The Formula Behind Every Perfect Pop Song

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Now that the 2014 Grammy Awards are over, a lot of people are wondering if there's a formula to writing a successful pop song. Producers like Max Martin, who has written sixteen #1 hits since 1999 for artists like Katy Perry and Taylor Swift, have researchers wondering. Anthony takes a look at the past few decades of pop music trends in hopes to find a way to write the next big Billboard hit.
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Max Martin
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"Karl Martin Sanberg (born 26 February 1971), known professionally as Max Martin is a Swedish music producer and songwriter."
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Grammys 2014: The Full List of Winners
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"French electronic duo Daft Punk won the top Grammy Awards on Sunday night, picking up prizes for album of the year and record of the year for single Get Lucky and its EP, Random Access Memories."
Visualizing the Structure of Pop Music
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Pop Hit Prediction Algorithm
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The Hit Equation
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Teen Brain Study Accurately Predicts Hit Pop Songs
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"Scientists studying the brain activity of teenagers can now predict with pop songs will become hits, and which will flop."
Brain Scans Predict Pop Hits
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"Visualizing a Hit - InfoVis Final Project
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""Can visualizing 50-years worth of hit U.S. pop song characteristics help us discover trends worth of further investigation?"
Photo Credit: © Lisa O'Connor/ZUMA Press/Corbis
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Опубликовано:

7 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 818

@boyinaband 10 лет назад

Cheers for the shout out yo! Also that visualization thing is frickin' fascinating.

@didyouhear111 10 лет назад

***** BAHAHAHA

@CariagaXIII 10 лет назад

wow you're here :)

@JaimeFlorSongwriter 10 лет назад

I know, I'd like to get the program that makes them. That way I can use it on my own songs, to see if I'm on the right track.

@HoztileMANIkyn 10 лет назад

MusicAtVEVО I love this program, it's like a video game you have no control over

@ArtimusDragon 10 лет назад

yes it is. i wonder if there is something like that available.

@SawBlood45 10 лет назад

this video being 3 and a half minutes was no accident

@acarboni 10 лет назад

Neither was the sick bass drop at 0:25.

@acarboni 10 лет назад

Max van Veldhoven Step 1 to being me: don't hump people's legs.

@tortugahc5157 10 лет назад

how about arms?

@RonnieDott 5 лет назад

wonder if he got to hump that leg 🤔

@NewVoiceSound 4 года назад

Hahaha

@Coty_Lee 10 лет назад

I think what I hate most about pop music is how many of the "artists" don't even write their own songs. Just a pretty face with a decent voice

@MK-vi2cm 6 лет назад

Coty Lee It's been that way forever lol

@aestechtic7608 4 года назад

True that

@sofiarandal7376 4 года назад

They are called "singers" for a reason. Like myself i am PASSIONATE about singing i focus on every note every tune every beat, rhythm.. Etc.. But the day that i decide to write something... It just doesn't add up. No matter how hard i try. Writing songs is not my thing. So personally that is my view. Not every single singer should be a songwriter. Don't judge ps. Hope you understand

@pemerich2989 4 года назад

@@user-yw2qz4fp9f With rock too

@SynthApprentice 4 года назад

Okay, but still, someone wrote the music.

@soupy4099 10 лет назад

Songs by Max Martin: 22 (Taylor Swift song) 3 (Britney Spears song) 4ever (The Veronicas song) Analogue (All I Want) As Long as You Love Me (Backstreet Boys song) ...Baby One More Time Behind These Hazel Eyes Bigger (Backstreet Boys song) Birthday (Katy Perry song) Blow (Kesha song) Break You C'Mon (Kesha song) California Gurls The Call (song) Carry You Home Cinderella (Britney Spears song) Climbing The Walls Cloud Number Nine Criminal (Britney Spears song) 'Cuz I Can (Pink song) Dancing Crazy Dark Horse (Katy Perry song) Daylight (Maroon 5 song) Dinosaur (Kesha song) DJ Got Us Fallin' in Love Do You Know (What It Takes) Domino (Jessie J song) Don't Cry for Pain Dynamite (Taio Cruz song) EBay (song) Electric (Leila K song) End of Me (Marion Raven song) E.T. (song) Everybody (Backstreet's Back) Everything I'm Not Faith (Celine Dion song) Feels Like Tonight First Love (Jennifer Lopez song) For All That You Want Friday I'll Be Over U Fuckin' Perfect Gotta Be You (3T song) Here We Go ('N Sync song) Hold It Against Me H cont. Hot n Cold I Don't Believe You I Don't Care (Apocalyptica song) I Don't Think So I Got You (Leona Lewis song) I Got You (Nick Carter song) I Kissed a Girl I Knew You Were Trouble I Still... I Wanna Go I Want It That Way I Want You Back ('N Sync song) I Will Be I Will Be There (Britney Spears Song) I'll Never Stop I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman If I Had You (Adam Lambert song) If That's OK with You If U Seek Amy In a World Like This (song) Inside Out (Britney Spears song) Into the Nightlife It's All Your Fault It's Gonna Be Me It's My Life (Bon Jovi song) It's the Things You Do Until the Time Is Through Just Want You to Know Kiss n Tell Larger than Life (song) Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) Legendary Lovers Let There Be Love (Christina Aguilera song) Let U Go (Ashley Parker Angel song) Light Up the World (song) Loser like Me Lucky (Britney Spears song) Lucky Love Marilyn Monroe (Nicki Minaj song) My Life Would Suck Without You One More Night (Maroon 5 song) The One That Got Away (Katy Perry song) The One (Backstreet Boys song) Oops!... I Did It Again Outta My Head (Leona Lewis song) Overprotected Part of Me (Katy Perry song) Please Don't Leave Me Problem (Ariana Grande song) Quit Playing Games (with My Heart) Raise Your Glass Right Type of Mood Roar (song) Scream (Usher song) Shape of My Heart (Backstreet Boys song) Show Me Love (Robyn song) Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely Siberia (song) Since U Been Gone Slam Dunk (Da Funk) Smile (Avril Lavigne song) So What (Pink song) Stay My Baby Stronger (Britney Spears song) Superhero (Gary Barlow song) Supernatural (Kesha song) Tearin' Up My Heart Teenage Dream (Katy Perry song) That's the Way It Is (Celine Dion song) This Is Love (will.i.am song) Till the World Ends Tonight I'm Getting Over You U + Ur Hand U Drive Me Crazy Up n' Down (Britney Spears song) Va Va Voom Walking on Air (Katy Perry song) We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together We've Got It Goin' On What the Hell Whataya Want from Me When You're Looking Like That Who Knew Wide Awake (Katy Perry song) Wish You Were Here (Avril Lavigne song) Wish You Were Here (Rednex song) With Ur Love (You Drive Me) Crazy

