FINAL DRAFT 4/25/23 Copy of Thesis Final: Melodies, Music, and Mentorship: The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden, America, and Beyond

Wesleyan University The Honors College

Melodies, Music, and Mentorship: The Legacy of Max

Martin in Sweden, America, and Beyond

Lucas Larson

Class of 2023

A thesis submitted to the

faculty of Wesleyan University

in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements for the

Degree of Bachelor of Arts

with Departmental Honors in Music

Middletown, Connecticut January, 2023

Contents

Acknowledgements iii

List of Figures v

Introduction 1

Sweden as a Global Pop Music Capital 4

Who Is Karl Martin Sandberg? 7

Literature Review 9

Key Terms and Concepts 16

Structure 18

Chapter One: A Short History of the Swedish Music Industry 21

From Folk to Pop 22

Pop Radio and TV 31

School of Pop 37

Eurovision and the ABBA Effect 45

Denniz Pop and the Cheiron Sound 51

Making Connections 67

Chapter Two: Defining Max Martin 71

Melody-first 73

Melodic Math 79

Simplicity and Immediacy 86

Collaboration Is Critical 90

The Voice as an Instrument 94

The Legacy of “...Baby One More Time” 100

Chapter Three: The Many Phases of Max Martin 107

Phase One: Pop-rock; Dr. Luke 109

Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” 111

Phase Two: Dance-pop; Benny Blanco, Cirkut, and Bonnie McKee 121

Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” 125

Phase Three: “Musician-driven”; Shellback 136

Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” 140

A Summary of Max Martin’s Impact (2004-2014) 150

Conclusion 155

Appendix A: Max Martin’s Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten Hits 165

Appendix B: “...Baby One More Time” Lyrics 171

Appendix C: “Since U Been Gone” Lyrics 173

Appendix D: “Teenage Dream” Lyrics 175

Appendix E: “Blank Space” Lyrics 177

Glossary 181

Songs Cited 183

Bibliography 185

Acknowledgements

This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and support

of so many people. First and foremost, I must thank my advisor, Su Zheng, for her

tireless commitment, encouragement, and enthusiasm throughout this project. It

has been a pleasure and a privilege learning from you and hopefully teaching you

a few things along the way. I must also extend a thank you to the professors I have

been fortunate enough to study with during my two short but formative years at

Wesleyan and the many teachers who have come before.

To my dear friends––Ernest, Bea, Irene, and Lily––thank you for asking

questions and for listening to lengthy answers, and more importantly, for

friendship. I cannot imagine my life without you. A special thanks to Tristan for

your excitement.

To my housemates—Sophie, Emmet, Guy, and Molly—and my “extended

housemates” Becca, Adina, Anna, and Stevie, thank you for making Wesleyan

feel like home.

To my family––mom, dad, Paloma, Declan, and Aurelia––and Anya and

Mike, thank you for your unconditional love. Mom, in particular, this thesis

would not exist without the endless time and energy you so graciously provided.

You are our rock. I love you.

Finally, thank you to the creatives—songwriters, producers, artists, and

more—who write the songs that are the soundtrack to my life and so many others.

In the words of ABBA, “Thank you for the music.”

iii

List of Figures

Fig. 0.1: Max Martin in Los Angeles, 2016.............................................................2

Fig. 1.1: Cheiron Studios in Stockholm.................................................................54

Fig. 1.2: Max Martin and Denniz Pop during an interview, 1995.........................66

Fig. 2.1: “...Baby One More Time” verse fragment...............................................81

Fig. 2.2: “...Baby One More Time” pre-chorus.....................................................81

Fig. 2.3: “...Baby One More Time” b-chorus........................................................83

Fig. 2.4: “...Baby One More Time” chorus............................................................83

Fig. 2.5: “...Baby One More Time” chorus and b-chorus in counterpoint.............84

Fig. 2.6: Britney Spears in the music video for “...Baby One More Time,”

1998......................................................................................................................102

Fig. 2.7: Max Martin and Britney Spears, 1998..................................................105

Fig. 3.1: Opening phrases of “Maps” and “Since U Been Gone”........................114

Fig. 3.2: “Maps” descending chorus melody and “Since U Been Gone” verse

fragment...............................................................................................................114

Fig. 3.3: Katy Perry and Max Martin at the 2012 ASCAP Pop Music

Awards.................................................................................................................134

Fig. 3.4: Max Martin, Shellback, and Taylor Swift circa the recording period of

1989......................................................................................................................147

Introduction

Melodies are like time capsules. Melodies define their time and are spread

from person to person, across borders and across generations. In the last

20 years, no composer in the world has written melodies as sustainable or

as widespread as those of Max Martin. Right now, at this very moment,

someone, somewhere in the world will be singing a hit song written and

produced by Max Martin. With his ear for song melodies, his musical

precision and craftsmanship, he has refined and developed the world’s

popular music.

—Max Martin 2016 Polar Music Prize

Announcement

The Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin has profoundly

impacted the direction of twenty-first-century pop music and pop songwriting.

Most people who do not closely follow popular music are likely unfamiliar with

the name Max Martin. However, his music is ubiquitous. For over two decades,

Martin’s songs have dominated record charts worldwide. Martin is widely

recognized as one of the most commercially successful writer-producers in

history. As a songwriter, he has written or co-written twenty-five number-one hits

on the United States Billboard Hot 100 record chart. Only John Lennon and Paul

McCartney have written more number-one hits. As a producer, he is tied with

George Martin (unrelated to Max), the producer of the Beatles, for the most

number-ones on the Hot 100 with twenty-three (see Appendix A for a full list of

Max Martin’s Billboard Hot 100 top ten hits). In 2019, Nielsen SoundScan

“Max Martin,” Polar Music Prize, 2016, https://www.polarmusicprize.org/laureates/max-martin/.

reported Max Martin’s single sales at over 135 million units.

Martin has won the

ASCAP Songwriter of the Year award a record ten times and is the recipient of

five Grammys.

Fig. 0.1: Max Martin in Los Angeles, 2016 (Photo by Axel Öberg)

Neil Shah, “The Swedish Hitmaker Behind Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and the Weeknd,” The

Wall Street Journal, December 2, 2021,

https://www.wsj.com/articles/max-martin-the-hitmaker-poised-to-become-the-biggest-pop-music-

producer-of-all-time-11638453600.

Fred Bronson, “THR’s Hitmakers 2013: How Producer Max Martin Sold 135 Million Songs,”

The Hollywood Reporter, February 6, 2013,

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/britney-spears-pink-how-max-418097/.

Despite Max Martin’s remarkable success, he has remained largely

anonymous, intentionally limiting public appearances and interviews and working

exclusively as a writer-producer rather than a performer. The voices behind

Martin’s songs are some of the biggest names in contemporary pop music,

including Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Kelly Clarkson, P!nk, Katy

Perry, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and The Weeknd. While Martin has had an

unusually prolific career, the reality is that many of the biggest hits of the

twenty-first century are created by Swedish writer-producers. Including those

mentioned above, artists such as Madonna, Lady Gaga, One Direction, Maroon 5,

Nicki Minaj, Justin Timberlake, Ed Sheeran, and Coldplay have collaborated with

Swedes. Like Max Martin, many of these Swedes keep a low profile and work

primarily or exclusively as writer-producers for hire.

This thesis explores the history, influence, and legacy of Max Martin, the

leading Swedish writer-producer and the most successful writer-producer of the

twenty-first century, measured by Billboard Hot 100 number-one hits. With roots

in both Sweden and the U.S., the latter of which is the center of the global pop

music industry, Martin is an exemplary case study of a Swedish writer-producer

who routinely writes and produces for American pop stars. I will examine Martin

both through the lens of commonly accepted explanations and theories for

Sweden’s musical success and my own interpretation of his songwriting and

production techniques. Some of the questions I ask include: How have different

socio-cultural influences in Sweden influenced Martin and the other Swedish

writer-producers I discuss in this thesis? Do these influences materialize in the

music they produce? What are the defining characteristics of Martin’s songs?

What musical and non-musical factors have contributed to Martin’s immense

global commercial success? What are the broader outcomes of Martin’s success

for Sweden specifically and the Swedish music industry’s relationship to the

American music industry? I intend to answer these questions to improve our

understanding of both Martin and the phenomenon that is Sweden’s songwriting

and production industry.

Sweden as a Global Pop Music Capital

Various assertions and statistics quantify Sweden’s profound impact on the

global pop music scene. By the end of the twentieth century, Sweden was the

third-highest exporter of music in the world.

According to a 2020 report by

Export Music Sweden, Sweden is one of only three countries (the other two being

the United States and the United Kingdom) that is a net exporter of music,

meaning that they export more music than they import.

Swedish musicians are

responsible for more number-one hits on the Hot 100 than any European country

besides the United Kingdom.

Sweden was also one of the earliest adopters of the

Rob Garratt, “From Avicii to Ace of Base: Why We Have Sweden to Thank for the Great

Music,” The National, August 6, 2019,

https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/music/from-avicii-to-ace-of-base-why-we-have-swe

den-to-thank-for-the-great-music-1.895309.

Will Page and David Safir, “ExMS Report – Sustaining Sweden’s Music Export Success,” Export

Music Sweden, 2020, https://report2020.exms.org/.

Boel Lindberg and Gunnar Olofsson, “From Combating to Supporting Pop Music. The Paradox

of Municipal Music Education in Sweden 1940 to 2000,” 2009,

http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vxu:diva-6688.

streaming model,

which has revolutionized the music industry and is home to

two of the largest streaming platforms in the world, Spotify and Soundcloud. On

Spotify, North America is the biggest consumer of Swedish music, including

songs written and produced by Swedes.

These outstanding achievements, among

others, have led media sources to use the term “Swedish music miracle” or

“Sweden’s music miracle” when discussing Sweden in the context of pop music.

As I will outline in this chapter, Sweden’s success in the global pop music

scene is due to various factors. The most obvious is the commercial success of

Swedish pop music. The pop supergroup ABBA is unquestionably the most

commercially successful and well-known Swedish act worldwide.

Other Swedish

acts, such as Europe, Roxette, Neneh Cherry, Ace of Base, Rednex, Robyn, and

The Cardigans, experienced international success post-ABBA during the

twentieth century. More recently, female performers, including Tove Lo, Icona

Pop, Zara Larsson, Lykke Li, and First Aid Kit, and the disc jockeys (DJs) Avicii,

Swedish House Mafia, and Alesso, have been popular worldwide. Notably, all of

these artists record and perform primarily or exclusively in English.

In addition to these performers, Sweden’s global success, especially in the

twenty-first century, is owed to the Swedish writer-producers behind primarily

American and British pop stars. The number of successful writer-producers is too

long to list fully, but some of the most prominent include Max Martin, Denniz

Pop, Shellback, Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk, Bloodshy & Avant, Alexander

“The Swedish Music Miracle,” sweden.se, April 29, 2022,

https://sweden.se/culture/arts-design/the-swedish-music-miracle.

Ibid.

Page and Safir, “ExMS Report – Sustaining Sweden’s Music Export Success.”

Kronlund, RedOne, Ali Payami, Ilya Salmanzadeh, Peter Svensson, Mattman &

Robin, Jörgen Elofsson, Andreas Carlsson, Kristian Lundin, Anders Bagge, Jake

Schulze, David Kreuger, Per Magnusson, Klas Åhlund, Oscar Holter, Oscar

Görres, Vincent Pontare, and Salem Al Fakir. Nearly all of these writer-producers

are connected in some way to the iconic Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, and these

writer-producers frequently collaborate on songs for a similar pool of recording

artists. Furthermore, many of them are connected to Max Martin as collaborators

or mentees. Sweden’s close-knit music industry and Max Martin’s mentorship of

many writer-producers will be of particular interest to this thesis.

The story of the Swedish writer-producer begins in Stockholm, the capital

of and the largest city in Sweden. Stockholm is the source of Sweden’s robust

economy and the center for Swedish music production.

Journalist Whet Moser

described Stockholm as “an agglomeration of talent, business infrastructure, and

competing firms all swirling around one industry, in one place. What Hollywood

is to movies, what Nashville is to country music, and what Silicon Valley is to

computing, Stockholm is to the production of pop.”

Economic geographers have

identified Stockholm as an “industrial cluster” because of its concentrated

network of musical talent (songwriters, producers, and performers) and related

industries (music publishing, video production, music schools, music venues, and

record labels).

Most Swedish writer-producers discussed in this thesis

established their careers in Stockholm, and many continue to work and

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 14.

Whet Moser, “Swedish Pop Mafia,” Pacific Standard, June 14, 2017,

https://psmag.com/social-justice/swedish-pop-mafia-music-world-influence-73966.

Ola Johansson, Songs from Sweden: Shaping Pop Culture in a Globalized Music Industry,

Geographies of Media (Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 81.

collaborate in Stockholm today. Stockholm’s small population (1.7 million

people)

means that many writer-producers who grew up in Stockholm knew

each other as children through school or connected through musical collaboration

and in spaces like nightclubs. Stockholm’s reputation as an “industrial cluster”

also attracts many non-Swedish writer-producers who travel to Stockholm to

develop their skills and network.

Historically, many American and other

international artists traveled to Stockholm to write and record with Swedish

writer-producers. These factors have created a highly conducive environment for

musical development, production, and collaboration, especially in combination

with music infrastructure and the other factors I will discuss in this chapter and

throughout this thesis. As we will see with Max Martin, Stockholm is the primary

setting for the formation of his musicality and career.

Who Is Karl Martin Sandberg?

Max Martin was born Karl Martin Sandberg in Stenhamra, just outside of

Stockholm, in 1971. His father was a police officer, and his mother was a teacher

and sang in a local choir. As a child, Martin’s parents played popular music acts

of the 1960s and 1970s at home, including Elton John, Queen, Creedence

Clearwater Revival, and The Beatles, and classical musicians such as Vivaldi and

Mozart.

Martin’s older brother was a glam rock fan and introduced Martin to the

John Seabrook, “Blank Space: What Kind of Genius Is Max Martin?,” The New Yorker,

September 30, 2015,

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 16.

“Stockholm, Sweden Metro Area Population 1950-2023,” Macrotrends, Accessed January 2,

2023, https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/22597/stockholm/population.

flamboyant American band Kiss, which influenced young Martin’s musical

preferences. Martin recalled his introduction to Kiss in a Billboard interview in

2017:

I remember my older brother coming home with a Swedish magazine

called Poster. Remember that one? It had posters you could unfold. They

were two-sided so you could take your pick. On one side, Kiss — the

iconic image with the band up on [the] Empire State Building. On the

other side of the poster, a weird band out in the woods, who called

themselves Led Zeppelin. To me, the choice couldn’t have been easier.

Kiss, this is my life! I’ve always chosen the most colorful, the one that

crackles the most. Zeppelin never made it up on my wall…. The thing that

was so great about Kiss was that they thought worldwide. Arenas, the

Alive! album, the attitude. The fact that they had such a grand scope was

so great.

The “worldwide appeal” and “larger than life” persona of Kiss inspired Martin to

become a rock star and write songs that everyone could sing.

He took music

lessons on the recorder, French horn, drums, and keyboard at municipal music

schools and attended high school in Stockholm during the 1980s. In the late

1980s, he dropped out of high school to front a Stockholm-based glam rock band

called It’s Alive, adopting the stage name Martin White. It’s Alive secured a

record deal with the Swedish label Cheiron Records (based in Stockholm) and

released their album Earthquake Visions in 1994 to disappointing sales.

John Seabrook, The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory, First edition. (New York: W. W.

Norton & Company, 2015), 65.

Jessie Ware and Lennie Ware, “S12 Ep 8: Max Martin,” Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie

Ware, Accessed January 2, 2023,

https://open.spotify.com/episode/33JzEO23fe10CFnb3qr6DY?si=be6b5344c48a4da3.

Colin Stutz, “Max Martin Talks Lessons From Prince, Trying to Stay Anonymous & How

Pharrell Nearly Ruined His Career in Rare Interview,” Billboard, February 28, 2017,

https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/max-martin-prince-anonymous-pharrell-career-interview-77

02298/.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/blank-space-what-kind-of-genius-is-max-m

artin.

Though It’s Alive never reached the commercial heights that Martin

imagined, their relationship with Cheiron presented Martin with a unique

opportunity. Denniz Pop, the founder of Cheiron Records and its affiliated

recording studio Cheiron Studios, recognized Martin’s talent for writing pop

melodies and encouraged him to write pop songs. Denniz, who rose to

international prominence in 1993 as the producer behind the Swedish group Ace

of Base, became a mentor to Martin and many other Swedish writer-producers

during the 1990s. Martin’s first credit as “Max Martin,” the name Denniz gave

him, was alongside Denniz on the 1995 European hit “Right Type of Mood” by

British musician and Cheiron collaborator Herbie Crichlow.

At the turn of the

century, Cheiron and its team of writer-producers were among the most

in-demand hitmakers in pop music, writing and producing hits for the teen pop

acts Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Britney Spears, Robyn, Westlife, and Boyzone.

In the following chapter, I will provide a more detailed history of Denniz and

Cheiron and their connection to Martin and other Swedish writer-producers.

Literature Review

Before I explicate the history of the Swedish music industry, its

relationship to the American music industry, and Martin’s position within these

two industries, I must first acknowledge the existing scholarship and other

writings on related topics. At present, there is an abundance of short articles from

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 67.

newspapers and magazines that describe the “Swedish music miracle” and explain

Sweden’s success in the global pop music scene. The BBC documentary Flat

Pack Pop: Sweden’s Music Miracle, the This Is Pop television series episode

“Stockholm Syndrome,” and several podcast episodes highlight the success of

acts like ABBA and Ace of Base, as well as Denniz and Martin. Many interviews

with major Swedish writer-producers can be found in print and online in the form

of audio and video recordings.

In spite of a healthy number of short-form materials, just one book, Ola

Johannson’s 2020 monograph Songs From Sweden: Shaping Pop Culture in a

Globalized Music Industry, covers the modern Swedish music industry and

Swedish writer-producers in depth. The 2015 book The Song Machine: Inside the

Hit Factory by John Seabrook spends a substantial amount of pages on Denniz

and Martin, and their impact on American pop music, but the book is also

concerned with many other writer-producers not directly connected to Sweden. As

the only two books I found with significant mention of Martin and other

contemporary Swedish writer-producers, Johannson’s and Seabrook’s works were

invaluable to my research and the development of this thesis. The remainder of

my research comes from periodicals, scholarly journal articles, documentary and

podcast episodes, and primary source materials, such as publicly available

interviews with Martin, his collaborators, and other Swedish writer-producers or

musicians. As no academic sources or books, including biographies, focus

primarily on Martin, I hope this thesis will offer a much-needed perspective on

one of pop’s most influential and overlooked composers.

Throughout this thesis, I refer to Ola Johannson’s seven theses, defined in

his monograph, that explain potential reasons for Sweden’s musical success.

These seven theses did not originate strictly from Johansson’s research, and many

of them have circulated for years, even decades, before the publication of his

monograph in 2020. Other sources, such as newspapers and magazines, offer

similar explanations for Sweden’s musical success, and elements of these theses

are often indirectly paraphrased by Swedish writer-producers in interviews. These

seven theses, as defined and labeled by Johansson, are paraphrased below and will

be expanded upon in the following chapters.

Ola Johansson’s Seven Theses

1, The Role Model Thesis

ABBA’s international breakthrough in 1974 and enduring popularity act as

a role model for other Swedish artists. ABBA’s music, performed and recorded

mainly in English with an emphasis on simplicity and catchiness, is also a

template for Swedish pop songwriting, prioritizing simple melodies that a global

audience can appreciate. The effect of role models in other disciplines supports

these claims. For example, the successes of the Swedish tennis player Björn Borg

and the Swedish skier Ingemar Stenmark in the 1970s and 1980s resulted in an

influx of successful Swedish athletes.

The primary criticism of the Role Model Thesis is that the time between ABBA’s debut and the

global success of another Swedish artist was over ten years. One potential explanation for this is

that the Swedish music industry was underdeveloped prior to ABBA, so a lag time was reasonable

as music infrastructure needed to be built.

2, The Early Adopter Thesis

Sweden has been noted as an early adopter of new technology and has

historically been receptive to global influences before many other European

countries. Sweden was one of the first European countries in the twentieth

century, aside from France, to embrace jazz. Several influential British bands,

including the Beatles and the Sex Pistols, made Sweden the first destination for

their first tours abroad. Contemporary Swedish pop music is considered “current”

and “unabashedly commercial.” In other industries, Sweden is similarly quick to

adopt trends. The major Swedish companies H&M and IKEA capitalize on

trending aesthetics to produce fashionable and utilitarian products.

3, The English Proficiency Thesis

Sweden is ranked the second highest English-fluent country in the world,

where English is not the official language (the first is the Netherlands). Most

Swedes are fluent in English and speak with ease, allowing Swedish-born singers

to compete with other English-speaking artists in the global music industry. While

other European countries like France have historically displayed linguistic purism,

Sweden has accepted the practical aspects of speaking English, and English is

taught widely in schools.

4, The Globalization Thesis

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Swedish music began to globalize

and gain international popularity. At this same time, the world economy

globalized, and an increased number of artists from around the world also found

global success. ABBA was an outlier in the globalization of Swedish music and

even experienced resistance from certain markets, including the U.S., during their

active years. The music television channel MTV, which rolled out globally

throughout the 1980s, was pivotal to globalizing the Swedish mediascape.

5, The Small Market Thesis

In order to grow in a small market like Sweden, where the number of

potential consumers is limited, a company, brand, or individual must look to an

international audience. The Swedish economy is dominated by companies that

acquired domestic success first and then expanded internationally. The most

internationally successful Swedish artists typically built a dedicated fanbase in

their home country before launching their careers globally. Sweden’s small

population can be advantageous to cultivating a tight fanbase, but it also means

artists can only play in Sweden so many times before it is necessary to pursue an

international audience for growth.

6, The Industrial Cluster Thesis

In his 1990 book The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Michael Porter

argues that an industrial cluster, in other words, a geographic concentration of

businesses, “promotes productivity, innovation, and new business.”

Geographers

at Uppsala University in Sweden found that both the music industry in Stockholm

and the music industry in Sweden are industrial clusters that foster innovation and

competition. Sweden’s small but developed music industry is a national cluster in

which many people know each other as partners and competitors. Many major

international labels have subsidiaries in Sweden, which grants domestic artists

Nolan Feeney, “Why Is Sweden So Good at Pop Music?,” The Atlantic, October 29, 2013.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2013/10/why-is-sweden-so-good-at-pop-music/

280945/.

increased opportunities for making connections and distributing music overseas.

These subsidiaries are relatively free to expand within Sweden, increasing

competition and potential profit.

7, The Governmental and Institutional Support Thesis

The Swedish government considers music an asset and invests in music

infrastructure to expand potential wealth and global recognition. Sweden has a

national publicly subsidized municipal music school program that is widely

accessible to children and affordable for families. In addition, other nonprofit

education associations make rehearsal space, musical equipment, workshops, and

performance opportunities available for adults. Government programs like the

Swedish Arts Council (Statens kulturråd) fund music projects, including

recording grants for artists.

Johansson’s seven theses offer a firm understanding of how various factors

have contributed to Sweden’s immense global success in music. Several

additional explanations, two of which Johansson discusses in his monograph,

support his theses. The first additional explanation Johansson proposes is that

Sweden’s broadband internet infrastructure and highly computer-literate

population are ideal for the virtual collaboration and digital production required in

contemporary pop.

The second additional explanation is related to the Role

Model Thesis. Johansson argues that reputation is a gatekeeper in the music

industry that determines “who gets to do what.”

Developing a reputation is

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 30.

“Why Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Britney Spears and More Turn to Sweden for Help,” ABC

News, August 13, 2020,

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-14/sweden-dominates-pop-music-could-australia-follow-its-

lead/12541620.

necessary to establish credibility, especially within the global music industry.

positive reputation, primarily based on past and recent commercial or critical

performance, increases opportunities for an artist, songwriter, or producer.

The

success of ABBA, Martin, and other Swedish musicians has created a positive

reputation for Sweden and Swedish music.

Another popular theory, derived from the Law of Jante or Jantelagen,

explains the Swedish writer-producer cluster’s behaviors, specifically their

relative anonymity and tendency to collaborate in partnerships and mentorships.

The Law of Jante is a fictional code of conduct created by the Danish-Norwegian

author Aksel Sandemose that describes a general Scandinavian social attitude of

humility, a lack of ego, and a minimization of individual success in favor of

collective success.

This social attitude is exhibited in the socialist and egalitarian

nature of Swedish policy, including universal healthcare and other benefits like

unemployment insurance, child daycare, and a publicly funded education system

at the college level. Both Ola Johansson and John Seabrook assert that the Law of

Jante explains why so many Swedish writer-producers choose to maintain a low

public profile and embrace a system of collaboration. American singer-songwriter

Ryan Tedder, who fronts the band OneRepublic and has written hits for Beyoncé,

Kelly Clarkson, and Adele, observed:

The American way of approaching songwriting is, ‘Nope, just me! I’m

gonna do it, watch me do it!’ Even a lot of my first hits were 100 per cent

[sic] me, because I came up under the school of [American songwriter]

Diane Warren. The Swedes are like, ‘Let’s put four or five writers in the

same room, chipping away at the same song, until it’s perfect. There’s

Ibid, 76-77.

Ibid, 30-31.

Ibid.

strength in numbers, which is why I think they’ve dominated the charts for

so long.

As I will explain, Martin’s collaborative songwriting methods, songwriting

partnerships, and mentorships have contributed significantly to his longevity in

the competitive music industry. Collaboration can also result in increased

productivity as writer-producers divide tasks, and skills are passed on and

exchanged in partnerships and mentorships.

Key Terms and Concepts

Now that I have summarized existing explanations and theories for the

development of Sweden’s music industry, I will define several key terms and

concepts foundational to this thesis, beginning with what is meant by “Swedish

pop music” or “Swedish pop.” Here, I borrow again from Johannson’s

monograph. Johannson states, “Swedish popular music is a hybrid with musical

influences that are mainly global, while the music is shaped locally.”

Local

influences include a musician’s experiences, the character of local music scenes,

and the cultural attributes of the place or places a musician inhabits.

In a song,

these local influences can translate musically to references to Swedish culture, a

melancholic or nostalgic tonality and minor key, a Swedish folk music style,

nature themes and imagery, or a Schlager music style with strong melodic

Ibid.

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 38.

Roisin O’Connor and Patrick Smith, “The Winners Take It All: How Scandipop Took over the

World,” The Independent, November 18, 2021,

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/scandipop-abba-max-martin-pop

-music-b1955141.html.

features.

Swedish pop does not need to include lyrics in Swedish, and

internationally successful Swedish pop often does not. Additionally, Swedish pop

tends to be “placeless” or “Americanized,” particularly in its sound, style, and

production.

Thus, Swedish pop is not always easy to distinguish, and the

parameters for defining “Swedish pop” are loose and up to interpretation.

In this thesis, the term Swedish pop denotes the involvement of at least

one Swedish musician, whether as a performer or writer-producer. The term

writer-producer is taken from Johansson’s monograph and refers to a musician

who is both a songwriter and a producer. The term producer describes a musician

responsible for determining a song’s sonic qualities, usually by coaching an artist

during a recording session and combining and editing vocal, instrumental, and

other musical elements in a digital audio workstation (DAW). Every Swedish

musician I discuss in this thesis is a songwriter and producer (excluding certain

performing artists), often taking on both roles in the song-making process, and

therefore making the term writer-producer highly appropriate.

The final terms I will define and distinguish between are “popular music”

and “pop”/“pop music.” Though often used interchangeably, these terms are not

necessarily the same and, in this thesis, are intended to represent two different but

generally overlapping concepts. Popular music is an umbrella term for various

music genres (pop, rock, R&B, hip-hop, country, dance, etc.) and commercially

successful songs that are popular with a wide range of audiences. Pop music, by

contrast, is a diverse genre and compositional tradition that typically involves

Ibid, 38.

Ibid, 37.

catchy, singable melodies and hooks, relatable lyrics, repeated chord progressions,

and verse-chorus or other familiar song structures.

Structure

This thesis is divided into five chapters, including this Introduction and the

Conclusion. In Chapter One, I outline key developments and figures in Sweden’s

music history that contributed to the modern Swedish music industry. These

developments and figures include the emergence of pop music as a genre,

Swedish globalization and modernization through radio and TV, municipal music

schools, Eurovision, ABBA, Denniz Pop, and Cheiron Studios. I discuss potential

impacts of each development on Martin and other Swedish writer-producers and

conclude the chapter by tying all of the developments to one of Johansson’s seven

theses.

Chapter Two and Chapter Three use a combination of narrative and

first-hand accounts and my own analysis of Martin’s music. I begin Chapter Two

by outlining what I deem to be Martin’s five essential songwriting characteristics:

Melody-first, Melodic Math, simplicity and immediacy, collaboration, and

vocal-oriented. Each of these characteristics is defined and fleshed out through a

musical analysis of the 1998 song “...Baby One More Time,” written by Martin,

produced by Martin and his protégé Rami Yacoub, and recorded by Britney

Spencer Kornhaber, “How Pop Music’s Teenage Dream Ended,” The Atlantic, September 1,

2020,

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2020/09/katy-perry-and-end-pop-smile-album/615757

Spears. Chapter Two concludes with a summary of the impact of “...Baby One

More Time” on pop music, popular culture, and Martin’s and Spears’ careers.

Chapter Three builds upon my analysis of Martin’s songwriting characteristics by

introducing three additional examples: “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson,

“Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry, and “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift. Critical to

this musical analysis is the contextualization of these songs and Martin’s career

alongside his expanding network of collaborators and the developing American

music industry.

The division of Martin’s and his collaborators’ contributions can be

difficult, if impossible, to distinguish, especially when several co-writers are

present. There is a famous adage in the music industry, “change a word, get a

third,” that implies that changing a “word,” or a single lyric, can get an artist or

“co-writer,” who, in reality, did not contribute much to the composition, a third of

the royalty payment. Fortunately, many individual contributions to these songs

that are not obvious have been defined explicitly in interviews and other

commentaries. Because much or, in some cases, all of the instrumentation in the

songs under consideration is electronically programmed, transcripts containing all

musical notation are unavailable. I performed all score-based analyses using sheet

music purchased from Musicnotes, a website that provides relatively accurate

albeit incomplete transcripts. I also consulted the four songs in three forms––the

officially released version and “unofficial” acapella and instrumental edits created

by YouTube users––so that I could study intricate production nuances and backing

vocals separate from the busier final versions. Using a musical and historical

framework, I evaluate Martin’s impact on the Swedish and American music

industries through the commercial, critical, and compositional success of his

music, the vastness of his mentorship, and the dissemination of his songwriting

techniques.

Chapter One: A Short History of the Swedish

Music Industry

To fully understand Sweden’s present position in the global pop music

industry and the socio-cultural factors that have influenced Swedish

writer-producers requires an examination of Sweden’s music history. From the

end of the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, Sweden, like many

nations, underwent a period of modernization largely due to increased travel and

the development of new technologies. A previously rural society, Sweden

transformed into an industrial cluster as hundreds of thousands of people migrated

to city centers and started businesses.

In addition, millions of people emigrated

to the U.S. and other countries where they exchanged goods and ideas.

This

mass emigration continued significantly during the second half of the twentieth

century in different and comparatively accelerated ways. Naturally, music and its

production methods changed due to globalization and the commercialization of

the music industry shortly after. Swedish music, that is, music written, produced,

or performed by Swedes, became a form of economic commerce whose value

would only increase by the end of the twentieth century.

Though Sweden’s presence as a global pop music capital was not firmly

established until the 1970s with ABBA, its trajectory was premeditated by

Ibid.

“History of Sweden,” sweden.se, November 15, 2022,

https://sweden.se/culture/history/history-of-sweden.

decades-long investment in music infrastructure. Infrastructure, defined in this

thesis as adequate government arts funding, targeted radio and television

programming, municipal music schools, and broadband internet access granted

the Swedish music industry tangible resources which, when combined with the

cultural customs and social behaviors discussed in the Introduction and

throughout this chapter, allowed for substantial growth to occur. In this chapter, I

will trace the development of musical society in Sweden and the development of

the “modern” Swedish music industry from the beginning of the nineteenth

century to the end of the twentieth century. This period, and the resulting

developments, have not only shaped the Swedish music industry today but

influenced the writer-producers who were raised and continue to operate within or

close to Sweden.

From Folk to Pop

The beginning of popular music in Sweden can be traced most directly to

Swedish folk music in the nineteenth century. Swedish folk music was recognized

as a genre and point of study by academic scholars during the early nineteenth

century, first appearing in print as folkvisa (folk song) in 1804 and folkmusik (folk

music) in 1823.

Before this and the formal establishment of folk music

communities, music was often a solitary experience with a utilitarian purpose.

Owe Ronström, Krister Malm, and Dan Lundberg,“Concerts and Festivals: Public Performances

of Folk Music in Sweden,” The World of Music 43, no. 2/3 (2001): 50,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/41699365.

Early Swedish music is defined by ballads and kulning, or herding calls, typically

sung by women to lure livestock down from the hills where they grazed.

Kulning melodies sit within the head voice (the higher, often airier range of the

voice) and include half-tones (also called a semitone; the interval between a white

key and its neighboring black key on a piano keyboard) and quarter-tones (half of

a semitone).

These narrow intervals, commonly found in traditional

Scandinavian music and American jazz, give the melody a haunting, melancholic

quality which some listeners suggest is influenced by the long, dark winters

Scandinavia is known for (for example, the far north of Sweden can experience

total darkness in January).

