Songs from Sweden

Shaping Pop Culture in a Globalized Music Industry

Ola Johansson

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9789811527357
• eBook ISBN:
  9789811527364
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Music
• Index: Social Sciences

• An original contribution on a theme which has not been properly explored previously.
• Provides an innovative theoretical construct.  
  
• Features fascinating primary-source interviews with prominent music producers.
  

© The Author(s) 2020

O. JohanssonSongs from SwedenGeographies of Mediahttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-2736-4_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction: The Swedish Music Miracle, from 1.0 to 2.0

Ola Johansson¹

(1)

Department of Geography, University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, Johnstown, PA, USA

Ola Johansson

Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Observers of popular music know that Swedish artists have achieved commercial distinction, as well as artistic acclaim, around the world. This is what I call the Swedish Music Miracle 1.0. However, the Swedish music industry has more and more emphasized songwriting and production rather than artists. Thus, a transition from 1.0 to 2.0 has been underway for quite some time. This chapter explores the reasons behind Sweden’s position as an important popular music center. In no small part, geographic factors have played a role in this process. These include themes from economic and cultural geography, such as Sweden’s position in the world as a small, cosmopolitan country; the spatial organization of the music industry; and the tendency for even geographic development within Sweden.

Keywords

Music geographySwedish musicSongwritingMusic productionMusic industry

End Abstract

In 2016, the prolific Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin received the prestigious Polar Prize in Stockholm. Pop dignitaries from around the world praised the choice. Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, and Adam Levine of the band Maroon 5 called Martin a master, a perfectionist, and obsessed with making music (TV4 Play 2016). Katy Perry continued to say that Martin has a childlike sense of melody, while Simon Cowell of the Idol television show opined, “I don’t think Max is human. He was made in Sweden to make hit records” (Sveriges Utbildningsradio 2016). During the Polar Prize interview held in front of a live audience, the interviewer, Swedish music journalist Jan Gradvall, added that Martin’s sound is always ahead of the game and that he emphasizes simplicity as the most effective and best method of making music (ibid.).

Anyone who is not a music industry insider may be forgiven for not knowing Max Martin. Besides a series of interviews at the time of the Polar Prize, Max Martin rarely speaks with media and prefers to be a behind-the-scenes person only. But the truth is that Martin is one of the most prolific and commercially successful songwriter–producers in pop history. While maintaining a low profile, he has amassed a record of countless number one hits around the world. In fact, Martin has written more songs that topped the U.S. Billboard list than anybody else in history, except for John Lennon and Paul McCartney. As a producer, Max Martin is second as measured by Billboard hits after George Martin (no relation to Max), the producer of the Beatles (Hunt 2017).

For almost two decades, not just Max Martin, but many other Swedish songwriters and producers have acquired a remarkable degree of global respect. They are the men—and they are almost exclusively men—behind leading pop stars in America and elsewhere. (Other famous pop producers of the early twenty-first century are mainly Americans, such as Pharrell Williams, Dr. Luke, and Timbaland.) Quantifying the import of Swedish writer–producers is not straightforward, but it is common in media to depict Sweden as number one in per capita songwriting, even ahead of the United States and Britain (Mattmar 2013). Such assertions are supported by statistics such as the fact that 25% of the number one hits on the 2014 Billboard chart were written or co-written by Swedes (Gradvall and Åkterman 2017).

Many of the hits by artists like Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, One Direction, and Katy Perry are connected to Sweden. These artists often travel to Stockholm (which is the hub of the Swedish music cluster) to negotiate, co-write songs, and record. Conversely, Swedish writers and producers operate globally and can be found working in music industry spaces elsewhere, such as in Los Angeles. How did this happen? This monograph explores the roots, longevity, and character of the cluster of songwriters and producers in Sweden. My thinking about this phenomenon is grounded in the perspective that popular music, an important element of the cultural economy, exists in globalized networks. Certainly, there are local factors that can explain why Sweden has played an outsized role in the music industry. For example, Sweden has a long history as a “pop country.” It is a style long favored by the public, from the radio show Svensktoppen which has for more than 50 years presented a top-10 list to the public every weekend, to the prominence of the Eurovision Song Contest. Ultimately, however, Swedish-derived pop is the product of cultural and personal interconnectedness among multiple nodes around the world. The quote below from the Financial Times, which describes Britney Spears’ 2003 hit Toxic, exemplifies this process:

So, an American singer had a hit with a song written by an Englishwoman and three Swedes, with help from a tune used in an Indian film; the song was recorded in Stockholm and Hollywood, then mixed in Stockholm. This is the way the pop world now works. In the days of Tin Pan Alley and the Brill Building¹, jobbing songwriters would sit around a piano bashing out hits but many of today’s most popular songs are not so much written as constructed, by multinational teams. (Cheal 2015, p. 15)

The “constructed” part above involve both songwriting and production. Traditionally, writing and production are two separate steps in the music-making process. Today, however, almost all of the individuals scrutinized in this study are considered writer–producers. At least in the world of pop, the two have increasingly merged. The main reason is advances in music-making technology. The role of the producer is to create the sound of a song, which is an integral part of a composition, equally important as lyrics or melody. The writer often has a clear idea of what the sound of a song-in-progress should be like, but in the past, the writer may have presented his composition to artists and record labels in a rudimentary form. Today, laptop-based software allows a writer to quickly and inexpensively record a professional sounding demo. Thus, technology has pushed a new generation of songwriters to learn production technology. On the other hand, somebody that used to be a producer-only now has an economic incentive to be involved in writing as well. In the contemporary music industry, the rights to compositions are more lucrative than the recordings. In other words, writing credits are much more economically advantageous than production credits.

I have written about Swedish music for a number of years, starting with the 2010 article Beyond ABBA: The Globalization of the Swedish Popular Music. There I identified a series of factors that explained the success of Swedish popular music. The article emphasized Swedish performing artists during the 1990s and early 2000s, but for a number of reasons explored in this monograph, Sweden’s role in the global music scene has moved toward production and songwriting. The earlier success of Swedish artists is what I call the Swedish Music Miracle 1.0, using the common metaphor from computer software that are constantly issued in new iterations. In Beyond ABBA, I barely touched upon the importance of the songwriter–producer phenomenon; therefore, this Swedish Music Miracle 2.0 needs to be written.

The 2.0 metaphor is apt as the current Swedish music industry did not emerge out of nowhere; rather, it is built on knowledge, skills, and structures that were put in place during a previous era. One the other hand, the change from 1.0 to 2.0 is not discrete. Swedish artists continue to be popular internationally. Especially female performers such as Tove Lo, Lykke Li, Zar...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction: The Swedish Music Miracle, from 1.0 to 2.0
• 2. Local Music in a Global Network: Circulation, Reputation, and Hybridity
• 3. The Main Players
• 4. An Analysis of Swedish Pop Music
• 5. Concluding Thoughts
• Back Matter