how famous singers keep making hit songs?
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So, there’s a formula for what keys sell well. That plays into things a bit. What tones most people associate with being happy. And the strong majority of pop songs are right around 130 bpm. Write it in major chords, and you’re all set musically.
Lyrically, it doesn’t need to rhyme. Doesn’t even need to be deep. Hell, doesn’t even need to connect to any experience that people are familiar with. Just needs to fit into the rhythm, and sorta harmonize. I think Billie Eilish’s You Should See Me In A Crown is a great example. “Wearing a warning sign, Wait ’til the world is mine, Visions I vandalize, Cold in my kingdom size, Fell for these ocean eyes”… None of that is tangentially related. 5 consecutive lines that are only related in tone of speech. They’re vague enough that they might, maybe be related… Or could be 5 lines someone thought sounded clever at unrelated points. But they fit the rhythm and harmony. Or Arianna’s “add that click click click in post”… The fuck was that shit? It didn’t line up with the clicks, which were apparently added in post production… But it fit the spot, and so it doesn’t have to make sense.
Add to that, ghostwriters. Just some no name artist that writes music to sell to artists. The recording artists can pick and choose which songs fit them, and they feel will be a hit, saving them the time, stress, and effort. And yes, a lot of artists do write all of their own stuff. But of those, there’s only a handful that have gone platinum more than twice.
Add to that, marketing. Which, a big part of that is sex appeal. Pretty people sell easy. So record companies are going to direct the top notch ghostwriten songs towards their prettier artists. Which ensures that some artists appear to keep up with trends, and keep their music fresh… And others kinda don’t.
So there are song writers that analyze what is popular and trending and write songs with the latest trends. Then once they have a demo song they send them to popular artist and they can choose which song they want to sing. Many of the biggest songs weren’t written by the artist themselves.
They also sometimes have a team, so they work with other writers to specifically try to make the catchiest song they can using modern tropes and trends.
Or sometimes they write the songs themselves and the simple truth is that most songs are good songs and the thing that makes Ariana Grande’s bigger than my next door neighbor is that people have a connection with Ariana. That it’s not just the music people like. It’s the marketing, the branding, the story, the entire show as a whole not just the song. So many times after watching a music video will I start liking that song. Or once others start using it in Youtube videos or TikTok videos will it become popular because of the added context, the added story to the song. Because all art is subjective the context the song is put in can greatly change it’s reception.
So if I wrote Bye Bye Bye like it might get a few plays but Nsync plays that song and it will dominate the world. So if I want to get rich maybe I should just sell them my song.
Mainly it’s the networking effect, as a famous artist they already have the name recognition, the investment of a major record company who also will make use of their publicists and extensive contacts through many points of distribution – retailers physical and online, but also a plethora of P.R. channels who they already have preexisting relationships with that means TV shows, radio DJs.
On a smaller scale the opportunity for a Radio DJ in your town to say “and we have a interview coming up at 12 with [insert recent hit singer here]” is a boost to his ratings since that singer’s latest hit is already on everyone’s minds and that means that their radio audience may stay tuned in longer. **Compared to an equally talented singer who has never had a hit: the DJ has no incentive to interview and give airtime to, because they don’t arouse the curiosity of listeners**.
This same principle works all the way up the chain, a hit singer may do 50 radio interviews in a day, all of which their publicist/record company has lined up for them. That is a resource simply not available to most new or independent artists who don’t have the connections or even the time to line up all those interviews. But not only that the same approach may get them interviews on TV, with major publications like ID or Vice or NME or Rolling Stone, again, which artists who haven’t had their first hit yet haven’t had the opportunity to.
The result?
Their songs get played more which means more people hear them so more people buy/stream them. It becomes another hit.
If someone has a breakout hit, their record label will give them producers and writers to help them continue writing hits. These people study what music is and has been popular, what is popular in other parts of the world, and how the listening demographic is changing, and write songs they think will appeal to the most people.
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