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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.

#51

Post by camus2 »

matwood wrote: post #29
zaidf wrote: 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

Little people know that Rick Rubin is someone who helped make hip hop popular , I have an old video of him jamming on a TR909 with Afrika Bambaataa back in the early 80s. Without him , hip hop would not have been what it was. Funny as he is mostly known for his (successfull) Metal productions. But he is the "white guy" that defined hip hop sound. The crap we hear today is not hip hop, i dont know what it is frankly...

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

#52

Post by eaurouge »

On HN of all places we should value the creative process. I think we should do so even when we don't agree with the content, as long as there are no ethical/legal issues. The title is plain silly, of course. There are many other talented songwriters and producers out there - Babyface is one, I'm sure there are others.

Songwriters and producers don't get their due though (unless they also sing). Back in the day, I used to read CD liner notes to get to know the producers behind the songs I liked. But I always paid more attention to producers than songwriters: for some songs it's hard to know which one out of the five listed songwriters was the real creative force; songs with samples will often have lots of unrecognizable names; and I've always valued producers as being more critical to a song's success than songwriters.

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

#53

Post by MichaelGG »

joelrunyon wrote: post #26
romanovcode wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

If they're buying for the brand, then perhaps. The headphones are objectively worse than other models in the same price range. I'd guess that most buyers are not aware of this and just think it's cool or it must be good because it's higher priced.

It's brilliant marketing, sure. But it's like taking a $2 bottle of wine, rebranding it, and saying it's worth the value at $19.

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

#55

Post by stephen »

tedks wrote: post #17
joelrunyon wrote: post #14

I don't understand all the hate. Okay I get we don't have a lot of backstreet boy or Britney fans here (not one either) & I get the whole "pop music sounds the same lament, but at the same time, there's a market for it & he's excelled at creating something that sells that. Just because it's pop music doesn't mean you can't give the guy credit for understanding his market & dominating his field.

>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…

> should we think people who make pop music are doing a good thing?

...and the tech industry is any better? We're mostly driven by advertising and consumer software/electronics. (Yes, exceptions exist, but they aren't the rule).

Out of curiosity, what industry do you work in?

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

#57

Post by glesica »

tedks wrote: post #17
joelrunyon wrote: post #14

I don't understand all the hate. Okay I get we don't have a lot of backstreet boy or Britney fans here (not one either) & I get the whole "pop music sounds the same lament, but at the same time, there's a market for it & he's excelled at creating something that sells that. Just because it's pop music doesn't mean you can't give the guy credit for understanding his market & dominating his field.

>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…

Should we think 90% of the stuff produced by HN readers on a daily basis (I mean the software we write, not our comments, hehe) are good things?

Is Facebook a good thing? It just lets people stay in contact with one another, they could already do that with a phone, Facebook just makes it a little more pleasant.

Is Snapchat a good thing? It, well, I don't even know what it does, but it takes pictures and lets you share them with people or something, right? Is that really any more valuable to society than pop music?

I'm not saying Facebook and Snapchat are bad, just that they aren't really any better or worse than something like pop music. The idea is to make people a little happier, or let them do something that makes them happier. Get off your high horse. Bringing people joy or making their lives a little more bearable is just that, nothing more, nothing less.

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

#58

Post by joe_the_user »

eaurouge wrote: post #52

On HN of all places we should value the creative process. I think we should do so even when we don't agree with the content, as long as there are no ethical/legal issues. The title is plain silly, of course. There are many other talented songwriters and producers out there - Babyface is one, I'm sure there are others. Songwriters and producers don't get their due though (unless they also sing). Back in the day, I use…

On HN of all places we should value the creative process. I think we should do so even when we don't agree with the content, as long as there are no ethical/legal issues.

Well, the article like argument that the process going is less creative than it seems. I suspect hackers would love if software could 5% of pop songs. If a person with a formula writes 5% of pop songs, somehow it appeals less and seems less creative. I agree though articulating exactly why might be hard.

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

#59

Post by pavpanchekha »

Many of us on Hacker News dislike pop music. And there are good reasons to do so, but its popularity alone should not be one. I like to remind myself some of the greatest music in the world was once pop music. For example, J. S. Bach used to perform at the Café Zimmerman in Leipzig[1]. Could you imagine going into a coffeehouse and listening to Bach playing a Teleman concerto? Or a flute concerto of his own?

Now, I'm not saying that the Backstreet Boys have the musical genius of Bach. But neither should you discard their music because it is popular and overplayed. Would the world be better off had they never sung?

"The [Café Zimmerman] was destroyed during an air raid on Leipzig in December 1943." [1] I would have loved to stand inside it.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Café_Zimmermann

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

#60

Post by rjtavares »

camus2 wrote: post #51
matwood wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Little people know that Rick Rubin is someone who helped make hip hop popular , I have an old video of him jamming on a TR909 with Afrika Bambaataa back in the early 80s. Without him , hip hop would not have been what it was. Funny as he is mostly known for his (successfull) Metal productions. But he is the "white guy" that defined hip hop sound. The crap we hear today is not hip hop, i dont know what it is frankly..…

I'd say most hiphop fans know Rick Rubin. In fact, he co-produced the lastest Kanye and Eminem albums...
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