When authentic music actually matters: Sarao on knowledge, creativity and musical identity
What makes music feel authentic? The right instruments? A faithful production style? A sound that perfectly captures a particular genre, place or era?
When we started thinking about that question, SaraoMusic immediately came to mind. Rooted in local culture but never constrained by it, the label has built a catalogue around musicians who know their musical languages deeply – and understand how to respect, reinterpret and sometimes push beyond them.
That distinction is important. Authenticity isn’t simply about using the right instruments, faithfully following the conventions of a genre or recreating the sound of a particular era. It starts with something deeper: understanding the music well enough to know which boundaries matter – and which ones can be pushed.
With more than 170 albums behind the label, SaraoMusic has developed an approach built around musical knowledge, creative judgement and personality. It’s a philosophy that shapes not only how its music is made, but how authenticity can work within production music – where every track ultimately needs to serve a story, an image or a project.
Authenticity isn’t the same as purity
“We don’t see authenticity as a formula or something you can achieve just by using specific instruments, sounds or resources connected to a given genre,” says Marina Puig, Head of Production at SaraoMusic.
For Sarao, authenticity begins with understanding a musical language: its history, instruments, conventions, and the characteristics that make it recognizable. From there, a composer can make informed decisions about where to remain faithful and where to explore something different.
That might mean capturing a particular musical tradition or place, as heard across albums including Duende, Soul of Spanish Guitar, Portugalidades and Mediterranean Waves. But authenticity doesn’t require staying within strict stylistic boundaries.
“When you really know a musical language you can respect it, transform it, blend it with others or even go beyond its limits without losing consistency,” Puig says.
That knowledge creates freedom. A composer can remain faithful to a genre, reinterpret it, introduce contemporary elements or combine influences without losing the qualities that give the music its identity.
Authenticity ultimately comes down to the relationship between knowledge, intention, and result.
When getting the details right isn’t enough
A track can contain all the elements associated with a particular genre — the instrumentation, production techniques and recognizable sounds — and still not feel completely convincing.
This is where Sarao believes the experience and perspective of the people making the music become essential.
Sarao Creative Director Roger Rodés explains, “Technique is necessary, but it is not enough. The difference lies in everything behind it: experience, sensitivity and the criteria of the people who make the music.”
Rodés is a sound engineer, musician and producer whose experience spans composition, performance, recording and production. Working alongside Sarao’s composers and songwriters, those different perspectives come together throughout the creative process.
The objective isn’t simply to assemble the right musical ingredients. It’s knowing what to do with them: when to follow convention, when to move away from it and how to do either without losing credibility. Sometimes that comes through instrumentation. Releases such as Portugalidades 3, Drums From Hell and Baroque Classics put instrumental character at the heart of the music.
At other times, the production process itself is central. On Ethereal Pop Songs, choices around recording techniques, microphone placement and the decision to record in a chapel all contribute to the identity of the finished music.
Getting the era right
Authenticity can also come from understanding the sound of a particular period.
Albums including Pop 60s 70s, Italia 60s, House Music All Night Long and Real Rock n Roll explore musical identities associated with specific eras and scenes. But recreating the surface characteristics is only the beginning. Arrangement, performance, and production all contribute to whether a piece feels believable.
That distinction can be especially important when music needs to help establish a period or setting on screen. A recognizable sound may quickly locate the audience, but the details are what make that world convincing.
Useful doesn’t have to mean generic
Production music has to fulfil a function. It needs to answer briefs, work alongside picture and help producers, editors and music creatives tell stories. But usefulness doesn’t have to come at the expense of individuality. “A piece of music can be useful for a production without having to be generic,” Puig shares.
A brief establishes the needs and boundaries of a project, but within those parameters there is still room for creative judgement. Experience and musical knowledge allow composers to find solutions that fulfil a brief without automatically returning to the most obvious or formulaic choices. And personality can make music more effective.
A distinctive piece can reinforce emotion, contribute to storytelling and help make what happens on screen feel credible. The challenge is to understand what the image needs and find a musical response that serves that purpose while maintaining an identity of its own.
Knowing the rules gives you permission to push them
Deep knowledge of a musical style can also create opportunities to take it somewhere unexpected. Sarao’s catalogue includes projects that deliberately bring different musical languages together, including Reggaeton Jazz, Trap Rock, Spanish Flow and Latin Feel Club.
Mixing genres doesn’t inherently make music more or less authentic. What matters is understanding the languages being combined and making deliberate choices about how they interact. As Roger Rodés puts it, that creative freedom “does not mean you can do anything; it means you know why you are taking each decision.”
That same thinking shapes how the label responds to trends.
Understanding what clients are looking for and where the market is heading is important, but Sarao doesn’t believe those signals should dictate every creative decision. Some projects respond to a clear client need. Others begin with intuition, a conversation or what the team describes as a “musical restlessness.”
The aim is to understand why the music is being made — and what its creators can genuinely bring to it.
What should you listen for?
Genre, instrumentation, and keywords are valuable tools when searching for music. But Sarao suggests looking beyond those labels when deciding whether a track really feels authentic.
Listen to the performance and the way the instruments are used. Consider how the arrangement develops and how the production sounds. Most importantly, listen for intention and personality behind those choices.
“Authenticity cannot always be explained in words, but it can often be recognized when the music communicates the fact that behind it there is knowledge, judgement and people who really believe in what they are doing,” Puig says.
That may mean faithfully capturing an established musical language. It may mean giving that language a personal interpretation. Or it may mean combining influences to create something new. What connects those possibilities is the same idea: authenticity comes from knowing the music deeply enough to make choices with purpose. Ultimately, Sarao hopes listeners experience something even if they know nothing about the people who created a track — an emotion, a mental image or simply the desire to keep listening.
If the music connects, adds something meaningful to the story and leaves something behind, then it has done its job.
Explore SaraoMusic
From music rooted in place and tradition to era-specific sounds and unexpected genre crossovers, explore the full SaraoMusic catalogue and discover music created with personality, purpose and a deep understanding of its musical roots.