@deanblackdownstudio3661 7 лет назад

Soupy So... you 're saying that Max Martin wrote all of those songs'

@octofish 6 лет назад

Great read: "Song Machine, Inside the Hit Factory". Much of the book is about this list and Max Martin.

@eiknujcisuma 6 лет назад

wrote or co-wrote.. the snobs upthread can talk smack about pop music all they want but that dude (Max Martin) is a song writing and producing genius.

@nagbo13 4 года назад

Wow. Thanks for this list!

@CorbiniteVids 9 лет назад

At the risk of sounding blatantly elitist (and I HATE sounding that way) it's kind of always been the case that the most popular music of an era has been more repetitive and pop-ish. People like to claim that all classical music is more complex and intelligent, but take a look as Tchaikovsky's music. He did nothing new for his time, his songs were more repetitive and had clear, memorable choruses (I'm not sure if they were really choruses structurally, but they were the most memorable part of the song) and they rose in popularity like wildfire. Even reading reading descriptions of him seem oddly familiar. He was basically the Katy Perry of his time, appealing to the masses with familiar, almost formulaic melodies. I personally can't stand that kind of music. I'm fine with Tchaikovsky since the genre is mostly unfamiliar to me, but even then it's so repetitive and mundane it can drive me crazy. Katy Perry's music could just drive me up the wall. And then there's Kesha's actual talent and creativity that she was kept from expressing because her fucking manager had an iron fist on her career and forced her to pump out that identical highly processes monotony. The only pop stars I like are like Sia, and she's pretty damn innovative in [most of] her songs, and some of Sara Barellis's less popular songs. Granted, I know in my head that it's just my opinion and I am not empirically better or more refined, but I can't help thinking at times that pop music is just the same thing over and over again, disguised under slightly different genres to make it seem new.

@robertdevald 9 лет назад

Aren't all genres? Isn't that the basic definition of a genre, that songs that sound kind of the same and are structurally built kind of the same get categorized into one group? I mean, I like to listen to dubstep personally, but I admit that most of it sounds quite similar. So does house. And rock. And metal. And pop. If they wouldn't sound alike, how would we categorize them? I like the points you bring up though, quite insightful indeed.

@theREALsquirtle 9 лет назад

Are you a musician? I know a lot of musicians and most of them hate pop music, giving the exact same reasons you listed above. I think having experience in the technical aspects of a creative work tends to make someone either really hate the more popular parts of that creative work, or make them think it's hilarious how bad that work is.

@CorbiniteVids 9 лет назад

***** I'm not any sort of trained musician, but I have a musical ear. I've dabbled in composing, but I don't have the coordination to actually play much.

@theREALsquirtle 9 лет назад

Even so, you've still got more experience with music than the majority of people. I've never made a movie, but because I've got experience working (high school can community) in tech theater I really hate movies that use CGI as the lazy way out, and I can identify terrible costume design than most people. You don't have to be a professional to be able to pick up on lazy, repetitive and uninspired work, you just have to have slightly more experience than the "average" consumer.

