Any advice on how to write music a bit more differently but in a good way? Especially when I listened to too much of mainstream stuff and being subconsciously influenced by them. Currently trying to compose more 'flexible' music but my ideas are always based on mainstream music (eg. melodies are always in a 8-bar structure etc.) and whenever I try to experiment around to get something different from conventional writing most of the time it would just sound cringy
this may not be what you want to hear, but you are going to find some music that you really enjoy which has the qualities you want. OR, if it does not exist, then you are going to have to invent something that's never been done before. so IF that is the case, then i would recommend finding things that you enjoy that seem inventive and new in other ways than the ways you might do, to at least familiarize with the fun and glory of being inventive. A good place to start if you hate all the music you've ever heard, is to start by deliberately trying to make something as different from that as possible, and then hone it in from there. you might have more fun than you expected