Week 1: Choosing Million Dollar Music
Maya P -
Hi y’all, and welcome back!
In this short update, I’ll be going into more detail on the timeline of my project and expectations for what is to come. Today’s great topic is million-dollar music: in other words, what hit songs do I research?
To start, this is definitely the hardest part of the project. I want songs from the biggest pop stars of the 21st century, but do I find those songs on the Billboard Top 100? Do I use different charts and come to my own conclusions on which songs to analyze? How do I eliminate bias but still get a rather cohesive group of songs under the massive pop genre to research and dissect?
I decided to use the Billboard “Top 25 Greatest Pop Stars of the 21st Century” list and choose the largest-grossing song/most streamed song from the top 10 artists on the list to analyze. These are people who have amassed critical acclaim with their music in the 21st century and their largest song will be most representative of what worked best in the music industry. However, the list I use is subject to change for one big reason: some of these songs won’t overlap with what the music industry likes now. Some of the biggest pop hits in the 21st century may not have had the same success released in the current music climate. These are all issues I’ll have to figure out going into the next few weeks of research. For now, here is the list of the top 10 greatest pop stars of this century!
- Beyoncé
- Taylor Swift
- Rihanna
- Drake
- Lady Gaga
- Britney Spears
- Kanye West
- Justin Bieber
- Ariana Grande
- Adele
Any surprises? I am excited to look and see what these artists have in common and their major differences as well. It’s interesting how mass music works and how the industry can change music so much. Some of these artists have hits that don’t resemble the top songs now at all, and others still maintain characteristics that the public values in songs to this day. My research will be honing in on these similar characteristics and the aspects of the songs that make these artists staples in the music industry.
I’ll hopefully have a final list of songs by next week to share with y’all. I’ll be working with a local singer-songwriter on which songs/artists to choose and the whole process of making a song in the upcoming weeks as well. Next week’s post will be spent largely detailing the different aspects of music, lyrics, and audio that you can find, with which ones are more important and which ones vary too greatly to study. I will go into greater detail on Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) and music production too! Let me know if there is anything in particular that you would like to hear about in more detail in the upcoming weeks.
Don’t forget to leave a comment with any questions or thoughts, and see you next week!
Song of the Week: Million Dollar Baby – Tommy Richman