Have you ever taken a look at the spotify songwriter credits? how can your favorite song have been written by 6 songwriters? One sign of the music industry’s evolution is the length of contemporary pop songs’ songwriter credits. It’s no longer the norm to have one or even two songwriters working on a hit; now, as many as a dozen or more names can be attached to a single track.
One reason why co-writing has become so prevalent is that that’s how we write pop now. Instead of the lone genius — holed up in a cabin, hoisting a guitar — modern pop songs are typically the work of a team of multiple writers, producers and artists. They pool ideas, experiment relentlessly and combine aspects of their particular tastes until they converge on a finished product, an amalgamation that reflects many different personalities.
To the informational credits have to be added credits relating to the process of song production. The rise of sample-based production and interpolation has also increased the complexity of songwriting credits. When an artist uses a snippet of one older song in his new song, both the songwriter of the new song and the original songwriters receive credit. These practices depend on a rich intertextuality that is an integral part of modern pop: The layered rhymes of “7 Rings” draw on the audacity of Biggie Smalls; Drake’s singing owes as much to Kanye West as it does to Degrassi.
Streaming has also warped the economics of music, because royalties are generally paid per stream. And with the money split up by songwriter, one common (and cynical) explanation is that more names credited on a track typically mean more money for the writers. So credits expand, both out of an abundance of caution and to divvy up the scraps.
In addition, the increase of these online collaborations and the ease of creating music from digital audio workstations (DAWs) has widened the pool of potential contributors, which allows songwriters to continue to contribute to tracks even if they’re not in the room.
Fundamentally, the proliferation of songwriting credits on the inner liner notes of radio singles mirrors changes in the music industry that have transformed it into a more tech-enabled, collaborative, meritocratic one. It may seem like it has gotten more complicated, but it’s really just a more accurate reflection of the group effort that frequently goes into making someone’s favorite song.
