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The smiths - how soon is now - similar songs?!!

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
edited January 2023 in General Chat
Right, so at my new work ive been given the task of finding a song to accompany an advert that theyve recently made (think its for sydney tourist board or something like that)

anyway, ive been given the song 'how soon is now' by the smiths as my reference song, and i need to find some music (non vocal) that sounds similar.
I am stuuuck!!! ive never really listened to them, and dont know of any other music/bands that do similar stuff.
ive been looking on youtube and some other speciality sites, but i have no idea what im supposed to be searching for. what catagory should i be searching? keywords?! argh!
by the time i get an answer here i/my boss will probably have found something first, but thought id give it a try!!!!

ta :)
Post edited by JustV on

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I have no idea, but good luck hope you find something!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You should be looking at alternative rock or indie, basically. But tbh, genre's aren't particularly useful, because everyone calls themselves "alternative." Maybe "post-rock" would get some better results, since it's more of that ambient style. It's not hard to find similar sounding stuff, but trying to find instrumental stuff is going to be difficult. It's also a bit of pain because that particular Smiths song is a bit different to most of their stuff, so you can't really look for bands similar to them.

    The only band I can think of that are entirely instrumental is Mogwai. My personal favourite is Hunted by a Freak. But most of their songs take a while to kick in. Oh, and I suppose Battles are technically instrumental since the voices are distorted so much. But they're probably not really what you're looking for.

    When the Levee Breaks by Led Zeppelin? Has 1:30 until the words kick in. I dunno how long you need. But it's over 7 minutes long, so there are long sections of instrumental you could use.

    Planet Telex by Radiohead might be a good one, but it has words.

    Group Four by Massive Attack from about 5:30 in. It has vocals, but they're not really clear, nor are they particularly inappropriate.

    I reckon I could find loads if they didn't have to be instrumental. I'm kinda finding the most tenuous links to the song with these ones. How long is the advert?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Try doing a search on whiny, self-indulgent, out-of-tune, buttock-clenchingly dull, indie guff. :thumb:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'd suggest the outro from Sunrise by Pulp. Good luck getting Cocker to agree to it though!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    why can't they just loop instrumental parts of how soon is now?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    does it have to be something that sounds like the smiths, but isnt the smiths?
    What about a different smiths song? Is that too easy? Oscillate wildly is instrumental
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Ta, Im_with_stupid that was really helpful :)

    I was actually given a different task to do yesterday so havent researched any songs yet, but will definately look up all the songs youve suggested to see if they would work.
    The advert the song is for is about 2 mins long, and while my boss doesnt want there to be any actual vocals, he's ok with me 'editing'/looping the picked song so that the vocals are 'edited' out.

    Youd think they would just use the actual smiths song - that would be sooo much simpler than me spending hours looking for something similar! - but apparently the liscensing to use the song is reeeally expensive so have to find something else thats cheaper.
    Oscillate wildy was cosndiered for a bit but then was discarded for the same reason, plus it didnt really 'fit in' with the ad. unfortunately!!
    Ill check some songs out and then post back to say what song was actually picked :)
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Hmm, something tells me the songs I've suggested won't be any cheaper tbh.
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