Who says pop music isn't written by formula?

by **Mark Bassett** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 12:01 pm

I'm sure i've posted this before, but it's well worth a listen.

Made my day.

http://theshapeofdays.com/movies/nickelback.mp3

by **-Dave-** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 3:38 pm

that's great...

by **chris p** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 4:32 pm

My 12 year old daughter found this quite eye-opening - thanks for the music lesson, Mark.

by **astrovic** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 6:44 pm

actually, I kinda like this better than the songs played separately!

by **Sheer Noise** » Sat Oct 21, 2006 9:55 pm

Classic...

I think I remember something similar on "Red Faces" on Hey hey - a great act one night where a group put together a whole stack of Oasis songs...

Would love to see/hear that again!

Dave.

by **Kris** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 12:33 am

wow. that's scary.

does it sound like the left channel has been sped up a bit to match the right?

I'm still undecided about Nickelback, but Chad Kroeger's home studio is insane. I saw it on MTV Cribs one time. Absolutely stellar.

by **Martin** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 1:09 am

if nothing else they put on a good show...

they are part of the reason the radio at work never stays on any commercial station for too long

i don't mind their album, but those songs have just been thrashed to death!!

that nickeback thing has been around for a few years now (when the 2nd song came out...) anyone i play it to gives similar recations to the above!

by **mark rachelle** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 2:03 am

i sent that link to a good mate of mine who is the Nat/Promo guy at Roadrunner Australia

hes the poor sod who has made the band as big as they are in Australia

be intresting to see what he has to say

by **jkhuri44** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 4:22 pm

thats some damn funny sh*t....

this kind stuff is really prevalent in rnb/rap stuff as well...

i dont think its any mystery how any schmo can be a DJ these days....

every beat to the click, 120 BPM, relative keys, and programmed instrumentals!

by **Luke Garfield** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 5:42 pm

Was doing a little research when I stumbled on this. For $10 a song you can find out if your song could be a "hit" or a "miss". Or just hire these guys.

[url]http://www.platinumblueinc.com[/url]

check it out.

by **mark rachelle** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 6:56 pm

hit or miss

just what the last few remaining A&R majors need to cover their asses when their new signing flops

at the end of the day to make a main stream hit in todays music world it has nothing to do with just a great song/band anymore or that program

i run 4 Labels and if you don't have the following in place and you do commercial music then forget about trying to be a star (should be all about the music and not about some bullshit power that the insecure ego needs! so why in hell does commercial music attract these people!) any way back to my comments

you wanna be the next robbie williams but be independant
then here you go!

1. a great artist
2. a great track
3. a decent profile (from live shows or tv noteritory)
4. A proven track record of spending money in publications so that when you launch your new peice of shit record the press are so scared to give it a bum wrap and not writing about it because if they do the wrong thing you might pull your advertising
5. Shares in Shonkity/HellMV so you can garantee a gold/platinum ship to there stores
6. Back catalog that supports your new venture if it fails
7. Credit line with a major institutuion to draw upon the hard times and to pay 25,000 for the Shonkity retail package where they put your peice of shit record next to the till and garantee to play it over the instore speakers and put it on the big racked board
8. Agreements with Commercial Radio whereby you employ their consultants to tell you about your next record errrr i mean so they know what record of yours they must play next
9. A yearly manufacture turn over whereby Cds are costing around 35 cents each to manufacture
10. Being in the envious postion of being able to flood retail with so much stock that your independant competitors don't get a look in, anyway who cares if they come back they are only costing 35cents!
11. not having to worry about sending out over 1000 Promos in australia to various cash converter addicted journo's and disk jockeys
12. knowing that by spending "X" amount on dodgy in store publications and tagged retail ads that you know exactly how much you can pre ship to get your chart position certified 2 months before release!

yeah there is more but
hey its a start

by **Kris** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:24 pm

.... have a "reality" show named after you.... eg, "The Steph Show".

