Songwriters on songwriting. Gleanings from Grace Matuszeski

I recently read The Song Machine, Inside the Hit Factory, by John Seabrook, W.W. Norton & Co., Ltd. (2015). It is an interesting and important book about how hit songs are written now. They originate in rhythmic tracks that are sent out to various  “top liners” who write the melody and the lyrics. The content of the lyrics is often secondary to the words fitting into the groove of the track. The system for writing songs this way originated in Stockholm in the early 1990’s and has spread everywhere. The only commercial area where hit songs are consistently written the traditional way is country music. Note that the one collaborator that Taylor Swift specifically thanked in her Grammy acceptance speech for Album of the Year in 2016 was Max Martin, one of the early members of the Stockholm group. The book also gives valuable information on the workings of the current music industry.