@CorbiniteVids 9 лет назад

***** I suppose. I do want to avoid using the "I'm more educated so I know what sounds good" approach, 'cause I've known someone who takes that to the extreme and it's really annoying. I kind of feel like maybe certain people live with different musical requirements/interests. Like how introverts and extroverts literally have different brains and require different levels of external stimulus to minimize mental health issues. Both are valuable, but different. Although this is not to say that pop music isn't a lot easier to corrupt, simply by virtue of being what's massively popular. For instance Katy Perry constantly degrading black culture in her videos, then turning around and claiming "we've had enough" in a tweet, but her fan's don't care -- they've been defending her for this kind of stuff all along. It's all about the money and the popularity for those at the front of pop music.

@Indigo42Kitsune 10 лет назад

There was only one song that I cared about this year. Get Lucky, by Daft Punk.

@Seeker 10 лет назад

IT'S SO GROOVY!

@acarboni 10 лет назад

DNews Hi, I'd like to call you out for saying 'groovy' unironically. Is that okay? Can I do that? Am I fired?

@Indigo42Kitsune 10 лет назад

ZazzlesTheGubernator I am not a tween, I am a women who happens to like disco and the sound of the sintisajzer. Over all the show was a big disappointment but what I love about the song Get Lucky, is that its a song that you can dance too, plain and simple.

@Johntub3 10 лет назад

Is "Get Lucky" really considered a pop song?

@Indigo42Kitsune 10 лет назад

The terms popular music and pop music are often used to mean the same thing, so in a way yes Get Lucky is a pop song. However when I think of pop music, I tended to think of songs like Eye of the Tiger and Rolling in the Deep and similar songs.

@younes86hotmail 10 лет назад

it's a hit song because the radio keep putting them on air till everybody know them

@mitchiemasha 10 лет назад

daniel ice Is that why most of the biggest tracks of last year (in the uk at least) WERE FROM THE CLUBS, old and already massive before the radio picked them up. The ones that weren't from the clubs were instant hits upon release, again, before the radio had over played them. Yes your right in the essence that the radio generates it to be more of a hit, making them more money. As a DJ i see first hand response to tracks upon and before release. People love it instantly. Even in a quieter town. You know, YES, this is going to be a hit!!!

@younes86hotmail 10 лет назад

mitchiemasha because younger generations most of them don't even know what's real good music anymore. I was 14 and i listened to some really bad shit but at one point i realized that there is old and even new songs the radio didn't put on air, so i expended my horizons. but like daniel said: idiots make most of the world so we are stuck with all this garbage with auto tune and what not.

@mitchiemasha 10 лет назад

norman bates Auto tune, yes can be garbage but it is no more than an effect as say reverb, delay, chorus, flange. All of these are added to vocals to make them sound better. Serious adjustments to EQ are also made in the recording process to correct how a vocalist sounds. Don't just point your finger at auto tune, with out all these effects recordings would, by todays standard, sound dull and lifeless. The level of production and knowledge that goes into these so called crap pop songs is out of this world. You have no idea.

@younes86hotmail 10 лет назад

mitchiemasha why the 80's and 90's (even before that) songs sound better without all this technology? they didn't sound dull and lifeless at all. the music industry today is making disposable songs you will never listen to 5 years later.

@juanborjas6416 10 лет назад

Yeah, people go a little mad sometimes. Do you like birds?

@vincentchase9534 10 лет назад

I am a guitarist. My favorite music was always Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, that kind of stuff. Then I got into John Mayer. From him, I started to realize that having amazing talent on an instrument means absolutely nothing if you can't write good songs around it. People vilify today's pop music because the artist usually isn't playing anything like a guitar/piano or whatever, and they chock it up to no talent. Hendrix wrote simpler stuff like Foxey Lady, Crosstown Traffic, Purple Haze because it would SELL. if he had it his way, chances are he would just play Machine Gun-esque hour long solos for every song because he loved blues and playing. But he KNEW if he wanted to "make it", it took giving in a little bit and writing poppier stuff. Clapton did it (I shot the sheriff, Change the world), Stevie Ray Vaughan did it (Crossfire, Pride and Joy), man even Van Halen did it!! (Dance the Night Away, Dreams). "On Dark Side of the Moon, we had one goal: To get rich and famous."- David Gilmour, Pink Floyd

@DaEliminator 10 лет назад

Darn. I was hoping I was able to take over the world with this information. ..We shall see... we shall see..

@joeydeandre8001 6 лет назад

DaEliminator we the earth are aware of your intentions ZIM!! You'll never defeat mankind!

@energyalchemist 4 года назад

we need some new leaders right about now! just use your light and you can conquer mountains.

@reisanchez2279 3 года назад

Have yo conquered the world yet?

@MikeAdamsVlog 8 лет назад

There are always those songs that you like when you hear them, but hate it when they're stuck in your head, and those you don't care much when hearing, but love that they are around.

