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(Offer expires Tuesday, October 9th)
Powerful Tools for Today's Music Business Professionals
Leading music business professionals understand the importance of being in tune with current songwriting trends and view it as a powerful tool that works hand-in-hand with the creative process.
Some of today's most successful songwriters, producers, publishers, and labels use our proprietary data and analysis to stay informed, hone their craft, benchmark songs, and make strategic songwriting, production and business decisions armed with hit songwriting analytics.
The Hit Songs Deconstructed Platform Includes:
- The IMMERSION Searchable Database: Updated weekly as songs enter the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10, this robust, fully interactive database houses proprietary data for the compositional characteristics of these songs, as well as related industry data for songwriters, artists, producers, and record labels.
- A Searchable Archive of Hit Songwriting Techniques: This archive, culled from today's biggest hits, include examples of an array of hook techniques, techniques to hook the listener in and leave them wanting more, genre fusion techniques, duet structure techniques, and much more.
- Bi-Monthly Hit Song Deconstructed Reports: These in-depth reports provide unparalleled insight into the songwriting and production techniques used to craft a specific current chart-topping hit.
- Bi-Monthly Hit Song Deconstructed Videos: These narrated videos take you on a section-by-section walkthrough - from intro to outro - of the songwriting and production techniques used to craft a chart-topping hit.
- Quarterly Trend Reports: Published quarterly, these reports provide a data-driven snapshot of Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 compositional and industry trends
WRITING & PRODUCING WITH A HIT SONG MENTALITY
A Hit Songs Deconstructed Mastery Workshop
A Live Global Online Event
Saturday/Sunday, October 13th & 14th
11AM-2PM EDT Each Day
Most chart-topping hits, at their core, have one thing in common: they’re exceptionally well crafted and capitalize on today’s compositional trends to connect with the widest possible audience.
However, that’s just one part of the equation, or else all songs would sound exactly the same! Most also possess something unique - some quality that helps them get noticed and be remembered. It’s how these unique qualities (melodies, rhythms, dynamics, etc.) are introduced throughout a song that is the recipe for success in today’s charts. By effectively blending the familiar and the unique, they stand out from the pack while still resonating with a large audience.
Using the Hit Songs Deconstructed methodology, we will examine Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 compositional trends and then take a deep dive into the songwriting and production techniques being utilized. Each segment features examples from some of today's most successful songs to illustrate trends and techniques.
At the end of this workshop, you will walk away with an in-depth understanding of the songwriting and production techniques that make today's chart-topping songs so effective and develop an instinctual approach to songwriting that will allow you to channel your unique creativity in a way that is primed for commercial success.
Find out which are the most popular and effective Pop and Hip Hop song forms, how harmony is structured in some of today’s biggest hits, and how strategic instrument choices enable hit songs to both blend in and stand out when compared to their mainstream contemporaries.
This new segment will provide you with an array of techniques to help your choruses stand out, connect, and be remembered. Topics include melodic structure techniques, chorus impact accentuator techniques (C.I.A.’s), lyrical repetition, song title placement, and more.
Learn how some of today’s biggest hits across genres maximize the listener’s engagement through the use of effective energy level shifts. Techniques are visualized with energy arrangement graphs and in-motion DAW examples. The segment concludes with an array of Chorus Impact Accentuator techniques (C.I.A.’s) that you can immediately add to your songwriting toolbox.
Find out how today’s most successful hits are cutting through airwave clutter, capturing the listener’s attention, and holding their attention until the next section takes over. We’ll examine trends pertaining to how current hit songs begin, and then review an array of effective intro techniques being used in some of today’s biggest hits.
Creating infectious melodies that the listener can’t get out of their head is fundamental to your song’s success. Through an array of current hit song case studies, we will look at how repetition and contrast, rhyme schemes, syllable count and the adherence to the K.I.S.S. ME principal (Keep It Simple, Singable and Memorable) all contribute to achieving this.
Learn how to maximize engagement through the use of effective vocal delivery characteristics, structure, and arrangement. We’ll begin by getting in-tune with current trends and then, through an array of case studies, look at how vocals are structured and arranged in some of today’s biggest hits. We’ll conclude by taking a deep dive into one major hit, section by section, to see how the vocals were produced and arranged for maximum impact and engagement.
Find out what some of the most effective hook characteristics and techniques are and how they are being used in today’s hits. We’ll begin with an overview of vocal and instrumental hooks and “hook center” characteristics and trends. Then, through a multitude of current hit song case studies, we’ll dive into some of the most effective hook characteristics and techniques, including different types of vocal and instrumental hooks, cross-section hook development and reinforcement, the multi-section “hook fest,” and multi-hook interaction.
Learn how to develop the narrative in an engaging, clever, and memorable manner. We’ll begin by getting in-tune with current lyrical theme trends, key lyrical ingredients, and the role that song sections play in the narrative. Then, using an array of hit song case studies, we’ll review how to effectively develop the narrative across sections.
Here we look at the trends and techniques for concluding a song in the most effective manner possible. Using an array of case studies, you’ll learn how some of today’s biggest hits take infectious material from multiple sections and incorporate it into what we call “The Grand Finale Hook Fest” outro, taking the listener to an excited high and leaving them wanting more.
This segment focuses on the various methods for incorporating an engaging Departure (“D”) section such as a bridge or bridge surrogate into a song. We begin by looking at where “D” sections occur and the characteristics that put “D” sections into effect. Then, through a host of current hit song case studies, we dive into some of the most effective “D” section techniques used in hit song bridges and bridge surrogates.
Learn how genre fusion can heighten your song’s impact, help it stand out from mainstream contemporaries, grow your fanbase, and increase sales potential by traversing multiple genres. We’ll begin by getting in-tune with current trends and then take a look at three key influence types in the Top 10 and how they’re being put into effect. We will then review a host of current hit song case studies to understand how multiple influences were woven into the arrangement to heighten the song’s impact and make it in-tune with the trends of today, while concurrently helping the song stand out from the pack.
One of the keys to a successful hit song is blending in while standing out. In this segment we will review some standout characteristics and techniques used in recent hits that put them over-the-top and enabled them to stand out among their mainstream contemporaries.
“Even though I’ve been writing professionally for over ten years, I’ve found several nuggets of gold in each workshop presentation that have improved my writing already.”
-Roy Stride
Hit Songwriter, Producer, Artist - One Direction, 5 Seconds of Summer, Scouting for Girls
Songwriters, producers, and engineers use HSD to:
- Channel your unique artistic vision to connect with the widest possible audience
- Continuously hone your craft and update your toolbox with the latest songwriting and production techniques being used in today’s hits
- Search for songs that match very specific compositional criteria for inspiration or to find reference tracks to take into the studio
- Refer to an archive of songwriting techniques culled from today’s biggest hits
- Gain insight into an artist’s body of work or a label’s recent releases at the compositional
- Make more targeted pitches to music libraries and production houses who are looking for current sounding music and/or sound-alikes for film/TV
- Develop an instinctual approach to writing songs for mainstream success
Publishers, labels, music libraries, and production houses use HSD to:
- Gain a broader and deeper understanding today’s mainstream music landscape
- Stay ahead of the curve by spotting current, evolving and waning trends
- Identify what current hit songs have in common – and what is setting them apart.
- Supplement sales, streaming, engagement, and radio airplay data with insight into the compositional trends behind those numbers
- Maximize communication between A&R, creative execs, artists, writers and producers
- Benchmark songs against those with a successful track record
- Quantify “gut feeling” with factual data
- Stay current and relevant in a fast-changing musical landscape