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> But it is extraordinarily difficult to have such a mastery of composition and understanding of what music is already familiar to people The problem with this

by lhorie 6y ago

> But it is extraordinarily difficult to have such a mastery of composition and understanding of what music is already familiar to people The problem with this argument IMHO is that if it were true, one would in fact be able to just bang out hits by developing such mastery. But music hits get popular primarily on the basis of luck, survivor bias, branding, etc, not strictly based on artists' composition skills. There are plenty of very talented one-hit wonders, and even criticisms that popular music is "manufactured" (implying that it is relatively easy to just follow some vague formula of 4/4, II-V-I chord progressions and lyrics about love and end up with something that resembles a hit).

oriolid 6y ago
> if it were true, one would in fact be able to just bang out hits by developing such mastery. Isn't this exactly what Max Martin has been doing for last 20 years?
- lhorie 6y ago
  I mean, it's certainly possible that he is one of a select handful of people that has mastered a skill that almost no one else in history has been able to. But given how many musicians and producers exist and how utterly small is the percentage of people who are comparable to Max Martin, I think it's reasonable to speculate that his success might be partially/majorly attributed to factors of luck/survivorship bias/branding/popular-music-as-a-mass-produced-product I mentioned.
  - zimpenfish 6y ago
    There's also a certain amount of positive feedback, I suspect - once you've had one hit, people will want you to write for them and, because it probably sounds hit-like (which stands to reason since your style has already been a hit), it'll stand a good chance of also being a hit which means more people will want you to write for them and rinse, repeat, cash cheques for 20 years, etc.
moron4hire 6y ago
Uuuuh, that's exactly how the music industry works. I think you might be surprised to learn how many hit pop songs were written by a very small community of artists, completely separate from the ever changing faces that perform them.

by lhorie 6y ago

oriolid 6y ago

> if it were true, one would in fact be able to just bang out hits by developing such mastery. Isn't this exactly what Max Martin has been doing for last 20 years?

lhorie 6y ago
I mean, it's certainly possible that he is one of a select handful of people that has mastered a skill that almost no one else in history has been able to. But given how many musicians and producers exist and how utterly small is the percentage of people who are comparable to Max Martin, I think it's reasonable to speculate that his success might be partially/majorly attributed to factors of luck/survivorship bias/branding/popular-music-as-a-mass-produced-product I mentioned.
- zimpenfish 6y ago
  There's also a certain amount of positive feedback, I suspect - once you've had one hit, people will want you to write for them and, because it probably sounds hit-like (which stands to reason since your style has already been a hit), it'll stand a good chance of also being a hit which means more people will want you to write for them and rinse, repeat, cash cheques for 20 years, etc.

moron4hire 6y ago

Uuuuh, that's exactly how the music industry works. I think you might be surprised to learn how many hit pop songs were written by a very small community of artists, completely separate from the ever changing faces that perform them.