Sweden, which to this day has a small population

relative to its area (approximately 10.5 million people across 204,035 mi²

compared to California’s approximately 39 million people across 163,696 mi²),

was even more sparsely populated centuries ago (approximately 2.4 million in

1804, the “beginning” of Swedish folk music),

meaning people were physically

separated and operated alone or in small groups.

Public performances of Swedish folk music emerged in Swedish city

centers when folk music gained critical recognition in the mid-1800s. As such,

they tended to skew toward the tastes of the bourgeoisie and featured young

“Population Statistics,” Statistics Sweden, Accessed January 3, 2023,

https://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subject-area/population/population-compositi

on/population-statistics/; “U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: California,” Census Bureau, Accessed

January 3, 2023, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/CA.

Malcolm Jack, “Why Sweden Is Top When It Comes to Pop,” The Big Issue, March 11, 2022,

https://www.bigissue.com/culture/music/why-sweden-is-top-when-it-comes-to-pop/; “Time and

Daylight in Sweden,” Visit Sweden, December 22, 2022,

https://visitsweden.com/about-sweden/time-and-daylight-hours/.

Ibid.

Lara Anderson, “Evolution of Swedish Folk Music,” Swedish Press, August 1, 2016,

https://swedishpress.com/evolution-of-swedish-folk-music/.

working-class professionals or spelmän (folk musicians) performing in

newly-established concert halls.

The primary instruments used by these

musicians were the nyckelharpa and the fiddle, string instruments that became

widespread in the early seventeenth century and are emblematic of Swedish folk

music tradition. Bourgeoisie audiences typically were unaware of the history of

folk music, and so the performances also became a way of educating the public

and preserving tradition.

Simultaneously, folk music, in its newly communal

atmosphere, instilled a sense of patriotism and pride within urban audiences.

Perhaps the best example of this is when “Du gamla, du fria” (“Thou ancient,

Thou Free”), a folk song based on a traditional ballad with original lyrics by

Swedish lyricist Richard Dybeck, was unofficially adopted as the Swedish

national anthem in 1866.

Urban audiences played an integral role in the

evolution of folk music, and its assimilation into the mainstream, similar to the

role Stockholm and other urban settings would have in the development of pop

music several decades later.

With its growing popularity among the educated upper-class, folk music

was formally acknowledged as a significant part of Swedish cultural heritage. The

Götiska Förbundet, or the Geatish Society, formed in 1811, institutionalized folk

music. Members of the society studied and archived traditional literature and

music.

Though it was impermanent, dissolving in 1844 after a decade of

Anderson, “Evolution of Swedish Folk Music.”

Ibid.

Ibid, 51.

Ibid, 50.

Ronström, Malm, and Lundberg, “Concerts and Festivals: Public Performances of Folk Music in

Sweden,” 50-51.

stagnancy, the society served a vital role in preserving folk tradition, particularly

as a wave of religious fundamentalism swept over Scandinavia and declared

music and dance sinful.

Consequently, music from this period was not well

documented despite the abundance of activity and output. Erik Gustav Geijer and

Arvid Afzelius, members of the Geatish Society, managed to compile an

anthology of folk music, Svenska folk-visor från forntiden, between 1814 and

1816, which features instrumental folk songs as well as songs from the Swedish

ballad tradition.

The Swedish ballad tradition, dating back to the end of the eighteenth

century, experienced a surge of popularity in the late nineteenth and early

twentieth centuries with troubadours like Sven Scholander. In 1920, the

troubadour Evert Taube became nationally recognized for his songs about travel

and idealized Swedish life.

Taube’s career, which lasted more than five decades

and contained a bounty of hits, effectively likened traditional Swedish music to

mainstream music preferences. Taube was, in a sense, the first Swedish “pop star”

on a national scale. Around the start of his career, the German word Schlager was

introduced in Sweden to mean “hit,” replacing the older Swedish term

slagdänga.

As a genre, Schlager music is defined by a catchy instrumental to a

pop-style vocal melody.

The 1930s saw dance orchestras made up of

working-class men and the occasional female singer performing Schlager music

Ibid, 17.

Alf Björnberg and Thomas Bossius, eds., Made in Sweden: Studies in Popular Music (New

York: Routledge, 2017), 3.

Ibid.

in the style of contemporary foxtrots and waltzes. Schlager music became the folk

or popular music of the time and has maintained popularity today in Sweden (and

internationally, particularly at Eurovision), albeit in a different form.

By the mid-twentieth century, folk music became an international

movement as folk musicians, particularly those from America, became emblems

of youth culture. Prague hosted the first international “Youth festival” competition

in 1947.

Like the earliest folk music performances in Sweden, the “Youth

festival” was a source of nationalism for performers and audiences who

represented their respective nations through song, dance, and dress.

Similar

events had existed in Sweden since the early twentieth-century when the famous

Swedish painter Anders Zorn organized the first spelmanstävling (fiddlers’

competition) in Dalarna in 1906.

These competitions later evolved into

spelmansstämmor (fiddlers’ gatherings), non-competitive events resembling

festivals, wherein musicians and audiences hailed from rural lower-class and

urban middle-class societies.

In Sweden, where practices such as fiddling had

historically been solitary, public competitions and gatherings helped cultivate a

connected musical society.

The popularity of folk music internationally and in Sweden would wane

over the years as a new, more youth-centered genre was on the horizon. Still, folk

musicians continued to meet in both formal and informal settings. Inspired by

Anderson, “Evolution of Swedish Folk Music.”

Ibid.

Ibid, 51.

Ibid.

Ronström, Malm, and Lundberg, “Concerts and Festivals: Public Performances of Folk Music in

Sweden,” 53.

American singer-songwriters in the 1960s, many young Swedes took up the

nyckelharpa and fiddle to form spelmänslag (amateur folk music groups), some of

which played on mainstream TV and radio.

The Woodstock Music and Art Fair

was adopted as the new model for a folk/rock/pop festival and aided in the

commercialization of folk music.

From the 1970s through the 1990s, music

festivals resembled parties with food, installations, and other activities drawing

crowds of thousands (and in the case of Woodstock, hundreds of thousands).

the early 1980s, the Swedish National Institute for Concerts organized carnivals

known as kulturdagar (culture-days) or kulturnatta (culture-night) as a means of

disseminating “culture” to suburbians living outside of Stockholm, Gotëborg, and

Malmö (the three biggest cities in Sweden).

Policymakers and politicians took

note and began investing in festivals to promote “goods and images.”

Swedish

music festivals, and the Swedish music they promote, have since served as a

commodity to promote culture not only to Swedes but tourists.

Additionally, the

international success of ABBA and other Swedish musicians has contributed to

music-related tourism.

In 2009, a Swedish cultural policy law was passed to provide ample

financial resources to artists, including musicians ($220 million was spent on arts

Maria Lexhagen, Christine Lundberg, and Tatiana Chekalina, “Traveling in the Footsteps of

ABBA,” The Journal of Popular Culture 52, no. 6 (December 2019): 1408–32,

https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12859.

Ibid.

Ronström, Malm, and Lundberg, “Concerts and Festivals: Public Performances of Folk Music in

Sweden,” 58.

Ibid.

funding in 2016, with at least $7.8 million for music).

Every year, in a move that

would be considered exorbitant by comparable nations, millions in public money

is invested toward commercial musicians and festival marketing (classical music

gets the most funding).

Public funding is seen as a method of promoting national

culture in the American-dominated music industry, and in countries like Sweden,

it preserves a valuable export.

The Swedish Arts Grants Committee has granted

about 19 million SEK ($2.7 million) to musicians annually, and many Swedish

record labels apply for recording funding biannually.

From its humble beginnings in rural Sweden to its eventual

commercialization and mainstream appeal, Swedish folk music shaped the future

of Swedish popular music. Swedish writer-producer Klas Åhlund described one

effect folk music tradition has had on Swedish songwriting:

Swedes are very musical, and they love to write songs. But it’s a big

country, and it has very few people in it. So you had these farmers out

there who were good at writing songs but had no one to sing them.

Songwriting was just a thing you did on your own when you were

watching the cows, a kind of meditation. You didn’t focus as much on

your ability as a performer as you did on the structure and craft of the

songs. Which is really not the case in the U.S., where your charm and your

voice and your powers as a performer come immediately into play.

Ahlund’s description of the contrast between Swedish musicians, who are

uninterested in the spotlight but have a gift for melodic songwriting, and

American performers, who may not write their own material, explains one reason

Seabrook, “Blank Space.”

Ibid.

Marc Hogan, “What’s the Matter With Sweden?,” Pitchfork, March 29, 2010,

https://pitchfork.com/features/article/7776-whats-the-matter-with-sweden/.

“Swedish Cultural Policy,” Swedish Arts Council, Accessed January 3, 2023,

https://www.kulturradet.se/en/about-us/swedish-cultural-policy/.

for Sweden’s musical success. Swedes provide a service that Americans, though

capable of their own songwriting, can employ in a mutually beneficial exchange.

Borrowing from the melancholy “blue tones” (the quarter- and half-tone

intervals) of kulning melodies, much of Swedish pop is “sad-sounding.”

Svensk

folkton (Swedish folk tone) is frequently used in Swedish-language pop music and

can be described as an aural representation of Swedish folk music via its inclusion

of quarter-tone and half-tone intervals, minor harmony, and fifth-leaps up or down

to the tonic.

Björn Ulvaeus, one-fourth of ABBA and a former member of the

folk band the Hootenanny Singers, acknowledged the melancholic quality of

ABBA’s music, stating:

Someone described the music of ABBA in a very interesting way when

they said that the melodies are melancholic – very often minor key and

very often the lyrics are very dark but somehow the arrangements and the

two girls’ voices especially makes it sound kind of exuberant and uplifting

still. It’s a paradox. That’s the best description I’ve heard.

Benny Andersson, also of ABBA, recognized the harsh Swedish climate as an

influence on the melancholic tone of ABBA, Swedish folk music, the Swedish

filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, and the Scandinavian classical composers Jean

Sibelius and Edvard Grieg.

John Seabrook further suggests that Max Martin’s

melodies resemble Grieg’s 1875 composition “In the Hall of the Mountain King”

as much as they do contemporary pop and, like ABBA, Martin’s work with

Backstreet Boys uses “major and minor chords in surprising combinations (going

Barry Walters, “ABBA’s Essential, Influential Melancholy,” NPR, May 23, 2015,

https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2015/05/23/408844375/abbas-essential-influential-melanc

holy.

Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, “How Sweden Became a Pop Music Powerhouse,” Financial Times,

November 1, 2013, https://www.ft.com/content/55f7bdf6-40c4-11e3-ae19-00144feabdc0.

Björnberg and Bossius, Made in Sweden, 132.

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 120.

to a minor chord on the chorus, say, when you least expect it), producing happy

songs that sound sad, and sad songs that make you happy––tunes that serve a

wide variety of moods.”

Martin told The Telegraph, “My favorite feeling in

music is dancing with tears in your eyes. I guess it’s a Scandinavian thing.”

Many Scandinavian musicians, including the pop artists Dagny, Sigrid, and Tove

Lo, describe a similar sensation when discussing Scandinavian pop songs.

“Dancing On My Own,” a heartbreaking dance-pop anthem set to a major

key by Swedish singer-songwriter Robyn and writer-producer Patrik Berger is

arguably the definitive example of contemporary “sad-sounding” Swedish pop.

The song references the climate of Stockholm, Robyn’s hometown, with the lyric,

“There’s a big black sky over my town,” as Robyn sings about watching her

ex-partner in a club with someone else. Pitchfork writer Jamieson Cox compared

Robyn’s music to ABBA’s “cavernous, sprightly, desperate dance-pop confections

built for crying in the club … by pinning down this same sad-ecstatic balance and

welding it to modern, muscular production.”

Robyn remembers Martin’s

manager telling her that Martin believes “it’s [“Dancing On My Own”’s] one of

the best pop songs ever made.”

Considered the best song of the 2010s by a

multitude of publications and a defining song in the modern pop canon, “Dancing

Steve Holden, “Dancing On My Own: The Story behind Robyn’s 2010 ‘Sad Banger,’” BBC

News, June 1, 2020, sec. Newsbeat, https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-52817969.

Jamieson Cox, “ABBA: Gold: Greatest Hits,” Pitchfork, September 29, 2019,

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/abba-gold-greatest-hits/.

O’Connor and Smith, “The Winners Take It All”; Sasha Frere-Jones, “The Sound of Sweden,”

The New Yorker, November 24, 2014,

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/12/01/sound-sweden.

Michele Amabile Angermiller, “Max Martin Finally Speaks on Hit Songwriting Secrets: ‘It’s

Almost Like Science to Me,’” Variety, November 18, 2019,

https://variety.com/2019/music/news/max-martin-speaks-interview-telegraph-1203407590/.

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 120.

On My Own” has become the modern archetype for the melancholic dance-pop

song dubbed the “sad banger.”

Contemporary female artists, in particular, are

quoted as being inspired by Robyn and the sound of Swedish pop.

Pop Radio and TV

Modernization in Sweden, beginning in the 1890s and progressing rapidly

from 1900 to 1930, ushered in enhanced music infrastructure and technology.

Before the invention of sound reproduction technology, a hit song materialized

through live entertainment.

This meant that a hit was more localized and unable

to be easily reproduced and listened to outside of a live context, making access

difficult for the lower class and rural living. The Swedish music industry

progressed rapidly with the establishment of radio and the pronounced expansion

of the gramophone business during the 1920s.

As a result, Swedish music had a

greater national, and eventually international, reach, but was also limited in

content by gatekeepers.

The first Swedish public-service radio program was

broadcast by AB Radiotjänst (Radio Service; the original name for the Swedish

national broadcasting company) in 1925.

Genre distinctions were unclear at the

time, and as there would only be one national radio channel until 1955, the

program contained a mix of musical styles.

Ibid.

Ibid, 25.

Ibid.

Björnberg and Bossius, Made in Sweden, 4.

Ibid.

Throughout the 1950s and until commercial satellite channels became

available in the 1980s, Swedish radio was controlled by public-service

broadcaster Sveriges Radio (SR).

As with mainstream folk music, traditional

bourgeois values shaped perceptions of popular music in Sweden.

However,

when rock and roll became popular in the U.S. and the U.K., these perceptions

were challenged as Anglophone popular music became a signifier of European

youth culture, and the sound of rock became synonymous with the sound of

English.

Radio Luxembourg, a commercial radio station that targeted the U.K.

and Ireland, but reached audiences across Europe, was one of the first to

recognize this shift.

In 1955, just as rock spread widely across Europe, they

changed their programming to be youth-oriented (Anglophone-oriented), a stark

contrast to stations like SR, which were national, especially linguistically, in

reach.

By the early 1960s, English had become the dominant language of popular

music in Sweden, threatening the relevance of Swedish-language pop music.

The authority of SR was threatened further by the arrival of Radio Nord (Radio

North), a Swedish radio pirate station that began broadcasting from the Swedish

archipelago in March 1961.

The following month, Radio Nord debuted a new

program, a hit parade based on mailed-in votes, that quickly became popular

among teenagers in Sweden.

To counteract the program, SR created Tio i topp

Ibid.

Ibid, 40.

Ibid.

Ibid, 39.

Ibid, 17.

Ibid.

(Top Ten), a competing hit parade featuring a rotating jury of 200 teenagers from

two Swedish cities.

While it was successful in dissolving Radio Nord, Tio i topp presented

another problem: because its focus was on the musical preferences of teenagers,

the featured music was largely from the Anglophone world.

Accordingly, SR

launched Svensktoppen, which required jurors to be at least twenty years old and

appropriately showcased Schlager music and the Swedish troubadour tradition, all

performed in Swedish.

Though the notion of an all-Swedish language program

seems antithetical to Sweden’s eventual position in the global music industry,

Svensktoppen helped save the Swedish music industry from a total Anglophone

takeover.

Still, English-language music and media prospered and had been, to

varying degrees, everyday exposure to Swedes since the 1930s.

Their

acceptance and ultimate embrace of this phenomenon would prove essential to the

global expansion of the Swedish music industry in the following decades.

During the early 1960s, the term “pop” was used in lieu of “rock” to

describe “youth music,” replacing the terms “rock” or “rock and roll,” which,

though still used, now designated a genre and not necessarily “popular music.”

Similarly, “hit” replaced Schlager.

Popular music in Sweden at the time was

divided between pop (English-language music) and svensktopp (Swedish Top,

derived from Svensktoppen; Swedish-language music), which catered to different

Ibid.

Ibid, 6.

Ibid, 39.

Ibid.

Ibid, 41.

Ibid.

age demographics.

Svensktoppen became the most popular radio program in

Sweden and by October 1972, a decade after its launch, the definitive platform for

national exposure.

This remained true until the 1980s, when broadcasting

became deregulated, and local radio stations emerged with an emphasis on

Anglophone popular music programming.

While Ola Johansson proposes the Early Adopter Thesis, the reality is that

Swedes had limited opportunities to soak up international influences before the

1980s because of the finite number of radio stations available. TV options were

similarly sparse, with just two public service channels until the arrival of foreign

commercial TV in the 1980s.

100

Transnational programming on both radio and TV

increased the amount of Anglophone popular music played in Sweden.

101

MTV

Europe, the European iteration of the American music TV channel, first aired in

Sweden in the late 1980s. The channel became so popular in Sweden that MTV

Europe increased the number of Swedish artists on their programs, leading to

greater exposure of Swedish artists internationally and, conversely, more

Anglophone artists on Swedish TV.

102

As a result, more Swedish musicians and

songwriters began seeking international success with English-language music.

103

As expressed by the Early Adopter Thesis, Sweden was receptive to

outside influences even with limited access to foreign programming. Björn

Ulvaeus of ABBA observed, “Swedish radio would play Italian ballads and

103

Burnett, “Dressed for Success: Sweden from Abba to Roxette,” 149.

102

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 12–13.

101

Ibid, 146.

100

Ibid, 145.

Robert Burnett, “Dressed for Success: Sweden from Abba to Roxette,” Popular Music 11, no. 2

(May 1992): 145, http://www.jstor.org/stable/852937.

Ibid, 37.

Ibid.

French chansons and German Schlager – a big huge mix. What comes out in

ABBA is a mix of all of that, which makes it exotic perhaps, and not what would

have come out of a pen from England or America.”

104

Martin’s involvement in the

glam rock band It’s Alive, and his equal love of hair metal and pure, unabashed

pop illustrate the often contradictory tastes of Swedish producers. Two of Martin’s

collaborators, Andreas Carlsson and Shellback, were also part of the Swedish

metal scene prior to their involvement in pop. Anders Bagge, an early member of

Cheiron Studios and founder of the music production company Murlyn Music,

proposed that a multifaceted musical background is vital in a small country like

Sweden, where a songwriter or producer, especially one working in pop, needs to

wear many hats.

105

Though unsustainable considering Sweden’s global ambitions, the

decades-long restrictions on radio and TV produced centralized programming. As

a result, practically every Swede was tapped into the same musical content, as

exemplified by the popularity of Svensktoppen, which, five years into its run, had

passed 2.8 million listeners out of a population of 7.9 million people.

106

Today,

TV shows like Eurovision and Melodifestivalen (the national show responsible

for determining Sweden’s Eurovision song submission) amass more than eighty

percent of TV viewers in Sweden, or half of all Swedes.

107

Swedes listened to a

range of genres because programming was limited; thus, programming had to

107

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 115; William Lee Adams, “This Is How Sweden’s Global

Music Factory Works,” Bloomberg, March 30, 2015,

https://www.bloomberg.com/tosv2.html?vid=&uuid=5609fd98-8bbb-11ed-94dc-46734f4d6641&u

rl=L2dyYXBoaWNzLzIwMTUtc3dlZGVucy1nbG9iYWwtcG9wLW11c2ljLWZhY3Rvcnkv.

106

Björnberg and Bossius, Made in Sweden, 37.

105

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 122.

104

Hunter-Tilney, “How Sweden Became a Pop Music Powerhouse.”

account for many tastes. However, the prominence of pop music on Svensktoppen

and Eurovision makes Sweden noticeably more pop-centered than the U.S., where

the mass of cultural and musical diversity renders it impossible for one genre to

reign supreme.

In the U.S., as with the rest of the world, pop is among the most widely

listened to genres, but unlike Sweden, the American pop market competes for

attention with genres like rock, country, R&B, and hip-hop, reflective of the

country’s diversity. However, where American radio tends to be more

format-driven (focused on one genre), Swedish radio is more fluid.

108

One reason

for this is the racist legacy of American radio; stations were historically divided

between white music (pop) and black music (“urban contemporary,” an industry

term for R&B and hip-hop).

109

Sweden, in its ethnic homogeneity, avoided this

division, a factor that John Seabrook believes has had a profound effect on

songwriting:

A white American songwriter composing R. & B. tunes was not likely to

get very far on the balkanized pop-music scene in the U.S., but a Swedish

writer, free of the racist legacy of the R. & B./pop dichotomy, could create

music that combined both, and that is just what Martin has done. The

resulting hybrid, one could argue, has become the mainstream sound on

Top Forty radio today.

110

Martin and his collaborators, however ignorant, have benefitted from the ability to

adapt, or appropriate, R&B and hip-hop for their melodic pop. There is no

shortage of white American pop producers appropriating black musical

influences. However, the less racialized history of Swedish popular music made

110

Ibid.

109

Seabrook, “Blank Space.”

108

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 122.

this process, examined in the following chapter, less weighted for Swedish

writer-producers.

School of Pop

By the late 1930s and early 1940s, the prospect of a youth-led musical

revolution was on the horizon. In response, Swedish church leaders and

conservatives convened to combat what they saw as “degenerate music” (rock and

roll) coming from the United States.

111

Their answer was a municipal music

program focusing strictly on classical music.

112

These programs, often free or at a

low fee, offered children access to lessons and a library of instruments.

113

While

the original objective was to provide students with the resources to appreciate

traditional art music and deter them from rock’s lure, the paradoxical result laid

the groundwork for Sweden’s musical success.

114

Initial pushback against popular music came in 1938 when the bishop of

Växjö, a small city in the south of Sweden, sent a letter to the Swedish

government demanding reform to the state of music and entertainment.

115

A Royal

committee was established to address the issue; meanwhile, the municipality and

the Church formed a Youth Council responsible for creating a music school in

1947.

116

The school provided private lessons to students aged fourteen and older

116

Ibid.

115

Ibid.

114

Lindberg and Olofsson, “From Combating to Supporting Pop Music. The Paradox of Municipal

Music Education in Sweden 1940 to 2000.”

113

Ibid.

112

Ibid.

111

Moser, “Swedish Pop Mafia.”

in voice, piano, string instruments, and wind and brass instruments, as well as

classes in music theory and music history.

117

In addition, a private music school

run by the Swedish musical instrument manufacturer Hagström had opened one

year earlier in Växjö.

118

Hagström taught classes in accordion, chord-based pop

guitar, keyboard, percussion, and wind and brass.

119

These classes endured

significant popularity across Sweden until the 1980s when Hagström folded,

taking their music program in the process.

120

Nevertheless, municipal music

schools prevailed. The same year Hagström initiated their music program, the

School Commission’s report, which was critical in educational reform throughout

the remainder of the twentieth century, determined that music education

curriculum should revolve around Western art music aesthetics.

121

Schools would

later prioritize the participation and inclusion of the individual student, and as the

number of local music schools across the country increased, music education

curriculum would change.

Municipal music schools and compulsory schools, though both managed

by the municipal government (local representatives using local funds), are

different. For one, municipal music schools are extracurricular and, as the name

states, are devoted to music education. On the other hand, compulsory education,

introduced in the 1960s,

122

encompasses nine years of schooling (from ages seven

to sixteen) and comprises four stages (preschool, primary school, middle school,

122

Ibid, 22.

121

Eva Georgii-Hemming and Maria Westvall, “Music Education – a Personal Matter? Examining

the Current Discourses of Music Education in Sweden,” British Journal of Music Education 27,

no. 1 (March 2010): 22-23, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0265051709990179.

120

Ibid.

119

Ibid.

118

Ibid.

117

Ibid.

and upper stage lower secondary school).

123

In the compulsory school curriculum,

music constitutes a part of the curriculum (a minimum of 230 hours out of a

possible 6,665 hours in musical instruction over nine years).

124

During upper stage

lower secondary school (from ages thirteen to sixteen), students can specialize in

music alongside their general education and pursue advanced music in upper

secondary school (from ages sixteen to nineteen) or at the university level.

125

The

Swedish National Agency for Education and the Education Act outline

regulations for required curriculum at compulsory schools.

126

The music offerings at municipal music schools and compulsory schools

evolved parallel to each other, particularly during the 1960s when the curricula

underwent major changes. Music became a formal school subject in 1955.

127

Previously, music had been called singing and focused on hymns and church

singing.

128

Military musicians or local bands largely taught classes in other

instruments or genres, and private lessons were available to those who could

afford them.

129

With the expansion of the municipal music program and the

diversification of music offerings, children of a variety of socioeconomic

backgrounds were granted access to regular and affordable music education.

Contrary to their intended effect, the municipal music schools increased the

129

“Music and Arts Schools in Sweden,” Kulturskolerådet, Accessed January 3, 2023,

https://www.kulturskoleradet.se/om-oss/english/.

128

Ibid.

127

Georgii-Hemming and Westvall, “Music Education – a Personal Matter?,” 22.

126

Ibid.

125

Ibid.

124

Ibid.

123

“Music Education in Schools (SE),” European Association for Music in Schools, September 15,

2015, https://eas-music.org/music-education-in-schools-se/.

likelihood that students would become musically literate and adapt their classical

music training to fit their musical preferences; in most cases, this was rock or

related genres like jazz and pop.

130

The curricula at municipal music schools and

compulsory schools soon reflected this change. Throughout the 1960s, the

municipal music program expanded, gaining significant popularity post-ABBA.

131

By the 1980s and 1990s, offerings grew to include rock and pop, recording and

mixing, and instruction in other art forms

132

(the curriculum at compulsory

schools had been revised in 1969 to incorporate “teenage music” with

increasingly inclusive subsequent revisions).

133

Integrated arts schools, or

kulturskola (culture schools), are common in Sweden today.

134

Presently, the municipal music program is a vibrant, interconnected, and

interdisciplinary web of schools. According to the Swedish Arts Schools Council

(Kulturskolerådet), 283 of 290 municipalities have arts schools.

135

Staffed by

approximately 5,000 teachers, these schools serve more than 230,000 students

weekly.

136

Specific to music, there are lessons on a variety of musical instruments,

solo singing, and choir, all with an emphasis on popular repertoire.

137

The ability

of personal computers to function as a music-making device and their prevalence

in Sweden (the government subsidized some computer purchases during the

137

Ibid.

136

Ibid.

135

Ibid.

134

“Music and Arts Schools in Sweden.”

133

Georgii-Hemming and Westvall, “Music Education – a Personal Matter?,” 23.

132

“Music and Arts Schools in Sweden.”

131

Siobhan Hegarty, “Why Does Sweden Win at Pop Music? Like, Every Time,” SBS, April 12,

2016,

https://www.sbs.com.au/programs/eurovision/article/2016/04/12/why-does-sweden-win-pop-musi

c-every-time.

130

Moser, “Swedish Pop Mafia.”

1990s),

138

coupled with the Early Adopter Thesis, has increased the number of

music technology courses offered. In addition, broader arts schools provide

drama, dance, and visual media lessons.

139

Most students attend one music or arts

class each week.

140

The average tuition is 643 SEK (approximately $60) per

semester,

141

and nearly thirty percent of students receive free tuition.

142

Compared

to the U.S., where music education is severely underfunded, unaffordable, and

unavailable in such a capacity to many, Sweden ensures that nearly all children

receive access to an arts education.

143

Entrance examinations to music schools

generally do not exist because the goal, unlike many conservatory and specialized

music programs in the U.S., is to educate the musically interested and not just the

musically talented.

144

Music education in Sweden thereby becomes a public good

rather than a privilege.

145

Aside from its accessibility, one of the most substantial results of the

municipal music program is the network it creates among young musicians. Since

it began, the municipal music program has fostered a community for bands and

groups, such as songwriting circles, to form. Many Swedish writer-producers who

work in popular music and collaborate today first met at music programs during

145

Ibid.

144

Marja Heimonen, “Music and Arts Schools – Extra-Curricular Music Education: A

Comparative Study,” Action, Criticism and Theory for Music Education 3, no. 2 (July 2004): 16,

http://act.maydaygroup.org/articles/Heimonen3_2.pdf.

143

Ibid.

142

Tom Barnes, “One Country Is Giving Kids a Music Education That U.S. Children Could Only

Dream Of,” Mic, July 31, 2014,

https://www.mic.com/articles/95380/one-country-is-giving-kids-a-music-education-that-u-s-childr

en-could-only-dream-of.

141

Ibid.

140

Ibid.

139

“Music and Arts Schools in Sweden.”

138

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 83.

the 1980s when music offerings diversified.

146

Södra Latin, a high school in

Södermalm, Stockholm, has long boasted a premier arts program. Martin,

Alexander Kronlund, and Klas Åhlund overlapped at Södra Latin during the

1980s.

147

The same is true of Carl Falk and Salem Al Fakir during the 1990s.

148

These initial meetings morphed into valuable partnerships. For example, Martin

and Kronlund worked together at Cheiron, later co-writing hits for Britney Spears,

Demi Lovato, and Ariana Grande. They have both individually collaborated with

Åhlund. Shellback attended high school in Blekinge, a province in southern

Sweden, where he met Julius Petersson, whose sister, Jenny, married Martin.

149

Via Jenny and Julius, Martin met Shellback, who, since 2008, has been one of his

most frequent collaborators and successful protégés.

150

Martin, Shellback, and

Petersson make up part of Wolf Cousins, Martin’s songwriting and production

collective. Another high school in Stockholm, Rytmus, brought together

singer-songwriter Tove Lo and Icona Pop member Caroline Hjelt, a songwriting

partnership that allowed Tove Lo to transition into a songwriting career that

includes collaborations with Martin and Kronlund.

151

Casual musicians have also

benefited from musical networks, a good case in point being choirs. Sweden has

the highest number of choirs and choristers per capita in the world at 500 and

600,000, respectively, numbers which are likely the combination of developed

151

Ibid.

150

Ibid.

149

Ibid.

148

Ibid.

147

Ibid.

146

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 63.

music programs and a tradition of singing folk songs at celebrations like

Midsummer and Christmas.

152

The future of the municipal music program and related music and arts

programs is uncertain. Funding for municipal music schools has waned recently,

and fees have become more common.

153

Criticism regarding teaching popular

music is still recurrent, the central argument being that it does not reflect the

diversity of students’ musical interests, fails to foster artistic and creative skills,

and lacks direction.

154

However, criticism like this overlooks the fact that this

early education and exposure allows Swedish writer-producers to enter the world

of global pop seamlessly. In countries where music education is inaccessible, the

possibilities for any form of musical learning, let alone diverse musical learning,

are significantly reduced. Even wealthy nations like the U.S. have

disproportionate funding for music and arts programs, with low-income and rural

schools at the highest risk of losing their music programs.

155

For example, only

one in five public schools in California, which along with New York, is the home

of the American pop music industry, has a dedicated teacher for music and arts

classes.

156

Meanwhile, in Sweden, only seven municipalities (283 out of 290

156

Austin Beutner, “Arts Education Is Woefully Underfunded in California Schools,” CalMatters,

February 28, 2022,

http://calmatters.org/commentary/2022/02/arts-education-is-woefully-underfunded-in-california-sc

hools/.

155

“How to Secure Funding for Music Education for Public Schools,” Teachers College, Columbia

University, June 19, 2021,

https://musiconlinehybrid.tc.columbia.edu/articles/how-to-secure-funding-for-music-education-for

-public-schools/.

154

Georgii-Hemming and Westvall, “Music Education – a Personal Matter?,” 22.

153

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 142.

152

Hegarty, “Why Does Sweden Win at Pop Music?”

municipalities) lack a municipal music school, and even though resources across

schools are not standardized, basic access exists.

157

When understood in conjunction with the musical customs discussed in

the previous two sections of this chapter, including Sweden’s propensity for pop

and the popularity of music-oriented radio and TV shows, the strength of Swedish

music programs has created a highly musical society. Music plays an active role

in everyday life in Sweden, as demonstrated by the number of citizens

participating in musical activities. Speaking to the Canadian newspaper The

Globe and Mail in 2018, Swedish writer-producer Patrik Berger reflected on the

normalcy of music in early Swedish life: “It was just part of life: Kids should

learn how to swim, kids should learn how to play an instrument. If you can’t

afford a saxophone, you just rent it – for basically nothing. What can be more

encouraging than that?”

158

Adult education associations make music accessible to

adults through rehearsal and studio spaces, equipment, and workshops.

159

Until

recently, government-recognized “study circles” (amateur bands affiliated with

adult education associations) had been able to apply to receive grants.

160

Martin

credited the ease of access to rehearsal spaces and the encouragement he received

in school to try a variety of instruments as the reasons for his success, asserting, “I

have public music education to thank for everything.”

161

Several prominent

161

Gary Barlow, “Max Martin,” Gary Barlow - We Write the Songs, Accessed January 3, 2023,

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6Z3bMWRm5JpASwWCx4M1jV?si=64b3a962b9b24652;

160

Ibid.

159

Lindberg and Olofsson, “From Combating to Supporting Pop Music. The Paradox of Municipal

Music Education in Sweden 1940 to 2000.”

