The Songwriters You Didn't Know You Loved! (Or Hated!)

posted in: Music News

Black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow. Or maybe it feels like I’m living a teenage dream. Does this all make you want to Party in the USA? I’m sure you guys all recognize what we’re doing here. You all know who sung these songs, right? Not a trick question, folks. These ubquitous mega-hits are cultural shorthand and are part of our shared experience. That’s one of the beautiful things about music. But let’s not let things get too heavy. What do all these songs have in common (outside of being mildly-to-pretty annoying)?

You probably don’t know exactly who wrote them. “Wait,” you ask, “I mean, didn’t Wiz write “Black & Yellow”?” Are you saying Miley Cyrus isn’t the lyrical genius I thought she was?” Sorry guys, we didn’t mean to burst whatever bubble you may have had. Of course, there are a lot of singer-songwriters, even in the pop world. That said, more often than not most of the credit has to go to the co-writers”the people in the liner notes you don’t read with names you don’t recognize. Inspired by the recent ASCAP Pop Music Awards, we’re going to try to rectify that a bit by shedding a light on some of the unknown composers of the songs that you love and the songs you hate. This one’s for the collaborators.

The Smeezingtons

These guys haven’t been around for very long and their name makes them sound more like your uncle’s garage band. However, their track record is solid to say the least. Consisting of producers/writers Phillip Lawrence, Ari Levine and crooner Bruno Mars, you can thank The Smeez for the later member’s career. Scoring their first big hit co-producing “Right Round” by Flo Rida in 2009”which gave Ke$ha her first big break to boot”the group has been on a tear ever since. Not even counting all of the major singles Bruno Mars is either the solo or featured performer on, they also helped write and produce this song for Cee-Lo Green.

And that helps us forgive them for whatever pop transgressions they may have been responsible for before.

StarGate

Do the names Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Storleer Eriksen ring a bell? Probably not, though these old pros have been in the music making game for years. This production duo started out with work on prominent European artists as though you couldn’t have guessed from looking at their names. They were producing hits for S Club 7 in the late ’90s and were active in the UK pop scene in the early aughts. But starting in 2005 Tor and Mikkel decided to try their hand at the scene stateside and the pair initially made a big splash ’06 with Ne-Yo‘s “So Sick”. StarGate’s relationship with Ne-Yo has been fruitful to say the least as they later co-wrote Beyoncé‘s uber-smash “Irreplaceable” with the singer and fellow production team Espionage. Wait wait, how does that one go again?

Dr. Luke and Max Martin

While not an official duo in the traditional sense, these frequent collaborators have had a lot of success together. A LOT. In fact they both shared the award for Songwriter of the Year at the ASCAP Pop Music Awards this past April.

Martin lived it up in the late 90s boy-band/pop boom but was laying low in the early aughts until he encountered Lukasz Gottwald at a house party in Manhattan. The two quickly formed a professional relationship just in time to help co-write and produce for a young, freshly-minted singer by the name of Kelly Clarkson. The two resulting singles, “Since U Been Gone” and “Behind These Hazel Eyes” helped push Clarkson’s debut Breakaway to platinum status six times over. The two have been #WINNING ever since; cranking out hits in collaboration and solo, working for a litany of top artists including P!nk, Backstreet Boys, Daughtry, Ke$ha (pictured above) and Britney Spears. And back to the present day where a string of recent hits including “California Gurls” by Katy Perry and “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz netted Luke and Martin Songwriters of the Year. Not too shabby gentlemen.