Highly Recommend This Book

[ravisoni]

The book: The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory, by John Seabrook
(Quick little fact: if you're an amazon prime or kindle unlimited member, this book is free to read).

I don't usually do a lot of recommendations, but I stayed up the whole night just marveling at the historical perspective on stars, songwriting, record making, song selection, collaboration and much more, all told through real stories of the stars we all know. More than an argument for what's better or worse, this book simply presents the status quo, and I appreciate it that much more for that. For those here who work in the industry, most of this may not be news, but to dabbling hobbyists like myself, this is some cool insight. Besides, at each point, it allowed me to think about "what the heck was I doing while Kelly Clarkson was arguing whether a track should be included on her album or not?" and it gets extra points for that. Here's a couple excerpts that blew me away (efficiency in process permeates even the music industry, although I was just naive to assume otherwise -- and now, I also understand what Props were thinking with Allihoopa)!

"For one thing, track-and-hook is more conducive to factory-style song production. Producers can create batches of tracks all at one time, and then e-mail the MP3s around to different topliners. It is common practice for a producer to send the same track to multiple topliners—in extreme cases, as many as fifty—and choose the best melody from among the submissions. Track-and-hook also allows for specialization, which makes songwriting more of an assembly-line process. Different parts of the song can be farmed out to different specialists—verse writers, hook smiths, bridge makers, lyricists—which is another precedent established by Cheiron. It’s more like writing a TV show than writing a song. A single melody is often the work of multiple writers, who add on bits as the song develops."
(pp. 200-201).

Or

"Def Jam offered Fenty a record contract on the spot. The offer was an intuitive, gut-based decision, rather than a data-driven one, but it had a certain logic to it. A pressure-cooker situation allows labels to leverage their enormous power, bargaining that the artist’s ambition and desire for stardom will work against their best interests. The artist takes the bird in hand even though it is a decoy that conceals a snare, denying themselves the leverage that other offers would provide."

(p. 184)

I truly think it's a fantastic read and one you won't regret.

[Gorgon]

Also read "The Manual" by the Timelords. Priceless.