Behind the data: the secret to songwriting

With 25 Billboard Hot 100 number one hits to his name, Max Martin is effectively the king of pop music. We wanted to find the key to his success—with a little help from a lot of data.

00:00 - Behind the data
00:39 - Our dataset
01:53 - Was Max Martin right?
03:32 - Why intros are shorter now

[soundslikemaurice]

TLDR: Max Martin's arrangements are the real secret sauce.

I've spent an unreasonable amount of time listening to Max Martin's discography - from the Cheiron to MXM etc. One of the factors in his songs that I would debate is a bigger contributor to his lasting success, over the intros, is the arrangement of his records.
Take for example 'It's Gonna Be Me' by NSYNC; it has that classic Cheiron era piano stab intro to a beat box break, then when the first verse arrives the percussion falls out for h a bar then a snare hit invites the beat back in, the pre chorus changes the chords to make the chorus more impactful. They repeat that sequence for the second verse/pre/chorus, then add an airy non percussive bridge after that builds to the last chorus which gave us the now iconic "it's gonna be may' line and then just repeat the chorus with more harmonies until it ends on the title line - boom you got a hit.
The sense of momentum and movement he seems to be able to imbue into his productions/songwriting I believe is the real key to getting that hit. The intro is just opening the door, the arrangement is what keeps you at the party. His work is a masterclass in growing a song while keep the core simple. 'Since U Been Gone' starts really small and subdued until it just explodes at the chorus with the catharsis of being free from a relationship, from that point the toothpaste is out so might as well squeeze out the rest. There are so many other aspects of his work that could be pointed to as well - collaboration, reshaping of vowels to make words easier to sing, the adherence to one melody, the ridiculous harmonies, etc. As chef Marco Pierre White said, " Perfection is lots of little things done well" and Max Martin - along with his collaborators - knows how to those little things very well.

[AZ-zqlx]

Such a robust data set and you only explored one metric. It was well explained but a shame we couldn’t hear more

[watsonunlimitedmusic]

It's called the "10 Second Rule" (I've also heard 8 seconds). We've been talking about this in the world of music for a long time, I've heard it explained as a rule of thumb for commercial radio. It's partly based on trying to anticipate people's attention span. But it also just comes from average tempos and the fact that almost all music is in 4/4 time. 4 bars of 4/4 time at 120bpm is about 8 seconds.

[bpetersson]

the story is based on one metric which doesn't answer why he has been able to write so many pop tunes successfully. Chord progression and changes, melodies, BPM, and his other creative people adding sound scape design, etc., if you asked him, he could probably do a bunch of Avicii type tunes or Pink Floyd, but MM likes the light EDM platforms with voices added. Not the most creative space compositionally, but it seems to work..ask Rick Beato..

[DMulabiTalejan]

The length of the intro was also because of the DJ technology. When DJing, you need to bring in the next song as an instrumental (beats only not to interfere with current song words/singing). Back then we did not have loop function. The loop function helps to hold the incoming song at a few repeating seconds of the intro while you mix out the outgoing song, then you release the current song loop for the song to go forward. In old days you needed the song to have a longer instrumental/intro length at the start to enable you smoothly mix out the outgoing song without mashing up the songs words/singing. The outro was also very long back then, for the same reason. Actually, i think that is why we used to have two versions of the same song in some cases. What in the DJ circles they used to call the 12 inch version normally had long intros and outros than the radio or public consumer versions.

[LuciensMusic]

I started shortening my intros long ago, but that is only a small part of what makes a great song.

[system]

wow what a comprehensive analysis. Now that I know the intro should be 9 seconds long I can write hit songs. Great work guys!

[eplecor]

Max Martin’s intros: 9 seconds
This video’s intro: 5 minutes 50 seconds
It’s just an intro.

[keithlawcomedy]

It was the ability to instantly skip to the next song that changed listening habits forever. Choosing what songs NOT to hear is part of the process of refining what we like. With older formats like cassette we learned to be tolerant of songs we didn't necessarily like on our first listen. With the arrival of the skip button(cd format), we could ditch these songs and head straight for the honey

[FisHajdari]

Blinding lights has an intro of 26 sec so your data is a bit shaky! Max Martin is a genius in songwriting- not just the intros length

[keithchegwin]

This is dumb, if you think it's because the intro is a few seconds quicker then you're nuts. He obviously understands how to write great melodyies and catchy hooks.

[dirka]

Great topic, but disappointing video tbh. All intros of modern pop songs have become shorter, so that's not the metric that makes his songs hits compared to others. You should have explored metrics like, melody variation, chord progression, lyrical tricks etc.. THOSE are the kind of metrics where he can play tricks on the listener by creating the psychological 'catchiness'.

[oluwatobiloba]

At last, we're getting a glimpse of what truly gives music its influence 🙂

[sanwellbeatz]

Max martin has shaped pop music without anyone even realizing.The GOAT

[japhyvansan]

overly simplified the intro is key but one of so many factors that go into making a hit song

[anupamsingh]

The economist Editor - Make a useless video for me on YouTube
Video maker - Right there sir!

[bhobg]

The length of the intro is perhaps only 2 percent or what makes a songwriter successful.

[gqn]

Intro is pretty important.
Especially the first sentence.

[MMMMatt]

Catering to streaming metrics has ruined mainstream music- there is no character, technical variety, or song dynamics anymore. And most importantly- there is no vision or message in most songs.

Just look at how many Top 25 Spotify artists and Coachella headliners that can't play an instrument to save their life- or at the very least write a full verse completely on their own that actually speaks something meaningful.

But now music is all BPM and hooks and volume. There's nothing artistically reflective about the human condition in any of those songs. But the numbers and analytics say they are are selling more than the Beatles, so who cares right? Not only have our collective attention spans been ruined...We have lost focus in what's truly important and don't even realize it yet...

[adriatic]

Max secret is not shorter intros, or whatever other tricks. It's strong melodies, obviously an extremely rare talent in music. Btw in reality, he is better than Paul and John because at their time there was almost no competition in pop music so they reached their record quite easier.