of writing instrumental tracks for
sync:
