I love pop music in all of its manufactured glory, and while I’ve blogged about superstar producers like Max Martin and Dr. Luke, a recent New Yorker article turns the spotlight on top-liners like Esther Dean who write the actual lyrics and hooks that you recognize after a listen or two.

Among Dean’s best hooks are her three Rihanna smashes—“Rude Boy” (“Come on, rude boy, boy, can you get it up / Come on, rude boy, boy, is you big enough?”), “S&M” (“Na-na-na-na COME ON”), and “What’s My Name” (“Oh, na-na, what’s my name?”), all with backing tracks by Stargate—and her work on two Nicki Minaj smashes, “Super Bass” (“Boom, badoom, boom / boom, badoom, boom / bass / yeah, that’s that super bass”) and David Guetta’s “Turn Me On” (“Make me come alive, come on and turn me on”).

Three of my most favorite songs from the last few years! I don’t know if the New Yorker is exaggerating the impact that a top-liner has on pop hits, but they seem just as important (if not more) than the producers.

The top-liner is usually a singer, too, and often provides the vocal for the demo, a working draft of the song. If the song is for a particular artist, the top-liner may sing the demo in that artist’s style. Sometimes producers send out tracks to more than one top-line writer, which can cause problems. In 2009, both Beyoncé and Kelly Clarkson had hits (Beyoncé’s “Halo,” which charted in April, and Clarkson’s “Already Gone,” which charted in August) that were created from the same track, by Ryan Tedder. Clarkson wrote her own top line, while Beyoncé shared a credit with Evan Bogart.

There are a lot of interesting bits and pieces about music in this article, as it talks a bit about how the producers Stargate became huge:

Hermansen told me, “When we first got here, American pop music was linear and minimalistic, with few chord changes, and no big lift in the chorus. If you listen to radio today, there are big breakdowns, buildups, instrumental parts, and more tempo.” That is due in no small part to Stargate: by bringing a European remixer’s sensibility to the crunchy beats of hip-hop, they created a new kind of urban pop.

However, I think the most interesting parts are when the article hints at how the industry works; how producers initiate the song writing process, building an inventory of hits, and then offering it to the right (i.e., most famous) artist. I wonder how many people were involved in making Adele’s Grammy sweeping album?

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: music