158

Josh O’Kane, “How Sweden Became a Dominant Force in Global Pop Music,” The Globe and

Mail, January 12, 2018,

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/music/how-stockholm-became-a-dominant-force-in-global-

popmusic/article37541953/.

157

“Music and Arts Schools in Sweden.”

writer-producers, including Anders Bagge and Andreas Carlsson, have established

schools concentrating on songwriting and production.

162

In 2021, a report

presented by the Inquiry on the Restart for Arts and Culture on behalf of the

Swedish government promised to allocate 200 million SEK ($19.2 million) to

municipal music and arts schools annually from 2023 onwards, a sign of

possibility.

163

Eurovision and the ABBA Effect

As explained, centralized programming of radio and TV established

Sweden as a pop-centered country, where millions of people tuned into the same

content. Melodifestivalen and Eurovision are among the most popular TV shows

in Sweden and have transformed the Swedish music industry in the wake of

ABBA’s 1974 Eurovision win. The Eurovision Song Contest is a joint venture

between the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an international alliance of

public service media organizations, and national EBU members representing their

respective countries, some of which are outside Europe.

164

For a country to

participate in Eurovision, the national broadcaster must select a song and

164

“How the Eurovision Song Contest Works,” Eurovision Song Contest, Accessed January 3,

2023, https://eurovision.tv/about/how-it-works.

163

“Restarting the Arts and Culture in Sweden” (Stockholm: Swedish Government Inquiries,

2021), 18,

https://www.regeringen.se/4a941c/contentassets/c96ef2e953fd481ebb68d41b980a1d0a/restarting-t

he-arts-and-culture-in-sweden---summary-sou-202177.pdf.

162

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 142.

Barnes, “One Country Is Giving Kids a Music Education That U.S. Children Could Only Dream

Of.”

performer in a process that can take various forms: an internal selection by a

committee, a publicly televised show, or a combination of both.

165

Since 1959, Sweden has hosted Melodifestivalen, a six-week nationally

televised show that determines Sweden’s Eurovision song submission through a

panel of jurors and, beginning in 1999, a public vote. Eurovision brings that song

and its performer(s) to a global audience of 200 million.

166

At the Eurovision

contest, typically held for three nights in May, a performer (or performers) from

each participating country performs their song.

167

Then, a panel of five music

industry professionals and TV viewers from each country vote to determine the

winning song (voters cannot vote for their own country).

168

Sweden has the

second most Eurovision wins in history, with six behind Ireland’s seven.

169

ABBA

remains the most successful winner in the program’s sixty-six-year history.

170

ABBA’s career is a remarkable example of Swedish musicians’ vision for

international success. From the beginning, ABBA thought beyond Sweden. All

four members––Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and

Anni-Frid Lyngstad (the first letter of each of their first names’ gives the group

their name)––had experienced considerable national success as solo artists or

members of groups before forming ABBA. ABBA’s first Eurovision submission

was a song called “Ring Ring,” released in February 1973 as a single from their

debut album of the same name. Though not chosen to represent Sweden at

170

Ibid.

169

“Sweden,” Eurovision Song Contest, Accessed January 3, 2023,

https://eurovision.tv/country/sweden.

168

Ibid.

167

“How the Eurovision Song Contest Works.”

166

Lee Adams, “This Is How Sweden’s Global Music Factory Works.”

165

Ibid.

Eurovision, it became a major hit in Sweden and several other European

countries, both in its Swedish and, more importantly, English versions.

The following year, ABBA reentered Melodifestivalen with “Waterloo,”

also recorded in Swedish and English. On April 6, 1974, “Waterloo” was crowned

the winning song at Eurovision. Instantly, ABBA was catapulted to international

fame as “Waterloo” peaked at number one across European music charts and at

number six in the United States.

171

Its parent album featured songs performed

entirely in English (save for the Swedish version of “Waterloo”) and was released

to major commercial success in Europe. ABBA would continue to achieve

international hits until their disbandment in 1982, including a number-one single

and four top-twenty albums in the U.S., establishing the sound of global Swedish

pop in the process.

172

ABBA’s influence in transforming the Swedish music industry from

national to international and in the songwriting approach of contemporary

Swedish writer-producers cannot be overstated. Before ABBA, there had been a

few successful international Swedish acts, namely the instrumental band The

Spotnicks and the rock band Blue Swede (who had a number-one hit in the U.S.

in 1974 with a cover of B.J. Thomas’ “Hooked on a Feeling”), but none with

consistent chart success.

173

ABBA was the first Swedish act to unabashedly

embrace singing in English, with the primary aim of reaching a global

audience.

174

According to John Seabrook, ABBA adapted Schlager music for the

174

Lee Adams, “This Is How Sweden’s Global Music Factory Works.”

173

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 7.

172

Ibid.

171

Bronson, “45 Years Ago Today, ABBA Started Its Global Conquest With Eurovision Win for

‘Waterloo.’”

international pop soundscape, disguising any trace of its origin while

simultaneously embracing Swedish music tradition.

175

Though rooted in Swedish

music tradition, ABBA’s music, like much of contemporary Swedish pop, is

global in its sound and style, meaning it can be appreciated by and compete

within a diverse musical and cultural climate. Returning to Ola Johansson’s Role

Model Thesis, ABBA created a template for Swedish pop, from simple English

lyrics to catchy, major-minor melodies that combined emotion with dance-driven

fun. Anders B, a member of the Danish pop band Alphabeat, compared ABBA’s

music to that of Max Martin’s: “[Martin’s] early stuff is like ABBA – you can just

tell it’s his melody and vocal arrangement. … It’s super-bright and super-pop, but

also has these minor chords, so there’s a sense of tension in it.”

176

Post-ABBA, Swedish musicians saw increased exposure and success as

acts like Europe, Roxette, Neneh Cherry, Ace of Base, Rednex, The Cardigans,

and The Hives reached international music charts. Roxette, in particular, followed

a similar career trajectory to ABBA; the fusion of two nationally successful solo

artists resulted in an internationally chart-topping duo that outperformed ABBA in

terms of U.S. chart success.

177

Björn Ulvaeus asserted, “No one would listen to

Swedish music before ABBA – we were door-openers definitely.”

178

Martin

agreed, indirectly paraphrasing the Role Model Thesis: “Having a role model.

178

Hunter-Tilney, “How Sweden Became a Pop Music Powerhouse.”

177

Burnett, “Dressed for Success: Sweden from Abba to Roxette,” 145.

176

Nick Levine, “Max Martin: The Secrets of the World’s Best Pop Songwriter,” BBC, November

19, 2019,

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191119-max-martin-the-secrets-of-the-worlds-best-pop-son

gwriter.

175

DJ Louie XIV, “MAX MARTIN (with The New Yorker’s John Seabrook),” Pop Pantheon,

Accessed January 3, 2023,

https://open.spotify.com/episode/44PLaMpyZloMp7McAAgbGx?si=93e0b0c029de47b2.

ABBA, they could do it, we could probably do it too.”

179

“They put Sweden on

the map in music history, and they have inspired many artists and next-generation

songwriters that it’s possible to reach success internationally, even coming from

such a small country as Sweden,” said Caroline Fagerlind, director of ABBA The

Museum in Stockholm, to The National in 2019.

180

Aside from influencing

Swedish pop songwriting and demonstrating the possibility of international

success, ABBA helped develop the Swedish music industry.

181

They provided the

necessary industry training for continued music export by sourcing local labor for

recording their music.

182

As a result, music infrastructure developed, and

municipal music schools became widespread throughout ABBA’s 1970s reign,

coinciding with the increase in internationally successful Swedish acts during the

1980s and 1990s.

183

Four decades after their final public performance, ABBA’s relevance has

endured. Their greatest hits compilation album, ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits, is the

second highest-selling album of all time in the U.K. and one of the best-selling

albums worldwide.

184

Mamma Mia!, a jukebox musical based on the music of

ABBA, has played on London’s West End since 1999 and Broadway from 2001 to

2015. Two blockbuster movie-musical adaptations were released in 2008 and

2018, respectively. American pop icons Madonna and Cher, the latter of whom

appeared in the second Mamma Mia! film, have both absorbed ABBA’s music

184

Hunter-Tilney, “How Sweden Became a Pop Music Powerhouse.”

183

Hegarty, “Why Does Sweden Win at Pop Music?”

182

Ibid.

181

Hunter-Tilney, “How Sweden Became a Pop Music Powerhouse.”

180

Garratt, “From Avicii to Ace of Base.”

179

Barlow, “Max Martin.”

into their own; Cher with an ABBA cover album aptly named Dancing Queen and

Madonna with a prominent sample of ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A

Man After Midnight)” in her 2005 hit “Hung Up.” Following in the footsteps of

Mamma Mia!, a jukebox musical featuring Max Martin-penned songs premiered

on the West End in 2019 and on Broadway in 2022. In 2021, ABBA returned with

their first studio album in forty years, reaching number one across Europe and

number two in the U.S., their highest-charting album in the U.S. to date.

185

After

decades of dismissal by critics who viewed them as manufactured and saccharine,

ABBA has entered the modern pop canon, their music everlasting as it transcends

generations. To this day, they are the sound and face of Swedish pop.

186

Eurovision was a crucial stepping stone for ABBA’s international visibility

and, consequently, the visibility of future Swedish performers and

writer-producers. Eurovision and Melodifestivalen have consistently provided

work opportunities for some of the most successful Swedish writer-producers,

including RedOne, David Kreuger, Carl Falk, and Kristian Lundin, who have

written Swedish entries, and Jörgen Elofsson and Anders Bagge, who have

written entries for other countries. Entries are mainstays on the Swedish charts

and radio, likely influencing Swedish writer-producers who follow national

popular music.

187

The requirement that songs be less than three minutes (per

Eurovision rules) and that they should ideally be instantly identifiable and

187

Ibid, 115.

186

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 7.

185

Keith Caulfield, “ABBA Achieves Highest-Charting Album Ever on Billboard 200 With Debut

of ‘Voyage,’” Billboard, November 14, 2021,

https://www.billboard.com/pro/abba-voyage-billboard-200-highest-charting-album/.

memorable (votes are cast live to determine the winner)

188

can be traced across

Swedish pop songwriting, whether or not that songwriting is for Eurovision.

Denniz Pop, the other significant twentieth-century Swedish musician who

influenced modern pop songwriting besides ABBA, is one of the most adamant

adopters of these songwriting practices: brevity and memorability. Along with

Martin and many of the Swedish writer-producers referenced in this chapter,

Denniz repurposed elements of the Eurovision and ABBA sounds to create

something modern and mainstream.

Denniz Pop and the Cheiron Sound

The current practice of American record labels hiring Swedish

writer-producers began in the early 1990s with Dag Krister Volle. Born on April

26, 1963, Volle, better known as Denniz Pop (also stylized as Denniz PoP),

started his music career as a DJ in Tullinge, a suburb of Stockholm, in the early

1980s. He soon became involved in the Stockholm nightclub circuit, where he

joined a collective of Swedish DJs operating under the name SweMix.

189

Headed

by René Hedemyr, also known as JackMaster Fax, SweMix produced remixes of

popular American and British songs for the European market.

190

Denniz was

among the group’s most successful, and his remixes, notably a slowed-down

version of Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” broke SweMix internationally.

191

Björnberg and Bossius, Made in Sweden, 143.

190

Ibid, 21-23.

189

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 21.

188

“How the Eurovision Song Contest Works.”

Eventually, SweMix remixes were played in clubs across Europe and sold on

twelve-inch vinyl discs.

192

The financial success of these remixes encouraged

SweMix to establish a dance-oriented record label, SweMix Records &

Publishing, separate from the original SweMix Productions.

193

Several dance acts

signed to SweMix Records and scored sizable hits in Sweden and Europe during

the 1990s, most notably the 1990 dancehall song “Hello Afrika,” recorded by

Swedish-Nigerian rapper Dr. Alban and produced by Denniz.

194

One of the distinguishing characteristics between Denniz and the rest of

his SweMix counterparts was his unabashed love of commercial pop music. The

name Denniz Pop is a reference to the comic strip character Dennis the Menace

and Denniz’s obsession with pop

195

(“Pop,” in this context, also stands for “Prince

of Pick-ups,” referencing Denniz’s skill with a turntable stylus).

196

While spinning

records at Ritz, a popular club in Stockholm, Denniz observed audience reactions

to particular songs.

197

He noticed that catchy, arguably cheesy choruses and

simple melodies got the most people on the dance floor.

198

Using this strategy to

test music in a live setting, Denniz perfected the songwriting techniques that

would become the norm for Swedish writer-producers and transform pop

songwriting industrywide.

199

A few years later, writer-producers at Cheiron would

199

Ibid.

198

Ibid.

197

James Ballardie, “Denniz Pop: The Man Who Created the Sound of Modern Pop,” BBC, April

4, 2019,

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190314-denniz-pop-the-man-who-created-the-sound-of-mo

dern-pop.

196

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 25-26.

195

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 51.

194

Ibid.

193

Björnberg and Bossius, Made in Sweden, 143.

192

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 24.

test up to one hundred variations of a song across Stockholm clubs in search of

which version was the “hit.”

200

Though Denniz’s strategies were seemingly simple, they were meticulous;

the goal of producing a song for mass appeal is intimidating and elusive. Denniz’s

foray into commercial pop music meant severing ties with the DJs at SweMix,

who ultimately could not support his global ambitions.

201

In 1992, Denniz and

Tom Talomaa, a Swedish club owner, sold SweMix Records & Publishing to

Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG).

202

That same year, with the help of BMG, they

opened Cheiron Studios in Stockholm.

203

The remaining DJs at SweMix

continued to operate under the name SweMix Productions. One of them,

StoneBridge, had a momentary commercial breakthrough in 1993 with his remix

of American dance singer Robin S.’s “Show Me Love.”

204

Björnberg and Bossius, Made in Sweden, 144.

203

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 43.

202

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 43; Björnberg and Bossius, Made in Sweden, 143-144.

201

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 51.

200

Ibid.

Fig. 1.1: Cheiron Studios in Stockholm

205

Initially envisioned as a Swedish record label (a venture that proved

unprofitable), Cheiron became the go-to hit factory for international artists

seeking pop smashes. However, its rise to fame relied on the success of a Swedish

group. Ulf Ekberg and Jonas Berggren, school friends and musicians, heard the

song “Another Mother,” recorded by Swedish-Nigerian singer Kayo and produced

by Denniz, at a record store in 1990.

206

After hearing the song, the two men, who

were in a techno group with Berggren’s sisters Jenny and Malin, decided to travel

to Stockholm in search of its producer.

207

Unable to locate Denniz, they sent a

207

Ibid.

206

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 35.

205

Polar Music Prize, “Max Martin.”

demo tape to SweMix, where Denniz was still working at the time

208

(Denniz

remembers it being sent to his house).

209

As the story goes, the demo tape got

stuck in Denniz’s car stereo, forcing him to listen to it every time he drove.

210

Denniz’s initial distaste for the demo tape, titled “Mr. Ace,” turned into

appreciation, and after receiving a follow-up call from the group, Denniz agreed

to produce them.

211

“Mr. Ace” was reworked and retitled “All That She Wants.” Denniz aimed

for simplicity, stripping away much of the song’s original instrumentation and a

rap verse in favor of a four-on-the-floor reggae groove accompanied by a spacey

synth patch and whistled melody.

212

In typical Swedish fashion, the verse chords

are major, and the chorus chords are minor. Several lyrics contain slight

grammatical errors and quirks, the most glaring being the repeated hook: “All that

she wants is another baby,” an awkward and unclear attempt at saying that the

narrator is searching for a boyfriend or partner rather than a child.

213

None of

these peculiarities mattered to Denniz. Hardly a musician in the traditional sense,

Denniz mostly cared that the music and lyrics sounded “good” together.

214

Whether or not they made sense compositionally or grammatically was an

afterthought. This philosophy, born from his experience as a DJ and his audience

“tests,” would inform the Max Martin school of pop songwriting, particularly

Martin’s Melody-first and Melodic Math approaches explained in Chapter Two.

214

Ibid.

213

Ibid, 40

212

Ibid, 39.

211

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 36-37.

210

Ibid.

209

Interview with Denniz Pop & Max Martin (How They Started Working with Ace of Base), 1995,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbVcgEucMdY.

208

Ibid.

“All That She Wants” by Ace of Base was released in Scandinavia in 1992

and became a number-one hit in Denmark (it peaked at numbers two and three in

Norway and Sweden, respectively).

215

By the spring of 1993, it had reached high

positions across Europe, including number one in the United Kingdom.

216

Clive

Davis, the legendary American record executive and then-president of Arista

Records, heard the song while vacationing in Europe and determined it was a hit

with crossover appeal.

217

He met and signed Ace of Base at the BMG Building in

New York City under the agreement that they record two more “hits” for the U.S.

version of their debut album, Happy Nation, which had been released in Denmark

in 1992 and other parts of Europe in 1993.

218

Those hits were the

Denniz-produced “The Sign” and the Tina Turner cover “Don’t Turn Around.”

Released in the U.S. in November 1993, Ace of Base’s debut album,

retitled The Sign, was a surprise smash and reached number one on the Billboard

200.

219

The title track sat at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for six

non-consecutive weeks and became the best-selling single of 1994.

220

“All That

She Wants” and “Don’t Turn Around” peaked at numbers two and four,

respectively.

221

The Sign went on to sell over 23 million copies worldwide,

making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.

222

For their sophomore album,

The Bridge, Ace of Base collaborated with Denniz and a young Martin. The

222

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 45.

221

Tom Breihan, “The Number Ones: Ace Of Base’s ‘The Sign,’” Stereogum, February 28, 2022,

https://www.stereogum.com/2177528/the-number-ones-ace-of-bases-the-sign/columns/the-number

-ones/.

220

Ibid, 45.

219

Ibid, 42.

218

Ibid, 41-42.

217

Ibid, 42.

216

Ibid.

215

Ibid, 41.

album’s commercial success was inconsistent worldwide (the lead single,

“Beautiful Life,” produced by Denniz, Martin, and Ace of Base member Jonas

Berggren, peaked at number fifteen in the U.S.) and represented a significant sales

slump from their debut.

223

Ace of Base quickly faded into obscurity, but they had

convincingly put Denniz and Cheiron on the map.

Ace of Base’s spellbinding success and unique sound attracted public

interest in Denniz and Cheiron by national and international record labels and

executives. In response, Denniz began assembling a team of in-house

writer-producers who could provide the skills required for mass music

exportation.

224

This team included Martin, Kristian Lundin, Andreas Carlsson,

Herbie Crichlow, Jake Schulze, David Kreuger, Per Magnusson, Jörgen Elofsson,

and John Amatiello. Many of these collaborators, like Lundin and Kreuger, had

been DJs in Stockholm, and others, specifically Carlsson, Elofsson, and Martin,

were briefly signed to Cheiron Records as recording artists.

225

Denniz approached

songwriting as collaborative and believed that the best songs borrowed from the

minds of many.

226

Songs at Cheiron were written in groups, where different

songwriters were responsible for different parts of the composition. One person

might write a verse, another a chorus, another a bridge. Melody, lyrics,

arrangement, and production could each be handled by different people.

226

Polar Music Prize, “Max Martin.”

225

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 52.

224

Ibid, 64.

223

Ibid, 46.

Nearly all instrumentation was programmed electronically using the DAW

Logic.

227

Sounds––synth pads, drum hits, horn stabs––were frequently reused, and

samples (like the snap of a finger) were recorded live or ripped from foreign CDs,

partially due to financial limitations and the still-new and underdeveloped music

technology available at the time.

228

When a song was successful, sounds and

samples were often repurposed for a subsequent release by the same artist or a

different artist.

229

Unsurprisingly, Cheiron established a highly sought-after

signature sound replicated by competing studios.

230

American label Jive Records

had the key ingredient to keeping Cheiron at the top: a boy band.

South African businessmen Clive Calder and Ralph Simon founded Jive in

1981 as an extension of their music publishing company Zomba Corporation.

Throughout the 1980s, Zomba provided songs to Arista artists via a partnership

with Clive Davis, while Jive signed and managed a roster of hip-hop and R&B

acts.

231

In 1991, BMG purchased 25 percent of Zomba and agreed to distribute

Jive releases worldwide (BMG would later purchase 20 percent of Jive in 1996

and the entirety of Zomba in 2002).

232

However, Calder needed to sign a pop act

because hip-hop and R&B were not considered internationally marketable.

233

Conveniently, American entrepreneur Lou Pearlman had crafted Backstreet Boys,

233

Ibid, 61.

232

Ibid, 60-61.

231

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 59-60.

230

Ibid.

229

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 106.

228

Ibid.

227

Daniel Griffiths, “Pop Super-Producer Rami Yacoub: “Max Martin Said ‘This Is the Magic’... It

Was Pretty Amazing”,” MusicRadar, March 31, 2021,

https://www.musicradar.com/news/pop-super-producer-rami-yacoub-max-martin-said-this-is-the-

magic-it-was-pretty-amazing.

a group of five male teenagers, in 1993. The group signed with Jive at the Zomba

building in 1995.

234

Immediately, Jive began searching for material, but after lukewarm

enthusiasm from American writer-producers, they turned to Martin Dodd, head of

artist and repertoire for Jive in Europe, who suggested Denniz.

235

In the summer

of 1995, Backstreet Boys recorded “We’ve Got It Goin’ On”

236

and “Quit Playing

Games (With My Heart)”

237

at Cheiron. Both songs epitomize the “Cheiron

sound”: a repeated instrumental melodic motif introduces the theme and leads to a

climax of an arena rock chorus paired with flashy synths (typically the Roland

JV-2080)

238

and the signature Cheiron snare (created by Martin)

239

and kick-drum

combination (layered to maximize impact). Though both songs and their

corresponding international debut album made Backstreet Boys a household name

across Europe, they failed to make a dent on the Hot 100, a notoriously tough

landscape for boy bands and girl groups.

240

Things changed, however, with the

explosive global debut of the Spice Girls in 1996.

Hoping to break America, Jive reconfigured the international version of

Backstreet Boys’ self-titled debut album, stitching together previously released

songs, including the original Cheiron contributions, and new Cheiron singles “As

240

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 76.

239

The Legacy of Denniz Pop - Documentary, 2017,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gm51knLrJek.

238

Griffiths, “Pop Super-Producer Rami Yacoub.”

237

Written by Max Martin and Herbert Crichlow and produced by Max Martin and Kristian

Lundin.

236

Written by Max Martin, Denniz Pop, and Herbert Crichlow and produced by Denniz Pop and

Max Martin.

235

Ibid, 63-64.

234

Ibid, 62.

Long As You Love Me”

241

and “Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)”

242

to form the

track listing.

243

Within months the album became a bestseller in America, landing

two of the Cheiron singles in the top five.

244

Denniz and Martin had proven

themselves essential to Backstreet Boys and the sound of teen pop. The reverse

was true as well. Though Denniz and Martin found success working with other

teen acts, specifically Swedish singer Robyn and British boy band 5ive, no

partnership was as fruitful as the one they forged with Jive.

Capitalizing on the success of Backstreet Boys, Pearlman developed plans

for a competing boy band and a corresponding girl group. *NSYNC, the boy

band, debuted with the Denniz-Martin produced “I Want You Back” in 1996.

After flopping in America, BMG Ariola signed *NSYNC and copied the Jive

strategy by rereleasing a U.S.- and U.K.-specific version of their self-titled debut

album in 1998.

245

Around the same time, a teenage girl from Louisiana who had

coincidentally worked with *NSYNC members Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez

on Disney Channel’s The All-New Mickey Mouse Club auditioned for Pearlman’s

girl group Innosense.

246

She was admitted but passed in favor of a solo career.

247

Jive signed her as an American alternative to Robyn and sent her to Sweden.

248

Ibid, 88-89.

247

Ibid, 86.

246

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 85-86.

245

Taylor Weatherby, “*NSYNC Reflects on Making U.S. Debut & Competing With Backstreet

Boys as Self-Titled Album Turns 20: ‘It Was Us Against the World,’” Billboard, March 24, 2018,

https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/nsync-debut-album-us-20th-anniversary-oral-history-82581

81/.

244

“Backstreet Boys,” Billboard, Accessed January 4, 2023,

https://www.billboard.com/artist/backstreet-boys/.

243

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 82.

242

Written and produced by Denniz Pop and Max Martin.

241

Written by Max Martin and produced by Max Martin and Kristian Lundin.

While at Cheiron, she recorded four of the five singles for her debut album ...Baby

One More Time.

249

Britney Spears was an instant success owed to her unmistakable charisma

and perfectly packaged pop sound and image. “...Baby One More Time,” her

debut single written by Martin, announced the presence of a superstar. The song

reached number one in nearly every major chart across the world, marking the

first of Martin’s twenty-five U.S. number ones, and, with the help of its music

video, became a cultural phenomenon.

250

It is one of the best-selling singles of all

time and a hallmark of teen pop. The album of the same name has sold

twenty-five million copies worldwide

251

and is the best-selling debut album by a

female artist in history. Subsequent singles, “Sometimes,”

252

“(You Drive Me)

Crazy,”

253

and “Born to Make You Happy”

254

were all written by Cheiron

writer-producers and dominated charts globally.

In 1999, Martin and an assortment of other Cheiron collaborators

produced all four singles––“I Want It That Way,” “Larger Than Life,” “Show Me

the Meaning of Being Lonely,” and “The One”––for Backstreet Boys’ blockbuster

album Millenium which sold a staggering 1.1 million copies in the U.S. its first

week.

255

Cheiron repeated this success with the even bigger openings of Spears’

255

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 98.

254

Written by Andreas Carlsson and Kristian Lundin and produced by Kristian Lundin.

253

Written by Jörgen Elofsson, Max Martin, David Kreuger, and Per Magnusson and produced by

Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, and Max Martin.

252

Written by Jörgen Elofsson and produced by Per Magnusson and David Kreuger.

251

Tierney Bricker, “Secrets You Never Knew About Britney Spears’ ...Baby One More Time,” E!

Online, November 26, 2021,

https://www.eonline.com/news/1003846/britney-spears-baby-one-more-time-turns-20-secrets-you-

never-knew-about-her-debut-album.

250

Ibid, 97.

249

Ibid, 94.

Oops!... I Did It Again (1.3 million copies)

256

and *NSYNC’s No Strings Attached

(2.4 million copies),

257

both released by Jive at the turn of the millennium. The

Cheiron team was responsible for the biggest singles from each album, including

the Martin-penned “Oops!... I Did It Again,”

258

“Lucky,”

259

and “Stronger”

260

for

Spears, and “It’s Gonna Be Me”

261

for *NSYNC. Unfortunately, Denniz never got

to witness their global reign. On August 30, 1998, a month before “...Baby One

More Time” was released, he died of stomach cancer. He was thirty-five years

old.

Denniz’s death was the first sign that Cheiron was coming to an end.

Following Denniz’s death, a twenty-seven-year-old Martin took over as Cheiron

director and mentored the new Cheiron addition, Rami Yacoub (also known as

Rami). Their songwriting partnership, which mirrored the one Martin had shared

with Denniz, spawned mega hits for Spears, *NSYNC, and the final Backstreet

Boys album released in their commercial prime, Black & Blue. Martin continued

to work with other Cheiron writer-producers on hits for Céline Dion and Irish boy

band Westlife and won the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year award in 1999 and

2000. However, though success continued, it was dwindling. Teen pop had fallen

out of favor for something gritty and less polished sounding. While cost and

261

Written by Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson, and Rami Yacoub and produced by Rami Yacoub.

260

Written and produced by Max Martin and Rami Yacoub.

259

Written by Max Martin, Alexander Kronlund, and Rami Yacoub and produced by Max Martin

and Rami Yacoub.

258

Written and produced by Max Martin and Rami Yacoub.

257

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 104.

256

Gary Trust, “This Week in Billboard Chart History: In 2000, ‘Oops,’ Britney Spears Hit No. 1

‘Again,’” Billboard, May 29, 2017,

https://www.billboard.com/pro/this-week-in-billboard-chart-history-in-2000-oops-britney-spears/.

time-efficient, recycling samples ultimately created a stale sound that competitors

easily replicated.

By the early 2000s, reliable Cheiron clientele like Spears and Justin

Timberlake, who was embarking on a solo career post-*NSYNC, began trading

the Cheiron pop gloss for a comparatively “black” sound helmed by American

producers Timbaland and the Pharrell Williams-Chad Hugo duo The Neptunes.

262

A message posted on the Cheiron website by Martin and Tom Talomaa, the

co-founder of Cheiron, announced the closure of Cheiron in 2000: “Cheiron was

created with the intention of having fun, making a few hits and not getting too

serious about it. At the end of this year we have fulfilled our commitments and are

able to do as we please. We feel that the ‘hype’ of Cheiron has become bigger

than itself and it’s time to quit while we’re ahead.”

263

Almost instantly, the

Cheiron team splintered, forming companies in small groups while remaining

connected in the Stockholm music scene. Former Cheiron member Anders Bagge

and record store owner Christian Wåhlberg founded Murlyn Music in 1998.

Adopting a similar workflow to Cheiron, where songwriters worked in pairs on

different parts of the same song, Murlyn produced hits for American boy band 98°

as well as Céline Dion, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, and Britney

Spears.

264

Other companies, Location Songs, founded by Andreas Carlsson, Kristian

Lundin, and Jake Schulze, and A Side Productions, founded by Per Magnusson,

264

Johansson, Songs From Sweden, 53.

263

“Cheiron Special Announcement,” Internet Archive, October 5, 2000,

https://web.archive.org/web/20001005195819/http://www.cheiron.se/.

262

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 123.

David Kreuger, and Jörgen Elofsson, emerged in 2001. Martin and Tom Talomaa

started Maratone in January 2001 and enlisted Rami Yacoub as a collaborator.

Given their reputation with Cheiron and the extensive network of

writer-producers in Stockholm, Martin and Yacoub attracted a string of former

customers like Spears, Dion, and Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys and worked with

the three Cheiron spin-offs. However, the hits were not as bountiful this time,

forcing Martin to recalibrate, a story reserved for Chapter Three.

Despite being short-lived, Cheiron left a lasting impact on the sound of

Swedish pop and the songwriting methods that continue to permeate the global

music industry. In the same way ABBA functioned as a role model for Swedish

performers chasing international success, Denniz proved that Swedish

writer-producers could compete in the American-dominated music industry.

Assembling a team of pop masterminds who continue to operate in the global

music industry, Denniz provided many of the Swedish writer-producers

referenced in this thesis with the training, resources, and connections they needed

to find sustained success. Most, if not all, of these writer-producers, can trace their

roots to Cheiron as members of the studio or mentees of Martin or other Cheiron

writer-producers.

265

“He [Denniz] just put together a bunch of people who really

had nothing to do with each other, and he created this band of brothers,” remarked

Andreas Carlsson.

266

Martin’s close relationship with Denniz, in particular, was

integral to his success as a writer-producer musically, personally, and

professionally.

266

Ballardie, “Denniz Pop.”

265

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 45.

While Martin was a trained musician who understood the technicalities of

music composition, Denniz had experience from his career as a DJ and a sharp ear

for what “worked.” Reflecting on his relationship with Denniz, Martin stated, “It

changed everything. The fact that he even noticed me, let alone bring me into his

world. It changed my whole life. His approach, that it should be fun, that we

could be a team… It’s stayed with me throughout my career.”

267

Many of Martin’s

songwriting characteristics defined in Chapter Two stem from his experience

working with Denniz. These characteristics have been passed on by Martin to his

hugely successful protégés, including Dr. Luke, Shellback, Savan Kotecha, ILYA,

and Ali Payami, and continue to circulate among writer-producers around the

world. Denniz also helped popularize widely practiced strategies, such as the

collaborative songwriting model at Cheiron and “The L.A. Car Test” (a practice in

which pop songs are played in a car driven up and down the Pacific Coast

Highway to ensure they sound right for the radio).

268

The Cheiron sound

ultimately became synonymous with Swedish pop in the late 1990s and early

2000s and a designation of precision and chart success. Though the average

listener may not realize it, the teen pop sound of Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and

Britney Spears, plus contemporaries like Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore, who

emulated these artists in part, is essentially that of the Cheiron writer-producers.

268

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 36.

267

The Legacy of Denniz Pop - Documentary.

Fig. 1.2: Max Martin (left) and Denniz Pop (right) during an interview, 1995

269

Counterintuitively, Denniz’s limited musical experience allowed him to

seamlessly blend the dance grooves of European clubs, hip-hop, and reggae with

simplistic chord progressions, sticky melodies, and ear-catching lyrics fit for a

teenage audience. “He called it the ‘hit rake’... Three fingers and a keyboard. Any

chord would do. And that’s basically it… But you need a finely tuned… You need

to have a great ear for music,” said Swedish musician E-Type, who frequently

worked with Denniz, Martin, and other Cheiron writer-producers.

270

Methodical

and undoubtedly manufactured, the creative process at Cheiron was equally

intuitive and personality-driven. These two seemingly opposite qualities define

much of Swedish pop songwriting and give it the unique ability to both attain

270

The Legacy of Denniz Pop - Documentary.

269

Interview with Denniz Pop & Max Martin (How They Started Working with Ace of Base).

commercial success and resonate with millions of listeners. Martin’s songs

exemplify this dichotomy, feeling standardized and mathematically engineered for

mass consumption while conjuring emotional responses that range from euphoria

to melancholic nostalgia. Imagining the sound of Swedish pop or much of

twenty-first-century American pop is impossible without Denniz and Cheiron.

