Hello everyone! I would like to thank the Hooktheory team for everything they have done and it has helped my musical journey so much! I would also like to ask a question about some of the pop artists’ song examples that are used however.
Are their songs successful because of the techniques and theory they have used, or are they actually successful just because of the artist’s appeal and record companies behind them? I have been researching a lot of this throughout my songwriting journey and have come across this resource that argues that many pop songs out there are actually successful for reasons OTHER than songwriting:
https://www.songmatrix.com/index.html
I have taken a course with the author of the upcoming book (his first book on music theory is also excellent. He developed a visual way of analyzing chord progressions which are very useful: https://www.howmusicreallyworks.com/Pages_Chapter_6/6_6.html), and he has provided actual research showing that there are specific techniques and variables of songwriting that determine if the song will be well-received by listeners brains. And even more exciting is that he has used legitimate scientific research techniques to prove that they actually do work, isolating the songwriting itself from the popularity of artist. Reiterating again, some songs may not be very well written or effective, yet they become popular and hits due to the bandwagon affect and variables other than songwriting.
Many of these techniques will be explained when the book is released by the end of the year and I am familiar with them since the last time I have taken his earlier courses. The Hooktheory books are missing quite a number of these techniques and I believe it would be useful to see how the concepts from both Hooktheory and SongMatrix could be combined because it would help fill in many of the gaps songwriters need to understand how what they are writing actually affects the brain, and can use that to their advantage. I’m on the waiting list so once I receive the SongMatrix book I’ll do some cross-referencing. Let me know what you guys think!