What defines an artist's style?

A couple days ago I got into a conversation where this question emerged. Someone stated that the style of an artist is defined by his upbringing and will come out in his music regardless of who his ideal scenes musically are. For example, for someone who grew up in Mexico listening to traditional Mexican music, no matter how much he loves and wants to sing Rock music, according to this point of view, cannot sing Rock and has to stick to singing Mexican traditional music, which is beautiful too, by the way.

I stated my personal opinion based on my experience as a singer/performer/songwriter/artist: that the being, the artist, the person, the creator… YOU decide what YOU will create. You declare your style and the universe conspires he,he,he…. So, on this side of the coin, a person that because of his upbringing and cultural influences has absorbed a certain style(s) of music, can find new styles of music and continue to be influenced by them if he decides so. Be it Rock, Classical, Salsa, Reggae, Mariachi, whatever!

I believe that you decide your life and shape your dreams so please don’t let the fools fool ya into believing you’re defined by your surroundings. No, you define and redefine the surroundings. Of course, it takes work and passion to learn new things but YOU create new futures; YOU are the POWER! PERIOD!

My best advice to singers is to believe in their instinct, their truth and use their intention to communicate through the styles that they choose freely the message they want to convey.

With love,

Brenda Marie