NewsWire: 11/7/2020
- No. 1 pop songs penned by just one writer are becoming a thing of the past. Fully 44% of the No. 1 hits in the 1970s was credited to one songwriter, but by the 2010s, that share had plunged to just 4%. (Billboard)
- NH: Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.” Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.” The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer.” Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You.”
- What do these hits have in common? They were all written by one songwriter.
- Turns out that this is increasingly rare. From 1940 to 1990, the share of No. 1 pop songs (according to the Billboard Hot 100) written by one person consistently hovered at around a third of the total number of No. 1s. In 1940, it was 29%. In the 1980s, it was 42%. The share was highest in the 1970s, at 44%.
- But beginning in the 1990s, the share of solo-authored hits took a nosedive. It fell to 24% in the 1990s, to just 6% in the 2000s, and further still to 4% in the 2010s. So far, in the 2020s, it’s 0%. As of this week, eighteen singles have hit No. 1 and none of them were written by one person. The latest No. 1, Ariana Grande’s “Positions,” is credited to Grande and six other writers.
- The article credits this shift to recent trends in pop music, such as the growing influence of hip-hop (a highly collaborative genre) and the rise in sampling and remixing old hits. But it’s true of other genres as well, including country. This suggests it isn’t just the industry that’s changed; it’s also the people writing the hits.
- For one thing, solo songwriting isn’t greeted with the same fanfare that it used to be. Boomers and Xers revered the “solo genius” songwriter whose artistic integrity couldn’t be marred by outside influences. Whether it was Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, or Kurt Cobain, part of what fueled artists’ popularity was fans’ respect for their individual brilliance.
- But among Millennial and Homelander fans, this isn’t even a consideration. From Lady Gaga to Drake, from Justin Bieber to Kanye West, their biggest stars are backed by a giant stable of collaborators. This is true even for megastars like Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, who are known for writing deeply personal songs.
- Beginning in the late 1990s, the traditional model of performers bringing in producers to shape the songs they’ve written flipped. Now it’s common to have a “hit factory” of producers and lyricists create generic pop songs and later bring in performers to add vocals. An analysis by the U.K. trade paper Music Week of the top 30 songs of 2017 found that they were written by an average of 4.67 people. Songwriting teams are also enlisting the help of AI to generate catchy melodies based on specific formulas. The idea of “music-by-committee” is not just normal now; it’s encouraged.
- Young musicians could also be more open to sharing credit--say, for the single turn-of-phrase or a couple of lines. Millennials are known for being a consensus-oriented generation; they grew up working on group projects, playing team sports, and staying in touch with their friends 24/7. When collaboration is the norm, there’s less discomfort in sharing the spotlight with others. It could be that the hit songs of the past had more people who contributed to them than we know. They just didn’t make it onto the labels.
- In any case, historically, we may be returning to the "big band" era of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s--when the rising generation was growing more modest about claiming personal credit and happier to belong to an effective organization.
Did You Know?
- The Year of the Small Turkey. This year’s Thanksgiving gatherings will be smaller—and so will the turkeys. According to a survey from Butterball, around 30% of Americans plan to spend Thanksgiving with only immediate family members. That’s up from 18% who said the same last year. So far, flight bookings are a third lower than they were last November. Fewer mouths to feed means that demand will be down for big turkeys, but it’s too late for producers to turn back the clock given that this year’s birds were fattened up and frozen well before the holidays. Major chains like Walmart, Giant Eagle, and Kroger are planning to stock up on parts cut from larger birds, and will also order more petite meats like pork roast, ham, and seafood. More people unaccustomed to cooking are going to be trying their hand at Thanksgiving dinner this year, making easy-to-cook options like turkey breasts that much more appealing.