From style to workflow, Denniz provided a musical blueprint for Swedish

writer-producers. He granted them invaluable access to American artists and

labels and firmly established the Sweden-to-America song pipeline through

networking and reputation. Where Denniz’s story ends, Martin’s begins though

Denniz’s influence is felt across Martin’s songwriting and career.

Making Connections

Over the course of this chapter, I have traced key developments in the

history of Swedish music from the nineteenth century to the early twenty-first

century to outline how the modern Swedish music industry was built. The

connections between Swedish writer-producers and American labels were formed

because of the developments that transpired during this period, particularly at the

height of globalization and the reform of Swedish media. Many of the events

explained in the five sections of this chapter support one or multiple of the seven

theses proposed by Ola Johansson in Songs From Sweden: Shaping Pop Culture

in a Globalized Music Industry and summarized in the Introduction of this thesis.

First, the shift from rural folk music communities to commercialized

national and international music industries, caused by the advent and spread of

radio and TV, revolutionized the distribution of Swedish music both within

Sweden and globally (The Globalization Thesis). Swedish musical success

abroad, specifically ABBA and Cheiron, was made possible by globalization and

contributed to the recognition of Swedish talent (ABBA more explicitly than

Cheiron) in the international music scene. Other Swedish musicians followed suit

by exporting their work, as performers or songwriters or both, to large music

markets like the United States and the United Kingdom. Martin has expressed his

gratitude for ABBA and Denniz. Those who work independently of a direct

mentor are equally indebted to the legacy of ABBA, Denniz, Martin, and other

internationally successful Swedish acts, who have equated Swedish music with

pop excellence (The Role Model Thesis).

Music education and the opportunities presented by government-funded

municipal music schools and grants meant that Swedish musicians, particularly

those with professional goals like Martin, could reasonably engage in musical

activity free of financial burden (The Governmental and Institutional Support

Thesis). These programs, coupled with the small population in Sweden and its

clustered musical communities, made it easier for musicians and other creatives to

interact and network (The Industrial Cluster Thesis). Localized networks, such as

municipal music schools, Stockholm, and Cheiron, demonstrate their importance

repeatedly, as many of the writer-producers mentioned in this thesis are friends

and collaborators who use their relationships to find work on a global scale.

Starting with local resources in a concentrated music scene like Stockholm,

Swedish writer-producers often expanded their reach to neighboring Scandinavian

countries, followed by Europe and America. ABBA is a prime example: the group

was formed by four Swedish musicians who had had national success before

cultivating an audience at the national Melodifestivalen, international Eurovision,

and finally, the world. Ace of Base mirrored them, and when Denniz began

producing, he captured the Scandinavian market with Swedish acts, followed by

Europe and the U.S. with Ace of Base and his work for American labels (The

Small Market Thesis).

Swedish writer-producers pursuing U.S. chart success must physically

extend themselves to America, taking frequent trips to hubs like Los Angeles and

New York City to sell their “product” (a studio session resulting in a song).

Sweden has always accepted that, as a small country with an endemic language,

its ability to thrive economically depends on its willingness to adopt global trends

and English (The Early Adopter Thesis). Fluency in English is one of their most

important assets; however, skills in technology and a curiosity for other musical

genres are equally essential when writing music for a global audience (The

English Proficiency Thesis). Because my thesis focuses on Martin, who grew up

in Stenhamra and found his start in central Stockholm, the events in this chapter

explain how the writer-producer and his sound originated. The following two

chapters break down a selection of songs that exemplify Martin’s sound.

Chapter Two: Defining Max Martin

...[Britney] Spears and Max Martin entered the studio and reshaped the

next quarter-century of pop music, like a dam redirecting a river’s flow.

“...Baby One More Time” is the dam, a structure crackling with energy.

Like so many great pop songs, it taunts the listener by conflating the

romantic and the religious: confession, belief, begging for a sign. The

spiritual desperation, alongside Martin’s precise melodic techniques, is

what makes a high school crush feel like life or death. Would-be stars and

ambitious producers have been chasing that transgressive thrill for

decades, but it’s tough to top the original sin.

—Jamieson Cox, Pitchfork

271

“...Baby One More Time,” released as Britney Spears’ debut single in

1998, is foundational to Max Martin’s songwriting and career. As previously

stated, the song was a tremendous global success, leading to both Martin’s and

Spears’ global breakthroughs. The template for Spears’ public persona––an

all-American girl meets worldly vixen––and her corresponding musical model is

best conveyed in “...Baby One More Time.” Without “...Baby,” there is no Max

Martin and consequently no Britney Spears. Without Spears, the sound of

twenty-first-century pop would not be the same as her legacy informs the genre

and has influenced countless female artists who similarly define

twenty-first-century pop. Many of these female artists have worked with Martin to

develop their sound because of his success with “...Baby” and Spears, and their

successes will be explored in the following chapter. My goal throughout this

chapter is to illustrate how “...Baby” has influenced twenty-first-century pop and

271

“The 250 Best Songs of the 1990s,” Pitchfork, Pitchfork, September 27, 2022,

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-best-songs-of-the-1990s/.

pop songwriting, particularly as it relates to the dissemination of various

“Swedish” musical traits and Martin’s songwriting characteristics from Sweden to

the U.S. and globally.

By incorporating what I consider to be Martin’s five essential songwriting

characteristics (Melody-first, Melodic Math, simplicity and immediacy,

collaboration, and vocal-oriented), “...Baby” embodies the Cheiron method and

serves as a musical model that is repurposed throughout successive generations of

songwriters and performers. Martin has spoken about these songwriting

characteristics in various interviews, acknowledging them as part of his

songwriting “toolbox.” However, these songwriting characteristics are not

Martin’s “inventions,” nor are they used exclusively by Martin. Rather, they are

widely practiced methods of songwriting, particularly in pop, that are typical of

Martin’s songwriting and popularized by the success of his songs.

I will explain how Martin’s songwriting characteristics appear in “...Baby

One More Time” and how these characteristics have influenced Martin’s music

more broadly. Many of these characteristics are derived from musical practices in

Sweden and were passed on to Martin and other Cheiron writer-producers by

Denniz Pop. Considerable influence is also derived from global music trends and

the cultural customs and social behaviors mentioned in the previous chapter that

define musical society in Sweden. In connection with the following chapter, I

argue that all or most of these characteristics are present in every Martin song and

are highly associated with his widespread sound.

Melody-first

The hook for “...Baby One More Time” struck Martin one night as he fell

asleep. Written in 1997, Martin haphazardly recorded the chorus melody on a

dictaphone between sudden bursts of inspiration. He came up with a melody,

getting out of bed to record it. Then, back in bed, he came up with another. And

then another. There were no lyrics, only melodies formed using vowel sounds.

Before calling it a night, he landed on the phrase, “Hit me, baby, one more time.”

In the following weeks, Martin crafted the verse and bridge melodies and

reworked his chorus in an alternative form. He decided he had written an R&B

song and contacted Rami Yacoub, his protégé and frequent collaborator, to assist

with the production. Together, they produced a demo performed by Martin, which

they pitched to the American girl group TLC.

Titled “Hit Me Baby (One More Time),” TLC vehemently opposed the

song’s refrain, interpreting it as “an ode to domestic violence.”

272

Years later, TLC

member T-Boz recalled, “I was like, I like the song but do I think it’s a hit? Do I

think it’s TLC? I’m not saying ‘hit me baby.’ No disrespect to Britney. It’s good

for her. But was I going to say ‘hit me baby one more time’? Hell no!”

273

Despite

the group’s interpretation, “hit me, baby, one more time” was far from an allusion

to domestic violence or sadomasochism. In fact, Martin had written the hook

intending to adopt contemporary American lingo: “hit me” was short for “hit me

273

Cory Midgarden, “Why TLC Said ‘Hell No’ To Britney’s ‘...Baby One More Time,’” MTV,

October 17, 2013, https://www.mtv.com/news/oee6mv/tlc-britney-spears-baby-one-more-time.

272

Knowledge at Wharton Staff, “Behind the Music: How the Swedish Hit Factory Took Over

Your Playlist,” Knowledge at Wharton, January 13, 2016,

https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/behind-the-music-why-a-few-guys-from-sweden-ow

n-your-playlist/.

up” or “call me.”

274

When Martin pitched the demo to Britney Spears a year later,

he reworked it slightly, but the hook stayed. Spears’ label, Jive Records, loved the

song but was concerned the hook would be misinterpreted. At the suggestion of

Barry Weiss, the former president of Jive, the original title “Hit Me Baby (One

More Time)” was changed to “...Baby One More Time.” However, the lyric, “hit

me, baby, one more time,” stuck (see Appendix B for full lyrics).

275

The enormous

success of “...Baby One More Time” in 1999, when it became the best-selling

song of the year in the U.K.

276

and fifth in the U.S.,

277

made it clear that the phrase

was here to stay. Martin’s attempt to sound “American” might be considered a

failure, but he had stumbled upon an unforgettable catchphrase.

Following the breakout success of “...Baby,” competing non-Swedish

songwriters began vying to work with Spears, intentionally adopting Martin’s

musical model. “Being in A&R, I had every songwriter in the world trying to

submit songs for Britney. It’s amazing how songwriters who never wrote like that

before in their lives were suddenly writing things that sounded like they were

Swedish,” observed Steve Lunt, the A&R executive at Jive who paired Martin

with Spears.

278

“...Baby” illustrates Martin’s Melody-first approach by fitting

278

Andrew Unterberger, “Play It Again, Max: How the Piano Riff to Britney Spears’ ‘Baby One

More Time’ Became the Most Iconic Hook of Its Era,” Billboard, October 23, 2018,

https://www.billboard.com/music/features/britney-spears-baby-one-more-time-piano-hook-max-m

artin-8480754/.

277

Melody Chiu, “Britney Spears Tops Rolling Stone’s Greatest Debut Singles List with ‘...Baby

One More Time,’” People, May 19, 2020,

https://people.com/music/britney-spears-tops-rolling-stone-greatest-debut-singles-list/.

276

Ash Percival and Connor Parker, “20 Years On, Here’s 20 Facts About Britney Spears’s

‘...Baby One More Time’ You Definitely Didn’t Know,” HuffPost UK, October 23, 2018,

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/britney-spears-baby-one-more-time-20th-anniversary-facts

_uk_5bcdf22ce4b055bc94833432.

275

Jessica M. Goldstein, “‘Britney Spears Wanted to Be a Star’: An Oral History of ‘...Baby One

More Time,’” Entertainment Weekly, October 23, 2018,

https://ew.com/music/2018/10/23/baby-one-more-time-britney-spears-oral-history/.

274

Seabrook, “Blank Space.”

words and syllables into a predetermined melody. Instead of writing lyrics first

and setting them to music second or writing lyrics with poetic intention in the way

a native English songwriter might, Martin built the lyrics around the melody and

his initial catchphrase. Grammatically questionable and seemingly suggestive, the

catchphrase acts as a hook that lures the listener and sticks with them long after

the song ends. According to Michael Cragg, “including a ‘juicy line’ that sticks in

the listener’s memory,” especially an idiosyncratic one, is typical of Martin’s

songwriting.

279

A catchphrase and Martin’s Melody-first approach are also observable in

Denniz Pop’s work with Ace of Base (recall the hook “all that she wants is

another baby”). Ace of Base member Ulf Ekberg argued that this Melody-first

approach, and the inevitable hooks it creates, dates back to Schlager music which

emphasizes melody over lyrics.

280

ABBA, Roxette, Ace of Base, Denniz, and

Martin, adapted Schlager music in their more deliberate pop-styled work.

281

Melodifestivalen, which regularly features entries from Swedish pop

writer-producers, is sometimes referred to as “Schlagerfestivalen” because of the

prominence of melodic pop on the show.

282

“Schlager is very hooky and has

strong melodies. Also Swedish is a very melodic language and it fits well with the

282

Ibid.

281

Ibid.

280

Saeed Saeed, “Ever since Abba: The Swedish Influence on Pop Music Is as Strong as Ever,”

The National, May 19, 2011,

https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/music/ever-since-abba-the-swedish-influence-on-po

p-music-is-as-strong-as-ever-1.384965.

279

Michael Cragg, “‘Britney Spears Is a Genius’: Max Martin, the Powerhouse of Pure Pop,” The

Guardian, October 25, 2019,

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/oct/25/were-not-made-to-be-famous-max-martin-the-po

werhouse-of-pure-pop.

tune and instrumentation of Schlager music,” said Ukberg in an interview with

The National in 2011.

283

In the same interview, Ukberg explained what he determined to be a

distinguishing factor in how Americans write lyrics versus Swedes:

For Sweden [melody is] number one and has always been … While the

Americans, it’s the lyrics first, production second and melody last. I am

not saying the lyrics are not important, but for us Swedes, for whom

English is our second language, we just try to make it understood by a

world audience. Because of this focus on lyrics, some of the American

songs are complicated and can sometimes be not much fun. While for us,

we always try to reach to [sic] as many people as we can, so we have

feel-good melodies and simple lyrics so everyone can have fun.

284

Released half a year after “...Baby,” “I Want It That Way” by Backstreet Boys

also uses the Melody-first approach. Martin and co-writer Andreas Carlsson wrote

the lyrics to “I Want It That Way” to complement a pre-existing melody, resulting

in verses that are vague in meaning: “Am I your fire / The one desire / Believe

when I say / I want it that way / But we are two worlds apart / Can’t reach to your

heart / When you say / That I want it that way.” In the chorus, the boys declare

they “never wanna hear you [a love interest?] say, ‘I want it that way,’”

completely contradicting the preceding verse. The phrase “I want it that way,”

which functions as a closing statement at the end of the chorus and is repeated

nine times throughout the song, is devoid of any specific meaning. What exactly

“it” refers to is equally unclear.

Jive took issue with Martin and Carlsson’s lyrics and commissioned a

rewrite by South African songwriter Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who changed the

284

Ibid.

283

Ibid.

main lyric to “I love it when I hear you say, ‘I want it that way.’”

285

Backstreet

Boys recorded this alternative version in January 1999 but ended up releasing the

original Martin and Carlsson version because they felt it was more catchy and had

a better rhythmic feel (the “Mutt” Lange version leaked on Napster and can be

heard on YouTube but remains unreleased officially).

286

Backstreet Boys member

Kevin Richardson admitted to LA Weekly in 2011, “Ultimately the song really

doesn’t really make much sense … His [Martin’s] English has gotten much better,

but at the time… There are a lot of songs out there like that don’t make sense, but

make you feel good when you sing along to them, and that’s one of them.”

287

“I

Want It That Way” was a number-one hit in more than twenty-five countries and

peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, later receiving three Grammy

nominations, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year. Its success

prompted other labels to request songs with “mysterious” lyrics, code for

“Swedish.”

288

The result of these “Swedish” affected lyrics are sounds that are simple

and easy for a listener to understand and internalize, regardless of their native

language. Furthermore, the simplified lyrics resonate perhaps most directly with

their intended teenage audience but remain universal and, in some cases, vague

enough to appeal to older listeners. Nana Hedin, the Swedish singer who sang

backing vocals on “...Baby,” told The Guardian, “I remember I thought the song

288

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 113.

287

Ben Westhoff, “What The Hell Is Backstreet Boys’ ‘I Want It That Way’ About? UPDATE:

Mind-Blowing Shit Has Come To Light,” LA Weekly, December 15, 2011,

https://www.laweekly.com/what-the-hell-is-backstreet-boys-i-want-it-that-way-about-update-mind

-blowing-shit-has-come-to-light/.

286

Ibid.

285

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 113.

[“...Baby One More Time”] was for teenagers but the production was filled with a

grown-up attitude and sounds that I really liked. I was so impressed by how a guy

like Max could write lyrics that got into the hearts and spoke to the teenage

thinking.”

289

Martin’s ability to tailor a song to the intended audience is one of his

greatest strengths as a songwriter. It aligns with the practices of many Swedish

musicians and writer-producers who deliberately cater to a global audience in

sound, style, and language.

Melodies prove more global in reach than lyrics, and when considering

Top Forty radio, frequently listened to in the context of multitasking like

commuting or shopping, more viable. “A pop banger doesn’t need to sound

genius to be ingeniously constructed, but it’s most effective, and financially

lucrative, when it combines the elements that make it enjoyable across all

demographics – the beat, the melody, the chorus almost scientifically calibrated to

be unforgettable,” wrote Josh O’Kane, a technology reporter for The Globe and

Mail.

290

“...Baby” merges simple lyrics with a striking hook and carefully

constructed melodies to appeal to a wide range of listener demographics. Melodic

Math, explained below, increases the chance that these melodies stick with the

listener.

290

O’Kane, “How Sweden Became a Dominant Force in Global Pop Music.”

289

Michael Cragg, “‘It Was a Bit of a Blur’: Britney Spears on the Making of ...Baby One More

Time,” The Guardian, August 11, 2018,

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/aug/11/britney-spears-making-baby-one-more-time.

Melodic Math

“Oh, baby, baby” are the first words Spears sings in “...Baby.” This

musical phrase can be represented as five eighth notes, all on the pitch C. Before

the start of the first verse, this exact phrase has been sung twice. The phrase

appears again at the start of the first verse: “Oh, baby, baby / How was I supposed

to know? / That something wasn’t right here / Oh, baby, baby / I shouldn’t have

let you go / And now you’re out of sight, yeah.” When the chorus kicks in ten

seconds later, it is sung again: “My loneliness is killing me.” Only the words have

changed. Melodic Math is at work.

Martin’s melodies are all about intention. Though Martin rejects the notion

that his music is based on a formula, preferring the term “toolbox,”

291

it appears

he uses a formula of some sort when composing and revising melodies for a song.

Rami Yacoub clarified that Melodic Math is never the first step in the songwriting

process but is a tool for critically evaluating and editing a melody that “doesn’t

feel right.”

292

As an extension of the Melody-first approach, Melodic Math is

based on simplicity and repetition with enough variation to keep listeners

engaged. Moderation is crucial, and melodies must strike a balance between being

busy and sparse. There are more or less three basic rules of Melodic Math. One: If

the verse is busy with lots of fast-paced melodies, then the chorus should be

sparse with longer, legato passages, or vice versa.

293

Two: Corresponding sections,

such as a first verse and second verse, or consecutive lines should have the same

293

Ballardie, “Denniz Pop.”

292

George Garner, “The Aftershow: Rami Yacoub,” Music Week, June 25, 2021,

http://www.musicweek.com/interviews/read/the-aftershow-rami-yacoub/083597.

291

Johansson, Songs From Sweden, 110.

number of syllables.

294

Third: Melodic phrases can be lifted from a verse to a

chorus so that the chorus feels familiar.

295

ABBA used this last strategy on hits

like “S.O.S.” These three rules dictate the composition of “...Baby,” written in

verse-chorus form with an additional variation on the chorus, called the b-chorus.

Below are examples of each Melodic Math rule as it occurs in “...Baby.”

Rule One: Rhythmic and Melodic Balance

During the verse, Martin primarily uses eighth note rhythms and the

previously mentioned recurring “Oh, baby, baby” melodic motif (Figure 2.1). In

the next section, the pre-chorus, he places the rhythmic emphasis on quarter notes

instead: “Show me how you want it to be / Tell me, baby, ‘cause I need to know

now” (Figure 2.2). The quarter notes appear on the first two beats of each

measure, the first of which is the downbeat or the strongest beat of the measure.

When Martin reintroduces the eighth note, “Oh, baby, baby,” melodic motif on the

words “My loneliness” at the start of the chorus, it is a welcome return to

familiarity that manages to feel new. By separating the eighth note rhythms in the

verse and chorus with quarter notes in the pre-chorus, Martin provides a necessary

rhythmic and melodic balance that allows him to reintroduce familiar musical

ideas without them feeling monotonous.

295

Ibid.

294

Ibid.

Fig. 2.1: “...Baby One More Time” verse fragment

Fig. 2.2: “...Baby One More Time” pre-chorus

Rule Two: Uniformity

It should be noted that almost every pop song follows a pattern of melodic

repetition and uniformity where corresponding sections or consecutive lines are

identical. In “...Baby,” this shows up where expected. For example, each half of

the verse is the same melodically and syllabically: part one, “Oh, baby, baby /

How was I supposed to know? / That something wasn’t right here,” and part two,

“Oh, baby, baby / I shouldn’t have let you go / And now you’re out of sight,

yeah.” But Martin takes things one step further. During the chorus, he stretches

phrases with unequal syllables to become the same. Take the consecutive phrases,

“Give me a sign / Hit me, baby, one more time.” The first phrase has four

syllables, while the second has seven. Martin elongates the melody on the word

“sign” to sound like “si-i-i-ign” and brings the four syllables to seven.

296

Now the

two phrases match.

296

Ballardie, “Denniz Pop.”

Rule Three: Same Melody, Different Section

As previously mentioned, the eighth note, “Oh, baby, baby,” melodic

motif appears in the introduction, verse, and chorus of “...Baby.” A casual listener

might recognize the motif in the introduction and verse because the lyrics are the

same; however, a more attuned ear is required to notice that this motif also opens

the chorus. What anyone will realize, most likely subconsciously, is that the

chorus is singable even on a first listen. Martin uses parts of the same melodies

from the verse in the chorus so that by the time the chorus kicks in, the listener

already knows what to expect, whether or not they realize it. He picked up this

trick from “I Wanna Be Your Lover” by Prince, explaining to the Swedish

newspaper Di Weekend that though the verse and chorus are the same in the song,

the change in energy between the verse and chorus makes it so that the listener

feels like they are hearing something different.

297

Martin uses the “Prince method”

on numerous songs, including his 2011 hit with Katy Perry, “E.T.,” where the

melody remains the same between the verse and chorus but the intensity of the

vocal performance, the lyrics, and the production changes. The bridge in

“...Baby,” which comes after two repetitions of the verse, pre-chorus, and chorus,

reuses melodic and lyrical fragments from the verses to form a “new” section with

a noticeably softer vocal performance and lush, quasi-classical texture in the

instrumental. The bridge leads into another “new” section, a reworking of the

chorus, called the b-chorus (Figure 2.3). This b-chorus, a signature Martin and

297

Jamie Milton, “The World’s Biggest Songwriter Has Revealed the Secrets to Penning a Hit,”

NME, February 28, 2017,

https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/max-martin-interview-perfect-pop-song-1996673..

Yacoub technique, rearranges melodies and lyrics from the original chorus (Figure

2.4).

Fig. 2.3: “...Baby One More Time” b-chorus

Fig. 2.4: “...Baby One More Time” original chorus

At the end of the song, the original chorus and b-chorus overlap in

counterpoint (Figure 2.5). Popular since the Renaissance, counterpoint is the

superimposition of two or more harmonically related but melodically and

rhythmically complementing or contrasting musical lines.

298

Before the original

chorus and b-chorus overlap, the listener has heard the original chorus four times

and the b-chorus once. When combined, the standard chorus and b-chorus form a

final “new” section that effectively serves as the musical climax. This climax,

though based on repeated material, feels momentous nonetheless.

Fig. 2.5: “...Baby One More Time” chorus and b-chorus in counterpoint

Martin told Di Weekend, “If you listen to the first, second and third chorus

of a song, they don’t sound the same. It’s the same melody and all that but what

really happens is that the energy changes. It’s all about getting the listener to keep

298

Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding, Switched on Pop: How Popular Music Works & Why It

Matters, (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2020), 114.

his or her concentration.”

299

“...Baby” continuously builds to its explosive finale,

layering the vocals of Spears, singer Nana Hedin, and Martin himself to create a

larger-than-life chorus. There are nods to the Swedish choir tradition and the

Western classical music Martin was exposed to as a pupil at Södra Latin. ABBA

also used vocal layering to create massive musical moments.

Yacoub’s description of the b-chorus to MusicRadar reveals its

significance in creating texture and melodic and rhythmic variation:

Yeah, we called it the B-chorus! The chorus would come back and then

the B-chorus would play under the chorus in harmony. … You have to

write another chorus that sounds amazing by itself. But then it has to fit

perfectly under the other chorus, and you kind of have to use the same

words but less busy. If the original chorus is staccato then the B-chorus

has long notes[.]

300

The three chorus variations in “...Baby,” all based on the next, ensure

memorability. Maximalism and tension building are Martin’s specialties, and

“...Baby” is a prime example. Chart analyst and pop critic Chris Molanphy

explained, “The way the song is structured, how the chorus goes to this chorus of

voices — the song is structured to deliver maximum pleasure.”

301

Subsequent

songs Martin and Yacoub produced for Spears, including the singles “Oops!... I

Did It Again,” “Lucky,” and “Stronger” (which references “...Baby” with the

updated line “My loneliness ain’t killing me no more”) employ the b-chorus and

counterpoint strategy and the precision of Melodic Math in a nearly identical

manner.

301

Goldstein, “‘Britney Spears Wanted to Be a Star.’”

300

Griffiths, “Pop Super-Producer Rami Yacoub.”

299

Milton, “The World’s Biggest Songwriter Has Revealed the Secrets to Penning a Hit.”

Simplicity and Immediacy

As much as Martin’s melodies are about intention, they are about

immediacy. Immediacy increases memorability, and for a song to burrow into the

memory of the average listener, its melodies must be immediate. A 2014 study

performed by music blogger Paul Lamere revealed that nearly a quarter of all

songs on Spotify get skipped within their first five seconds.

302

After that, the odds

of a song being played all the way through are slightly less than fifty percent.

303

With the popularity of TikTok and other short-form media platforms impacting

attention spans and influencing popular music, hit songs are becoming noticeably

shorter.

304

Four decades earlier, Denniz Pop, still a DJ in Stockholm, predicted this

trend. “You know he had this philosophy because he came from the DJ world, and

to keep people on the floor when you change the song, you couldn’t be like,

‘What’s this?’ … He liked playing songs where they knew exactly what it was

just from the very start. So that came from that, so it needed to be some kind of ID

thing in the beginning,” explained Martin during his Polar Prize masterclass.

305

The “ID thing” Martin references is, like the “Oh, baby, baby” motif, an

identifying musical trait that introduces a song and immediately distinguishes it.

305

Polar Music Max Martin Masterclass Interview, 2016,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc16Y1gKUDc.

304

Anita Singh, “Hit Songs Getting Shorter Because of TikTok Generation’s Attention Span,” The

Telegraph, February 7, 2022,

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/02/07/hit-songs-getting-shorter-tiktok-generations-attentio

n-span/.

303

Lamere, “The Skip.”

302

Paul Lamere, “The Skip,” Music Machinery (blog), May 2, 2014,

https://musicmachinery.com/2014/05/02/the-skip/.

Denniz’s rule was that the listener should recognize the song in just one second.

306

“Keep ‘em on the [dance] floor,” as Martin described it.

307

Martin extends this

rule to two or three seconds, but the principle remains: the hook must be front and

center.

There also cannot be only one hook. Jay Brown, the co-founder of Roc

Nation, told John Seabrook, “It’s not enough to have one hook anymore. …

You’ve got to have a hook in the intro, a hook in the pre, a hook in the chorus, and

a hook in the bridge, too.”

308

Immediately before the “Oh, baby, baby” vocal motif

in the introduction, a syncopated three-note piano riff, simply a B flat followed by

two Cs, opens “...Baby.” Best translated into onomatopoeia as “dun-dun-dun,”

this riff is unmistakable. “As soon as you hear those notes, you know what song it

is … I can’t think of another song like that,” said Steve Lunt to Billboard.

309

The

riff is played three times in the ten-second introduction alone and punctuates the

end of each verse, pre-chorus, and chorus, so by the time the song ends, it is

equally as compelling as the vocal melody.

310

Martin and Yacoub enhanced the

riff using “more distortion,” though Yacoub attested that it was “rock solid, so we

never touched it or strayed away from the blueprint.”

311

Aside from its simplicity and catchiness, the riff is also distinctive in the

way it subverts expectations. Kristin Yost, a piano expert and the Executive

Director for the Centre for Music Minds, explained, “The rising movement of the

311

Ibid.

310

Ibid.

309

Unterberger, “Play It Again, Max.”

308

Nathaniel Rich, “The Elaborate Charade to Obfuscate Who Writes Pop Music,” The Atlantic,

September 14, 2015, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/10/hit-charade/403192/.

307

Polar Music Max Martin Masterclass Interview.

306

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 117.

three-note hook starts a full step below the key the song is written in, which in

itself is unique — you don’t expect it … Combine this with the syncopated

rhythm and punchy accents, and you get what I would call a power move. ‘Pay

attention to me!’”

312

She added, “The riff is like the bold accessory to an

otherwise sharp-looking, all-black outfit; similar to say red, uniquely shaped

glasses … The outfit is good on its own, but add a pop of something special —

and simple — and all of a sudden the whole outfit stands out.”

313

This “accessory”

is a quintessential component of Martin’s Cheiron songwriting style, and it is also

evident in his later work. Clear examples from across his catalog include

Backstreet Boys’ “We’ve Got It Goin’ On,” P!nk’s “So What,” and The Weeknd’s

“Blinding Lights.” Each of these songs begins with an instrumental theme or

motif that repeats throughout the song and informs the vocal melody in some way.

Often the vocalist will sing this instrumental motif repeatedly using lyrics or

non-lexical vocables like “na na na.” The motif, therefore, becomes an essential

part of the melody and the song, more than an “accessory.” In the case of these

three examples, the verse or chorus melody that makes up most of the song is a

direct reiteration of the motif using lyrics or vocables.

The secret to an effective motif is that it is simple. Denniz prided himself

on his ability to strip away unnecessary musical elements to get to the core of a

song. Much of Swedish pop songwriting is defined by its analytical and

minimalist approach.

314

Minimalism is an inherent part of Swedish culture and

fundamental to Scandinavian design and lifestyle, with a focus on functionality.

314

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 107.

313

Ibid.

312

Ibid.

The ready-to-assemble products of the Swedish company IKEA provide an

excellent model. Denniz believed it is much harder to write a simple song than a

complex one.

315

When writing, Martin often wonders what Denniz would do to

simplify.

316

P!nk observed this minimalist approach in Martin:

I think what he’s great at is, ‘Stop, take a deep breath, simplify.’ I mean, a

great chef says the most important ingredient is the thing you leave out

and I think that’s also great for producing. That’s what he brings. He sort

of takes all of you and then goes, ‘These parts are fantastic, let’s work with

this.’ How do you create? Creating is a miracle and he’s one of the best

creators I’ve ever met.

317

Other Swedish writer-producers endorse this “less is more” approach as well.

Shellback and American writer-producer Savan Kotecha, both Martin protégés,

are proponents of simple-sounding songs that are cleverly crafted and, in a sense,

complex.

318

Jake Schulze of Cheiron described the Cheiron songwriting method to

The Globe and Mail as “the really cliché concept of ‘Don’t bore us, get to the

chorus,’” a reference to Roxette’s 1995 greatest hits compilation of the same

name.

319

For Martin, simplicity goes hand in hand with immediacy. The chorus in a

Martin song almost always arrives within the first forty to fifty seconds.

320

It is

common in pop songwriting to include a sample or snippet of the chorus at the

start of the song before the full chorus kicks in. This practice is reminiscent of two

Melodic Math strategies: the application of the same melodies across different

320

Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding, “Searching for Max Martin,” Switched on Pop, Accessed

January 5, 2023,

https://open.spotify.com/episode/2qOp6owi9foHNxkyZSjoZH?si=c558a5a91f7b4d25.

319

O’Kane, “How Sweden Became a Dominant Force in Global Pop Music.”

318

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 109.

317

Famous Artists on Working with Max Martin (Britney Spears, P!nk, Justin Timberlake, Katy

Perry), 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG0r1yW2fds.

316

Ibid, 109.

315

Ibid, 108-109.

sections and the inclusion of a riff or motif that “teases” later musical material.

Examples of an immediate chorus in Martin’s songs include Britney Spears’ “3,”

Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood,” and Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj’s “Side to Side.”

With each successive chorus repetition in each song, the chorus becomes slightly

bigger, with added production and vocal adlibs, before culminating in the final,

climactic chorus. Recall that part of Melodic Math involves repeating the same

musical material with increased “energy.” Just as Melodic Math is an extension of

the Melody-first approach, Martin’s focus on simplicity and immediacy expands

upon and informs these two concepts. In the following two sections, the focus will

shift to Martin’s collaborators on “...Baby,” co-producer Yacoub and Spears

herself, to explain how Martin maintains creative control while harnessing the

talents of others.

Collaboration Is Critical

Collaboration is critical in modern pop songwriting to increase

productivity and “bounce around” ideas. Historically, various collaborative

models of pop songwriting have existed, from the factory-like approach of Tin

Pan Alley and Motown to many prolific duos such as Lennon-McCartney,

Jagger-Richards, and John-Taupin. Sweden’s close-knit music industry is an ideal

environment for both models to flourish. Cheiron primarily utilized a factory-like

approach and, following its dissolution, produced several successful songwriting

duos. Of course, partnerships and collaborations are hardly exclusive to Sweden.

However, their prevalence among Swedish writer-producers makes them an

integral part of Swedish pop songwriting.

As established, most Cheiron songs were written in groups of three or

more in a highly industrialized process. Many Cheiron writer-producers, including

Martin and Yacoub, continued in songwriting partnerships after Cheiron closed in

2000. Elsewhere, Swedish songwriting duos are common, from ABBA’s Benny

Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus to Bloodshy & Avant (Christian “Bloodshy”

Karlsson and Pontus “Avant” Winnberg), Mattman & Robin (Mattias Per Larsson

and Robin Lennart Fredriksson), and Vargas & Lagola (Vincent Pontare and

Salem Al Fakir). Stargate (Tor E. Hermansen and Mikkel S. Eriksen) is another

highly successful writer-producer duo from Norway. Martin’s songwriting

partnerships are crucial to the development of his songwriting and, as explained in

Chapter Three, vital to his international reach and long-standing relevance. The

success of these partnerships has also expanded opportunities for his mentees,

most of whom are Swedish.