@TheNightmareRider 10 лет назад

I actually wonder if this theory about patern recognition applies to genres like Heavy Metal too. The more extreme metal gets, the more disconected from conventional melodies, rythems, BPMs etc it gets. However I found through my own experiences, hearing bands that blend genres gradually makes particular patterns recognisable, so I enjoy it more. So while 5 years ago I may not have enjoyed a band like Carcass, the more I get used to hearing recognisable patterns that are close to what I actually enjoy, the more I start to enjoy extreme bands like that. Which is why I love bands like Amaranthe, because their melodies and vocal harmonies are very pop inspired, but it's got the heavy guitars, harsh back up vocals and guitar solos that I really enjoy, so it adds to the pop elements. Conversely, the more I listen to extreme metal bands, the less interested I get in conventional pop music. With Power Metal, it feels like the emotions are allot more genuine because the entire point of the subgenre is to be as powerful and over the top as possible. It makes listening to even the better pop songs like Get Lucky feel relatively shallow and kind of dull by comparison. This isn't a measure of objective quality. It's about what goes into developing tastes in music and what clicks in your mind now compared to what it used too.

@mitchiemasha 10 лет назад

What some people commenting here should realise is that just because someone doesn't like the taste of peanuts, doesn't make peanuts crap... Sometimes a piece of art is complicated, sometimes very simple, the simplicity is its genius, sometimes it's just plain fun. Your choice to like it is down to taste. I don't like lots of pop songs but that don't make them crap! I also like a lot of pop songs but that don't make me dumb or a victim of the forced fed masses. Music snobbery can fool the best of us. Often those who think they have a superior musical taste are subject to the same 'secret formulas' but played by different sonic sources. There are countless books on it and it's often a topic on Gearsluts forum, where a lot of pro engineers hang out.

@LethalOwl 10 лет назад

I respect each music category for what it is and listen to everything, with moderation. Although my favorite genres tend to be either without lyrics, or way less 'mainstream' :p To discard any music category is folly, indeed. I like your comment *nod*

@ChandelierLeBlair 10 лет назад

yesYESyesYESyes thankyou

@asherschmidt9820 5 лет назад

Yes, omg... yes, why more people aren't like this is sad really lol

@PinkPablo 4 года назад

LethalOwl well what she is saying, is that even though music may have no lyrics it could still have the same repetitive elements and song structure of pop music

@maydaycro 9 лет назад

Formula ingredient missing = Sh.t loads od $$$ for marketing

@nagbo13 4 года назад

Not necessarily. Even a song with loads of marketing money behind it will fail if the song sucks.

@1SWINZ1 9 лет назад

Honestly, when I started writing songs in 2006, after a little practice I realized just how little effort is put into the lyrics now days. Thanks to this enlightenment, by 2008, I stopped listening to music with lyrics all together and just stuck to instrumentals, I really can't stand these copy and pasted lyrics that seriously lack craftsmanship in every song - it drives me mad! Legitimately, if I hear a pop song it puts me in a bad mood. Pop lyrics are simple to the point of being insulting.

@DestosWorld 9 лет назад

SwinnyUK I agree 100% I don't listen to music with lyrics either, the lyrics are just crap nowadays sadly

@cl2710 9 лет назад

Likewise! After I started writing/playing music I only like to listen to instrumental music now. I literally get physically ill and pissed off whenever the radio comes on.

@1SWINZ1 9 лет назад

Christina Lakis Amazing!!! I mean, maybe it's not such a good thing lol, but good to know that there are people like me!

@bonnieprincecharlie774 9 лет назад

+SwinnyUK I don't mind lyrics, I just don't like pop songs. Folk music has great lyrics tho

@1SWINZ1 9 лет назад

DamageIncM ''Why, if you know the lyrics and lines are bad, don't you just make it better?'' I do make it better, that's my point. Once you get a little practice writing, you get to a certain level of skill where it is impossible for you to dumb down your writing to match what is on the radio. Putting it another way, the lyrics in most pop songs are so simple that I mentally can't lower my standards to write anything resembling it because they're *THAT* simple. It is actually impossible for me to write at such a low level. I'm not even being big headed about this, there are plenty of writers out there that are better than me, but they're not on the radio.

@moonlightguardian 10 лет назад

the perfect rap... "I got that powa!"

@sborrink 10 лет назад

Earworm popsong? Just one? BSB~In a World Like This, Kelly Clarkson~stronger. Then there is KPOP; Jay Park~Welcome, Super Junior~No Other, Shinee~Everybody, Big Bang~Fantastic Baby, Tiny-g~ Miniminimo, Girl's Generation~The Boys, BoA~Eat You Up, and lastly; Let it Go from Disney's Movie 'Frozen'. I have listened to that song so many times that I now know it in English, French and Korean.

@theprplzebra 10 лет назад

I'm totally with you on Shinee's Everybody

@dyerbolism3234 10 лет назад

For me, musical enjoyment comes when i listen to something which has a new idea or unusual pattern in the music which makes it unique, this experiment was done on 12-18 year olds but if you did the same experiment on older age groups (or more specifically people who listen to music a lot more than the average person) you would find that they have become desensitised to the dopamine release a pop song brings and probably need to listen to something with more substance, depth and individuality in order to get the same amount of enjoyment, and this is how obscure sub-genres of sub-genres are created.

@EricPace 10 лет назад

A subject that seems to be really REALLY popular with Pop songs are, self songs, or inspirational songs, or songs encouraging you ROAR!

