The way that most people produce music, I’m finding, is that they write a song and then ask themselves, “what category does this song fit within?” And then they create an arsenal of songs from that category and use them to source soundscape inspiration.

How do songs within this genre build in the bridge? How do they mic/process the vocals? What characteristics does the bass have? What is the atmosphere of the song?

There are certain rules of genre, and in order to bend the rules you must first follow most of them. (unless your goal is to break genre entirely). All art is imitation, after all.