Martin’s first mentee was Rami Yacoub, whose career path is similar to

Martin’s. Yacoub was born in Sweden to Palestinian immigrants and grew up

listening to heavy metal bands like AC/DC and Iron Maiden.

321

As a teenager, he

played in a cover band and produced jingles and remixes for a Swedish radio

station.

322

His professional breakthrough came in 1996 as a co-producer on

American singer Lutricia McNeal’s debut single “Ain’t That Just the Way,” a

322

Ibid.

321

Dale Kawashima, “Rami Yacoub Interview - Hit Songwriter and Producer,” Songwriter

Universe, May 7, 2021,

http://www.songwriteruniverse.com/rami-yacoub-songwriter-producer-2021.htm..

cover of American model Barbi Benton’s 1975 song, both of which were major

hits in Scandinavia. McNeal’s cover shot to number one in Sweden and reached

numbers six

323

and sixty-three

324

in the U.K. and U.S., respectively. Her third

single, the original song “Stranded,” was co-written and produced by Yacoub and

charted high in Europe. Martin met Yacoub through a mutual friend around the

same time these songs were gaining popularity. After hearing additional songs

Yacoub had produced inspired by the Cheiron sound, Martin invited him to work

at Cheiron.

325

Their first collaboration was “...Baby.” Denniz was battling stomach

cancer and unable to work with Martin on material for Spears. In his absence,

Yacoub became Martin’s primary musical collaborator and a permanent member

of the Cheiron team.

One of the defining characteristics of a Cheiron song is the presence of an

R&B or “urban contemporary” feel derived from black musical influences.

326

Denniz blended black styles like reggae with Europop to create the sound of Ace

of Base. He and Martin did the same with R&B, hip-hop, and funk for Backstreet

Boys, *NSYNC, Spears, Robyn, and 5ive. It is unsurprising then that Martin

decided “...Baby” was an R&B song despite its clear-cut pop melodies and

Europop influence. Any of its R&B elements––a funky bass slap and wah-wah

guitar––are subtle, if even classifiable as authentic “R&B.”

327

Martin described it

327

Ibid.

326

Seabrook, “Blank Space.”

325

Kawashima, “Rami Yacoub Interview - Hit Songwriter and Producer.”

324

“Billboard Hot 100 - Week of February 21, 1998,” Billboard, January 2, 2013,

https://www.billboard.com/charts/hot-100/.

323

Justin Myers, “Official Charts Pop Gem #53: Lutricia McNeal – Ain’t That Just The Way,”

Official Charts, April 12, 2014,

https://www.officialcharts.com/chart-news/official-charts-pop-gem-53-lutricia-mcneal-ain-t-that-ju

st-the-way__4761/.

in 1998 as “Pop music with a flavor – what we call R&B in Sweden, what you

guys [in America] say is pop,” revealing a rather simplistic perspective on the

genre.

328

Like his attempt to sound “American,” Martin’s second-hand

understanding of R&B made it difficult for him to write a genuine R&B song,

which inadvertently made “...Baby” stand out. Steve Lunt explained why this

second-hand understanding became a defining characteristic of Martin’s sound:

Max, at that point in his career, thought he was writing an R. & B. song.

Whereas, in reality, he was writing a Swedish pop song. It was ABBA

with a groove, basically. But all those chords are so European, how could

that possibly be an American R. & B. song? No black artist was going to

sing it. But that was the genius of Max Martin. Without being fully aware

of it, he’d forged a brilliant sound all his own, and within a few weeks

every American producer was desperately scrambling to emulate it.

329

The R&B feel was, according to Martin, executed thanks to Yacoub.

330

By the

time Yacoub joined “...Baby,” Martin had written the melodies and most of the

lyrics. However, Yacoub’s undertones of R&B combined with Martin’s

“European” chord progressions and ABBA-like melodies took “...Baby” to the

next level and created a captivating and “original” sound.

“...Baby” is thus a product of collaboration and a hybrid of individual

talents; Martin is the melodist and lyricist, and Yacoub is the provider of the

seductive “groove.” Martin probably could have produced “...Baby” by himself,

but it inevitably would have sounded different, if only slightly. After Denniz died,

Martin and Yacoub’s songwriting partnership was central to defining the sound of

teen pop, particularly in its fusion of pop and R&B. Since first working with

Martin, Yacoub has contributed to hits for One Direction, Nicki Minaj, Madonna,

330

Goldstein, “‘Britney Spears Wanted to Be a Star.’”

329

Seabrook, “Blank Space.”

328

Cragg, “‘It Was a Bit of a Blur.’”

and Lady Gaga, among others, returning to many of the same songwriting

characteristics he acquired from Martin in Sweden. Martin and Yacoub remain

collaborators today, working together as recently as 2023. The following chapter

examines the other effects Martin’s songwriting partnerships have had on his

music and career trajectory and, in turn, those of his collaborators.

The Voice as an Instrument

Though Spears did not contribute to the writing of “...Baby” and was not

the originally intended vocalist for the song, her personality-driven voice was the

perfect fit for Martin’s musical dramatics. Since its debut, Spears’ voice has been

among the most criticized aspects of her identity. Inflected with her Southern

twang, it is, like many aspects of her public persona, made up of contradictions:

nasally and girlish, it is simultaneously seductive and strange.

331

Her singing

voice, commonly referred to as the “baby voice,” is synonymous with her

artistry.

332

This “baby voice” is distinct for its reliance on vocal fry, a slow

vibration of the vocal cords in the lowest register of the voice, which results in a

breathy, guttural quality. Vocal fry has a contentious history among singers for the

supposed damage it can cause to the vocal cords and, more broadly, has negative

cultural associations with the speech patterns of young women.

333

Interestingly,

333

“From Upspeak To Vocal Fry: Are We ‘Policing’ Young Women’s Voices?,” NPR, July 23,

2015,

332

Nate Sloan and Charlie Harding, “Listening 2 Britney: ...Baby One More Time,” Switched on

Pop, Accessed January 6, 2023,

https://open.spotify.com/episode/0BFdMEgXFjFBHwn3q5KaAc?si=5b599321bde14912.

331

Sloan and Harding, Switched on Pop.

recordings of Spears before signing with Jive are devoid of vocal fry,

334

and some

fans and critics speculate that Spears was “forced to change her sound to make a

career.”

335

On “...Baby,” Spears sings with conviction, accenting each word with a

percussiveness that emphasizes her pronounced and deliberately performed vocal

fry.

336

Each syllable is over-enunciated, most clearly on the recurring “Oh, baby,

baby” motif (more accurately transcribed as “Oh, bay-bay, bay-bay”), and

punctuated with a micro-breath (an exhaled “ah” sound) reminiscent of Michael

Jackson’s rhythmic vocal style.

337

As a result, words that might naturally be

performed legato, such as “breathe” or “you” in the second verse, “The reason I

breathe is you,” are made multisyllabic and staccato (“breathe-ah” and

“you-ah”).

338

They are inflected with urgency and, owing to vocal fry, a kind of

unevenness. The focus is not on what Spears is saying but how she is saying it,

reinforcing the “sound” of Martin’s lyrics rather than their semantics.

Recordings of other Martin songs from the same period, particularly

Backstreet Boys’ “It’s Gotta Be You” (1999) and *NSYNC’s “It’s Gonna Be Me”

(2000), follow the Martin pronunciation rulebook as well. “Baby,” “make me,”

and “crazy” become “bay-bay,” “make may,” and “cray-zay” in the Backstreet

Boys’ “It’s Gotta Be You.” “It’s gonna be me” becomes, in the words of *NSYNC

338

Ibid.

337

Ibid.

336

Sloan and Harding, “Listening 2 Britney: ...Baby One More Time.”

335

Oliver Browning, “Britney Spears Reveals ‘Real’ Deep Singing Voice in TikTok Video,” The

Independent, July 2022,

https://www.independent.co.uk/tv/lifestyle/britney-spears-tiktok-real-voice-b2126750.html.

334

Sloan and Harding, “Listening 2 Britney: ...Baby One More Time”;

https://www.npr.org/2015/07/23/425608745/from-upspeak-to-vocal-fry-are-we-policing-young-wo

mens-voices.

member JC Chasez, “Et’s gonna bay may.”

339

Chasez described the vocal

recording process in a 2021 interview with Billboard commemorating twenty

years of “It’s Gonna Be Me”:

For certain words, we bent the pronunciation. We were hitting the L’s hard

on “lose.” Instead of saying, “You don’t wanna lose” — which would be

kind of boring — we’d be like “You don’t wanna NLUUSE.” But when

you’re listening to someone in the studio singing it that way, at first you’re

like, “What is wrong with you?” But you have to dig and hit these

different shapes of consonants and vowels to give them energy. Instead of

saying, “It’s gonna be ME” we said “ET’S GONNA BAY MAY!” for it to

hit harder.

340

Justin Timberlake, who sang lead vocals on the song’s chorus, credited Martin

with the eccentric pronunciation in a 2016 interview with radio station Capital

FM, jokingly saying, “In my defense, Max Martin made me sing ‘me’ that

way.”

341

Yacoub, who co-wrote and produced “It’s Gonna Be Me” with Martin

and Andreas Carlsson, told Headliner Magazine that the modification of the

vowel sound from “me” to “may” was a common tactic Martin used to enhance

the clarity of the lyrics.

342

Carlsson opined that Martin’s distinct vocal style comes

from Martin’s musical experience with the Swedish band It’s Alive.

343

“May” and

“bay-bay” (in lieu of “bay-bee”) appear in Spears’ “Stronger” and

“Overprotected,” both written by Martin and Yacoub. Ten years later, Martin

343

Tailor, “How NSYNC’s ‘It’s Gonna Be May’ Meme Came Back Early Thanks to COVID-19.”

342

“Rami Yacoub Talks Baby One More Time, It’s Gonna Be Me, And *That* Meme,” Headliner

Magazine, December 2022, https://headlinermagazine.net/rami-yacoub-the-hit-maker.html.

341

Leena Tailor, “How NSYNC’s ‘It’s Gonna Be May’ Meme Came Back Early Thanks to

COVID-19,” Observer, April 29, 2020,

https://observer.com/2020/04/its-gonna-be-may-meme-nsync-justin-timberlake-lance-bass-corona

virus/.

340

Ibid.

339

Bianca Gracie, “Digital Get Downs, Memes and Y2K’s Joyride: *NSYNC’s JC Chasez Reflects

on 20 Years of ‘No Strings Attached,’” Billboard, March 25, 2020,

https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/nsync-jc-chasez-no-strings-attached-20th-anniversary-interv

iew-9342015/.

co-wrote and produced Spears’ 2011 single “Hold It Against Me,” which returned

to his vernacular; “crazy” and “hazy” are sung as “cray-zay” and “hay-zay.”

The extent to which Spears contributed to the decision to apply these

modifications and the prominent use of vocal fry in her vocal style is unclear.

Considering the commentaries of frequent collaborators, it appears Martin was the

initiator. This assumption results in an intriguing question: To what extent are the

iconic vocal stylings of some of the biggest artists in twenty-first-century pop the

product of the songwriter, in this case, Martin? Among a select few who have

heard Martin’s demo for “...Baby,” John Seabrook claims that Spears sings it

exactly like Martin.

344

“In a sense, Spears, [Katy] Perry, and [Taylor] Swift are all

singing covers of Max Martin recordings.”

345

Ola Johansson points out the

“noticeable Swedish inflection” of Spears’ vocals in “...Baby.”

346

A&R

executives, including Steve Lunt, who heard Martin’s demo containing his

multi-tracked vocals, agree that the final version of the song is almost identical to

the demo.

347

“Martin’s demo vocals for ‘...Baby One More Time,’ which he

delivered with the seductive inflection suited for an R&B ballad, laid out much of

what would become Spears’ iconically alluring ‘Britney voice,’” wrote Robert

Kelly for Billboard.

348

Though none of Martin’s demos are publicly available,

many demos performed by songwriters of Billboard Hot 100 hits from the last

two decades can be heard on YouTube. In many cases, the songwriter’s vocal

348

Ibid.

347

Robert Kelly, “‘Sexy and Coy Without Trying Too Hard’: How Britney Spears’ ‘Baby One

More Time’ Vocals Influenced a Generation,” Billboard, October 25, 2018,

https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/britney-spears-singing-voice-baby-one-more-time-vocals-8

481607/.

346

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 113.

345

Seabrook, “Blank Space.”

344

Goldstein, “‘Britney Spears Wanted to Be a Star.’”

performance on the demo is identical to that of the final performer. For example,

the leaked demo for Spears’ “Hold It Against Me,” performed by co-writer

Bonnie McKee is a near-duplicate of Spears’ version, which was recorded after

the demo and became a number-one hit.

349

Therefore, it is not uncommon to hear Martin referred to as a Svengali, nor

is it unreasonable to credit him as the driving force behind the sound of much of

Spears’ and groups like Backstreet Boys’ and *NSYNC’s output. In 2016,

Backstreet Boys member AJ McLean credited Max and Denniz as responsible for

“the whole birth” of Backstreet Boys.

350

Martin’s musical education and

background as a vocalist have influenced how he collaborates with a vocalist. He

said in 2016, “The one thing I’ve found most useful in this job from day one is my

background in singing. Singing and presenting a vision, even if it’s just a demo

recording, has been totally critical… The whole thing is how the artists sing the

songs. That’s really the most important thing. Apart from the song.”

351

Martin

frequently encourages and even insists that artists mirror his vocal style when

recording a song, which is likely how the iconic vocal style on “...Baby”

originated.

352

Backing vocalist Nana Hedin explained to The Guardian, “I tried to

sound exactly like her [Spears]. It was hard, but a lot of fun. I’m like a parrot in

many ways. I try to get the same vibe and use the exact same pronunciation as the

artist.”

353

Her commentary suggests a cycle of vocal mirroring, where the backing

353

Cragg, “‘It Was a Bit of a Blur.’”

352

Seabrook, “Blank Space.”

351

Max Martin - Polar Music Prize 2016 Official Announcement, 2016,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuzy7ODVNzM.

350

Famous Artists on Working with Max Martin (Britney Spears, P!nk, Justin Timberlake, Katy

Perry).

349

Britney Spears - Hold It Against Me (Bonnie McKee Demo), 2011,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcr2aRfsBbo.

vocalist also imitates Martin’s particular vocal nuances because they are

mimicking the lead singer, who is mimicking Martin.

Occasionally, Martin’s insistence on imitation can cause conflict,

particularly when an artist has an individual vocal style or a specific direction that

differs from what Martin has in mind. After TLC rejected “...Baby,” Martin

offered it to Swedish singer Robyn. Nothing came of that, partly because Robyn

was a “forceful artist” who did not respond to Martin’s demands.

354

Spears, on the

other hand, was more easily persuaded. In saying this, I do not mean to suggest

that Spears did not exert a certain level of control over the creation of “...Baby”

(she famously devised the concept for its iconic music video, which was crucial to

its commercial success and cultural relevance).

355

I also do not mean to suggest

that Martin is domineering, and the profuse praises from his collaborators prove

otherwise. Spears’ input may have been limited regarding compositional and

stylistic contributions. However, she provided an undeniable vocal charisma,

incapable of being manufactured, and a willingness to shape her voice per

Martin’s recommendations.

While “...Baby” was passed from TLC to Robyn and later considered for

the British boy band 5ive and Clive Davis signee Deborah Cox, it is hard to

imagine anyone but Spears singing it. Martin affirmed, “When I heard her

singing, I just knew instantly. The way she recorded that song, she added another

dimension.”

356

Of Martin and Spears’ musical partnership, Chris Molanphy

356

Cragg, “‘Britney Spears Is a Genius.’”

355

Cragg, “‘It Was a Bit of a Blur.’”

354

“The Give Me a Sign Edition.” Hit Parade | Music History and Music Trivia, Accessed January

6, 2023, https://open.spotify.com/episode/32cN9jgHHdoc2KkcL2ZcXb?si=27b3a57f068241af.

shared, “The reason why it [“...Baby One More Time”] remains one of the most

iconic songs of the 1990s teen pop boomlet is it’s kind of a perfect marriage of

song and artist and songwriter. If Max Martin is John Hughes, he found his Molly

Ringwald. His muse-vehicle for his particular brand of writing. You can’t picture

it being sung by anybody else.”

357

Spears, as an artist and brand, was pivotal to

making “...Baby” a success. To his credit, Martin’s trust in the then-unknown

Spears was a bold risk that undoubtedly paid off. Even so, Spears captured the

emotion of “...Baby” in such a way that it resonated with teenagers and made

them intimately identify with her. Her success with “...Baby” was as much a

career transformation for her as it was for Martin. Cultivating a network and

reputation is essential to maintaining relevance in the music industry, particularly

as a non-American or non-Brit, and “...Baby” granted Martin considerable

leverage for future projects. Once he established himself in America, Martin

extended the relationship started by Denniz between Swedish writer-producers

and American artists into the twenty-first century.

The Legacy of “...Baby One More Time”

Nearly a quarter-century since its release, “...Baby One More Time”

remains a cornerstone in the development of twenty-first-century pop. The song

marked the formal shift towards millennial pop on Top Forty Radio after a cycle

of alternative and R&B dominated throughout the 1990s (its music video did the

357

Goldstein, “‘Britney Spears Wanted to Be a Star.’”

100

same on MTV).

358

Scott Plagenhoef, a former Editor-In-Chief at Pitchfork, noted,

“Songs like Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, Dr. Dre’s ‘Nothing But a G

Thang’, and Britney Spears’ ‘...Baby One More Time’ altered the landscape of

pop culture so quickly in large part because they were delivered to all corners of

the U.S. simultaneously by MTV.”

359

Total Request Live (TRL), MTV’s iconic

music video countdown program, launched the same year as “...Baby” and its

accompanying music video debuted. Directed by British music video and film

director Nigel Dick, the music video features Spears in a midriff-baring Catholic

schoolgirl uniform dancing through high school hallways, a basketball court, and

a gymnasium in pursuit of her crush. The music video was a sensation in

American media and made Spears a fixture on TRL and similar music video

programs well into the 2000s.

359

Scott Plagenhoef, “The Top 50 Music Videos of the 1990s,” Pitchfork, August 23, 2010,

https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/7849-the-top-50-music-videos-of-the-1990s/.

358

Cragg, “‘It Was a Bit of a Blur.’”

101

Fig. 2.6: Britney Spears in the music video for “...Baby One More Time,” 1998

360

Buoyed by other popular videos by teen pop acts like Backstreet Boys and

*NSYNC, TRL became the go-to music program for teenagers, the demographic

most responsible for defining popular music at any given moment. Chris

Molanphy told Entertainment Weekly:

I’m sure if you were 40 and wanted to call TRL, you could. But no one

over 20 was calling TRL. So it was this mainline, hooked to your veins, of

what teenagers were most obsessed with. And it was either the stuff that

made them feel like a hard badass or the stuff that made them swoon. And

Britney arrived just as this is beginning. The way she was presented as this

schoolgirl gone bad, it had a combination of Swedish pure pop crossed

with a little frisson of edge. It could not have been more perfect for the era

of TRL.

361

As the juggernauts of teen pop, Spears, Backstreet Boys, and *NSYNC, captured

the zeitgeist of millennial pop, both musically and visually. The fact that

practically all of their earliest hits were written by Cheiron writer-producers

361

Goldstein, “‘Britney Spears Wanted to Be a Star.’”

360

Britney Spears - ...Baby One More Time (Official Video), 1998,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-u5WLJ9Yk4.

102

meant that the Cheiron sound was situated in the center of the American

mediascape. “...Baby” can be proposed as the centerpiece of teen pop, which

peaked between 1999 and 2000,

362

and is also a reasonably comprehensive

representation of American pop of the late 1990s and early 2000s. This

era-defining musical style can be traced back to Cheiron, where Spears’ sound

was born. Spears’ success with this musical style prompted dozens of copycats

who mimicked her sound and image and “kicked off a new era of pop vocal

stylings that would influence countless artists to come,”

363

contributing to the

proliferation of the Cheiron (and Martin) sound in the American mainstream.

Though the perceptible sonic qualities––synths, signature snare and kick-drum

combination, over-pronounced vocals––of Cheiron songs would fade by the early

2000s, the compositional structure and songwriting approach of these songs is

rooted in twenty-first-century pop.

Spears’ musical model, conceived at Cheiron, has served as a template for

acts like Katy Perry and Taylor Swift, frequent Martin collaborators, who mix

“family-friendly, girl-next-door fun with good old fashioned controversy.”

364

Likewise, this model informs the musical direction of other major

twenty-first-century female acts, including Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Kesha, Miley

Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and Ariana Grande. These women have unsurprisingly

worked with Martin or his mentees and have been frequent clients of Swedish

writer-producers. Male acts like Justin Bieber and One Direction equivalently

updated the sound of Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC for a twenty-first-century

364

Cragg, “‘It Was a Bit of a Blur.’”

363

Kelly, “‘Sexy and Coy Without Trying Too Hard.’”

362

“The Give Me a Sign Edition.”

103

audience. In the case of One Direction, the parallel is obvious: Yacoub co-wrote

and produced their debut single, “What Makes You Beautiful,” as well as the hits

“One Thing” and “Live While We’re Young” alongside Swedish writer-producer

Carl Falk and American Martin-protégé Savan Kotecha.

Within Spears’ discography, “...Baby” is arguably her signature song, only

disputed by “Oops!... I Did It Again” (also produced by Martin and Yacoub) and

“Toxic” (produced by Swedish duo Bloodshy & Avant). For Martin, it is one of

his most enduring classics and perhaps his most important song, birthing a

superstar and cementing his legacy. On the strength of Spears’ mammoth debut,

Martin became an in-demand powerhouse pop producer capable of breaking

unknowns (he had done the same with Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, but their

rise to fame was more gradual than Spears’). In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked

“...Baby” as the best debut single of all time

365

and, the following year, included it

at number 205 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

366

Thirteen years after “...Baby,” Martin was enlisted to co-executive

produce Spears’ seventh studio album Femme Fatale. He co-wrote all four

singles, including the Billboard Hot 100 top-ten hits “Hold It Against Me,” “Till

the World Ends,” and “I Wanna Go,” the most U.S. top-tens from a single Spears

album to date. Spears told Rolling Stone in 2011:

Max played a huge role on this album and he has been there since the

beginning so there is such a huge level of trust. He gets exactly what I am

saying when I tell him what I want and don’t want musically. His melodies

366

Rolling Stone, “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time,” Rolling Stone, September 15, 2021,

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/best-songs-of-all-time-1224767/.

365

Rob Sheffield, Brittany Spanos, Claire Shaffer, Jonathan Bernstein, Elias Leight, Jon Freeman,

Kory Grow, et al, “The 100 Greatest Debut Singles of All Time,” Rolling Stone, May 19, 2020,

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/greatest-debut-songs-singles-990470/.

104

are incredible and he is always coming up with weird sounds, which I

love. … There is nobody I feel more comfortable collaborating with in the

studio.

367

She later called Martin “the greatest songwriter of all time” and a “genius,”

368

word Martin used in return when reflecting on their early relationship: “She’s a

genius. So much had happened to her in that [early period] and she had to grow

up quickly. We had conversations with her about what she wanted to do and what

she wanted to say.”

369

Martin’s relationship with Spears is just one of his many

sustained artistic partnerships, a sign of his positive network and reputation.

Fig. 2.7: Max Martin and Britney Spears, 1998

370

Michael Cragg, “Do You Know (What This Website Is All About),” May 15, 2016,

https://maxopedia.co/about/.

369

Cragg, “‘Britney Spears Is a Genius.’”

368

Cragg, “‘It Was a Bit of a Blur.’”

367

Steve Knopper, “Britney Spears On Her New Album, Her Favorite Music and Working With

Will.i.Am,” Rolling Stone, March 17, 2011,

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/britney-spears-on-her-new-album-her-favorite-m

usic-and-working-with-will-i-am-236054/.

105

In the next chapter, which examines the career transformations of

American singer-songwriters Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift

through their work with Martin, the importance of establishing a network and

reputation in the music industry will become increasingly clear. Consequently,

Martin positions his protégés, many of whom are Swedish and appear in the next

chapter, within the American music market, producing a chain of songwriters who

can trace their lineage to his sound and style, rooted in Sweden. Furthermore,

Martin mentors various American songwriters who embark on their own hugely

successful careers. Finally, in his deliberate geographic relocation to the U.S.,

specifically New York City and Los Angeles, where the American pop music

industry is based, Martin positions himself within the American music market. By

solidifying the prominence and success of Swedish pop in the global music

industry, in the next chapter I propose that Martin continues the tradition of

mentorship started by Denniz. More explicitly, by highlighting several landmark

songs and collaborations that have redirected and redefined the landscape of

twenty-first century pop, I will demonstrate how Martin’s work has evolved from

the foundation laid by “...Baby.”

106

Chapter Three: The Many Phases of Max Martin

Pop, by its very transient nature, doesn’t have a specific sound. While the

basics don’t alter massively — verse, chorus, verse, bridge/guest rap,

chorus, etc. — pop music in general is constantly shifting, absorbing and

fusing bits of other genres to create something new. Pop gives little to no

respect to anyone refusing to shape-shift with it, eventually leaving them

behind to lick their wounds or wait and see if their moment comes back

around again. All of this second-guessing about where the fickle world of

pop is heading next means that very few people involved in its creation are

able to maintain relevance: They have their moment, ride the zeitgeist of

that sound for a few years and then when pop does one of its hasty

U-turns, they get left behind.

—Michael Cragg, Billboard

371

The sound of pop is fleeting, constantly shifting to reflect emerging and

previously established musical tastes and trends. Correspondingly, the shelf life of

most pop musicians, whether as performers or writer-producers, is exceptionally

short. Those who remain at the top of the dynamic global pop marketplace must

be willing to undergo routine artistic transformations. By 2001, teen pop had

reached its apex, and teen pop stars and their maturing fans were ready to move

on from a genre deemed artificial.

372

For her fourth studio album, In the Zone,

Britney Spears shed her teen pop image, opting to work with Swedish production

duo Bloodshy & Avant, who specialized in the kind of R&B foreign to Max

Martin. This deliberate shift to R&B––as a marker of “maturity” and a reflection

of emerging musical trends––was set in motion by her previous album, Britney,

372

Seabrook, John. The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.

371

Michael Cragg, “Max Martin Receives Polar Music Prize: Here’s How He’s Stayed on Top All

These Years,” Billboard, June 17, 2016,

https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/max-martin-polar-prize-maxopedia-7408702/.

107

which contained considerably fewer contributions from the former Max Martin

and Rami Yacoub dream team. In 2002, Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC both

entered hiatuses as their respective members, most notably Justin Timberlake of

*NSYNC, focused on solo projects. Between 2001 and 2004––an eternity in the

pop world––Martin had zero Billboard Hot 100 top-ten hits.

Building upon my analysis of “...Baby One More Time” in the previous

chapter, in this chapter, I will analyze the songs “Since U Been Gone,” “Teenage

Dream,” and “Blank Space” to demonstrate how Martin adapts his songwriting

formula to capitalize on the shifting sound of popular music and continues to

shape the direction of twenty-first-century pop. Through an analysis of each song,

I argue that the impact of Martin’s music, mentorship, and songwriting techniques

are intrinsic to and inextricable from twenty-first-century pop and pop

songwriting. As much as the respective genres associated with these three songs

demonstrate the evolution of Martin’s musical style, they also correlate with

broader musical trends in the mainstream. I mark each genre as a “phase” of

Martin’s career and thus will describe these phases in relation to the development

of Martin’s career and twenty-first-century pop at large. These phases are labeled

pop-rock, dance-pop, and “musician-driven,” the last of which is related to

hip-hop and R&B. I will also describe Martin’s collaborators (songwriters and

producers) and explain their relevance to Martin and the particular song in

question. Martin’s varied collaborations and his pivots into different genres at the

brink of their mainstream popularity reflect both his role in shaping mainstream

108

musical trends and his ability to reinvent his sound when old trends die, and new

ones emerge.

Phase One: Pop-rock; Dr. Luke

The aftermath of 9/11 meant fewer artists were willing to travel to

Sweden, causing a mass migration of Swedish writer-producers to the U.S.,

specifically Los Angeles, where many still reside.

373

Before moving to Los

Angeles, where he has lived semi-permanently since 2013, Martin ventured to

New York City in search of a new sound. There he explored clubs and met Lukasz

Gottwald, a budding producer who went by the name of Dr. Luke.

374

Martin and

Luke’s relationship was not initially forged on the basis of musical

collaboration.

375

Instead, Luke was Martin’s tour guide to New York City’s

extensive nightlife.

376

However, Martin eventually phoned Luke with a request to

rent his West Twenty-First Street recording studio.

377

Luke let him use it for free,

proving himself an asset in more ways than one and opening the door for

collaboration.

378

At this point, Luke regularly traveled to Stockholm to collaborate

with Rami Yacoub but remained cautious of coming on too strong to Martin.

379

Born on September 26, 1973, Luke grew up in a loft on West Thirtieth

Street in Manhattan. He attended the Manhattan School of Music during the early

379

Ibid, 135.

378

Ibid.

377

Ibid, 136.

376

Ibid.

375

Ibid, 135.

374

Ibid, 134-135.

373

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 122.

109

1990s but dropped out in 1995 to produce for the underground hip-hop label

Rawkus Records.

380

Rawkus was, in some ways, similar to SweMix Records, the

label Denniz Pop was a part of before opening Cheiron; not quite mainstream,

they signed some of the most influential talents in the underground New York rap

scene of the 1990s. They also distributed one of Luke’s earliest commercial

recordings, a twelve-inch single titled “Wet Lapse,” released in 1998 under the

name Kasz.

381

Luke’s first recordings as “Dr. Luke” came shortly after.

382

addition to producing for Rawkus, Luke deejayed at New York clubs and played

guitar in the Saturday Night Live (SNL) house band, a gig he held from 1997 to

2007.

383

However, like Denniz Pop before him, he dreamed of bigger things.

After the decline of teen pop, Martin needed a new collaborator to

reinvigorate his sound: Luke was his answer. Given his upbringing in the U.S. and

diverse musical background, Luke possessed a fresh musical perspective that,

combined with Martin’s experience, reputation, and network, was a recipe for

success. Like Denniz Pop had done in assembling the Cheiron team to help

produce his sound, Martin identified Luke as the key to a new musical palette as

his success with Rami Yacoub, and other Cheiron collaborators dried up. Other

Cheiron writers-producers found continued success with boy bands like 5ive and

Westlife but sacrificed the evolving American pop market for something safe,

primarily limited to Britain, Ireland, and Oceania. Martin told Billboard in 2010:

We [Martin and Luke] were friends for a long time before we started

working. I came to New York and just wanted to write something, so I

383

Ibid, 243-244.

382

Ibid, 245.

381

Ibid, 244.

380

Ibid, 243-244.

110

called him up, because I knew he had a studio in his basement. We started

working, and I instantly knew, because his instincts are really, how do you

say it? He wants it to be effective. I was struck by that. ‘No, no, that’s too

long. Get to the point!’ And I’m known for that. But he took it even

further, and I really liked that.

384

Through Luke, Martin learned of the burgeoning American indie rock scene

partly led by New York bands like The Strokes, Interpol, TV on the Radio, and

the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. This scene, rooted in a musical aesthetic so removed from

teen pop, would profoundly impact Martin’s songwriting during the 2000s and

form the basis for his songwriting partnership with Luke. In Sweden, recording

engineer Michael Ilbert had also exposed Martin to indie rock. Recognizing the

potential to extrapolate this sound on a large scale, Martin and Luke set to work

on a song that would change the trajectory of their respective careers, as well as

that of a gifted singer: Kelly Clarkson.

Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone”

By the end of 2002, twenty-year-old Texas native Kelly Clarkson had

gone from obscurity to national fame as the winner of the inaugural season of the

reality TV singing competition American Idol. In 2004, Clive Davis, the CEO of

RCA Records, where Clarkson was signed, began seeking songwriters to craft

material for her second album.

385

Towards the end of the album recording process,

Martin visited Davis in his office in hopes of placing two songs he had written

with Luke in New York, “Since U Been Gone” and “Behind These Hazel Eyes,”

385

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 138.

384

Chris Willman, “Dr. Luke: The Billboard Cover Story,” Billboard, September 3, 2010,

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/dr-luke-the-billboard-cover-story-956518/.

111

with one of Davis’ rock-oriented acts.

386

To Martin’s dismay, Davis suggested

Clarkson. “They weren’t prepared for the casting idea. Max was looking to move

on from what he had done with Backstreet Boys, and I really spent time

convincing them that an American Idol winner could bring all the feeling and

passion that was required to the song [‘Since U Been Gone’]” remembered Davis

in a 2010 profile on Luke for Billboard.

387

Clarkson, who was committed to

writing her own material for the album, was equally resistant to working with

Martin.

388

At Davis’ insistence, she recorded both songs with Martin and Luke at

Maratone Studios in Stockholm.

389

Upon completion, Clarkson met with Davis for

a scheduled meeting where, according to Davis in his memoir, The Soundtrack to

My Life, she expressed her dislike for the songs and requested to remove them

from the album.

