The Business Side of Making a Pop Song

I found this book a few months ago titled The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory(2016) by John Seabrook. This book is basically about how making a pop song, or an artist, is not an easy feat. A hit song can require a million different songwriters on 1 song, with some making the top-line(melody), and writing the bridge, chorus, verse, etc. This also requires a producer for the record, and maybe even a beat maker for it. In addition, people who listen to the radio, who don’t know the ins and outs of the music business, think that getting a hit song on it is simple and straight-forward. However, the process can actually take months to complete. Also, behind every artist on a hit song is a team that is either trying to “break them” into mainstream success, or keep them popular among the mainstream audiences. The author, John Seabrook, summed this up perfectly on how his intentions of making this book, “This became my mission: to find more about who created these strange new songs, how they were made, and why they sounded the way they did, and report back to him”(page 8).?

Additionally, this book delves into the evolution of pop music, from the 70’s until now, starting with the Swedish DJ, Denniz Pop. Denniz was one of the producers that inspired different people in the business now to make hit songs, like Max Martin (his protege). The book also mentions how artists that we know and love got started; from New Kids on the Block and Britney Spears, to Rihanna and Katy Perry. Besides this, it talked about how with a lot of big songs on the radio, that the songwriter and / or producer of the song can be right, and the artist may not be. Therefore, this book showcased the trials and tribulations of getting a hit song on the radio and streaming services.?

Describe, using five instances from book (include citations) why this book is considered a guide to the “inner workings” of the music industry??

Throughout this book, I learned many different aspects of the music industry,? from how a hit song is made, to how it gets accepted by radio stations and mainstream audiences. Specifically, Seabook writes“Eminem made Tom Poleman nervous. ‘We didn’t want to go back to the extreme we’d come out of in ‘96,’ he says. ‘And Eminem was clearly an indicator of the extremes. Playing those hard, intense lyrics at midday was a concern. But P. Diddy was writing melodic music, and even 50 Cent’s song ‘In Da Club’ with that hook ‘It’s your birthday,’ managed to combine the exciting danger of Eminem with an appealing melodic presentation. It goes back to a safe place.” Poleman adds, ‘I think people like to be surprised. They say, ‘Oh, that’s the cool music I’ve been hearing about. But it doesn’t scare me because it seems poppy and hooky” (page 122). In my opinion, this seems to be a pivotal moment for hip-hop music. If radio personality Tom Poleman chose to not play Melodic Rap music, this may have deterred mainstream audiences from wanting to listen to hip-hop, one of the most-listened genres to date. Additionally, this may have dissuaded modern-day rappers like Lil Nas X and Post Malone, from pursuing a career in hip-hop. Another thing to note is that the idea of having a Rap feature on a song may not have been considered, had Rap and Pop artists not collaborated. Personally, I enjoy Melodic Rap, rather than traditional Rap music; with more melodies, the music flows better, and is easier to follow.

Equally important to the history of Melodic Rap, when an artist(s) is approached with a new song, they may not always want to follow what the producer is saying, but they know how to make a hit happen. For example, “Nevertheless, Clarkson agreed to go to Stockholm, and she recorded the song with Max Martin at Maratone. She actually wrote the song’s bridge, although she didn’t get a writing credit. Dr. Luke was also around for the sessions, but he was still learning how vocal production worked and didn’t contribute much. Clarkson did not enjoy working with Max Martin. He insisted that she sing ‘Since U Been Gone’ exactly as he had sung the song on the demo - he didn’t seem to have the least respect for her Idol status. Also, his obsessive ‘comping’ of vocals - comparing multiple takes of the vocal parts of a song to find the perfectly sung syllable in each take, and pasting all of them back together into a complete vocal - drove her mad. ‘Max is a very hands-on producer,’ Davos explained. ‘They clashed in the studio when she was doing her vocals.’ When the sessions ended and Clarkson was back home, she told Davis, ‘I’m never working with him again”(Seabrook 139). Before working with Kelly Clarkson, Max Martin had worked with many different artists, so he had some experience in knowing how to make a hit song. Even though Max told Kelly to make the song in a way in which she disliked, the song was a massive success and is still played on radio all the time today. Usually in the music business, the most successful people out there have a weird way of working and / or can be difficult to work with, but they can help your career. However, I do get why Kelly Clarkson hated working with Max Martin, since he can be supercritical on getting his vision of the song perfect, which seems unnerving to me. In the end, Kelly did not like the record. This also happened with her song, “Behind These Hazel Eyes”(“According to [Clive]Davis, she began the meeting by saying, ‘I want to be direct and to the point. I hate ‘Since U Been Gone,’ and I hate ‘Behind These Hazel Eyes.’ I didn’t like working with Max Martin, and Dr. Luke, and I don’t like the end product. I really want both songs off my album.”(Seabrook 140-141). Clarkson does have a valid point here because she recorded “Since U Been Gone” without being permitted to give any input.? However, the fact remains that this song is still one her biggest hits and? Max Martin and Clive deserve the credit. I have actually heard in interviews that Clarkson hated “Since U Been Gone” originally, but has grown to love it, since she has performed it live many times, and even on her talk show.