@LethalOwl 10 лет назад

Is it then normal to like music that is nearly or completely without lyrics? Or at least nowhere near pop. Examples; Two Steps From Hell, Enya, Secret Garden, Adrian Von Ziegler, Hans Zimmer, Vindsvept, Enigma, Gregorian, John Dreamer, Future World Music and many, many more. I'd listen to any of these, pretty much whichever music track they got to offer, over the most popular pop songs any day O_o

@TheBernas24 10 лет назад

lol of course it's normal. I listen to a LOT of instrumental music, movie soundtracks etc. I feel like it's not a very common thing these days though.

@LethalOwl 10 лет назад

TheBernas24 Yeah, that's what struck me, too. And the few times I dare listen to the music in someone else's presence, they're all like "Wtf is dis shit? -_-"

@yaboyclear 10 лет назад

nope you're a complete individual, no one has or will ever have the same taste in music as yourself

@xeno126 10 лет назад

Same here! I like instrumental music much more than songs with lyrics. I think people who listen to pop look for that catchy rhythm and lyrics, others look for some real musical qualities.

@kickliquid 10 лет назад

People don't realize that ABBA are actually the spiritual and indirect influence of modern pop. Sweden and the other Nordic countries have an uncanny ear for pop music in general. It's no surprise that Max Martin also happens to hail from Sweden.

@senorananas 9 лет назад

Anything that has a good beat I can move to is my jam.

@BatteriiiOriginal 10 лет назад

i stoped listening to pop more then a half year ago and it feels so good to not be mainstreem. now i listen to old hardrock and metal songs

@jj8716 3 года назад

thank you for not supporting theft.

@WolvenSpectre 10 лет назад

Another reason that Pop songs sound so much alike is that there is a company that does analysis of music hit potetial for music labels and then gives it a score. This computer analysis evolves by tracking past hits. The problem is allot of artists and producers write their music and modify it using the same analysis so they score higher and get more support from the labels.

@GreatPirateSolomon42 10 лет назад

How do you quantify "danceable?"

@texasfossilguy 7 лет назад

GreatPirateSolomon sample audience starts moving involuntarily?

@Juxtavarious 10 лет назад

If you really want to see how much pop songs have in common over the last half century or so, just look up "Four Chord Song." There's a number of them all over RU-vid. It shows how the major hits from season to season have basically the same elements with only slight tweaks to style or mostly different lyrics.

@danielvidal7163 8 лет назад

Darude - Sandstorm

@BeMyBuckFuddy 10 лет назад

Can't get Kesha's and Pitbull's "Timber" out of my head, anyone else feelin' it too?!

@MsWholocked 10 лет назад

When I clicked on the link for thins.... was I the only one that read it as The Formula Behind Every Perfect Poop Song" instead of "The Formula Behind Every Perfect Pop Song?"

@THATVYBE 10 лет назад

@sambiermanmusic 5 лет назад

It doesn't take much to determine that pop songs tend to have squared off sections usually with an even number of bars, and that the the energy builds leading up to the choruses which are the biggest part. Running songs through a visualizer and calculating averages for BPM, Loudness, and "Vibe" is no substitute for a basic music education.

@Teeheehee093 10 лет назад

Intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro. In 3 minutes. It's easy

@MrLeighSD 10 лет назад

Loooaads of songs follow that formula and aren't hits.

@AngieMoonie 10 лет назад

behemoth666123 Ok, ok... Hm... I'll start the lyrics chain. -Start Lyrics- Once upon a time, there was a girl who liked to eat lime... And I was like, WTF? That fuckin' sucks. -End Lyrics (for now)- ...Heheh.

@spkstudios5297 6 лет назад

It is always this- Start (No instrumentals) pause (Verse 1 with Instrumentals) Chorus (Verse 2) then Chorus without instrumentals or something different - Then Chorus with extra instrumentals repeated until the end of the song and fades out in volume) not saying all songs that use this are bad it is just a tad predictable

@WilliamSmith-px2uv 10 лет назад

Brandon Heath - Give Me Your Eyes Anna Kendrick - Cups and Passenger - Let her go I find my self humming/ singing these most on the time... That and the song from The movie "The Man who would be King".

@EmmaVears 10 лет назад

I can't get Lorde Royals out of my head!!

@nagbo13 4 года назад

Loving the data visualization. Wish more time could have been spent talking about how the data visualization was constructed.

@Puppy_Puppington 10 лет назад

You guys have to look the part, and yes, there are certain CHORDS that make up like almost all pop songs.

@DevastateOrionVII 10 лет назад

You're forgetting an important part of the formula......Great Marketing :P.

@KPoppedVideos 10 лет назад

Bonnie Mckee also wrote a bunch of hits herself, love her! She wrote Roar for example.

@EntinludeX 10 лет назад

Oh, so you mean If you're Doing' it right Everybody will be dancing And we'll be feeling it right Everybody will be dancing And be doin' it right Everybody will be dancing When we're feeling all right Everybody will be dancing tonight Welcome.

