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One Man Has Written Virtually Every Major Pop Song Of The Last 20 Years.

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Re: One Man Has Written Virtually Every Major Pop Song Of The Last 20 Years.

#21
post #10

Does anyone know what's the equivelent in rap? Can I assume most mainstream rappers(Kanye, Wiz, 50 Cent etc.) heavily contribute to their own lyrics? I'm particularly curious about Eminem.

Eminem's style and lyrics are all mostly personal. You can tell from how his lyrics mirror his lifestyle that much of it is written personally. On the flip side, Dr Dre is known to have his lyrics ghostwritten & is primarily known for his production skills.

> primarily known for his production skills

I think nowadays he's more know for his overpriced headphones tho.

Re: One Man Has Written Virtually Every Major Pop Song Of The Last 20 Years.

#22

Interesting to see similarities in musical preferences & identifying common threads that lead to popularity. This video / song [1] was viral a few years ago because it demonstrated the similarities between major popular songs spanning multiple decades through the use of just four chords.. [1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I

That axis of awesome video reminds me of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM by Rob Paravonian.

Also, the article reminds me of a parody video about the prolific nature of Bob Dylan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MumScDIZMJc

Re: One Man Has Written Virtually Every Major Pop Song Of The Last 20 Years.

#23
post #18
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>there's a market for it & he's excelled at creating something that sells that. There's also a market for black tar heroin, nuclear missiles, drones, slaves, and so on. >Just because it's pop music doesn't mean you can't give the guy credit for understanding his market & dominating his field. Is pop music a good thing for the world? (It obviously isn't as bad as any of the things I listed above to avoid claims of hyp…

Are you seriously comparing pop music to heroin and slaves???

Yup... I think he is... Haha! :/

Re: One Man Has Written Virtually Every Major Pop Song Of The Last 20 Years.

#24

Reminds me of the Monkees. In the early days, the studio hired the best songwriters to write the tunes for them. After a while, the Monkees rebelled and insisted they could write their own songs. And the Monkees pretty much ceased to exist. Pretty much the same story for David Cassidy.

Didn't Neil Diamond write several of their hits?

Re: One Man Has Written Virtually Every Major Pop Song Of The Last 20 Years.

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eminem's style and lyrics are all mostly personal. You can tell from how his lyrics mirror his lifestyle that much of it is written personally. On the flip side, Dr Dre is known to have his lyrics ghostwritten & is primarily known for his production skills.

> primarily known for his production skills I think nowadays he's more know for his overpriced headphones tho.

Also another product that recognized / created a market & built a product that seems acceptably priced to those who bought it.

They might be overpriced to you, but to the thousands of people who've bought them, they seem worth the value.

Re: One Man Has Written Virtually Every Major Pop Song Of The Last 20 Years.

#28

I wonder why people find this surprising. This is how pop music has always been done and it even used to be more in the open. Bands/singers didn't have to get people to (ghost)write songs/lyrics for them - they used to just be performers. Many of the important names are on this list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductees_of_the_Songwriters_Ha... and a really obvious example is a guy like Paul Williams http://en.wiki…

Sort of a real life example of the 80/20 principle as it relates to the entertainment industry.

Re: One Man Has Written Virtually Every Major Pop Song Of The Last 20 Years.

#29
post #10

Does anyone know what's the equivelent in rap? Can I assume most mainstream rappers(Kanye, Wiz, 50 Cent etc.) heavily contribute to their own lyrics? I'm particularly curious about Eminem.

Not a song writer, but Rick Rubin has been the producer of many of the largest musicians for years.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rubin

Re: One Man Has Written Virtually Every Major Pop Song Of The Last 20 Years.

#30

What I think is interesting is what it may mean for both web and mobile apps. Is there a particular holy grail magical formula for mobile and web apps that produces more hits than losers?

> Is there a particular holy grail magical formula for mobile and web apps that produces more hits than losers?

Easy,make something really usefull that solves a real problem and people will pay for it... Unlike Pop music there is no formula,but knowing the right people helps I guess.

Pop music today is about using the same recipes that have been used for 30 years+ ,and i'm including "rap" in it, remember when rap was about something else than Btches and Bttles ? no? me neither...

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