390

They battled, but Davis would not change his mind, forcing

Clarkson to surrender; “Since U Been Gone” was released as a single on

November 16, 2004, exactly two weeks before Clarkson’s sophomore album,

Breakaway, hit shelves.

Despite Clarkson’s feelings, “Since” was a musical breakthrough,

blending the stylistic tropes of indie rock with Martin’s signature pop melodies to

create a novel sound. Luke described the inspiration for “Since” in his profile for

Billboard:

That was a conscious move by Max and myself, because we were listening

to alternative and indie music … I said, ‘Ah, I love this song,’ and Max

was like, ‘If they would just write a damn pop chorus on it!’ It was driving

390

Ibid, 140-141.

389

Ibid.

388

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 139.

387

Willman, “Dr. Luke.”

386

Ibid.

112

him nuts, because that indie song was sort of on six, going to seven, going

to eight, the chorus comes . . . and it goes back down to five. It drove him

crazy. And when he said that, it was like, light bulb. ‘Why don’t we do

that, but put a big chorus on it?’ It worked.

391

The song in question was purportedly the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ 2003 single “Maps,”

a quintessential indie rock record of the 2000s.

392

Sparse, moody, and lyrically

vague, “Maps” lacks the core elements necessary for a pop hit. Most offensive to

Martin, there is no climax; just as the song reaches its chorus, the vocal melody

descends, and the accompanying lyrics and deadpan vocal performance by lead

singer Karen O are a musical low point. If any part of “Maps” can be considered

the climax, it would be the instrumental guitar-and-drums breakdown in the

bridge, a section typically reserved for contrast and tension.

393

Lifting the sonic

palette, melodic motifs, and even the key from “Maps,” Martin and Luke

reworked the song as “Since.”

394

What separates “Since” and “Maps” is how the former builds lyrically and

melodically. Beginning with a minimalist guitar rhythm reminiscent of “Maps,”

Martin and Luke create the illusion of an indie rock song. However, while “Maps”

spends its first thirty seconds on an instrumental introduction, “Since” wastes no

time.

395

Clarkson enters immediately with a melody that, like the one in “Maps,”

sits low in her vocal range. Martin and Luke adapt the opening three-note phrase

in “Maps” (“Pack up”) for the opening line in “Since” (“Here’s the thing”)

(Figure 3.1).

396

They do the same with the descending chorus melody in “Maps”

396

Ibid.

395

Ibid, 151.

394

Ibid, 150-151.

393

Sloan and Harding, Switched on Pop, 150.

392

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 136.

391

Willman, “Dr. Luke.”

113

(“They don’t love you like I love you”) for part of the verse in “Since” (“It was

cool, but it was all pretend”) (Figure 3.2).

397

Luke accompanies the verse with an

intentionally amateur-sounding guitar line meant to evoke the lo-fi sound and

aesthetic associated with indie rock.

398

Fig. 3.1: Opening phrases of “Maps” (top) and “Since U Been Gone” (bottom)

Fig. 3.2: “Maps” descending chorus melody (top) and “Since U Been Gone” verse

fragment (bottom)

398

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 139-140.

397

Ibid, 152.

114

As the pre-chorus rolls around, a punk-rock bass and distorted electronic

drums add tension to the rising melody.

399

Then a burst of feedback, typical of

indie rock, gives way to the explosive chorus, bolstered by multiple guitars and

live drums.

400

The chorus melody soars as Clarkson sings two octaves above the

song’s lowest note. The second verse returns to the muted minimalism of the first,

followed by another repetition of the pre-chorus and chorus, both slightly bigger

than before. Tension reaches a high during the bridge, which contains an

instrumental interlude almost identical to the breakdown in “Maps.”

401

However,

instead of acting as the climax, the interlude in “Since” is the boiling point: a

flurry of solo guitar and pounding drums erupting into a final chorus that reaches

new heights.

Lyrically, “Since” is straightforward, taking a considerably more linear

narrative approach than “Maps” or even Martin’s “...Baby One More Time” and

“I Want It That Way” (see Appendix C for full lyrics). In a sense, Martin’s move

to the U.S. and collaboration with Luke prompt a reassessment of his songwriting

as it pertains to lyrics.

402

Lyrics become a vehicle for storytelling as much as they

serve the consistent purpose of being hooky melodic motifs made to “sound”

appealing. In “Since,” Martin ditches most of the Swedish neologisms that

permeated his Cheiron songs for a logical narrative that describes the dissolution

of a relationship (like “Maps”) and the newfound happiness of being single. The

deliberate building of musical tension underscores this celebratory narrative. In

402

DJ Louie XIV, “MAX MARTIN (with The New Yorker’s John Seabrook).”

401

Sloan and Harding, Switched on Pop, 153-154.

400

Ibid.

399

Ibid, 140.

115

the hushed verses, Clarkson reminisces on the past and the budding problems that

led to the breakup. Before the chorus forty seconds in, she repeats the refrain

“since you been gone” twice, clearly foreshadowing how the story will unfold. By

the pre-chorus, the relationship has worn thin, and the melody rises accordingly.

Finally, at the chorus, Clarkson triumphantly announces her newfound sense of

freedom: “But since you been gone, I can breathe for the first time / I’m so

moving on, yeah-yeah / Thanks to you, now I get what I want / Since you been

gone.”

Clarkson’s critical reaction to the demo for “Since” reveals that the

melody was written first and likely developed as an improvisation, similar to how

Martin wrote the melody for “...Baby One More Time.” She told Billboard in

2011, “It [“Since U Been Gone”] didn’t have any lyrics and the melody really

wasn’t finalized. The track was done on a computer, there was no band on it. My

record label was freaking out about it and I was, like, why? But they were

right…”

403

Adhering to Melodic Math, Martin and Luke pair the vocal melodies

with syllabically weighted lyrics. Take, for example, the first verse: “Here’s the

thing, we started out friends (8) / It was cool, but it was all pretend (9) / Yeah,

yeah, since you been gone (6) / You dedicated, you took the time (9) / Wasn’t long

till I called you mine (8) / Yeah, yeah, since you been gone (6).” Verbalizing these

lines, we will hear that the corresponding, melodically identical stanzas “Here’s

the thing, we started out friends / It was cool, but it was all pretend” and “You

403

Shirley Halperin, “Kelly Clarkson Talks Bygone Label Drama, New LP and Why She’s Now

‘Stronger,’” Billboard, October 25, 2011,

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/kelly-clarkson-talks-bygone-label-drama-new-lp-an

d-why-shes-now-stronger-1162714/.

116

dedicated, you took the time / Wasn’t long till I called you mine” each add up to

seventeen syllables. Clarkson sings “pretend” as three syllables and “mine” as

two, bringing each to eighteen syllables, equal still. The hushed verse is sparse in

texture, allowing the melody to breathe before the energy skyrockets during the

belted chorus. This contrast relates to another Melodic Math rule: rhythmic and

melodic balance; the anthemic, legato chorus complements the broody, staccato

verse. While “Maps” expends most of its energy within its introduction, leaving

little to be desired, “Since” relishes in the textural, melodic, and lyrical contrast of

the verse and chorus, creating multiple high-intensity climaxes that are gratifying.

Clarkson’s vocal performance in “Since” is another example of Martin’s at

times overbearing, albeit informed, and often justified attention to vocal style.

During the recording process, Martin insisted that Clarkson imitate his demo for

“Since,” which caused tension.

404

Not only was Clarkson looking to have more

creative control over her material, but unlike a Britney Spears-type, she already

had an established vocal identity. Also, Clarkson hated Martin’s tactic of

meticulously “comping” vocals,

405

a common production practice in popular

music by which multiple vocal takes are compared and then stitched together,

sometimes syllable-by-syllable, for the “perfect” composite. Martin regarded

comping as a breakthrough in the production process for “Since”: “I remember

when we comped vocals for Kelly on ‘Since U Been Gone.’ We listened back to it

and it started sounding like a record. I remember that was a big moment, like,

‘Holy shit! I think we did it!’ There was a lot of jumping and laughing.”

406

Ibid.

405

Ibid.

404

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 139.

117

Besides Clarkson’s stellar vocal performance, and her suggestion to enhance the

guitars and drums,

407

“Since” sounds as big as it does because of her comped and

layered vocals. These same elements make the chorus of “...Baby One More

Time,” with its engineered choir of voices, explode.

Arriving at a crossroads in his career, Martin took the sound he perfected

with Britney Spears and other teen pop stars and modified it for an evolving

musical landscape. Chris Molanphy described “Since” as a “Frankenstein’s

monster” and “an amalgam of everything that had been on the radio, all melded

together into one song,” adding, “Max Martin found a way to graft the pop sound

that he had perfected with artists like Britney and Backstreet to almost an

indie-rock vibe.”

408

While derived from an existing musical genre, “Since” is

widely credited with reviving a sound that, at the time, existed only at the

periphery of mainstream pop.

409

Gary Trust of Billboard wrote, “Kelly Clarkson’s

‘Since U Been Gone’, co-written by Max Martin, especially helped lead to pure

pop’s reemergence, and the breakthroughs of Rihanna, Katy Perry, [Taylor] Swift

and Lady Gaga would soon follow (as well as [Britney] Spears’ own revival).”

410

In the same way that “...Baby One More Time” redirected radio towards pure pop

after years of alternative and R&B dominance, “Since” pushed through the

hip-hop and R&B that dominated the early 2000s and popularized the pop-rock

410

Gary Trust, “Ask Billboard: In 2015, the Top of the Hot 100 Is Where the Boys Are,”

Billboard, October 17, 2015,

https://www.billboard.com/pro/ask-billboard-in-2015-the-top-of-the-hot-100-is-where-the-boys/.

409

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 126.

408

Ryan Kailath, “Anatomy Of A Hit: Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Since U Been Gone,’” NPR, December 2,

2014,

https://www.npr.org/2014/12/02/368013489/anatomy-of-a-hit-kelly-clarksons-since-u-been-gone.

407

Catherine Walthall, “Behind the Song Lyrics: ‘Since U Been Gone,’ Kelly Clarkson,” American

Songwriter, December 10, 2021,

https://americansongwriter.com/since-u-been-gone-kelly-clarkson-behind-song-lyrics/.

118

sound of the remainder of the decade.

411

Ola Johansson deems “Since” one of

“three seminal moments in the Swedish pop writing canon,” the other two being

Bloodshy & Avant’s “Toxic” for Spears, a fusion of Bollywood strings and surf

guitar, and RedOne’s work with Lady Gaga, summarized in the following

section.

412

“Since” transformed Clarkson from “American Idol winner” to a global

superstar, achieving a similar effect to what “...Baby” did for Spears. In January

2005, “Since” cracked the top forty of the Billboard Hot 100, eventually peaking

at number two in April of that year and remaining in the top ten for twenty

weeks.

413

It was also a success in Europe and became Clarkson’s first single to

peak in the top five in the United Kingdom.

414

The other song Martin and Luke

wrote for Clarkson, “Behind These Hazel Eyes,” was a top-ten hit in the U.S. and

the United Kingdom. National Public Radio (NPR) called “Since” “one of the

decade’s finest pop anthems,”

415

and The Atlantic named it the best pop song of

the decade in 2014.

416

Clarkson’s struggle in recording “Since,” a song she disliked that became

her biggest hit, exhibits a common conflict between artists and writer-producers,

416

Kevin O’Keeffe, “‘Since U Been Gone’ Is Still the Best Pop Song of the Decade,” The Atlantic,

December 2, 2014,

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/12/since-u-been-gone-is-still-the-best-po

p-song-of-the-decade/383263/.

415

Stephen Thompson, “The Decade In Music: Kelly Clarkson’s ‘Since U Been Gone’ (2005),”

NPR, November 16, 2009,

https://www.npr.org/2009/11/16/120442498/the-decade-in-music-kelly-clarksons-since-u-been-go

ne-2005.

414

“Kelly Clarkson | Full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company,” Official Charts,

Accessed January 6, 2023, https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/13611/kelly-clarkson/.

413

“Kelly Clarkson,” Billboard, Accessed January 6, 2023,

https://www.billboard.com/artist/kelly-clarkson/.

412

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 125-126.

411

Ibid.

119

or more appropriately, artists and their labels. John Seabrook offered a compelling

proposition in an interview with the Wharton School of the University of

Pennsylvania:

Well, the thing is, we come out of the singer-songwriter era, which is an

aberration in the whole history of pop music. Most of it has been

professional songwriters writing songs for the artists who don’t write

songs. But because the singer-songwriter era was so resonant, and because

the artists who do write their songs are seen as critical darlings and the

ones that don’t, aren’t, you get a lot of artists who feel like in order to

really make it as an artist, you have to write your own songs. And I think

Kelly was coming out of that.

417

Interestingly, Clarkson seized creative control of her third studio album, My

December, which failed to replicate the success of Breakaway.

418

She returned to

Martin and Luke, who wrote “My Life Would Suck Without You,” a number-one

hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and in the U.K., for her fourth album, All I Ever

Wanted.

419

Her other two number ones in the U.S., “A Moment Like This” and

“Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You),” were co-written by former Cheiron

writer-producer Jörgen Elofsson. Clarkson’s case exemplifies that a top

writer-producer can be critical to an artist’s commercial success.

Beyond elevating Clarkson’s career, “Since” was the start of a commercial

comeback for Martin and the beginning of Luke’s career in mainstream pop.

Martin’s aptitude for mentorship, innate to the Cheiron workflow, was crucial to

his musical evolution and the simultaneous preservation and evolution of the

Cheiron sound in contemporary pop. As a mentor to Luke, Martin fostered one of

the most successful writer-producers of the twenty-first century and one of the

419

Ibid, 145.

418

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 144-145.

417

Knowledge at Wharton Staff, “Behind the Music.”

120

most successful songwriting partnerships in history. His musical philosophies and

songwriting techniques are inherent to Luke’s work and, as elucidated in the

following two sections, that of Luke’s protégés. Martin taught Luke, “Instead of

making tracks for five thousand people, why not make tracks for a million?”

420

Jarret Myer, co-founder of Rawkus Records and the digital media brand Uproxx,

told Seabrook, “You can’t overstate the influence Max had on Luke … One day

he is remixing underground records, and the next day he is doing Kelly Clarkson.

After Max, he had no inhibitions.”

421

As of 2022, Luke has written and produced

eighteen Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles, ranking him fourth in

number-ones as a writer (tied with Mariah Carey) and third as a producer (for

reference, Martin ranks third as a writer and is tied with George Martin for first as

a producer).

422

Ten of those number ones were written with Martin. Another

eleven of their collaborations reached the top ten.

Phase Two: Dance-pop; Benny Blanco, Cirkut, and Bonnie

McKee

Around 2008, mainstream music shifted from pop-rock to dance-pop

partly due to the success of the Moroccan-Swedish writer-producer RedOne.

Native to Morocco, RedOne (born Nadir Khayat) immigrated to Sweden in 1991

422

Gary Trust, “The Songwriters & Producers With the Most Billboard Hot 100 No. 1s,”

Billboard, August 24, 2022,

https://www.billboard.com/pro/hot-100-writers-producers-most-no-1s/.

421

Ibid.

420

John Seabrook, “The Doctor Is In,” The New Yorker, October 7, 2013,

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/10/14/the-doctor-is-in.

121

at nineteen years old. During the early 2000s, he wrote and produced for several

Swedish acts and maintained a brief working relationship with Rami Yacoub.

423

2002, he followed many of the biggest Swedish writer-producers to the U.S. and

settled in New York.

424

RedOne achieved worldwide fame in 2008 as the

writer-producer behind New York native Lady Gaga. Essentially a revamp of

1980s and 1990s Europop, the “Lady Gaga sound” is another musical style Ola

Johansson regards as revolutionary in the Swedish pop canon.

425

Many other

critics and publications agree, citing Lady Gaga’s debut single “Just Dance,”

produced by RedOne, as leading the dance-pop revival of the 2010s. Sasha

Frere-Jones, a former music critic for the New Yorker, wrote:

RedOne’s longtime residence in Sweden means that he has access to the

enormous ice pool of Nordic hooks that Americans never seem to match.

… ‘Just Dance’ was one of the first big records to ride the sea change in

pop, away from hip-hop and back toward disco, the music that has been in

charge of the charts in Europe for a long time.

426

To Frere-Jones’ point, much of Lady Gaga’s music evokes Europop. Her 2009

single “Alejandro,” also produced by RedOne, received constant comparisons to

the music of ABBA and Ace of Base upon release.

427

The popularity of Lady

427

“Lady Gaga, ‘Alejandro,’” Billboard Staff, Billboard, April 16, 2010,

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/lady-gaga-alejandro-1069470/; Sal Cinquemani,

“Review: Lady Gaga, The Fame Monster,” Slant Magazine, November 18, 2009,

https://www.slantmagazine.com/music/lady-gaga-the-fame-monster/; Jon Dolan, “The Fame

Monster,” Rolling Stone, November 18, 2009,

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/the-fame-monster-101912/; Scott

Plagenhoef, “Lady Gaga: The Fame Monster,” Pitchfork, January 13, 2010,

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13823-the-fame-monster/.

426

Sasha Frere-Jones, “Ladies Wild,” The New Yorker, April 20, 2009,

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/04/27/ladies-wild.

425

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 126.

424

Aida Alami, “Hollyworld: Meet Morocco’s Starmaker,” The World from PRX, September 30,

2011, https://theworld.org/stories/2011-09-30/hollyworld-meet-moroccos-starmaker.

423

Kimbel Bouwman, “Interview with RedOne, Producer and Songwriter for Lady Gaga (US &

UK No.1), Michael Jackson, Akon (US Top 10),” SongQuarters, March 23, 2009,

https://www.songquarters.com/2009/March23_1_12_9.html.

122

Gaga’s music in the early 2010s had a ripple effect across the music industry as

many musicians attempted to capitalize on the dance-pop trend.

Beginning with Katy Perry in 2008, Martin delved into pure,

dance-inspired pop while retaining some of the pop-rock edge of his work with

Kelly Clarkson and acts like P!nk, Avril Lavigne, and The Veronicas. As defined

by the online music database AllMusic:

Dance-Pop was an outgrowth of disco. Over a pounding, dance-club beat,

there are simple, catchy melodies -- dance-pop has more fully-formed

songs than pure dance music. Dance-pop is primarily a producer’s

medium. The producer writes the songs and constructs the tracks, picking

an appropriate vocalist to sing the song. These dance divas become stars,

but frequently the artistic vision is the producer’s.

428

Most Martin recordings released between 2009 and 2011 fall between the sonic

aesthetics of pop-rock and dance-pop. Songs like “Raise Your Glass” by P!nk and

“My Life Would Suck Without You” by Kelly Clarkson are clear pop-rock and

electropop fusions. Others, such as Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” or Usher and Pitbull’s

“DJ Got Us Fallin’ in Love,” replace any lingering elements of pop-rock with

throbbing club beats. Though Martin’s musical pivot was seemingly motivated by

the growing popularity of dance-pop in the mainstream, it was also somewhat of a

return to form, drawing upon the sound he helped pioneer with Ace of Base and

the teen pop pack in the 1990s.

Luke, too, would explore dance-pop and, following his rise to fame,

embrace the Swedish mentorship model to mentor other writer-producers. In

2009, Luke launched the independent Los Angeles-based publishing company

428

“Dance-Pop,” AllMusic, Accessed January 6, 2023,

https://www.allmusic.com/html/error-banned403_new.html.

123

Prescription Songs, which currently houses nearly 140 writer-producers.

429

Its

earliest configuration resembled the workflow at Cheiron; writer-producers

specializing in different skills collaborated on different parts of the same song.

430

Luke described Prescription Songs as “a combination of artists, producers,

topliners, beat makers, melody people, vibe people, and just lyric people” (vibe

people are people who may be untrained musically but “know how to make a

song happen”).

431

In 2011, he founded Kemosabe Records, a record label, in

partnership with Sony Music Entertainment. Among the musicians Luke signed to

Prescription Songs, three, in particular, would become Martin’s frequent

collaborators during the early 2010s, most prominently as part of the hit-making

team for Katy Perry. They are the American writer-producer Benny Blanco (born

Benjamin Joseph Levin), the Canadian writer-producer Cirkut (born Henry

Russell Walter), and the American singer-songwriter and longtime Perry friend

Bonnie McKee.

In the tradition of great Martin-helmed debut singles, “I Kissed a Girl”

432

made Perry a star, topping the charts globally and remaining at number one in the

U.S. for seven consecutive weeks.

433

Perry’s major label debut album, One of the

Boys, was released in 2008 and included the additional Martin and Luke

433

“Katy Perry,” Billboard, Accessed January 6, 2023,

https://www.billboard.com/artist/katy-perry/.

432

Written by Cathy Dennis, Max Martin, Katy Perry, and Lukasz Gottwald (Dr. Luke) and

produced by Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco.

431

Ibid.

430

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 236.

429

Nolan Feeney, “Inside Prescription Songs, the Company Behind Some of 2020’s Biggest Hits,”

Billboard, April 22, 2021,

https://www.billboard.com/pro/prescription-songs-dr-luke-publishing-company/.

124

collaboration “Hot n Cold,”

434

another top ten hit. Like their two songs for Kelly

Clarkson’s Breakaway, Martin and Luke’s songs for One of the Boys were

last-minute additions that became the album’s biggest hits. For her sophomore

album, Teenage Dream, Perry was inspired by the Swedish acts ABBA, Ace of

Base, and the Cardigans and chose Martin and Luke to co-executive produce the

album with her.

435

She told John Seabrook, “It [her, Martin, and Luke] was a

combination pack. I really liked them together. They have great taste, and I have

an intuition that has never failed me. I am very lyrics-based, and Max is very

melody-based, and Luke is very track-based, so put the combination of us

together and you get that ultimate pop song.”

436

Martin and Luke added Benny

Blanco and Bonnie McKee to the team, and with Perry, they wrote the title track

to Teenage Dream.

Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”

The song “Teenage Dream” is a prime example of how Martin’s musical

philosophies and songwriting techniques influence a song, even with the addition

of multiple collaborators. Martin, Luke, Blanco, McKee, and Perry wrote the song

using a collaborative songwriting process akin to the system used at Cheiron.

First, Martin and Luke blended their guitar-driven pop-rock sound with

436

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 257.

435

Oli Simpson, “Katy Perry Reveals ABBA-Inspired New LP,” Digital Spy, April 23, 2010,

http://www.digitalspy.com/music/a216248/katy-perry-reveals-abba-inspired-new-lp/; Jocelyn

Vena, “Katy Perry On New LP: ‘We Nailed It!,’” MTV, March 29, 2010,

https://www.mtv.com/news/bbdq8p/katy-perry-on-new-lp-we-nailed-it.

434

Written by Max Martin, Katy Perry, and Lukasz Gottwald and produced by Dr. Luke and Benny

Blanco.

125

synthesizers and other electronic influences native to dance-pop to produce the

instrumental with Blanco.

437

Next, Martin and Luke composed most of the

melody.

438

The final step was writing the lyrics, which Perry and McKee found

challenging. They developed “four or five”

439

versions of the then-untitled song

for over a week. Their goal was to write lyrics about the proposed themes of

nostalgia and romance that fit with Martin and Luke’s predetermined melody.

440

Hence they used a Melody-first approach.

Over the years, McKee has revealed lyrics from early drafts in various

interviews and a video posted to Instagram on July 23, 2021. One of these drafts

referenced the fictional character Peter Pan, and another used the metaphor of

“trying me on” to compare the feeling of wearing new clothes to sex.

441

Each idea

McKee shared on Instagram, including the ridiculous, “You touch me it’s like a

miracle / I’m melting just like a popsicle,” and the prefigurative, “You and me are

just a couple of / teenagers we’re never growing up,” she sang to the “Teenage

Dream” chorus melody, showing how she and Perry wrote the lyrics to the same

chorus melody used in the final version of the song (see Appendix D for final

lyrics).

441

Alex Kazemi, “Alex Kazemi - SINGLE REVIEW OF TEENAGE DREAM- KATY PERRY /

INTERVIEW WITH ITS SONGWRITER BONNIE MCKEE,” Internet Archive, August 7, 2010,

https://web.archive.org/web/20100807001855/http://alexkazemi.com/2010/07/listensingle-review-

teenage-dream-katy-perry/.

440

Crowley, “Bonnie McKee Breaks Down ‘Teenage Dream’ & ‘Dynamite’ Choruses – and Why

She Felt Insulted by Lorde’s Lyrics.”

439

Katy Perry Talks “Teenage Dream,” 2010, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhBBtqPclf0.

438

Patrick Crowley, “Bonnie McKee Breaks Down ‘Teenage Dream’ & ‘Dynamite’ Choruses –

and Why She Felt Insulted by Lorde’s Lyrics,” Billboard, April 25, 2017,

https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/bonnie-mckee-teenage-dream-dynamite-interview-chorus-w

eek-7768099/.

437

Ibid, 262.

126

The idea to base “Teenage Dream” around a “teenage” concept came to

McKee after a recording session with her collaborators during which Blanco

played them the song “Homecoming” by French musical comedy trio The

Teenagers.

442

The trio’s name inspired McKee to ruminate on her adolescence and

the teenage condition, as she explained to Canadian journalist Alex Kazemi in

2010:

I thought about my own adolescent years, my own first love. I thought

about watching Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet and putting on a little

mini disco ball light and just dreaming of Leo. I thought about me and my

friends sitting around at slumber parties in the 90’s, giddy even just

thinking about boys. Back when love and sex were still mysterious and

magical. I thought about what Benny said and I listened to the song

[“Homecoming”] again, and I was like The Teenagers… that’s such a

great word, Teenager. It is a very descriptive word; it packs a lot of

emotion and imagery into three syllables.

443

From the word “teenager,” McKee came up with the phrase “teenage dream,”

which became the song’s title and hook. Coming up with this hook was pivotal,

allowing Perry and McKee to prescribe the emotions associated with the teenage

condition to the evocative imagery Perry had brainstormed for the verses.

444

“Once we had ‘teenage dream,’ it all came together,” explained McKee to

Billboard.

445

In addition, some of the elements from Perry and McKee’s earlier

drafts found their way into the final version; the “skin tight jeans” line in the

song’s bridge, which conveniently rhymes with “teenage dream,” was repurposed

from their “trying me on” concept.

446

McKee called “Teenage Dream” “the most

446

Kazemi, “Alex Kazemi - SINGLE REVIEW OF TEENAGE DREAM- KATY PERRY /

INTERVIEW WITH ITS SONGWRITER BONNIE MCKEE.”

445

Crowley, “Bonnie McKee Breaks Down ‘Teenage Dream’ & ‘Dynamite’ Choruses – and Why

She Felt Insulted by Lorde’s Lyrics.”

444

Ibid.

443

Ibid.

442

Ibid.

127

difficult song I’ve ever been a part of”

447

and compared the songwriting process to

solving a puzzle.

448

In this process, the same one Martin used to write “...Baby

One More Time,” the melody is written first, and different pieces, specifically

lyrical phrases, are put together to form a narrative that rhythmically “fits” this

melody, thus solving the puzzle.

Collaborating with Martin to write lyrics based on his methodical

melodies forced Perry and McKee to follow the rules of Melodic Math. Using

Perry’s song “California Gurls” as an example, McKee explained to John

Seabrook how Martin influenced her songwriting process:

Max doesn’t really care about the lyrics because he’s Swedish, so I have to

work around that. I can write something I think is so clever and be proud

of that, but if it doesn’t hit the ear right then he doesn’t like it. He’s also

really stubborn about syllables. A line has to have a certain number of

syllables and they have to be mirror images of each other––it’s very

mathematical. The syllables in the first part of the chorus have to repeat in

the second part. Like ‘Cal-i-forn-ia girls un-for-get-ta-ble/Dai-sy Dukes

bi-kinis on top’––if you add a syllable, or take it away, it’s a completely

different melody to him. I remember I wrote him a song and I was so

proud of it, and he was like, ‘Why are the melodies completely different in

the first and second verse?’ I was like, ‘What do you mean? It’s the same

melody.’ But I had added three or four syllables. He was right, he’s always

right, as much as it drives me crazy sometimes, he’s always right.

449

In “Teenage Dream,” each line of the first verse is made up of twelve syllables,

the number allotted by the melody: “You think I’m pretty without any makeup on

(12) / You think I’m funny when I tell the punchline wrong (12) / I know you get

me, so I let my walls come down (12).” In the second verse, each line is eleven

syllables, though the final line Perry and McKee wrote is twelve: “We drove to

449

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 264-265.

448

Kazemi, “Alex Kazemi - SINGLE REVIEW OF TEENAGE DREAM- KATY PERRY /

INTERVIEW WITH ITS SONGWRITER BONNIE MCKEE.”

447

Crowley, “Bonnie McKee Breaks Down ‘Teenage Dream’ & ‘Dynamite’ Choruses – and Why

She Felt Insulted by Lorde’s Lyrics.”

128

Cali and got drunk on the beach (11) / Got a motel and built a fort out of sheets

(11) / I finally found you, my missing puzzle piece (12).” To preserve the math of

the line, Perry sings “finally” as two syllables (like “finely”) instead of three.

Similarly strict rules govern the pre-chorus, chorus, and bridge.

In a 2014 article written for Slate, the composer Owen Pallett analyzed

“Teenage Dream” using music theory. One of his primary observations was how

the weighting of the melody differed across different sections of the song. In the

verse, the melody begins on the beat and ends syncopated: “You think I’m pretty

without any” is sung on the beat, while the end of the line, “makeup on,” is

syncopated.

450

All of the verse lines follow this pattern. In the pre-chorus, the

melody is entirely on the beat, introducing melodic and rhythmic variation, a

critical component of Melodic Math. Syncopation returns in the chorus, but the

emphasis flips from the straight/syncopated pattern of the verse to

syncopated/straight: “You make me” is syncopated, “feel like I’m livin’ a” is

straight, “teenage dream” is syncopated, “the way you turn me on” is straight, and

so on.

451

During the bridge, Perry repeats the phrase “teenage dream” from the

chorus, but the rhythmic emphasis is straight instead of syncopated.

452

Pallett

notes that we are primed to remember this line not only because it is the song’s

title and hook but also because it is weighted in two distinct, catchy ways.

Melodic Math, therefore, functions on three levels in the song. First, to establish

452

Ibid.

451

Ibid.

450

Owen Pallett, “Skin Tight Jeans and Syncopation,” Slate, March 25, 2014,

https://slate.com/culture/2014/03/katy-perrys-teenage-dream-explaining-the-hit-using-music-theor

y.html.

129

melodic and syllabic uniformity. Second, to provide rhythmic and melodic

variation. And finally, to repeat the hook in a distinct way to ensure memorability.

Pallett’s other observation relates to the absence of musical resolution in

the chord progression. This absence of resolution is due to the absence of the I

chord, the most consonant or “stable” chord in a song’s respective key. “Teenage

Dream” begins on the I chord, but at the start of the first verse, four seconds in, it

is gone and never heard again.

453

Perry begins on the tonic, the root note of the I

chord, and frequently returns to it, leading us to anticipate resolution even when it

is repeatedly denied.

454

Pallett wrote:

This song is all about suspension—not in the voice-leading 4–3 sense, but

in the emotional sense, which listeners often associate with “exhilaration,”

being on the road, being on a roller coaster, travel … The insistence of the

tonic in the melody keeps your ears’ eyes fixed on the destination, but the

song never arrives there. Weightlessness is achieved. Great work,

songwriters!

455

Martin and Luke increase the suspension in “Teenage Dream,” like in “Since U

Been Gone,” by juxtaposing the soft verses Perry sings in falsetto with an

explosive chorus. Nolan Feeney, a senior features editor for Billboard, described

“Teenage Dream” as having “an undeniable levity to it: There’s the romantic

subject matter, the fragile high notes, the steady but gentle kick drum; even when

the chorus hits, the whole thing bounces like it’s wearing moon boots, never

staying on the ground too long.”

456

The lack of resolution in the chord progression

helps create the “levity” he describes, and the similar “weightlessness” Pallett

456

Nolan Feeney, “Songs That Defined the Decade: Katy Perry’s ‘Teenage Dream,’” Billboard,

November 21, 2019,

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/katy-perry-teenage-dream-songs-that-defined-the-d

ecade-8544087/.

455

Ibid.

454

Ibid.

453

Ibid.

130

describes, and, in combination with the song’s nostalgic lyrics about finding

someone who makes you feel like a teenager again, gives the song an almost

melancholic or bittersweet ambiance despite its dance-pop production.

Therefore, juxtaposition exists not just in the weighting of the vocal

melody, the lack of resolution in the chord progression, and the difference in

energy between the verses and chorus; it also operates on an emotional level. In

the same Billboard article by Feeney, McKee said, “The word teenager, it makes

us all a little sad, because it’s not something that can last forever. There’s a sick

sadness when you think about your teenage years.”

457

Singer-songwriter Lorde

echoed this sentiment in a 2017 interview with The New York Times:

There’s this sadness about it [“Teenage Dream”], where you feel young

listening to it, but you feel impermanence at the same time. When I put

that song on, I’m as moved as I am by anything by David Bowie, by

Fleetwood Mac, by Neil Young. It lets you feel something you didn’t

know you needed to feel. There’s something holy about it.

458

Though not explicitly one of Martin’s songwriting characteristics, the

juxtaposition of sad song lyrics and upbeat production, and vice versa, is a

common characteristic of Swedish pop songs. Ola Johansson considers minor key

tonality and a melancholic “mood” to be identifying traits of Swedish music.

