I see so many songs with 3-5 or more listed in the credits. I always thought sometimes one person wrote music, and another wrote lyrics. Why can it take around 5 people to write a song?
In: 120
Blame, such as it is, rests with the cut-and-paste approach to popular music that has become standard over the past decade.
Back in the day, most songs stuck relatively close to the “song form” that included a chorus, verses, and a bridge, with some sort of overarching structure or motif joining it all together. One person, or a small team, would usually write the entire song.
The new hook-based approach relies more on sonic candy that is 7-10 seconds long. Take eight or so of those hooks, paste them together in various ways, slap some lyrics on top, and you are good to go.
Often those hooks are written by various distinct individuals, then shopped around until somebody decides to use them.
So you end up with eight different hook writers, plus one or more people who try to make sense of the lyrics, plus the main artist who wants a piece of the songwriting pie, plus whatever producers also have the clout to get a slice of that pie, all listed as “songwriters”.
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