@verbulent_flow6229 8 лет назад

I personally like Electronic Music, as long as it doesn't have a "drop", such as Brostep (I outgrew it), or Big Room. I enjoy Infected Mushroom or Ozzed. I also like Metal, because the guitar sounds melodic and heavy at the same time. I lean toward instrumental metal for that reason.

@spacecadet8843 7 лет назад

Relyt110 instrumental metal? post metal? Honestly post metal is mediocre. Neoambient/neofolk is pretty good though.

@verbulent_flow6229 6 лет назад

The Part-time Nerd I’m into Metallica, Pantera, Megadeth, etc.

@Marius2Rocker 10 лет назад

Not a radio song, but: "Pop Culture - Icon for Hire" has been sitting in there for a while.

@shawnbay2211 6 лет назад

I think pop is beautiful as it is, like an art form thats hated but respected in a way... cheese and fries I sound pretentious, but nonetheless pop is still frickin beautiful in a scientific sort of way.

@Wayatoon 10 лет назад

Michael as " Yellow Dancer " Look Up the Sky is Falling has been stuck in my head the last few days lol

@LBiancardi123 8 лет назад

50% Formula 50% Emotionally moving, passionate music.

@MartinPEngebraaten 7 лет назад

the "deeper unknown emotional factor" is in fact not about the song at all. The process of making a hit is so much more than just the song itself, as the entire music industry revolves around the marketing. You can make the "best song ever created" and it won't reach any chart number at all, as long as you don't do the promoting correctly.

@macsnafu 9 лет назад

Any songwriter, and I suspect most playing musicians, even if they're not songwriters, know that there are certain formulas, or musical structures that can be used in various ways to make music. The trick is often in trying to come up with a distinctive or novel way to use it so it doesn't quite sound like everything else. But that's different from any formula guaranteed to make a hit. Or is it? Personally, I think pop songs are necessarily repetitive and similar to other pop songs, and the trick to having a big hit is to add something distinctive or novel to make your pop song stand out from the other, similar, repetitive pop songs. But it's a moving target, because while people prefer things that they are already familiar with, they also crave novelty, and this causes the changing trends in music and musical popularity. Of course, this all about striving to reach a large, mass audience in order to have a big hit. Individuals can certainly like a variety of music and seek out different, less popular styles and genres--it's just that the audience for different styles and genres is necessarily going to be smaller, and thus less likely to have a big pop hit.

@TheEvilCrew 9 лет назад

macsnafu My approach to this is that Pop music has innovation Periods and resting periods. There is a certain period in time where people begin to switch it up completely and then there are times where the public is completely content in what they are listening to. This cycle always repeats itself. I would say we are in a period where we are thirsty for something new, judging by what is topping the charts right now.

@FoldAPieceOfWater 10 лет назад

The new trend seems to be, at least in German radio charts, to make the general melody of a song just 'dumbingly' bad. But then to have a refrain/chorus which has a half-decent melody and make it sound "awesome" through the comparison.

@piotr803 9 лет назад

Don't get what the big deal is about this "visualization" tool. It's just a fancy way to say that hit songs have the all familiar structure: Verse - Chorus - Verse - Chorus - (bridge) - Chorus or similar. Since choruses are mostly identical to each other, of course there will be connections! Duh!

@Meccarox 9 лет назад

Piotr Zuralski yeah

@WatermelonPhaser 9 лет назад

+Piotr Zuralski seriously its ridiculously dumb. And they compare it to stairway to heaven which has way more sections and length time like it is totally different, of course it is!

@cimmik 10 лет назад

I can't get "Come Together" out. "Santa Baby" automatically pops up in my head regularly no matter what time of the year it is.

@Loreki 10 лет назад

I wonder if this formula/niche into which many pop songs in the Anglo-sphere fit shifts at all round the world. Is the profile for a hit in Japan, Russia or India any different from that of a hit US/UK pop song? Could be an interesting comparative study.

@SCIFIguy64 10 лет назад

Rap is pretty easy too. Insert backround beat/music, talk about how much money you have, girls you date, guns you have, and color of your car, and you have a gold record.

@Bluddyshadowhell 10 лет назад

the greatest rap albums never had that content. 36 chambers, illmatic, MMLP1, born ready to die, liquid swords, me against the world, ATLiens. i swear it's the people who don't even listen to rap that say the dumbest shit like this.

@goku21youtub 7 лет назад

lol illmatic is over 20 years old , don´t lie to yourself dude

@SolxceMusikOfficial 7 лет назад

Joseph Stassup lol that's trash hiphop tho there's "conscious hiphop" too with real topics kendrick Lamar, j.cole, nas there's a lot of good hiphop out there, that's not future or some other trash lol

@keithplayzstuff2424 6 лет назад

What he is saying is that most rap is like that. You are referring to better rappers.

@nicolascageboii6127 6 лет назад

keithPlayzStuff can say most genres are the same...

@tuck295q 10 лет назад

So I went to the music machinery website and tried out their jukebox to my favorite songs from "Two Steps From Hell" for their cinematic soundtrack.....in turns out the darn program doesn't know how to arrange the song properly because it was really resemble pop song. The reorganization just messed up so badly. lol

@VexylObby 10 лет назад

Pop music is popular, and it is not because of "talent", it is because it is simple and well advertised. The Grammy does not award talent, it reminds us who is popular.

@gogiants123 10 лет назад

there's a formula and it's called a I-V-vi-IV chord progression. you can put every single pop song ever's melody over it, and boom. although i prefer the I-vi-ii-V a lot more though.

@RickyMud 9 лет назад

The starting popularity of the artist may affect it... But not all the time e.g All About That Bass

@Pianofreke 10 лет назад

Is there no appreciation for talent, creativity, simplistic complexity, and originality? I don't wish to loose my faith in music.

@jj8716 3 года назад

How can you appreciate something that is stolen and so forcely mass fed???? group of producers stole all these songs from one girl in utah. oh hey who owns a house there now? dr luke, justin bieber?

@BrantWeckstein 8 лет назад

4 chords basically

@tommyali1787 8 лет назад

Yea

@JesusFreakAwesomeness 7 лет назад

Brant Weckstein no a hit could even have 3 chords

@BrantWeckstein 7 лет назад

JesusFreak101 true lmfao

@Sean-zc2nf 7 лет назад

Use 1, 4, 5 and 6 but that's just the accompaniment it is takes talent to write the melody, come up with a tempo, vary dynamics, create a rhythm etc

@dylanoconnor1819 7 лет назад

Four chord progression, add an alternating note or two and you have your pop song.

@SilverStrumer 10 лет назад

What about Lorde's Royals? Why didn't they do a test on that one? Maybe its actually different from the others listed here :)

@jj8716 3 года назад

same writer. all of these songs were stolen from a girl by a group of producers.

@ScottAndrew 10 лет назад

Nick Bertke has a video on this, explaining the formula on pop music) - Those visualizations are very interesting. There's the proof.

@ajayche7842 3 года назад

It’s also higher notes and melodies. For some reason especially in kids higher melodies are more appealing and “catchy”

@Lastmusik 4 года назад

Listen any song for 3 time..you will love it

@joel230182 7 лет назад

Music is structure. Good music is elegant, ingenious structure.

@snipingearssubtonewchannel1360 10 лет назад

radioactive as stuck in my head for 2-3 years ago i think and yet still today

@ElNanchoGrande 10 лет назад

For some weird reason Rush's "The Trees" gets stuck in my head.

@soupy4099 10 лет назад

1. Appearl to whatever teh social reformer cause is for that month. 2. Repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff. 3. Make it be in second person 4. have a single part fo teh sogn written really well that will get ti stuck in everyone's head.

@ikfc-f5z 10 лет назад

chumbawamba tubthumping, achy breaky heart, I'm too sexy - 'right said Fred', hey macarena - these songs are stuck in my head lol

@sk8rdude148 10 лет назад

stairway to heaven i fucking love that song. long live jimmy page!

@hb6789 8 лет назад

I dont have any pop songs stuck in my head, but nyan cat got me.

@savannaobregon3823 9 лет назад

I love Led Zeppelins Stairway to heaven.

@Ganbakodon 7 лет назад

Savanna Obregon that song is still a classic song after soooo much time. lets see how iconic k perry's "I kissed a girl is in 30 years" haha

@jyotirmoychatterjee7421 2 года назад

We want a updated video on this topic.

@LennyKravitz101 10 лет назад

- Verse - Chorus - Verse - Chorus - Bridge - Chorus *Example*: "One Promise" by The Birthday Massacre OR - Verse - Lift - Chorus - Verse - Chorus - Bridge - Lift - Chorus *Example*: "Morphogenesis" by Scar Symmetry

@DronkGaming 10 лет назад

How to write your own pop song: 1) whine, bitch, and moan about your problems 2) Add a beat

@Sweeeetpeaches69 10 лет назад

It seems like pop isn't about the music and the meaning of said music, rather the industry is about getting rich and famous. I like rock because a lot of the bands don't care about the fame, they care more about putting their heart and soul into their music. Just my opinion.

@Siberius- 10 лет назад

I think some of the factors of a popular mainstream song are, mainly it has to be very catchy and get painfully stuck in your head which means it's going to be very repetitive.. it needs to have a very clear chorus it builds up to then the chorus is very loud and bassy and upbeat and happy (which might explain the reward system part of the song after the long build up of suspense, then that process will repeat afew times exactly the same pretty much through out the song.. and use simple easy lyrics and usually a shallow shitty meaning behind the song or try to capitalise on young teenagers problems trying making them relate to the song with a shitty message..

@MorganTaysha 10 лет назад

Yep, those deep emotional factor you mentioned at the end of the video include funding, radio time and advertising.

@acarboni 10 лет назад

Ha! Yeah- one of my favorite things the British researchers said about their algorithm was the comment about how it can't predict a marketing budget.

