If you want to become a better songwriter, one piece of advice comes up again and again: “Listen to more music.”
But what does that actually mean?
Should you stay inside your chosen genre and master it? Or should you explore everything from jazz to metal to electronic to classical? If you go too narrow, you’ll risk sounding predictable but go too broad and you risk sounding unfocused.
So the question that needs to be answered here is… “How wide should your listening really be?”
Let’s find out shall we…
The Listening Dilemma
Imagine you’re a singer-songwriter who writes acoustic folk songs. Do you:
- Immerse yourself in other contemporary folk writers?
- Study the greats from the 60s and 70s?
- Or dive into hip-hop, orchestral scores, electronic production, and experimental rock?
The answer isn’t either/or. It’s about timing, intention, and knowing what you’re trying to develop.
Listening isn’t passive consumption. It’s training. And like any training, it needs to go in a certain direction.
The Case for Focused Listening (Depth Builds Mastery)
There is enormous value in staying inside your genre. When you listen deeply to writers working in your lane, you learn the grammar of the style. You’ll start to notice:
- How verses are structured.
- How choruses lift melodically.
- What kinds of chord movements feel “at home.”
- How lyrics are phrased rhythmically.
- What audiences expect emotionally.
If you’re writing country, studying someone like Chris Stapleton teaches you how blues phrasing sits naturally inside country storytelling.
If you’re writing minimal, atmospheric pop, listening closely to Billie Eilish reveals how restraint, space, and vocal intimacy can carry a song without traditional power choruses.
Depth gives you the fluency that you need but you can’t bend the rules of a style until you understand them. Just like learning a language, you need vocabulary before you can write poetry.
For early-stage songwriters especially, focused listening is essential.
The Case for Broad Listening (Breadth Builds Originality)
Now here’s where things get interesting. Innovation often happens at the edges.
When artists step outside their stylistic comfort zone, they bring something unexpected back with them.
Take Radiohead for instance. They began rooted in alternative rock but expanded into electronic textures, experimental structures, and avant-garde influences. That expansion reshaped their sound.
Or consider Taylor Swift, who famously moved from country into mainstream pop and then into indie-folk territory. Each shift brought new structural and lyrical ideas into her songwriting.
Breadth really introduces surprise in your songwriting. You might discover:
- A chord substitution from jazz.
- A rhythmic pocket from hip-hop.
- A dynamic build technique from film scores.
- A lyrical minimalism from folk traditions.
Even if you never fully adopt those styles, they stretch your creative instincts. Broad listening disrupts autopilot.
The Danger of Listening Too Narrowly
If you only ever listen inside your genre, something subtle happens.
- Your chord progressions begin to recycle.
- Your phrasing becomes predictable.
- Your emotional arcs mirror what’s already common.
- Your songs feel “correct,” but not surprising.
You become stylistically competent but your creative world shrinks. This doesn’t happen overnight but it does creep in subtly and quietly.
The solution isn’t abandoning your genre. It’s occasionally stepping outside it.
The Danger of Listening Too Broadly
But swinging too far the other way has risks too because if you consume everything without intention:
- Your writing may feel scattered.
- You may chase trends rather than build identity.
- You struggle to define what kind of songwriter you actually are.
- Your sonic world lacks coherence.
Breadth without integration just becomes noise.
There’s a difference between being curious and being unfocused. The goal isn’t to sound like everyone. It’s to expand your palette without losing your songwriting centre.
A Developmental Framework: When to Go Deep, When to Go Wide
Your listening strategy should evolve as you evolve.
Early Stage Songwriters
Go deep. Study your genre intensely. Learn its structures. Internalise its rhythm. Understand its lyrical expectations.
Build craft foundations first.
Growth Stage Songwriters
Start expanding outward. Explore adjacent genres. If you write acoustic pop, explore indie folk. If you write rock, study blues. If you write country, explore Americana.
You’re still anchored. But now you’re stretching.
Mature Stage Songwriters
Actively cross-pollinate. Seek out styles that challenge you. Study artists who approach structure differently. Borrow techniques from unexpected places.
At this stage, you’re less likely to lose your identity because it’s already formed.
Listening becomes creative fuel rather than distraction.
A Practical Listening Ratio
Here’s a simple listening ratio guideline you can experiment with:
- 70% listening inside your core genre.
- 20% listening to adjacent styles.
- 10% listening completely outside your comfort zone.
This keeps your foundation strong while introducing controlled surprise.
You don’t need to binge entire genres overnight. Even one album a week outside your norm can shift your writing in subtle ways. Give it a go and see what happens.
Listen Actively, Not Passively
Whatever you choose to listen to, make it deliberate. Ask yourself:
- How does this song structure its verses?
- Where does the melody peak?
- What makes the chorus feel different?
- How many chords are really being used?
- How does the lyric balance detail and ambiguity?
Listening becomes powerful when you turn it into analysis. That’s how you transform influence into craft.
Build Depth. Invite Surprise.
The best songwriters do both.
They master the language of their genre and they allow themselves to be surprised by what lies outside it.
- Depth builds control.
- Breadth builds originality.
- Balance builds identity.
You don’t need to listen to everything but you do need to listen with intention because the more consciously you shape your input, the more deliberately you shape your output.
And over time, your voice stops being an accident. It becomes a conscious choice shaped by active listening.
Again, I encourage you to give the concept of active listening a go and adapt it to your own songwriting process. Let me know how it goes.