Furthermore, every day, there are new records submitted to radio stations across the country. Usually, people think that this process is simple, in which you ask the station to just play your song, and they do; but it is far from it. For instance, “One former program director at a commercial radio station explains how it works, ‘If you look at a typical record on FM radio,’ he says, ‘the major labels say, ‘We want to add this single on such and such a date. Don’t play this till September thirteenth, because we can get forty other stations to add it on that date.’ And then the label can say to other stations, ‘Look forty other stations just added it, maybe you should too.’ And then the chart game starts from there.’ The label works the record, orchestrating enthusiasm, employing a special language of ‘spins’, ‘power ups’ and ‘heavies’ that you see in the ad labels take out for records in radio trade publications”(Seabrook 193). There is a system in which record labels make a new song a hit through radio, which can be a difficult and long process to get the outcome that you would like. When a new song by a big artist comes out on a Friday; for example, Justin Timberlake came out with a new song a few months back for the first time in 5 years. In order to get the song onto radio stations across the country, his label and / or his team had to submit the song to the stations that could make the song go on the charts. Also, whoever submitted the song to the stations had to give it to the stations a few days prior, in order for them to have it ready in their queue by the song’s release date. Then, the station then decides to “spin the record” and play once every hour, every few hours, etc. in order for the song to gain traction by their audiences. Once enough people listen to it on the radio and like the song, this contributes to the record getting a lot of streams on Spotify, iHeart, Apple Music, etc. By this point, if the song becomes very popular, it will then appear on the Billboard Charts. Most people do not think about this process when they are listening to a new song on the radio, they just think that the station just can play the song and it will be a hit. Additionally, some stations have played songs that are popular on streaming or social media platforms, like TikTok. A great example of this is the song “Beautiful Things” by Benson Boone, that went viral on TikTok, and made him more famous than he ever has been. Benson Boone was an up and coming artist before this, with one or two songs popular on TikTok, but nothing compares to his recent hit. This song has been played on multiple radio stations all the time, and even went to the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 Charts. This has happened with a lot of songs that are played on the radio and have charted, and become known by mainstream audiences due to TikTok. Since TikTok may be banned in the United States in a few months, these instances with songs will happen less and less as the app begins to disappear in this country.

On the contrary with artist evolution through radio, there have been others that either work in the studio, or label execs that have pressured an artist and / or a songwriter to make their next big hit. Particularly, Ester Dean described a few years ago, “But she was weary that producers now expect a hit from her every time she walks into a studio. ‘Everyone is so hit-minded. They’re always looking at you, going? ‘Didja get it? Didja get it? Is that the hit? And I don’t know what I’m going to give them. I never try to tap and find out what it is: I just do what I do”(Seabrook 230). This quote highlights how the music industry can by very hard on the people that want to work in it, especially the creatives. Today, there are tons and tons of songwriters who write songs for big and small artists, and / or write their own songs. Usually, when a songwriter writes a hit for a big artist, or an artist writes a big hit for themselves, the industry always wants to know what is “up their sleeves” as they say. Executives, label heads, and producers think great songwriters always have another song that could eventually chart, which can be the case, but doesn't occur all the time. The songwriter may be having writer’s block, or they may be a big artist who is busy on other projects like touring. For example, with Ester Dean, around the time she said this, she was filming the Pitch Perfect movies. The point here is that songwriters are not machines and they can’t produce a new hit on command. Most of the time, it can take someone to write 50-100 songs in order to find “the one” because it may be that the label doesn’t like the song, or it’s not catchy enough. For that reason, the music industry should take better care of its songwriters, or else they are not going to work with them ever again.

Lastly, behind every great artist is a great team that helps them make their hits, or so they may think. Specifically, this happened between famous producer, Dr. Luke, and Kesha years ago, “Kesha’s contribution to ‘Right Round’ was the single most memorable detail in the song, and it launched her into superstardom. However, Dr. Luke didn’t give her a songwriting credit, so she earned nothing from the smash. It was around the time that she changed the ‘s’ in her name to ‘$”(Seabrook 273). This quote proves that whatever is occurring behind the scenes can be the total opposite of what the general public is seeing. For years, when Kesha was starting out, Dr. Luke promised her a great career at 18, which made her give up her dreams of going to college. However, as time went on, Dr. Luke helped her get big, but she was treated very unfairly. Besides this incident with Right Round, Dr. Luke forced Kesha to keep having the same sound for her first few albums, since people keep waiting on new music, and her team did not like that at all. Also, Kesha had made some allegations a few years back stating that Dr. Luke drugged her and assaulted her in the recording studio. Dr. Luke has denied all of these claims, but Kesha has stood her ground to these claims. Fans even started a campaign to “Free Kesha” from Dr. Luke, in order to make her own music, of which just happened very recently. This book sheds some light on this situation stating, “If there is any good to come out of Kesha's struggle with Dr. Luke, it is the light it has thrown on the plight faced by young women who go into the music business hoping to be artists. As soon as you show a glimmer of talent, some manager or producer or A&R person finds you and wants to turn you into a star. One could argue that forcing teenagers to sign six-album contracts, which is standard industry practice, is itself abusive”(Seabrook 314). This specific situation showcases how different people in the industry can be brutal, rude, etc. to the artists they work with and for(i.e.; Scooter Braun taking away Taylor Swift’s masters). Hence, if an artist has a great team that treats them well and respects them for what they want to create, that can make them have great success that they are content with.

Sarah Weissberg is a freshman Pop Music major (voice concentration) with a minor in Music and Entertainment Industries. She is aspiring to work in the music business one day. She is originally from New City, New York and currently attends William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey.