POP PERFECTION – THE MAGIC FORMULA FOR HIT SONGS:
Great article reproduced here by ADAM, and great comments from all. I have the following observations and comments:

WHAT MAKES A SONG A HIT?
Is it the song itself, or the popularity of the performer? I think BOTH.

That First Hit of any “unknown” performer will be solely attributable to THE song … and THAT song will have all those qualities mentioned by all in their posts. Subsequent and follow-up hits may be more attributable to the new found fame and popularity of that performer, following that No.1, rather than the song itself … but then so-called “one-hit wonders” makes it clear that the songs themselves count too!

Now, some song releases by ready-made celebrities go straight into the charts because of the fame and popularity of the performers, not so much the songs (like soapie stars, members of band going solo, etc.)

HIT ALBUMS
What do you make of Hit Albums? One where 3-4-5-6-7-8 songs released as Singles make it to the Charts? And some with multiple No.1s coming from the one album – from people like Michael Jackson, Delta Goodrem to name a couple? When the individual songs themselves seem different to one another in terms of sentimentality, structure, etc., viz. not sharing the same “magic formula” as their first hit off that same album?

Are these people super-freaks? Or just relying on their fame and good fortune, and milk the record buying public for all they can from the one album? Suppose the proof-in-the-pudding will be a follow-up “as successful” album or even albums.

HIT MACHINES
Elton John / Bernie Taupin, Lennon / McCartney, Burt Bucharach, The Bee Gees (for themselves, and hits for other performers) are some prolific hit-makers with longevity … how do they do it? Are they able to read the musical trends and adapt their magic formulae and come up new hits stretching through the various musical eras?

There are some who stick to their ONE magic-formula and capitalise on that, a la Stock Aitken Waterman and their 80s successes … albeit short-lived, with no longevity … they just got the right formula for that right era and got the most out of it.

CULTURAL DIVIDES
This is a BIG BIG divide indeed. I think if there are magic formulae, there is one for the local market, and another for world-wide acceptances. Our Oz local chart is influenced by a lot of imported US “hip-hop, rap, urban” artistes, but with a very strong local content too : 15 of the Top 50 on the Aria’s Top 50 Chart of 20 Nov 2006 are from local artistes.

How come the popularity and chart successes of someone like Robbie Williams here, in the UK and Europe, do not translate into similar successes in the U.S.?

ONCE A HIT, ALWAYS A HIT
A hit song transcends time. You take a hit song from any era, remake and re-release it, with or without any modernisation, and you are guaranteed of another chart-topper. I suppose that proves that “that song” had the magic formula which made it a hit first time around, and it still has that same magic formula affecting people the same way it did then. Maybe you pay a lot more out in royalties, but hey, a hit is a hit, and could lead to other riches ... worth the price for a hit-starved artiste ... it's keeping Ronan Keating afloat !

SAMMO

Submitted by SAMMO aka ERIC on 25-11-2006

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