One thing you might be subconsciously catching on to is that Max Martin is committed to "balanced lines" when it comes to vocals. It's obious in "Hit Me Baby On

One thing you might be subconsciously catching on to is that Max Martin is committed to "balanced lines" when it comes to vocals. It's obious in "Hit Me Baby One More Time" by Britney Spears and his fingerprints on "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry. Here's a great review and comment piece featuring 30 songs by Max Martin, in order to better study the guy's techniques which seem to work so well: http://www.stereogum.com/1788251/30-essential-max-martin-songs/franchises/ultimate-playlist/ http://www.stereogum.com/1788251/30-essential-max-martin-son... Also, I forgot to mention that the weird thing about music is that it follows trends just long enough to want a new one. Thus, whatever formula might win out for a period of time would likely be usurped by a variation or counter-intuitive trend. A funny thought in this line is that a hit-making, successful "Hair Metal Pop" AI would be going great until the "Grunge Rock Pop" AI started getting traction. Humans are fickle!