Month: October 2024

Creating songs that have great chances of becoming global blockbusters and casting their performers is billion-dollar business.

In this post, I will elaborate a couple of examples: Two female superstars as examples: Beyoncé and Rihanna. Hard-working and talented artists in terms of voice and performance, equipped with a well-stocked wallet and surrounded by an endowed staff. Later, I will return to both, focusing on their work and person.

Brain Research

A lot of research has now been done on factors that explain the popularity of hits. This research often starts with the way the brain processes information. Our brains is lazy, or rather, it strives for maximum efficiency. The brain prefers information it can process smoothly: Think of:

• Short sentences;
• Easy or intriguing words;
• Alliterations (Liesje leerde Lotje lopen op de lange Lindenlaan’) ;
• Rhyme;

Most songs are written in English and much of the audience barely understands the song’s lyrics. The aim therefore is to enable listeners humming along with the chorus after just one or two listens. Understanding the content may possibly come later. Or never.

Hooks

The first ten seconds are crucial in this respect. The beginning must sound familiar: the lyrics, sound or rhythm contain ‘hooks’ that grab you. If not, listeners will zap the song away, except for a few connoisseurs who think they have discovered something special. 

‘Hooks’ are short rhythmic or verbal themes that constantly recur.  A potential top hit has several ‘hooks’. Examples of ‘hooks’ are:

Opening

• Rhythmic hand clapping.
• Common chords (think Boogie Woogie).
• A simple sequence of nonsense words: ‘nananana nananana’.
• An explosion of sounds.

Intro

• Words that arouse curiosity.  Often the title of the song is repeatedly.
• Words that touch you (‘catchy’).

Chorus

• Brief.
• Repetition of rhyming phrases and sounds.
• Comes back often.

The song ‘Ra Ra Rasputin’ by Boney M. is full of ‘hooks’. Just read the chorus and then listen to the whole song. 

Ra Ra Rasputin. Lover of the Russian queen. Ra Ra Rasputin. Russia’s greatest love machine.

Verses

Opening, intro and chorus are a whole that logically’ leads to the next verse. In most songs their subject and meaning are of secondary importance. A verse prepares listeners for joining the next chorus.

We listen to Rihanna’s controversial song S&M. This was produced by Stargate and Frenchman Sandy Julien Wilhelm. Again, the hallmarks of a megahit immediately stand out:

• The intriguing sounds at the beginning: ‘na na na na na na come on’.
• The dance rhythm.
• The intro, with the sweet little voice.
• The fusion of lyrics and rhythm in the chorus: “sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips exite me”.
• The repetition of intro and chorus.

You can read the full text here

Producers and top liners

The above knowledge alone will not enable you to make a megahit. Therefore, craftsmanship is needed. The music industry relies on experienced and artistically gifted teams, whose members have mastered the required skills and add a dose of creativity.  Such a team includes among others ‘producers’ and ‘top liners’. This dichotomy replaces the familiar division of labor between composers and lyricists.  Many megahits come from a limited number of teams. In this way, plagiarism can also be limited. Lines of communication are short, and producers and ‘topliners’ know ‘their’ artists and they exchange ideas on newer songs. 

Stargate

Stargate is a team of producers. They are long-time Norwegians Mikkel Eriksen and Tor Erik Hermansen.  They spend days at a time producing ‘tracks’, say sound clips.  Two or three of them sit behind keyboards and computers and fiddle away, until a ‘catchy’ series of sounds rolls out.  This is by no means always a whole song, but rather an intro or chorus. They listen to these tracks until the best ones remain. The lesser ones are sometimes used for commercials.

The more than 100 songs they have produced can be found here. Many of them have landed in charts around the world.

Esther Dean

As soon as there are a dozen or so potentially good ‘tracks’ on the shelf, producers invite one of their ‘top liners’ for a multi-day session. Esther Dean is one such top liner.  Here is a list of all the songs (117) she co-authored. She was involved in some of Beyoncé’s and especially Rihanna’s biggest hits, whose voice she feels and can imitate particularly well. 

Esther places herself in a soundproof cell and listens to a track. She has prepared by writing down hundreds of short phrases, catchy words, from newspapers and other sources. The beginning of a song is nothing but her singing into a track with combinations of these words. She is extremely gifted at fusing words and sounds, even if the words are meaningless for the time being. She keeps repeating this dozens of times until she feels something good is coming.  She plays with sounds, words and phrases until there is a catchy intro and chorus. Together with the producers they finish the song for 90%. When the producers are satisfied, they write the intermediate verses

By the end of a multi-day session, about five potential mega-hits have been set to lyrics and music, including all musical effects, with no musical instrument other than the electric ones involved. Later, the shows usually will deploy a live orchestra. The most promising hits are submitted to record companies and top artists like Beyoncé and Rihanna listen in critically.

At least 10 highest-grossing hits of Beyoncé and Rihanna were produced by Stargate in collaboration with Esther Dean, who as a result easily made several million dollars per song.

Things may also turn out differently than intended

Finally, we listen to a song produced by Ryan Tedder. He sent a track to a top liner who turned it into the song ‘Halo’ for Beyoncé. We listen to Halo, a quiet song, now with the singer in the picture. The stylistic features mentioned earlier stand out again. The listener is increasingly drawn into the ‘halo’ as the song progresses.

Something went wrong, however, as Ryan Tedder also gave the track to Kelly Clarkson, who created her own lyrics to it: ‘Already Gone’.

Obviously, Kelly was very angry because her song appeared later, but legally there was nothing wrong. 

Kelly is certainly Beyoncé’s inferior as a singer, but she is also a theatre personality, so she allows herself to feature the chorus of Beyoncé’s song ‘Halo’ in her song when appropriate. An otherwise rare and poor recording of this can be heard here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0stee65ba4

There are also audio freaks who have created a mash-up of both songs. A mash-up is the musically sound mixing of two or more music tracks. Fans view an example here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGuJQPWjk1Q

The repetition effect. Also, for the song as a whole.

Of paramount importance for the music industry is the repetition of intended hits on radio or television, the so-called plugging of songs. Also, airtime is bought in commercial breaks for which millions are invested in catchy videos.  Moreover, ‘free’ artist performances are offered to program makers and organisers of music. Here, Rihanna sings her song Diamonds on the catwalk of Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. This high-profile (under)fashion show is usually graced by top artists who come to plug their latest hit. A ‘win-win’ situation, obviously only for top artists.