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You think you’ve got what it takes to climb the charts? It’s surprising how little you need to build a playlistfriendly banger…
While garnering the respect of other artists, and your own simple artistic satisfaction are reasons enough to make music, you’d be lying to yourself if you didn’t admit that achieving commercial success was always lurking somewhere in the back of your mind. While ‘pop’ as a genre is less consistent than the other styles we’ve honed in on, there are some general aspects that you’re going to need to think about when aiming at the charts. (Remember the charts? Whatever happened to them…)
Firstly you’re going to need to study the musicological structure of the best pop songs. Writing an effective pop song is all about the development and dynamics, centring on emphasising your big hook(s), how you use tension and release to build anticipation, as well as crafting an effective core theme on which to base your song. You’re going to want an impactful lead vocal at the centre of your mix, and it’s increasingly popular these days to pitchshift, warp or robotise it. You’ll want bright instrumentation, strong beats and compression that lets your track stand out among the many thousands of other hopeful hitmakers.