459

explained in Chapter One, this melancholic tone is thought by some to be the

result of the historically harsh climate in Sweden and, thus, derived from

traditional Swedish folk music that reflected the Swedish experience. Therefore,

Martin’s influence can be seen in the song’s compositional development and sonic

459

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 37.

458

Jonah Weiner, “The Return of Lorde,” The New York Times, April 12, 2017, sec. Magazine,

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/12/magazine/the-return-of-lorde.html.

457

Ibid.

131

qualities, taken from his pop-rock and dance-pop sensibilities and his musical

upbringing in Sweden.

Along with its parent album, “Teenage Dream,” is a time capsule of the

2010s dance-pop sound that Perry would come to exemplify. Owing in large part

to Martin and Luke’s involvement, Perry’s sound can be thought of as a cross

between the pure pop of Britney Spears and the power pop of Kelly Clarkson,

reflecting the influence of these artists and, consequently, the influence of Martin

on her sound (coincidentally, Perry has written songs recorded by both Clarkson

and Spears). Perry described Teenage Dream (the album) as a “wonderful

collaborative effort” between her, Martin, and Luke

460

and described it as “pure,

unabashed pop,” adding that Martin and Luke “definitely have the Midas touch

when it comes to radio.”

461

In a retrospective review of Teenage Dream for

Pitchfork, Anna Gaca wrote, “This album is a crowning achievement, not just of

her [Perry’s] career but of its style: EDM and disco and pop, bold and belting,

entirely processed yet instantly recognizable, robust yet chintzy.”

462

The title

track, in particular, was named one of the best songs of the decade by several

publications. Billboard labeled it a song that “both shaped and reflected the music

and culture of the period” and included it in a series of essays on the 100 songs

that defined the decade.

463

Feeney, “Songs That Defined the Decade: Katy Perry’s ‘Teenage Dream.’”

462

Anna Gaca, “Katy Perry: Teenage Dream,” Pitchfork, February 21, 2021,

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/katy-perry-teenage-dream/.

461

Monica Herrera, “Katy Perry: The Billboard Cover Story,” Billboard, July 23, 2010,

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/katy-perry-the-billboard-cover-story-957236/.

460

Robert Copsey, “Katy Perry Records Answer to Jay-Z Song,” Digital Spy, April 16, 2010,

http://www.digitalspy.com/music/a214850/katy-perry-records-answer-to-jay-z-song/.

132

Following the massive success of the album’s lead single, “California

Gurls,”

464

“Teenage Dream” was released on July 23, 2010, a month before its

accompanying album. Teenage Dream would eventually produce five number-one

hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,”

“Firework,”

465

“E.T.,”

466

and “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.).”

467

Perry became the

only artist besides Michael Jackson to amass five number-one hits from the same

album with these five songs.

468

She also became the only artist to spend sixty-nine

consecutive weeks in the top ten, beating previous record holders Ace of Base,

who logged forty-eight consecutive weeks between 1993 and 1994.

469

Except for

“Firework,” Martin and Luke co-wrote and co-produced all of the album’s

singles, including the sixth single, “The One That Got Away,” which peaked at

number three and has a similar happy/sad duality to “Teenage Dream.” A

re-release of the album in 2012, titled Teenage Dream: The Complete Confection,

yielded two more Martin and Luke mega-hits, “Part of Me”

470

and “Wide

Awake,”

471

which reached numbers one and two in the U.S., respectively.

471

Written by Bonnie McKee, Henry Walter (Cirkut), Max Martin, Katy Perry and Lukasz

Gottwald and produced by Dr. Luke, Max Martin, and Cirkut.

470

Written by Bonnie McKee, Max Martin, Katy Perry, and Lukasz Gottwald and produced by Dr.

Luke, Max Martin, and Cirkut.

469

Gary Trust, “Katy Perry Still Holds Record, as The Chainsmokers Fall From Hot 100’s Top 10

After 61 Consecutive Weeks,” Billboard, July 10, 2017,

https://www.billboard.com/pro/katy-perry-record-chainsmokers-fall-hot-100-top-10/.

468

Gary Trust, “Katy Perry Makes Hot 100 History: Ties Michael Jackson’s Record,” Billboard,

August 17, 2011,

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/katy-perry-makes-hot-100-history-ties-michael-jack

sons-record-467879/.

467

Written by Bonnie McKee, Max Martin, Katy Perry, and Lukasz Gottwald and produced by Dr.

Luke and Max Martin.

466

Written by Max Martin, Joshua Coleman, Katy Perry, and Lukasz Gottwald and produced by

Dr. Luke and Max Martin.

465

Co-written and co-produced by Norwegian writer-producer duo Stargate.

464

Written by Bonnie McKee, Max Martin, Benjamin Levin (Benny Blanco), Calvin Broadus

(Snoop Dogg), Katy Perry, and Lukasz Gottwald and produced by Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco, and

Max Martin.

133

Fig. 3.3: Katy Perry and Max Martin at the 2012 ASCAP Pop Music Awards (Photo by

Michael Tran)

472

Perry’s peak years of popularity, between 2010 and 2013, bookend the

beginning and end of Martin, Luke, and McKee’s fruitful songwriting partnership.

During this period, Perry scored eight number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100,

seven of which were written and produced by Martin and Luke, including five

written with McKee.

473

As a result of her initial collaboration with Martin, Luke,

and Perry on Teenage Dream, a team McKee called “the dream team,”

474

McKee’s

career as a songwriter skyrocketed. Prior to her involvement with Martin and

Luke, she had not written a hit. However, with their assistance, she gained entry

474

Dale Kawashima, “Bonnie McKee Interview - Writing Hit Songs For Katy Perry and Taio

Cruz,” Songwriter Universe, September 16, 2013,

http://www.songwriteruniverse.com/bonnie-mckee-songwriter-123.htm.

473

“Katy Perry,” Billboard, Accessed January 6, 2023,

https://www.billboard.com/artist/katy-perry/.

472

Abby Jones, “Katy Perry Reunites With Max Martin in Sweden: Watch,” Billboard, June 12,

2018, https://www.billboard.com/music/pop/katy-perry-max-martin-reunite-video-8460607/.

134

to major projects and learned invaluable lessons about “hit songwriting.” She told

the music website Songfacts in 2019:

I was so fortunate to work with some of the best in the world, and Max

really taught me a lot about the importance of symmetry and melody.

There were some early sessions I did with him and Luke where I would

write something and they would be like, “No, that’s wrong,” and I was

like, “You can’t tell me it’s wrong. It’s art, and there’s no right and wrong

in art.” And they were like, “Yes, there is!” I remember being really upset

about that, literally going and crying and being like, “I can’t work with

these people... they’re telling me I’m wrong.” And then once I got the

hang of it, I was like, “Oh, they’re right, there is a right and wrong way to

do this when it comes to hit songwriting.” I learned an important lesson

while writing “Teenage Dream.” We rewrote that lyric five times front to

back. Same melody, same everything. … I reference those sessions all the

time[.]

475

McKee continued by explaining the importance of syllabic emphasis and the

vocalist’s role in delivering this emphasis,

476

touching on the concepts of Melodic

Math and Martin’s focus on vocal delivery. Later in the interview, she added that

Martin’s “nonsensical bumbling,” where “he sings nonsensical stuff, just

phonetically pleasing lyrics” (another way of describing his Melody-first

approach), was how the lyrics for other collaborations with Martin and Luke, such

as Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” and Perry’s “Wide Awake,” began.

477

After Teenage

Dream, McKee contributed to Britney Spears’ 2011 album Femme Fatale and

Perry’s 2013 album Prism, both number-one albums co-executive produced by

Martin and Luke. Without Martin and Luke, she co-wrote the U.K. number-one

hits “How We Do (Party)” for Rita Ora and “I Don’t Care” for Cheryl.

Luke’s protégés, Benny Blanco and Cirkut, were also major contributors

to Perry’s music (each was involved in three separate number-one hits for her)

477

Ibid.

476

Ibid.

475

Ibid.

135

and, like McKee, benefitted significantly from working with Martin and Luke.

When Blanco met Luke in 2007, he, like many of the writer-producers in this

thesis, had no experience with pop. He told Seabrook, “I knew nothing about pop

music. I didn’t even think about pop music––that wasn’t part of my realm.”

478

Under Luke’s tutelage, however, he received impeccable training, shifting his

focus from off-beat electronic and hip-hop to commercial pop. His first major

credits were alongside Luke in 2008 on three songs for Britney Spears’ Circus

album and Perry’s hits “I Kissed a Girl” and “Hot n Cold,” which earned him the

reputation and experience required to penetrate the pop charts. Cirkut trained with

Luke around the same time. He worked with Martin, Luke, and McKee on songs

for the re-release of Teenage Dream and Prism and on songs for Britney Spears

and Kesha. Collaboration among some combinations of Martin, Luke, McKee,

Blanco, and Cirkut was high during the early 2010s. During and following their

apprenticeships with Luke, Blanco and Cirkut have been a part of a plethora of

top ten hits: Blanco with thirty-two (eleven number ones) and Cirkut with

nineteen (eight number ones).

Phase Three: “Musician-driven”; Shellback

By 2013, the trajectory of mainstream music shifted dramatically as

streaming platforms like YouTube and Spotify altered music consumption and

478

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 238.

136

production.

479

Spotify, founded in Sweden in 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin

Lorentzon, was revolutionary in the “de-genrefication” of music by allowing

users to eschew tastemakers like the radio and access millions of songs, genres,

and artists at little or no cost.

480

A rule change to the Billboard chart in 2013 that

would count streaming in its chart calculations reflected the prominence of

streaming in the United States.

481

In 2017, R&B and hip-hop eclipsed rock and

pop as the most listened-to genres in the U.S. for the first time due to streaming.

482

Writing for The Atlantic, Spencer Kornhaber stated, “By 2017, streaming had

fully upended the radio-centric monoculture that stars like [Katy] Perry once

thrived in.”

483

The fun and frivolity of dance-pop, epitomized by Teenage Dream,

was, like teen pop during the early 2000s, seen as vapid by the mid-2010s. Pop

artists like Lorde, who debuted in 2013 with her minimalist hip-hop and

R&B-influenced single “Royals,” represented a new kind of star that embraced

intimacy in favor of glitz and grandeur.

Influenced by the evolving musical landscape, Martin’s music during the

mid-2010s cannot be neatly categorized into one subgenre of pop. John Seabrook

suggests that Martin’s collaborations with already established, “musician-driven”

artists looking to reinvent their careers musically constitute another phase of

483

Kornhaber, “How Pop Music’s Teenage Dream Ended.”

482

“2017 U.S. Music Year-End Report,” Nielsen, Accessed January 6, 2023,

https://www.nielsen.com/insights/2018/2017-music-us-year-end-report/.

481

Unterberger, “2013 Was the Year That… Streaming Officially Became Unignorable.”

480

Kristin Robinson, “15 Years of Spotify: How the Streaming Giant Has Changed and Reinvented

the Music Industry,” Variety, April 13, 2021,

https://variety.com/2021/music/news/spotify-turns-15-how-the-streaming-giant-has-changed-and-r

einvented-the-music-industry-1234948299/.

479

Andrew Unterberger, “2013 Was the Year That… Streaming Officially Became Unignorable,”

Billboard, December 5, 2019,

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/2013-year-of-streaming-8545169/.

137

Martin’s career following the decline of dance-pop.

484

The artists who satisfy this

criterion, namely Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and The Weeknd, comprise

Martin’s most consistent clients during the second half of the 2010s. Martin’s role

as a writer-producer became more artist-centered during this period as certain

artists, particularly those with a strong background in songwriting like Taylor

Swift, became equal collaborators in the songwriting process. In some cases, such

as in the development of Ellie Goulding’s “Love Me Like You Do” and Selena

Gomez’s “Hands to Myself,” Martin’s role was similar to that of an editor in that

he refined in-progress songs rather than constructing them from the ground up.

485

Musically, the influence of R&B and hip-hop, though subtle, can be heard on

several Martin songs towards the end of the decade, for example, “break up with

your girlfriend, i’m bored” by Ariana Grande and “Ordinary Life” by The

Weeknd.

During the 2010s, Martin continued to mentor Swedish and American

writer-producers, forming a multinational team of musicians that collaborated

together and with other writer-producers. The production companies MXM Music

& Publishing Productions and Wolf Cousins were founded by Martin in 2012 and

2013, respectively. Many longtime Martin collaborators, such as Rami Yacoub

and Dr. Luke, signed with MXM, while Wolf Cousins primarily focused on

newcomers. In 2007, the same year Luke met Benny Blanco, Martin met his new

mentee, the sixteen-year-old Shellback (born Karl Johan Schuster), through a

mutual friend in Sweden. Shellback’s backstory is, at this point, a textbook

485

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 73, 91.

484

DJ Louie XIV, “MAX MARTIN (with The New Yorker’s John Seabrook).”

138

example of the Swedish writer-producer: he attended municipal music schools,

played in metal bands as a teenager, and entered the close-knit Stockholm music

industry, where he met Martin, who mentored him. Shellback would eventually

become one of Martin’s most consistent collaborators, assuming the roles of

Yacoub and Luke, both of whom continued to work with Martin during the early

2010s but had developed their own careers and mentee relationships. In

collaboration with Taylor Swift, Martin and Shellback formed an intimate and

long-standing artist and writer-producer songwriting partnership similar to

Martin’s partnership with Katy Perry.

Martin and Shellback’s first collaborations with Swift in 2012 were

deliberate attempts to fuse Martin’s precision-oriented pop with the country sound

and narrative lyricism Swift was known for by that point. Martin’s reputation was

critical to landing him the job with Swift, who was a fan of his work and wanted

to combine their disparate sounds and songwriting techniques.

486

Swift recalled in

an interview with GRAMMY Pro in 2015, “The idea of Max Martin, he’s

enigmatic, he’s so mysterious. You’re like, ‘What does he look like? What does

he talk like? Does he wear a cloak?’ And I just wanted to know. I was like, ‘What

is a Swedish pop mastermind? What does that look like?”

487

“We Are Never Ever

Getting Back Together,” the lead single from Swift’s 2012 album Red and her first

collaboration with Martin and Shellback, became her first number-one single in

the U.S. and noticeably leaned more pop than Swift’s previous material. “I Knew

You Were Trouble” and “22,” the two additional Martin and Shellback

487

GrammyPro 2015 - Taylor Swift Pt1, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VenlV7Qxak.

486

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 60.

139

collaborations included on Red, are similarly pop-centric, combining elements of

pop-rock, dance-pop, and Swift’s native country. The musical diversity of Red,

which straddled primarily pop and country musical aesthetics, led Swift to

reassess her artistry.

488

Hoping to create a more sonically cohesive project, she

abandoned her country sound and fully transitioned into pop for her next album,

1989, titled after her birth year to signify her musical rebirth.

489

Swift drew

inspiration from 1980s synthpop and enlisted Martin as her co-executive

producer, who, in turn, recruited Shellback as his co-producer.

Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”

Martin and Shellback’s songwriting dynamic with Swift is well

exemplified by “Blank Space.” A “voice memo” included on the deluxe edition of

1989 captures the first time Swift performed a draft of “Blank Space” for Martin

and Shellback, clarifying the stage at which Martin and Shellback joined Swift’s

songwriting process. In the voice memo, Swift plays acoustic guitar and sings a

melody nearly identical to the one she would later record for the final version of

“Blank Space.” Though Swift sings part of the melody using words, most of her

vocalizations are gibberish that act as placeholders for lyrics. The only point at

which she fully sings words is in the chorus. Therefore, she composed the melody

first and added most of the lyrics later. Martin and Shellback’s voices appear in

the background of the recording as they provide positive feedback and call out

489

Ibid.

488

Ibid.

140

spontaneous production ideas, such as the shouted interjection “oh!” that would

later be added during the production process. Swift wrote “Blank Space” as a

satirical response to the media’s relentless criticism of her dating history and

portrayal of her as a “serial dater” and “man-hater,” among other things.

490

She

explained in various interviews that she wrote the lyrics like “a crossword puzzle”

by piecing together different lyrical phrases and one-liners, such as “‘Cause

darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream,” she had written over several

years (see Appendix E for final lyrics).

491

After Swift played “Blank Space” for Martin and Shellback, they decided

to make the production simple to highlight Swift’s lyrics and vocals.

492

Martin and

Shellback’s experience in pop was crucial to familiarizing Swift with various pop

production aesthetics that differed from the acoustic soundscape of country. While

Swift revised her lyrics, Martin and Shellback crafted the instrumental, beginning

with drum samples from the iconic Roland TR-808 Rhythm Composer

(commonly known as the 808), a 1980s drum machine widely used in hip-hop

production.

493

Martin and Shellback combined the 808 with acoustic guitars (the

only stylistic callback to Swift’s country sound), synthesizers, and the

electro-mechanical keyboard known as the Mellotron.

494

The Mellotron, in

particular, guided the sonic direction of many of the songs Martin and Shellback

produced for 1989.

495

Ibid.

494

Ibid.

493

Ibid.

492

GrammyPro 2015 - Taylor Swift Pt1.

491

Ibid.

490

Taylor Swift – How I Wrote My Massive Hit “Blank Space,” 2015,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bYUDY4lmls.

141

Unlike Martin and Shellback’s previous collaborations, “Blank Space” is

noticeably sparse, evoking the minimalism of hip-hop production. The verses

feature only the Mellotron and a simple snare and kick-drum combination from

the 808. In the chorus, Martin and Shellback add acoustic guitars and electronic

bass, but the instrumental remains relatively sparse to keep the focus on Swift’s

melody, lyrics, and vocals. Eschewing the typical immensity of Martin’s

production style, Martin and Shellback still manage to create a discernible

increase in energy between the verses and chorus by comping and layering Swift’s

vocals. They also include affected samples of Swift and Shellback shouting the

interjection “oh!” between every other phrase Swift sings in the chorus. These

samples, combined with the intensity of Swift’s comped and layered vocals, give

the chorus considerable depth and texture even though the instrumental remains

sparse. With the “oh!” backing vocals, the chorus can be transcribed as: “[Oh!] So

it’s gonna be forever / Or it’s gonna go down in flames / [Oh!] You can tell me

when it’s over / If the high was worth the pain / [Oh!] Gotta a long list of

ex-lovers / They’ll tell you I’m insane / [Oh!] ‘Cause you know I love the players

/ And you love the game.” At the point in the voice memo when Martin

spontaneously comes up with the “oh!” backing vocals, Swift compares it to the

work of rapper Nelly.

Swift’s spoken vocal delivery throughout “Blank Space” furthers the

song’s flirtation with hip-hop. During the verses, Swift oscillates between a

clipped vocal delivery

496

reminiscent of rapping and a more melodic pop vocal

496

Nate Sloan, “Taylor Swift and the Work of Songwriting,” Contemporary Music Review 40, no.

1 (January 2, 2021): 11–26, https://doi.org/10.1080/07494467.2021.1945226.

142

style: “Nice to meet you, where you been?” is almost spoken, while “I could show

you incredible things” is sung. The melody reinforces this difference between

spoken and sung. The beginning of the phrase, when Swift sings, “Nice to meet

you, where you been?” is on the same pitch, whereas the melody at the end of the

phrase, when Swift sings, “I could show you incredible things,” moves up and

down in pitch. The verse continues this pattern of spoken and sung with the same

repeated melody. Towards the end of the verse, right before the chorus, Swift

speaks the line “I can make the bad guys good for a weekend” (in the second

verse, this line is “‘Cause darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream”) as

the music momentarily drops out. Seconds later, when the instrumentation returns

at the beginning of the chorus, Swift sings, and the melody becomes increasingly

more melodic and high in her vocal range. The instrumentation builds, and Swift’s

vocals receive Martin and Shellback’s comped and layered treatment, resulting in

a climax that is suddenly interrupted as the music drops out again. This moment

happens across five critical seconds: Swift sings the hook, “‘Cause I’ve got a

blank space baby,” the music drops out, and the sound of a pen clicking cues

Swift’s coy remark, “And I’ll write your name.”

497

The sparse instrumentation

returns for the following verse, and the song’s spoken and sung dichotomy

resumes.

498

The melodic and rhythmic contrast of Melodic Math is most evident in the

verse’s contrasting spoken and sung lines, juxtaposed further by the more melodic

delivery of the chorus. Absent from the lyric writing process, Martin and

498

Ibid.

497

Ibid.

143

Shellback assisted Swift with revising her melodies, particularly so that their

production would emphasize her melodies.

499

The hip-hop-tinged production, for

example, parallels the spoken, rap-like segments of the verse while guitars and

synthesizers reinforce the melodic pop chorus. Swift’s lyrics are also emphasized

by the production, most cleverly when Swift sings the titular phrase “blank

space,” and the instrumental dissipates, only to be followed by the pen-click

sound that makes the tongue-in-cheek “And I’ll write your name” all the more

satisfying. Other instances of Melodic Math appear, but Swift’s voice memo

makes it clear that much of the melody was there from the beginning, and Martin

and Shellback took on editor roles.

Concerning “Blank Space,” Martin and Shellback’s principal roles were to

support Swift’s musical vision and elevate her songwriting in a pop context, roles

they maintained throughout the development of 1989. In the context of Swift’s

prolific career, 1989, which Swift referred to as her “first documented, official

pop album,”

500

is a landmark album that cemented her status as a global pop icon.

Unlike Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, and Katy Perry, Swift already had an

established career long before working with Martin. However, her decision to

work directly with Martin to facilitate her transition from country to pop reveals

the significance of Martin’s reputation as a hitmaker and a profound determining

force in the careers of several of the century’s biggest female pop stars. Ola

Johansson determined in his research that “Star performers are frequently quoted

in the data wanting to work with top producers like Max Martin because of his

500

Taylor Swift Worldwide Live Stream Part 2 - Secret 2, 2014,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fDlhMAeN9Y.

499

GrammyPro 2015 - Taylor Swift Pt1.

144

general reputation as a hit song maker. This reputation can also be attractive for

artists who want to cross over into pop from other genres.”

501

His second point

can be applied to Ariana Grande and The Weeknd, both of whom worked with

Martin the same year 1989 was released on their sophomore albums to transition

into mainstream pop.

More than just a creative redirection for Swift, 1989 was a smashing

commercial and critical success. The album was released on October 27, 2014,

and sold more than a million copies in its opening week, becoming the first album

to do so since Swift’s Red in 2012 and the biggest opening sales week since

2002.

502

Martin and Shellback co-wrote and co-produced nine of the album’s

sixteen songs, including the first five singles, “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,”

“Style,”

503

“Bad Blood,” and “Wildest Dreams.” These five singles reached the

top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 with “Shake It Off,” “Blank Space,” and “Bad

Blood,” peaking at number one.

504

1989, thus, became the second album released

in the 2010s to generate five or more top ten hits in the U.S. after Katy Perry’s

Teenage Dream, the very album Martin helped make a blockbuster hit.

505

Andrew

Unterberger noted in Billboard in 2017 that 1989 “achiev[ed] a kind of cultural

505

Trevor Anderson, “The Albums With The Most Top 10 Billboard Hot 100 Hits: Drake’s

‘Certified Lover Boy’ & More,” Billboard, September 15, 2021,

https://www.billboard.com/photos/albums-five-top-10-hot-100-hits/.

504

“Taylor Swift,” Billboard, Accessed January 6, 2023,

https://www.billboard.com/artist/taylor-swift/.

503

With additional writing and production from Ali Payami.

502

Keith Caulfield, “Official: Taylor Swift’s ‘1989’ Debuts With 1.287 Million Sold In First

Week,” Billboard, November 5, 2014,

https://www.billboard.com/pro/official-taylor-swifts-1989-debuts-with-1287-million-sold-in/.

501

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 60.

145

omnipresence that’s rare for a 2010s album.”

506

As with Perry, Martin’s

collaboration with Swift was fundamental to developing her sound and expanding

the reach of her music. John Seabrook wrote in The Song Machine: Inside the Hit

Factory, “In Swift, the Swedish master may have found his ultimate collaborator:

an artist strong enough to stand up for her vision, but canny enough to appreciate

his genius.”

507

1989, in all its glory, demonstrates the power of genuine

collaboration between superstar artist and mega writer-producer.

Many of the songs Martin and Shellback produced for 1989 involved

Swedish musicians, making the album a wide-scale Swedish collaborative

effort.

508

For example, “Style” was developed from an instrumental the

Iranian-Swedish writer-producer and Martin protégé Ali Payami had created that

Swift overheard and requested to use.

509

In addition, much of the live

instrumentation, such as the saxophone in “Shake It Off” or the strings in

“Wildest Dreams,” was recorded by Swedish musicians in Sweden.

510

American

mastering engineer Tom Coyne praised Martin’s production, saying, “My job was

easy. Max Martin’s collaboration with Taylor Swift pretty much assured the

album was going to be big, bold and beautiful.”

511

In the two years following

1989, Martin earned his first Grammys for Producer of the Year and as a producer

on 1989, which won Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2016

511

Ibid.

510

Ibid.

509

Ibid.

508

Paul Zollo, “The Oral History of Taylor Swift’s ‘1989,’” Cuepoint (blog), February 14, 2016,

https://medium.com/cuepoint/the-oral-history-of-taylor-swift-s-1989-d9869cc13adc.

507

Seabrook, The Song Machine, 306.

506

Andrew Unterberger, “While You Weren’t Looking, Taylor Swift Scored Her Biggest

‘Reputation’ Radio Hit,” Billboard, July 6, 2018,

https://www.billboard.com/pro/taylor-swift-delicate-reputation-biggest-radio-hit/.

146

ceremony. Swift accepted the Grammy for Album of the Year with Martin and

many of her other collaborators onstage, specifically thanking Martin, whom she

said: “deserved to be up here for twenty-five years.”

512

Swift later spoke highly of

Martin and Shellback when accepting the National Music Publishers

Association’s Songwriter Icon Award in 2021 and emphasized the “lessons” she

learned from them “in a melodic sense.”

513

Fig. 3.4: Max Martin (right), Shellback (middle), and Taylor Swift (left) circa the

recording period of 1989

514

Dylan Matthews, “How a Swedish Hair-Metal Singer Took over American Pop Music,” Vox,

October 7, 2015, https://www.vox.com/2015/10/7/9465815/max-martin-john-seabrook.

513

Ashley Jones, “Read Taylor Swift’s Speech on the ‘Magical, Mystical’ Art of Songwriting

When Accepting NMPA Icon Award | Variety,” National Music Publishers’ Association, June 15,

2021,

https://www.nmpa.org/read-taylor-swifts-speech-on-the-magical-mystical-art-of-songwriting-when

-accepting-nmpa-icon-award/.

512

Taylor Swift | Album of the Year | 58th GRAMMYs, 2016,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMCAEUb0h34.

147

Many critics have lauded “Blank Space” as the highlight of 1989 and one

of the best songs in Swift’s extensive catalog. Numerous contemporary reviews at

the time of 1989’s release noted similarities to the minimalist production and

speak-sing vocal style of the then “it girl” Lorde, illustrating how Martin,

Shellback, and Swift successfully borrowed from popular musical aesthetics of

the time while retaining the album’s timeless 1980s sonic palette.

515

Corey

Beasley summarized the strengths of “Blank Space” in a 2014 review of 1989 for

the online magazine PopMatters:

...‘Blank Space’ builds as masterfully as a gleaming skyscraper, with Swift

and co-producers Max Martin and Shellback adding layers and layers of

sounds—here a percussively strummed acoustic guitar, there an ‘oh!’

backing vocal—to the track’s simple, Lorde-lite electro foundation.

Weapons-grade, professional pop like this doesn’t come around often. It

may sound bright and easy, but it’s anything but the latter to create.

516

The hip-hop-influenced production on “Blank Space,” another element the song

shares with Lorde’s brand of pop, reappeared on “Bad Blood,” a parallel that

became more blatant when Swift released a remix of the song featuring guest

vocals from rapper Kendrick Lamar and additional production by Martin protégé

ILYA. The remix was released as a single and peaked at number one on the

Billboard Hot 100.

517

Swift’s dabbling in hip-hop and the satirical lyrics of “Blank

Space” foreshadowed the eventual sonic and narrative tone of her subsequent

album, reputation, written in response to the increased public scrutiny she faced.

517

“Taylor Swift,” Billboard, Accessed January 6, 2023,

https://www.billboard.com/artist/taylor-swift/.

516

Corey Beasley, “Taylor Swift: 1989, PopMatters,” PopMatters, October 31, 2014,

https://www.popmatters.com/187585-taylor-swift-1989-2495596654.html.

515

Lyndsey Havens, “Songs That Defined the Decade: Lorde’s ‘Royals,’” Billboard, November

21, 2019,

https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/lorde-royals-songs-that-defined-the-decade-854412

2/.

148

Critics noted the album’s use of trap, R&B, and EDM production and Swift’s

rapped delivery on many songs. Martin and Shellback have songwriting and

production credits on nine of the fifteen songs, and several other Swedish

writer-producers, courtesy of Martin, also worked on the album.

Shellback’s partnership with Martin extends far beyond Swift, and their

partnership remains one of the most successful in contemporary pop. Martin’s

mentorship was once again fundamental to Shellback’s success, completely

adjusting Shellback’s musical ambitions from Swedish heavy metal to mainstream

global pop and providing him with training, collaborations, and connections that

have helped make him arguably the most successful Swedish writer-producer

working today after Martin. Now, Shellback remains based in Stockholm and

heads Martin’s Wolf Cousins collective.

518

He frequently works with other Martin

writer-producers signed to Wolf Cousins and has maintained a successful

songwriting partnership with Benny Blanco, most notably on hits for Maroon 5.

To date, Shellback has co-written and co-produced ten Billboard Hot 100

number-one singles, nine of which were written with Martin and one with Blanco.

He has credits on sixteen other top ten hits, including fourteen with Martin and

two with Blanco.

518

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 56.

149

A Summary of Max Martin’s Impact (2004-2014)

Throughout this chapter, I have covered substantial ground to summarize

and closely examine the impact of Martin’s music, mentorship, and songwriting

characteristics on the development of twenty-first-century music. My argument

has thus linked Martin’s personal musical developments with those of the music

industry at large. Briefly detailing what I have identified as several among many

other major shifts in the sound and style of mainstream pop, I have shown how

Martin has adapted his sound to the rapidly changing musical landscape,

particularly by working with an array of different collaborators. Whether Martin

is a trendsetter or a trend hopper is debatable, but the answer likely lies

somewhere in between. In the case of teen pop and pop-rock, Martin was arguably

a pioneer. His pivots to dance-pop and a more flexible approach to working with

artists and on songs that span genres and stages of development are perhaps less

innovative but equally defining in the sound of pop. Moreover, his adaptability

and willingness to embrace new sounds, genres, and collaborators have

contributed to his exceptional longevity as a hit writer-producer.

Martin has acknowledged the transformative power collaboration has had

on his career. Referring to his songwriting partnership with Shellback, Martin told

Swedish journalist Jan Gradvall during his Polar Prize Masterclass, “This guy

changed my life. This guy’s a genius. … Because I have to now keep up with him

and I think that’s a good thing … You need better people around you to

evolve…”

519

When Gradvall asked Martin why he so regularly embraces new

519

Polar Music Max Martin Masterclass Interview.

150

writer-producers and collaborators, especially when most would view younger

writer-producers as a threat, Martin responded by saying:

But I come from that. That’s what Denniz did. It’s from that school of

bringing new talent. He loved new talent. That was his thing. The whole

mentor thing that we are doing, and I guess I’m doing now, and I see

we’re now on the sort of third and fourth generation of people doing it,

and it just makes the whole difference.

520

Martin sees his role as a mentor to many leading writer-producers in pop as a

continuation of Denniz’s mentorship. Martin’s mentorship has created a

pronounced ripple effect across generations of writer-producers. One clear

example is Dr. Luke, who followed Martin’s lead to mentor Benny Blanco and

Cirkut, major contemporary writer-producers in Martin’s lineage. Another

example is Shellback’s work with many new Swedish talents signed to Wolf

Cousins. Wolf Cousins, as a collective of writer-producers collaborating, is

analogous to Cheiron and adds to the many parallels between Martin and Denniz.

The other effect Martin’s mentorship has had on other writer-producers

beyond providing them with a launchpad for their careers is steeping them in the

various songwriting characteristics he has perfected and cultivated, many of

which he learned at Cheiron. As I stated in Chapter Two, none of these

characteristics (Melody-first, Melodic Math, simplicity and immediacy,

collaboration, and vocal-oriented) can be rightfully attributed to Martin, Cheiron,

or any particular songwriter as their “inventions.” However, they are closely

linked with Martin’s work. Nearly every writer-producer and performing artist

who has worked with Martin to some significant extent has associated elements of

these characteristics with Martin. Other media sources and journalists like John

520

Ibid.

151

Seabrook who write about Martin similarly assign these characteristics to Martin’s

songwriting style.

The strength and clarity of Martin’s songwriting and production create

exemplary pop songs that are consistently used as templates for writing other

songs. Bonnie McKee, for instance, said, “Since U Been Gone” “has a roadmap

hook that I refer to all the time.”

521

She told MetroLyrics in 2013, “Dr. Luke and

Max Martin are like my songwriting Yodas. I feel like they’re my mentors,

they’ve taught me everything. I came in with raw talent and they kind of helped

me chisel away and make it into almost a science.”

522

Continuing with a Star Wars

metaphor, Seabrook wrote in The New Yorker, “If Luke is the Skywalker of pop

songcraft, Max is the Obi-Wan: the reclusive master.”

523

Frequently called a

“master,” Martin is widely seen as the model for a certain level of pop songcraft.

