Who Purposely Includes Dissonance In Their Compositions

[Stitsel]

Huh, just stumbled across this thread......

I know very little about music theory, but I know Major/Minor, & I like to mix the 2 up......whole step into 1/2 step etc. it sounds cool & gives a nice contrasting vibe. Honestly, I just let my ears tell me what sounds cool....'cuz like I said, I'm not really that schooled in music, at all. I'm not exactly proud of that either, but I'm not really ashamed to say so on the other hand. Growing up I heard it all the time, when something breaks free of a traditional melody we all can hum, it either works or it doesn't..... when it does work, it can add a nice suspenseful edge to the feeling of the composition/piece of music. 

So, I don't purposely include it, so much as maybe accidentally stumble across it or insert it in the heat of the moment. Sometimes though, I intentionally come up with a dissonant sounding riff, to start things off. It can be fun to loop a grinding dissonant riff and then wail some licks on top of it. 
 

[bourbonsamurai]

im no songwriter, but for me, the KINGS of dissonance are the stone temple pilots deleo brothers.  those dudes are geniuses.

[TravisW]

I do sometimes. Generally, it's the result of approaching things from a voice leading standpoint instead of a chord-to-chord standpoint, so the dissonances tend not to stick around that long before they resolve. Here's an example - the verse riff was written with exactly that approach: