Songwriting
How a song is built. Chords, form, the middle eight, the hook, topline writing, the writing camp, the Swedish producers behind an improbable share of the charts, credit disputes, and the interviews where someone explains what a song is actually about.
Part of Pop
29 moments in this segment.
- - Mary Hopkin sings Those Were The Days on The Ed Sullivan Show. The first Apple Records hit, produced by Paul McCartney, performed on American television.
- - Dalida breaks down remembering Luigi Tenco on French television. Pierre Tchernia revisits Dalida's career on ORTF and she collapses in tears at archive of Luigi Tenco, who died the previous year.
- - "While Daddy's at the War" patriotic song. Patriotic song written and composed by V. M. Hansen and arranged by Percy Flynn in 1917. Archives New Zealand Reference: PC4/960 Photographed/dated 2008.
- - The anatomy of Taylor Swift's Style. Vox breaks down the musical and visual construction of the record that completed Swift's move from country to pop.
- - Metro Boomin, Zaytoven and Sonny Digital on the sound of the South. Joint Red Bull Music Academy lecture with three Atlanta beatmakers on how the city's production style was built.
- - Kanye West and the human voice as instrument. Vox deconstructs how pitch-shifted and processed vocals became the structural core of West's records.
- - Susan Rogers on engineering Prince. Prince's staff engineer, later a Berklee professor, on recording Purple Rain and the working method behind his records.
- - The disappearance of the fade-out. Vox on why the fade-out ending, once standard in record production, has vanished from the modern hit.
- - Charlie Puth Breaks Down 'Attention'. Rolling Stone films the writer-producer at the keyboard explaining how he built the arrangement and hook of his Top 5 single.
- - Nile Rodgers on Chic, Bowie and producing hits. Three-hour Red Bull Music Academy lecture on forming Chic and producing Diana Ross, Bowie, Duran Duran and Madonna.
- - Why K-Pop Is Musically More Complex Than You Think. PBS Sound Field analyses the genre-splicing structure, key changes and rhythmic layering typical of K-pop arrangements.
- - FINNEAS on how he builds songs for Billie Eilish. Pitchfork sits with the producer as he pulls apart his own sessions and explains the sound choices behind the hits.
- - Pop, As Digested by a Classical Musician. Nahre Sol dissects pop song intros and structural conventions from a conservatory-trained perspective, with Andrew Huang.
- - Tainy Builds a Reggaeton Track. Pitchfork session in which the producer behind Bad Bunny and J Balvin records deconstructs how he constructs a reggaeton record in the DAW.
- - The most elegant key change in pop music. Adam Neely analyses a pop modulation in depth, covering voice leading and why key changes are used the way they are in commercial songwriting.
- - Mark Ronson breaks down Back to Black. Ronson plays the never-before-heard original demo of the Amy Winehouse song and traces it through to the Dap-Kings sessions.
- - The Ed Sheeran and Marvin Gaye copyright verdict. Rick Beato on the trial over 'Thinking Out Loud' and 'Let's Get It On', and what a jury deciding on chord progressions means for songwriters.
- - Autoclavebeats - Music Producer. /dated 2023.
- - Autoclavebeats (Nigerian Music Producer). Autoclavebeats - Music Producer Photographed/dated 2023.
- - How the Beatles used the middle eight. Analysis of the Beatles' bridge writing and how the middle eight functions inside pop song form.
- - Timbaland and Metro Boomin on making hits. Rolling Stone's Musicians on Musicians pairs two producers a generation apart on the difference between a hit and a classic.
- - Susan Rogers on Music and the Brain. The Berklee professor and former Prince engineer presents research from the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory on how listeners process records.
- - What Happened to the Bridge in Pop Songs. Analysis of the disappearing middle eight in charting pop and the streaming-era pressure toward shorter song forms.
- - How Rhythm Guides the Brain. Berklee Online lesson from Susan Rogers' Music and Neuroscience course on how the brain entrains to musical rhythm.
- - The Seven Dimensions of Musical Pleasure. Berklee Online lesson in which Susan Rogers sets out the dimensions along which listeners' musical taste and pleasure vary.
- - Ryan Tedder on How Pop Hits Get Written. OneRepublic's frontman and hit-for-hire songwriter walks Rick Beato through the writing process behind credits for Beyonce, Adele and others.
- - How top songwriters craft a pop song. TED-Ed's Think Like A Musician has working songwriters explain hook construction and what separates a great pop song.
- - Mike Elizondo: The Writer Behind the Hits. The producer and songwriter behind Dr. Dre and Eminem records describes the session-player-to-hitmaker career path and how uncredited craft underpins chart pop.
- - Why modern pop all sounds the same. Rick Beato examines the melodic pattern Carl E. Martin calls the Gen Alpha Melody and traces its origin and theory.