@n0etic_f0x 10 лет назад

I want something that generates that graph so I can know if i really do hate pop music because everyone keeps saying it is not possible because my rotating playlist will have 5 pop songs out of the 500 or so that are in it.

@gogiants123 10 лет назад

1:13 Dave Brubeck's Take Five like a boss! that song is in 5/4. It is so much fun to play.

@ravenstar8855 10 лет назад

Timber is stuck in my head ALL THE TIME I'm not even a big Kesha fan. So what is that pattern exactly?

@DrKillFeeDZ 10 лет назад

Everyone talking about these songs only being popular because of marketing are shamefully wrong. Most of the hit pop songs that stick in my mind (for example, one being Dynamite - Taio Cruz) I don't recall ANY kind of marketing or business or advertisement factors playing a role in the popularity of that song, other than the fact that it was played on the radio.. It played on the radio and people just liked it. And radio stations aim to play the best songs to simply gain success as a station. Taio Cruz in general was not a topic of conversation, there was no racy or controversial music video, there were no tv commercials about it no news stories or things like that. It grew in popularity simply from the people liking the lyrics and being able to sing along to it.

@Onnarashi 10 лет назад

Tip to writing the perfect hit: be Nordic! Max Martin is Swedish, as are several other "hit machines", and there are also many Norwegians writing for the big stars, like Stargate.

@Eclipsed_Archon 10 лет назад

Interesting theory... That must mean that the trick to owning an electronics company is being Japanese, by the same logic of course... Seems legit.

@TheDeathslaw 10 лет назад

AdamTomaszewski725 Allmost all the electronics companies are Japanese...

@jaggedsigns3O11 10 лет назад

For an odd reason I'm mad daft punk is the thumbnail... I mean I could go on a rant but they deserve much more credit than pop single of the year I believe is what they won at the grammies

@MissPurpur 10 лет назад

I always believed there's something significantly different about pop hits than the rest. They seem to attract the vast majority of people... who also happen to be shallow and superficial and ignorant. Maybe that graph explains why. These people don't need much in music to satisfy them. They don't need music that conveys deep emotions and more complicated tunes 'cause those are too difficult to twerk to. :/

@DrKillFeeDZ 10 лет назад

Your claim is a stupid one.

@MissPurpur 10 лет назад

You're not even gonna tell me why?

@MissPurpur 10 лет назад

And for the record, I'm not being entirely serious. I'm just a cynic.

@DrKillFeeDZ 10 лет назад

People who like pop songs are typically people who enjoy the song for its rhythm and what I call "it's ability to sing along to". People are not really looking for image or marketing or deep lyrics (necessarily, miley cyrus and justin bieber are exceptions). We like songs that are upbeat, have a catchy tune, and a relatively meaningful message. But constantly listening to songs for their lyrics, whether theyre slow songs or screamo songs, can be somewhat depressing. People like the songs because theyre usually cheerful and fun to sing along to.

@DrKillFeeDZ 10 лет назад

I'm also very cynical, but I just simply understand why people like pop songs.

@MrJamesl83 10 лет назад

How do you deal with earworms, those songs that are that catchy such as the hampster dance you can't get out your head when you heard it.

@yellowpsychopath 9 лет назад

Still, 1980s's dance ftw!

@Major.Tom.1973 10 лет назад

"Nightcore" is an interesting musical formula / algorithm these days. Not my taste, but interesting. In the old days there was the "Stock, Aitken & Waterman" formula, which was why all of Rick Astley's and Kylie Minogue's songs all sounded the same.

@ShawnRavenfire 10 лет назад

I think Jon Lajoie already spelled it out for us.

@anisfadeli8257 9 лет назад

Not a pop song. But it's really good and has been on my mind for the past week. SycAmour - Downpour

@davejacob5208 10 лет назад

that first pattern didn´t show me anything new. WOW! most pop songs include the refrain three times! before the first one it takes some time. and the last one appears almost directly before the song ends. as if i didn´t found out about that by myself...

@MrPaolo101 4 года назад

Its fascinating stuff for sure... Id be interested in knowing how john mayers New Light would come out. Thats pop gold right there.

@sonic12ful1 8 лет назад

the secret to ingredient to a hot song is the people

@AlexisDimes 8 лет назад

sonic12ful1 you need a good memorable song to get people

@zebykhan 10 лет назад

Your T Shirt is super awesome. Where did you get that ?

@Hunterdanne 10 лет назад

you made me search on Stairway to heaven for the 200th time now :) I love that song :D

@noahreins1 10 лет назад

I cannot for the life of me get Timber out of my head

@ifthebeltiscrackedor 6 лет назад

Where is my brainactivity blooming on that scanner when Katy is swinging by???

@nixraven1077 10 лет назад

badman from B.A.P. I can listen to that song ALL day :D

@bitflux2 10 лет назад

im with you with the max martin idea!

@8happyperson 10 лет назад

yeah I've heard of this formula thing before & if artist really resort to these types of things to make their songs popular it'd be really sad because it would take the soul out of music but I can't say that I don't like pop because I do :)