"Writing" Pop Music

Hey, you.

Thanks for stopping in to see me, I really do appreciate.

The purpose of this blog is essentially scientific- I have a great many questions about how the world works and society’s reactions to these workings. These questions lead me to hypothesize, research, and, most recently, blog about my findings.

My hope is that you will find this information useful, help me refine my understanding by commenting with your own experience and research, and suggest new research topics for me to investigate and blog.

                                                                                                                          

My first order of business is pop music.

Not unlike other genres of music, pop music utilizes ghostwriters in order to “enhance” the quality of music that is written. The difference, though, between pop and essentially all other musics is the sheer quantity of outside help that performing artists employ to crank out an album.

Originally, I hypothesized that pop music had decreased somewhat in quality because as a society we were expecting artists (singers) to write their own material, rather than let the performers perform and the composers compose, a phenomenon in expectation that really hadn't occurred in the whole history of music until about 50 years ago.

After doing some research, though, I discovered that just the opposite was true- there are too many cooks in the pop music kitchen, not too few.

Here’s a list of some pop artists with their albums in chronological order and number of total accredited writers. Notice some trends:

                Album                                                                                            Writers

Carly Rae Jepson

                Tug of War (2008)                                                                                  2

                Kiss (2012)                                                                                               24

Katy Perry

                Katy Hudson (2005)                                                                               5

                One of the Boys (2008)                                                                         14

                Teenage Dream      (2010)                                                                    17

Justin Bieber

                My World (2009)                                                                                      32

                My World 2.0 (2010)                                                                               31

                Believe (2012)                                                                                           45

Jessie J

                Who You Are (2011)                                                                                 24

Bruno Mars

                Doowops & Hooligans (2010)                                                                 24

Ke$ha

                Animal    (2010)                                                                                         18

                Warrior (2012)                                                                                            21

Rihanna

                Songs of the Sun (2005)                                                                            23

                A Girl Like Me (2006)                                                                                23

                Good Girl Gone Bad (2007)                                                                      29

                Rated R (2009)                                                                                            23

                Loud (2010)                                                                                                  35

                Talk That Talk (2011)                                                                                30

                Unapologetic (2012)                                                                                   39

And as much as it pains me to say…

Maroon 5

                Songs About Jane                                                                                          4

                It Won’t Be Soon Before Long (2007)                                                       4

                Hands All Over (2010)                                                                                 7

                Overexposed (2012)                                                                                     18

Pretty clearly, all of these artists fall in to one of two categories-

                1. Those that begin by writing their own music (without commercial success), then are taken over by record companies, given writers and are thenceforth met with great success.

                2. Those that were discovered by the record labels and have always received outside help writing.

Edit: Justin Timberlake would be an exception, but sadly he has left the music industry to go "act."

In most cases, the performing artist is listed as the principal “writer” but we will likely never know how much the Biebs actually contributed before his 44 other helpers took over. The trouble with the pop industry is in the title- pop, or popular music. It becomes more about how to sell an entire genre of music rather than using it for anything remotely expressive. Hence, the stale, formulaic lyrics, the repetitious harmonic progressions, and the ever-present “sex sells” overtone.

“But it’s got such a good beat”

Yep, it sure does.

“It just gets stuck in my head.”

Of course it does. It’s been craftily engineered to get the masses to enjoy it by people who make a living selling what claims to be art.

In contrast, here are some of the artists who have recently moved me, along with their accredited writers.

            Album                                                                                                   Writers

Ben Folds Five

                Ben Folds Five (1995)                                                                               3

                Whatever and Ever Amen (1997)                                           3                                                             

                The Unauthorized Biography… (1999)                                                 5

                The Sound of the Life of the Mind (2012)                                             3

Weezer

                First 6 albums written solely by Rivers Cuomo and other members of the band

                Ratitude (2009)                                                                                        9

                Hurley (2010)                                                                                           10

                Death to False Metal                                                                                 3 (band members)

Gotye

                Boardface (2003)                                                                                       1

                Like Drawing Blood (2006)                                                                     1

                Making Mirrors (2011)                                                                             1

Sara Bareilles

                Careful Confessions (2004)                                                                     2

                Little Voice (2007)                                                                                     2

                Kaleidoscope Heart (2010)                                                                      2

The Black Keys

                Attack and Release (2008)                                                                      3

                Brothers (2010)                                                                                          5

                El Camino (2011)                                                                                       3

Julieta Venegas

                Aquí (1997)                                                                                                  1

                Bueninvento (2000)                                                                                  2

                Si (2003   )                                                                                                    3

                Limón y Sal (2006)                                                                                    7

                Otra Cosa (2010)                                                                                        3

Fun.

                Aim and Ignite (2009)                                                                               4 (band members)

                Some Nights                                                                                                   6

I understand that this isn't really a fair comparison since I’m pitting a lot of alternative rock and indie music against pop music, but isn't it possible that the entire pop genre has become so diluted with ghost writers that artists who self-write simply choose a different genre or are not accepted by pop record labels? I listed these latter artists because they made me love music in at least one instance, usually during an entire album and the fact of the matter is, that rarely, if ever, happens for me while listening to pop. What made the difference was when the writer told a story or expressed an emotion that resonated within me because I had felt or experienced it as well. This resonating seldom occurs when as many as fifteen writers try to convey their thoughts at once in a single song.

Please understand, I am not espousing the idea that all artists write their own material. Frank Sinatra never did, nor did most of his Jazz comrades, all of whom I greatly respect. However, to me music is about expressing an idea or experience, and when the monetary value of a song is placed above the artistry, quality will inevitably decline.

tl;dr-  Too many cooks in the pop music kitchen, their quality of music might increase if they employed fewer “writers.”