This association further explains why, along with his reputation as a hitmaker,

Martin is in-demand; to some extent, performers know what to expect from

Martin, even as elements of his sound and style change.

Martin’s mentorship has led to several long-term partnerships with

performers who collaborate with him regularly and hire him to produce numerous

songs from multiple albums. As I have explained throughout this chapter and the

previous chapter, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, and Taylor Swift are all repeat

Martin clients who have had Martin executive produce at least one of their

albums. *NSYNC, Backstreet Boys, P!nk, Ariana Grande, and The Weeknd have

523

Seabrook, “The Doctor Is In.”

522

Bonnie McKee Shares Her Songwriting Secrets (LINER NOTES), 2013,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-wvEM36_Lc.

521

Crowley, “Bonnie McKee Breaks Down ‘Teenage Dream’ & ‘Dynamite’ Choruses – and Why

She Felt Insulted by Lorde’s Lyrics.”

152

also worked with Martin repeatedly. The result of these long-term partnerships

and critical shorter-term collaborations, such as Martin’s work with Kelly

Clarkson, is that Martin is inextricably linked to the musical style of many

defining pop acts of the twenty-first century. Unbeknownst to most, Martin’s

music, sound, and songwriting characteristics are woven into American pop’s

fabric. There is no denying Martin’s influence on songs like “...Baby One More

Time,” “Since U Been Gone,” “Teenage Dream,” and “Blank Space” and the

transformation these songs have had on their respective performers’ careers.

Because the three songs I have chosen to analyze in this chapter cover ten

years following Martin’s time at Cheiron, they provide a rich perspective on how

Martin’s relevance has endured in the competitive music industry. The Billboard

Hot 100 chart in 2014, the year “Blank Space” and 1989 were released, shows

how far Martin’s success and impact had expanded by that point. Four of the ten

number-one singles on the Hot 100 that year had some combination of Martin,

Shellback, Luke, and Cirkut attached to them, representing forty percent of the

number-one singles. Including these ten number-one singles, forty-eight songs

reached the top ten, eleven of which featured some combination of the

writer-producers listed above plus Blanco and the Martin affiliates ILYA, Savan

Kotecha, Ali Payami, Rickard Göransson, Peter Svensson, and Peter Carlsson (all

but Luke, Cirkut, Blanco, and Kotecha are Swedish). Ariana Grande had the most

top ten hits that year, with four, all of which were co-written and co-produced by

Martin. Billboard reported in 2015 that “on any given week on the Hot 100 these

days, Swedish songwriters pop up on a minimum of 20% of the whole chart….the

153

Swedish invasion is at peaks unseen since the late ‘90s.”

524

Martin’s success,

which has enhanced the reputation of the Swedish songwriter as a hitmaker, and

his deliberate willingness to foster a new generation of Swedish talent are chief

reasons why the Swedish writer-producer has survived and developed from the

model Denniz first began in the 1990s at Cheiron.

524

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 57.

154

Conclusion

As “one of the primary architects of the sound of the modern Top 40,”

525

Max Martin has widened Sweden’s position in the global music industry, building

off the successes of ABBA, a wave of 1980s and 1990s acts, and, most

specifically Denniz Pop, to bridge the gap between the Swedish and American

music industries. In Songs from Sweden: Shaping Pop Culture in a Globalized

Music Industry, Johansson presents data beginning with Denniz’s work with Ace

of Base in 1993 and culminating in 2018 that correlates peaks in the number of

Swedish songwriting and production credits with Martin’s success.

526

Before

Cheiron became a hotspot for American artists to record music written and

produced by Swedish musicians, the connection between American record labels

and Swedish writer-producers did not exist. Even as the Swedish music industry

has globalized, resulting in many prominent Swedish writer-producers migrating

to America, Stockholm has maintained its allure. For example, the American

writer-producer Savan Kotecha, who had his first hit as a songwriter on Carrie

Underwood’s American Idol coronation song “Inside Your Heaven,”

527

moved

from his native Texas to Stockholm in the late 2000s to improve career

opportunities when he felt “pop was dead in America [at the time].”

528

Many

528

Michael Cragg, “Savan Kotecha Interview: ‘The People with the Longest Careers Are the

People Who Learn How to Do It on Purpose,’” Popjustice, October 5, 2015,

https://www.popjustice.com/articles/savan-kotecha-interview-the-people-with-the-longest-careers-

are-the-people-who-learn-how-to-do-it-on-purpose/.

527

Co-written by Andreas Carlsson.

526

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 58.

525

Joe Coscarelli, “Max Martin, Pop’s Low-Key Mastermind, Takes Center Stage (Sort Of),” The

New York Times, November 11, 2022, sec. Arts,

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/11/arts/music/max-martin-and-juliet.html.

155

Swedish writer-producers have dual residency in Sweden and elsewhere, most

often in Los Angeles, and international artists, especially smaller ones, still travel

to Stockholm to write and record. Swedish pop has become a source of national

pride, and a Swedish ethnicity or association can be a reputation enhancer for

writer-producers.

Martin’s production companies MXM and Wolf Cousins, both based in

Stockholm, are an ever-growing network of primarily Swedish writer-producers

who represent, by and large, the biggest Swedish writer-producers in pop today.

Rami Yacoub, Shellback, ILYA, Savan Kotecha, Ali Payami, Peter Svensson,

Alexander Kronlund, Johan Carlsson, Peter Carlsson, Rickard Goransson, Oscar

Holter, Oscar Görres, and Mattman & Robin, and several women, including

Laleh, Tove Lo, and Elvira are all tied to Wolf Cousins. In general, these

musicians are part of the second and third generations of globally successful

Swedish writer-producers. Collaboration and mentorship are paramount to their

operations. Each year they collectively (in different combinations and often with

additional writer-producers) produce dozens of songs for a wide-ranging clientele.

The role of the Swedish writer-producer as one of the biggest exporters of

Swedish-related music holds serious weight in the present. Export Music Sweden

(ExMS), a Swedish organization that tracks Swedish music exports, predicts a

revenue slowdown in the Swedish music industry as the total addressable market

(people living in Sweden who “possess a Spotify-enabled smartphone and credit

or debit card to pay for it”) reaches a plateau.

529

Data acquired by ExMS from

529

Page and Safir, “ExMS Report – Sustaining Sweden’s Music Export Success.”

156

Spotify indicates that “for every stream Swedish artists get on Spotify at home,

they are achieving two overseas.”

530

This points to opportunities for increasing

Swedish music exports to foreign consumers in established markets like the U.S.

and Europe and untapped markets like Asia and Australia.

531

ExMS recommends

increasing governmental support to both musicians and music organizations such

as the Swedish Performing Rights Society (STIM) and the Swedish Artists’ and

Musicians’ Interest Organisation (SAMI) to double the Swedish export ratio from

2:1 to 4:1.

532

Swedish writer-producers, as “middlemen” between the Swedish and

American music industries with the greatest export potential, bode well for the

future of the Swedish music industry.

Though the focus of this thesis has been predominantly on Martin’s

influence on the Swedish and American music industries, his methods have

spread to other non-English music markets more recently. In a rare and recent

2022 profile on Martin for The New York Times, Joe Coscarelli wrote, “Martin has

proved equally influential in his methods of assembly, pushing producers and

songwriters around the world toward the Swedish model of broad collaboration,

optimization, reliability and populism.”

533

Some Swedish writer-producers have

taken to writing K-pop (Korean pop) songs, working in duos or large teams at

international songwriting “camps” organized by Korean record labels or

publishers in an assembly line method similar to that of Cheiron.

534

Swedish

534

Alex Marshall, “Sweden’s Songwriters Dominated U.S. Pop. Now, They’re Looking to Korea,”

The New York Times, January 26, 2022, sec. Arts,

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/26/arts/music/sweden-kpop-bts-red-velvet.html.

533

Coscarelli, “Max Martin, Pop’s Low-Key Mastermind, Takes Center Stage (Sort Of).”

532

Ibid.

531

Ibid.

530

Ibid.

157

songwriters write melodies using English lyrics, and then Korean songwriters

write new lyrics in Korean, keeping certain English words.

535

The resulting songs

are thus a hybrid between English and Korean. While the global popularity of

K-pop is relatively new, Korean labels have sought out European songwriters

since the late 1990s with “Max Martin productions in mind,” according to

Michael Fuhr, author of Globalization and Popular Music in South Korea:

Sounding Out K-Pop.

536

Several songwriting and publishing companies in

Stockholm currently employ Swedish K-pop songwriters, including EKKO (based

in Korea with studios in Stockholm), Cosmos, and The Kennel.

537

As I near the end of this thesis, I want to offer two additional perspectives

that I did not address here and ultimately warrant further exploration. The first is

the hegemonic nature of Martin and his peers’ prolonged and dominant success. If

we revisit the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2014 that I summarized at the conclusion

of Chapter Three, we will notice the firm grasp Martin and his collaborators had

on the charts (four of the ten number-one singles that year were written by some

combination of Martin, Shellback, Luke, and Cirkut). 2014 was not a total

anomaly; in 2013, Martin and songwriters directly connected to him produced

nearly twenty percent of the number-one singles.

538

That percentage was

538

The songs “Roar” (Katy Perry, Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, and Cirkut) and

“Wrecking Ball” (Dr. Luke and Cirkut).

537

Ibid.

536

Ibid.

535

Ibid.

158

approximately thirty percent in 2012 (nearly forty if including Jörgen Elofsson’s

co-write on “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson),

539

2011,

540

and 2010.

541

So-called music purists often dismiss contemporary pop music as

“sounding all the same.” Indeed, this is an oversimplification, yet there is some

truth to the statement. When over a quarter of the number-one hits in a year are

written and produced by the same few musicians, who are collaborators, is it not

inevitable that songs from this period will sound similar or contain familiar

attributes? Many songwriters strive to replicate successful songs through subtle

“plagiarism” because audiences latch on to familiarity.

542

Jan Gradvall wrote in

2016, “As soon as a brand new Max Martin tune begins climbing the charts,

10,000 songwriters all over the world immediately try to copy it.”

543

The signature

Cheiron sound was one such Martin style that was heavily copied by other

writer-producers, and Martin and Luke have not been shy about recycling

elements of their hit songs for subsequent songs (listen to the similar chorus

melodies of Kesha’s “TiK ToK” and Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” as an

example). I present two additional follow-up questions to my thoughts here. First:

What implications does this musical “hegemony” have on the development of

543

Johansson, Songs from Sweden, 61.

542

Seabrook, “Blank Space.”

541

The songs “TiK ToK” (Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco), “California Gurls” (Katy Perry, Dr. Luke,

Max Martin, Benny Blanco, and Bonnie McKee), “Teenage Dream” (same as “California Gurls”),

“We R Who We R” (Ammo, Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco), and “Raise Your Glass” (Max Martin and

Shellback).

540

The songs “Hold It Against Me” (Max Martin, Dr. Luke, and Bonnie McKee), “E.T.” (Katy

Perry, Dr. Luke, Max Martin, and Dr. Luke protégé Ammo), “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)” (Katy

Perry, Dr. Luke, Max Martin, and Bonnie McKee), and “Moves Like Jagger” (Benny Blanco and

Shellback).

539

The songs “Part of Me” (Katy Perry, Dr. Luke, Max Martin, Bonnie McKee, and Cirkut), “We

Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (Taylor Swift, Max Martin, and Shellback), “One More

Night” (Shellback, Max Martin, and Savan Kotecha), and “Diamonds” (Benny Blanco).

159

popular music? And second: If and how has this hegemony changed with the

democratization of music permitted by streaming services like Spotify?

The second perspective I want to address is gender. There are

overwhelmingly more men than women working as songwriters and producers.

The role of the producer, in particular, has long been male-dominated. Women are

more commonly accepted as songwriters because songwriting is seen as an

“emotional” form of expression that aligns with societal expectations of

women.

544

Female songwriters are also seen as valuable because they bring an

inherently female perspective to a song, which is ideal for material sung by

female vocalists.

545

Martin and many other Swedish writer-producers, almost all

of whom are male, have a long history of collaborating with female vocalists.

Many of these female artists, such as Britney Spears or Kelly Clarkson, were not

typically involved in the composition of their songs (the same goes for many male

artists). One interesting result of male songwriters writing for female vocalists is

that the songs are imbued with the male songwriter’s perspective of the female

experience. This is especially interesting when contemplating the predominantly

young female fan bases of artists like Spears, Clarkson, and Katy Perry, who

absorb these lyrics from their female role models.

Unfortunately, as I touched on in my discussion of Clarkson’s “Since U

Been Gone” in Chapter Three, young female artists, in particular, are often

dissuaded and even prohibited from exerting creative control over their music

when they request to be involved. Often the writer-producer is uninformed of the

545

Ibid.

544

Ibid, 79.

160

nuances of this conflict; their job is to produce what the label has requested, and

their awareness of artist and label dynamics is minimal, if it exists at all.

Nonetheless, the dynamics between writer-producer and artist can also be gender

imbalanced, especially when the writer-producer is male and the artist is female.

Power dynamics in the music industry are unavoidable and can create not only

creatively limiting and uncomfortable environments for women, who are

frequently working in a room full of men, but also environments that are

dangerous and predatory. In 2014, the singer-songwriter signed to Dr. Luke’s

Kemosabe Records, Kesha (formerly Ke$ha), accused Luke of sexual, physical,

verbal, and emotional abuse, accusations which Luke denied.

546

Martin and many

other longtime Luke collaborators immediately terminated their professional

partnerships with Luke and have not worked with him since the accusations were

made public. Nevertheless, Luke continues to write and produce major hits under

the “Dr. Luke” moniker as well as “Tyson Trax” and “Made in China.” The legal

case with Kesha is ongoing, and Kesha remains under contract with Kemosabe

Records.

In November 2017, 2,000 women in the Swedish music industry,

including major Swedish pop stars, signed a petition alleging the industry

perpetuates “sexual assault and harassment, sexism, and a culture of silence….”

547

In July of that year, Martin partnered with Spotify to launch the Equalizer Project

in Sweden, which promotes women, transgender, and non-binary professionals in

547

O’Kane, “How Sweden Became a Dominant Force in Global Pop Music.”

546

Maura Johnston, “Kesha, Dr. Luke: The Case Explained,” Rolling Stone, February 22, 2016,

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/kesha-and-dr-luke-everything-you-need-to-know

-to-understand-the-case-106731/.

161

the music industry.

548

As of 2022, the project has become part of Spotify’s global

EQUAL program and has hosted networking and education events with Martin,

Shellback, and Katy Perry. The EQUAL program celebrates role models in the

music industry to provide opportunities for up-and-coming talent.

549

The

program’s Nordic division organizes producer camps, discussion panels, yearly

meetups, and the Equalizer podcast.

550

Discussing his position as a male

writer-producer, Martin told The Guardian in 2019, “We try and do our best to

make [the studio environment] diverse, welcoming and inclusive. Let’s try and

inform and be role models as much as possible in our world and hopefully it will

spread.”

551

He has consciously “adapt[ed] with the times” to incorporate his

female collaborators’ input, allowing them to tell their stories through lyrics and

turning his attention to other musical elements like melody-writing and

production.

552

Since his tremendous success with Taylor Swift on 1989 in 2014, Martin

has stayed busy. He was awarded the prestigious Swedish Polar Music Prize in

2016 at a ceremony attended by the King of Sweden and three members of

Backstreet Boys with virtual appearances by Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Justin

Timberlake, P!nk, and Adam Levine of Maroon 5. He was also responsible for

nineteen Billboard top ten hits, including five number ones, between 2015 and

552

Ware and Ware, “S12 Ep 8: Max Martin.”

551

Cragg, “‘Britney Spears Is a Genius.’”

550

Ibid.

549

“About | Spotify Equal,” Spotify EQUAL, Accessed January 11, 2023,

https://equalnordics.byspotify.com/about.

548

“Equalizer Project Opens Opportunities for Women in the Nordic Music Industry,” Spotify,

March 4, 2019,

https://pr-newsroom-wp.appspot.com/2019-03-04/equalizer-project-opens-opportunities-for-wome

n-in-the-nordic-music-industry/.

162

2021. & Juliet, a new musical retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, features

more than thirty of Martin’s songs spanning most of his career. The show opened

on London’s West End in 2019 to critical acclaim and is currently playing on

Broadway. It will premiere in Melbourne in February 2023. Martin assisted with

auditions and workshops and produced both the London and Broadway cast

recordings.

553

He lives and works mainly in Los Angeles. In 2022, he collaborated

on songs with The Weeknd, Måneskin, Lizzo, P!nk, and Kim Petras, and for the

first time in decades, recorded lead vocals on a song called “Red Lights” for

TikTok and Universal Music Group’s StemDrop campaign.

2022 was notably the first year Martin did not score a Billboard top ten hit

since 2007. Is this the first sign Martin’s reign is over? His excellent track record

says otherwise. Maybe we are approaching another major pivot in popular music,

and Martin is anticipating a new sound and style like he has time and time again.

Either way, he seems content, telling The Guardian:

I’ve come to a point where I try not to think about the perception of the

work. … The first time it happened, when the boyband era crashed in front

of my eyes, I was freaking out a bit, but I’ve never really been worried. …

I’m not [making music] because I want to be successful; I would be doing

this anyway. Also, popular culture is supposed to move.

554

Predicting the long-term evolution of Martin’s music or who he will collaborate

with next is like predicting the direction of popular music: virtually impossible. It

will be intriguing, especially as Martin has entered his fifties in an industry where

youth is paramount, to see where he pivots next and if the hits follow.

554

Ibid.

553

Cragg, “‘Britney Spears Is a Genius.’”

163

At the beginning of 2023, Martin’s 2019 collaboration with The Weeknd,

“Blinding Lights,” became the most-streamed song in Spotify history.

555

It has

spent more weeks in both the top five and top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 than

any song in history and is the longest-charting song by a solo artist on the Hot

100.

556

The influence of “Blinding Lights” is apparent in the recent 1980s

synthpop revival in pop and will likely unfurl itself more throughout the decade.

In January 2023, at the completion of this thesis, Martin contributed to four new

songs for Italian Eurovision winner Måneskin’s debut international album. Wolf

Cousins writer-producers have contributed to numerous songs in January,

including songs for Måneskin, Kim Petras, Sam Smith, and ROSALÍA. They will

contribute to many additional songs this year, both with and without Martin’s

direct involvement. Martin’s influence prevails through his music and his

mentorship, and, for now, the master himself shows no sign of stopping. The

music plays; the hits live on.

556

Heran Mamo, “The Greatest Hit: The New No. 1 Song of All Time,” Billboard, November 23,

2021,

https://www.billboard.com/music/features/the-weeknd-blinding-lights-billboard-cover-story-2021-

interview-1235001282/.

555

Marisa Dellatto, “The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’ Is Now The Most-Streamed Song In Spotify

History,” Forbes, Accessed January 12, 2023,

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2023/01/04/the-weeknds-blinding-lights-is-now-the-

most-streamed-song-in-spotify-history/.

164

Appendix A: Max Martin’s Billboard Hot 100

Top Ten Hits

Song

Artist

U.S. Single

Release Year

Billboard Hot

100 Peak

Position

Do You Know

(What It Takes)

Robyn

1997

Quit Playing

Games (With My

Heart)

Backstreet Boys

1997

Show Me Love

Robyn

1997

Everybody

(Backstreet’s

Back)

Backstreet Boys

1998

...Baby One More

Time

Britney Spears

1998

I Want It That

Way

Backstreet Boys

1999

(You Drive Me)

Crazy

Britney Spears

1999

#10

That’s the Way It

Céline Dion

1999

Show Me the

Meaning of Being

Lonely

Backstreet Boys

1999

Oops!... I Did It

Again

Britney Spears

2000

It’s Gonna Be Me

*NSYNC

2000

Shape of My

Heart

Backstreet Boys

2000

165

Since U Been

Gone

Kelly Clarkson

2004

Behind These

Hazel Eyes

Kelly Clarkson

2005

U + Ur Hand

P!nk

2006

Who Knew

P!nk

2007

I Kissed a Girl

Katy Perry

2008

So What

P!nk

2008

Hot n Cold

Katy Perry

2008

My Life Would

Suck Without You

Kelly Clarkson

2009

Britney Spears

2009

Whataya Want

from Me

Adam Lambert

2009

#10

California Gurls

Katy Perry

featuring Snoop

Dogg

2010

Dynamite

Taio Cruz

2010

Teenage Dream

Katy Perry

2010

DJ Got Us Fallin’

in Love

Usher featuring

Pitbull

2010

Raise Your Glass

P!nk

2010

F**kin’ Perfect

P!nk

2010

Hold It Against

Britney Spears

2011

Blow

Kesha

2011

Loser Like Me

Glee Cast

2011

E.T.

Katy Perry

2011

Till the World

Britney Spears

2011

166

Ends

I Wanna Go

Britney Spears

2011

Last Friday Night

(T.G.I.F.)

Katy Perry

2011

The One That Got

Away

Katy Perry

2011

Domino

Jessie J

2011

Part of Me

Katy Perry

2012

Scream

Usher

2012

Wide Awake

Katy Perry

2012

We Are Never

Ever Getting

Back Together

Taylor Swift

2012

One More Night

Maroon 5

2012

Beauty and a Beat

Justin Bieber

featuring Nicki

Minaj

2012

I Knew You Were

Trouble

Taylor Swift

2012

Daylight

Maroon 5

2012

Roar

Katy Perry

2013

Dark Horse

Katy Perry

featuring Juicy J

2013

Problem

Ariana Grande

featuring Iggy

Azalea

2014

Break Free

Ariana Grande

featuring Zedd

2014

Shake It Off

Taylor Swift

2014

Bang Bang

Jessie J, Ariana

2014

167

Grande, and Nicki

Minaj

Love Me Harder

Ariana Grande

and The Weeknd

2014

Blank Space

Taylor Swift

2014

Love Me Like

You Do

Ellie Goulding

2015

Style

Taylor Swift

2015

Bad Blood

Taylor Swift

2015

Can’t Feel My

Face

The Weeknd

2015

Wildest Dreams

Taylor Swift

2015

Focus

Ariana Grande

2015

Hands to Myself

Selena Gomez

2016

Can’t Stop the

Feeling!

Justin Timberlake

2016

Dangerous

Woman

Ariana Grande

2016

Just Like Fire

P!nk

2016

#10

Send My Love

(To Your New

Lover)

Adele

2016

Side to Side

Ariana Grande

featuring Nicki

Minaj

2016

Chained to the

Rhythm

Katy Perry

featuring Skip

Marley

2017

...Ready For It?

Taylor Swift

2017

No Tears Left to

Cry

Ariana Grande

2018

168

God Is a Woman

Ariana Grande

2018

Break Up with

Your Girlfriend,

I’m Bored

Ariana Grande

2019

I Don’t Care

Ed Sheeran and

Justin Bieber

2019

Blinding Lights

The Weeknd

2019

Stupid Love

Lady Gaga

2020

Save Your Tears

The Weeknd

2020

Take My Breath

The Weeknd

2021

My Universe

Coldplay and

BTS

2021

169

170

Appendix B: “...Baby One More Time” Lyrics

[Intro]

Oh, baby, baby

[Verse 1]

Oh, baby, baby

How was I supposed to know

That something wasn’t right here?

Oh, baby, baby

I shouldn’t have let you go

And now you’re out of sight, yeah

[Pre-Chorus]

Show me how you want it to be

Tell me, baby, ‘cause I need to know now

Oh, because

[Chorus]

My loneliness is killing me (And I)

I must confess, I still believe (Still believe)

When I’m not with you, I lose my mind

Give me a sign

Hit me, baby, one more time

[Verse 2]

Oh, baby, baby

The reason I breathe is you (Oh, yeah)

Boy, you got me blinded

Oh, pretty, baby

There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do

It’s not the way I planned it

[Pre-Chorus]

Show me how you want it to be

Tell me, baby, ‘cause I need to know now

171

Oh, because

[Chorus]

My loneliness is killing me (And I)

I must confess, I still believe (Still believe)

When I’m not with you, I lose my mind

Give me a sign

Hit me, baby, one more time

[Post-Chorus]

Oh, baby, baby (Oh)

Oh, baby, baby (Yeah)

[Bridge]

Oh, baby, baby

How was I supposed to know?

Oh, pretty, baby

I shouldn’t have let you go

I must confess that my loneliness is killing me now

Don’t you know I still believe

That you will be here and give me a sign

Hit me, baby, one more time

[Chorus]

My loneliness is killing me (And I)

I must confess, I still believe (Still believe)

When I’m not with you, I lose my mind

Give me a sign

Hit me, baby, one more time

[Outro]

I must confess (My loneliness)

That my loneliness (Is killing me)

Is killing me now (I must confess, I still believe)

Don’t you know I still believe (When I’m not with you)

That you will be here (I lose my mind)

And give me a sign

Hit me, baby, one more time

172

Appendix C: “Since U Been Gone” Lyrics

[Verse 1]

Here’s the thing, we started out friends

It was cool, but it was all pretend

Yeah-yeah, since you been gone

You dedicated, you took the time

Wasn’t long till I called you mine

Yeah-yeah, since you been gone

[Pre-Chorus]

And all you’d ever hear me say

Is how I pictured me with you

That’s all you'd ever hear me say

[Chorus]

But since you been gone

I can breathe for the first time

I’m so moving on, yeah-yeah

Thanks to you, now I get what I want

Since you been gone

[Verse 2]

How can I put it? You put me on

I even fell for that stupid love song

Yeah-yeah, since you been gone

[Pre-Chorus]

How come I’d never hear you say

“I just wanna be with you” (With you)

I guess you never felt that way

[Chorus]

But since you been gone

I can breathe for the first time

I’m so moving on, yeah-yeah

Thanks to you, now I get, I get what I want

173

Since you been gone

[Bridge]

You had your chance, you blew it

Out of sight, out of mind

Shut your mouth, I just can't take it

Again and again and again and again

[Chorus]

Since you been gone (Since you been gone)

I can breathe for the first time

I’m so moving on, yeah-yeah

Thanks to you (Thanks to you)

Now I get, I get what I want

I can breathe for the first time

I’m so moving on, yeah-yeah

Thanks to you (Thanks to you)

Now I get (I get)

You should know (You should know)

That I get, I get what I want

[Outro]

Since you been gone

174

Appendix D: “Teenage Dream” Lyrics

[Verse 1]

You think I’m pretty without any makeup on

You think I’m funny when I tell the punchline wrong

I know you get me, so I let my walls come down, down

Before you met me, I was alright

But things were kinda heavy, you brought me to life

Now every February, you’ll be my Valentine, Valentine

[Pre-Chorus]

Let’s go all the way tonight

No regrets, just love

We can dance until we die

You and I, we’ll be young forever

[Chorus]

You make me feel like I’m livin’ a teenage dream

The way you turn me on, I can’t sleep

Let’s run away and don’t ever look back

Don’t ever look back

My heart stops when you look at me

Just one touch, now, baby, I believe

This is real, so take a chance and don’t ever look back

Don’t ever look back

[Verse 2]

We drove to Cali and got drunk on the beach

Got a motel and built a fort out of sheets

I finally found you, my missing puzzle piece, I’m complete

[Pre-Chorus]

Let’s go all the way tonight

No regrets, just love

We can dance until we die

You and I, we’ll be young forever

175

[Chorus]

You make me feel like I'm livin’ a teenage dream

The way you turn me on, I can’t sleep

Let’s run away and don't ever look back

Don't ever look back

My heart stops when you look at me

Just one touch, now, baby, I believe

This is real, so take a chance and don’t ever look back

Don’t ever look back

[Bridge]

I’ma get your heart racing in my skin-tight jeans

Be your teenage dream tonight

Let you put your hands on me in my skin-tight jeans

Be your teenage dream tonight

(Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight)

[Chorus]

(You make me)

You make me feel like I’m livin’ a teenage dream

The way you turn me on, I can’t sleep

Let’s run away and don’t ever look back

Don’t ever look back (No)

My heart stops when you look at me

Just one touch, now, baby, I believe

This is real (Oh), so take a chance and don’t ever look back

Don’t ever look back

[Outro]

I’ma get your heart racing in my skin-tight jeans

Be your teenage dream tonight

Let you put your hands on me in my skin-tight jeans

Be your teenage dream tonight

(Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight)

176

Appendix E: “Blank Space” Lyrics

[Verse 1]

Nice to meet you, where you been?

I could show you incredible things

Magic, madness, heaven, sin

Saw you there, and I thought

“Oh my God, look at that face

You look like my next mistake

Love’s a game, wanna play?”

Ayy

New money, suit and tie

I can read you like a magazine

Ain’t it funny? Rumors fly

And I know you heard about me

So, hey, let’s be friends

I’m dying to see how this one ends

Grab your passport and my hand

I can make the bad guys good for a weekend

[Chorus]

So it’s gonna be forever

Or it’s gonna go down in flames?

You can tell me when it’s over, mmm

If the high was worth the pain

Got a long list of ex-lovers

They’ll tell you I’m insane

‘Cause you know I love the players

And you love the game

‘Cause we’re young and we’re reckless

We’ll take this way too far

It’ll leave you breathless, mmm

Or with a nasty scar

Got a long list of ex-lovers

They’ll tell you I’m insane

But I’ve got a blank space, baby

And I’ll write your name

177

[Verse 2]

Cherry lips, crystal skies

I could show you incredible things

Stolen kisses, pretty lies

You’re the king, baby, I’m your queen

Find out what you want

Be that girl for a month

Wait, the worst is yet to come

Oh, no

Screaming, crying, perfect storms

I can make all the tables turn

Rose garden filled with thorns

Keep you second guessing, like

“Oh my God, who is she?”

I get drunk on jealousy

But you’ll come back each time you leave

‘Cause, darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream

[Chorus]

So it’s gonna be forever

Or it’s gonna go down in flames?

You can tell me when it’s over, mmm

If the high was worth the pain

Got a long list of ex-lovers

They’ll tell you I’m insane

‘Cause you know I love the players

And you love the game

‘Cause we’re young and we’re reckless (Oh)

We’ll take this way too far

It’ll leave you breathless (Oh-oh), mmm

Or with a nasty scar

Got a long list of ex-lovers

They’ll tell you I’m insane (Insane)

But I’ve got a blank space, baby

And I’ll write your name

[Bridge]

Boys only want love if it’s torture

Don’t say I didn’t, say I didn’t warn ya

178

Boys only want love if it’s torture

Don’t say I didn’t, say I didn’t warn ya

[Chorus]

So it’s gonna be forever

Or it’s gonna go down in flames?

You can tell me when it’s over (Over), mmm

If the high was worth the pain

Got a long list of ex-lovers

They’ll tell you I’m insane (I’m insane)

‘Cause you know I love the players

And you love the game (And you love the game)

‘Cause we’re young and we’re reckless (Yeah)

We’ll take this way too far (Ooh)

It’ll leave you breathless, mmm

Or with a nasty scar (With a nasty scar)

Got a long list of ex-lovers

They’ll tell you I’m insane

But I’ve got a blank space, baby

And I’ll write your name

179

180

Glossary

comping: A common editing production practice in popular music where multiple

takes are compiled in a DAW to create an ideal “final take.” Most vocals heard on

the final version of a pop song have been comped. Typically, the producer is

responsible for comping and deciding what vocal takes to use.

digital audio workstation (DAW): A digital music production software used for

recording and editing, typically on a personal computer. There are many DAWs

available for download or purchase and their use extends beyond music into

producing for radio, television, and podcasts.

folkmusik: Swedish word for “folk music.”

folkvisa: Swedish word for “folk song,” typically a traditional folk song composed

and passed down orally.

kulning: Swedish music tradition dating back to the medieval period. Most often

sung by women to lure livestock down from the hills where they grazed.

557

kulturdagar: “Culture-days,” large-scale festivals with music and food, organized

partly by political agencies.

558

kulturnatta: “Culture nights.” See kulturdagar.

559

kulturskola: Swedish “culture schools” or integrated arts schools, which offer

lessons in various artistic disciplines for students at the end of the school day.

Related to, and often associated with, municipal music schools.

Schlager: German word that denotes a genre of popular music in Europe defined

by a catchy, danceable instrumental to a pop-style vocal melody, often

accompanied by simple lyrics. The word was also introduced in Sweden around

1920 to mean “hit,” as in a “hit song.”

559

Ibid.

558

Ronström, Malm, and Lundberg, “Concerts and Festivals: Public Performances of Folk Music

in Sweden,” 58.

557

Anderson, “Evolution of Swedish Folk Music.”

181

slagdänga: Original Swedish word for “hit,” replaced by Schlager around 1920.

spelmån: A Swedish folk musician.

spelmänslag: An amateur group of Swedish folk musicians.

spelmansstämmor: Fiddler’s gathering where folk musicians and fiddlers

assemble, play music, and dance in an informal, often outdoor setting.

560

spelmanstävling: Fiddler’s competition where folk musicians and fiddlers

compete originally outdoors in the countryside and later in urban city centers.

561

Svensk folkton: “Swedish folk tone” also known as “folkviseton” (“folk-song

tone”). Used to describe the sound or sonic qualities of Swedish folk music, such

as the inclusion of quarter-tone and half-tone intervals, minor harmony, and

fifth-leaps up or down to the tonic. The term is inaccurate for labeling any

particular characteristic of Swedish folk music.

562

svensktopp: Swedish term derived from the popular radio program Svensktoppen

and used in the 1960s to denote “adult music,” or popular music with Swedish

lyrics.

563

Ibid, 6.

562

Björnberg and Bossius, Made in Sweden, 132.

561

Ibid, 51.

560

Ibid, 52.

182

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