Let me first explain that I have not watched the show for entertainment value. I do a lot of work for a particular label and I have to go through their product for reels and promo's etc....

anyway....there was a scene where young "Steph" went to hear her record for the first time at the label's office. Man the amount of ass kissing and "oh it's so great" that spewed out of the label people's mouths was just emabarrasing. And little "Steph" was lapping it up and appeared to believe every word.

I like what Mark said... but I would add one more thing....

An A&R head who is so far out of touch with reality and so sh!t scared of not meeting his quarterly targets that he will just push the same old stuff. Different face, same songwriters/producers/production team. You should see the TV spend that little Steph is benefiting from. And you can bet it's all "recoupable".

On the other hand.... I discovered a band on myspace called "Sherwood". I like 'em and it seems lots of others do too. There was a bidding war and guess who they signed with? Myspace Records. If that ain't a sign of the times.... What a great idea! Sign with a company that has unlimited access to over 142 million people! with roughly 40 million per day at any one time.

Myspace and direct access to iTunes and the like mean that labels (by and large) are redundant if you're smart. Just ask Lior.

by **Luke Garfield** » Mon Oct 30, 2006 10:29 pm

Haha. Yep that's exactly it. And artists get disillusioned - pffft that's why it's called the "music BUSINESS".

Actually on the site I think it talks about how having a "hit" song is 80% of the requirements to having a "hit". I would guess that it's probably less than that figure. They also hint at the other side of the coin, the business side, but it wouldn't be in their best interests to dash the hopes of artists like that.

I'd like to see some testimonials personally. A big thankyou note from some major labels ;-)

Also cheers for a little more insight into the "what it takes" Mark. I don't envy the hand over fist money changing world of the music business but that's business.

Luke.

by **Mark Bassett** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 11:05 am

Remember, don't mistake popularity for talent.

Oh and speaking of AnR guys, check out the new edition of the AnR Guy comic in the next AT mag.

This one's funnier I promise.

by **mark rachelle** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:21 pm

A&R guys do take the heat though

Simon Cahill at Sony has been nothing but supportive

most of the time they do have their hands tied

but in any big organisation artists are are at the mercy of a whole range of adgendas that they a) know nothing about and
b) even if they could they couldn't control

Basically A&R is the first point of call and is often the whipping boy by ignorant Artists and producers

they certainly aren't the bad people that we make em out to be

by **Luke Garfield** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:38 pm

Popularity mistaken for talent - I guess most ppl grow out of that misconception at around the age of 15 (I said most ppl) ;-).

I like last issues A&R guy

Kris - Another interesting site I came across is www.sellaband.com. At first I'm like this will be amusing ... but then I dug some more and this crazy idea might just work! Not saying that this is a flawless idea but there are some interesting aspects of what they are trying to do.

I've been waiting for some new "music business ideas" to become reality since listening to "The Future of Music" Podcasts - definitely worth a listen if you want to try something a bit left of centre regarding the music industry. What will happen to the old and what the new might look like.

Getting back to the Mark B's post that started this thread. Another classic formula producer is Max Martin - clever. Whilst I share little musically in common with what he's produced you can't help but admire the overtly clever/shameless formula he's developed (and then re-invented with Kelly Clarkson).

Haha. Pop music what will you think of next.

by **Kris** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 1:46 pm

www.mosesavalon.com

I've just finished reading 'Million Dollar Mistakes' and am now re-reading 'Confessions of A Record Producer. (3rd edition).

Very interesting reads. Even mentions Black Lab, a band I have some (small) connection with.

by **Luke Garfield** » Tue Oct 31, 2006 2:24 pm

Yeah I remember you metioning Black Lab quite a while back - in the old forum days. Going to have a listen now ... back - Cool sound - big and expressive. "Time Ago" has a very U2 feel especially one of the vocalists inflections in the chorus - had to think who I was listening too. "sleeps with angels" has a Diesel thing going on.

Yeah I'd like to take a look at those book - will have to head over to moses' site.

Well it looks like Chaddy from NB is trying to give something back to "artists" www.604records.com. If he can help out some others with the (formula for) sucess he's found good-o.

Who says pop music isn't written by formula?

Who says pop music isn't written by formula?

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