I'm going to get HELL from the Max Fans, I am one too, but an INTERESTING questi

[Rebecca]

Fascinating discussion, I would love to know who wrote which part out of every song. I had forgotten about that interview with Max where he described the writing of Teenage Dream. Well, Max must have done something in that song to get a songwriting credit. As much as I love Dr Luke, his songs are always better when he collaborates with Max, so it makes me believe that Max is the special ingredient, or maybe Max pushes Dr Luke to the next level.

I absolutely love Peter Svensson too.

[max_martin_fan]

Nice read about the process for Maroon 5 - Daylight where Max is credited as a writer too.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf/2012/12/steve_duin_lakeridge_grad_sam.html

[Rebecca]

thanks, that is a nice read.

[sweetmelody]

Max is usually the guy who writes the hook, but not always. And there's nothing wrong with that. Collaboration is not about ego, it's about the best idea winning. Max is smart enough to know that and it's work for him. I understand the question being raised here but it doesn't diminish what Max has done in his career. He is clearly the most successful songwriter of the past 20 years and one of the greatest of all time.

[Raul_esp]

Max is the biggest Genius writing melodies , Although he doesn't write anyone part , I'm sure he influences to the other composers with his ideas.

[RoyFan]

. I understand the question being raised here but it doesn't diminish what Max has done in his career. He is clearly the most successful songwriter of the past 20 years and one of the greatest of all time.

I wasn't doubting his melodic ability at all..or his "hook" ability .  He's written a lot of songs on his own that prove he can do that.  I guess I was just surprised cause I had always assumed that in his collabs with Luke he ALWAYS wrote an important part of the melody.  They've probably almost outwritten Lennon-McCartney in terms of hits by now, so I knew obviously he couldn't POSSIBLY have written EVERY hook, and Luke didn't either.

I know all about collabs, and that it never works with an ego, cause I'm a songwriter myself.  I think I had in my mind the thought that he wrote the Teenage Dream chorus for soooo long, that I was a bit shocked to find out he didn't.

Another one I'd LOOOVE to know is the chorus of "Domino" - At first I was sure it was Claude Kelly or Max's melody - but now that I play more of Luke's melodies on my guitar, I think it could have been him as well. It has some of the intervalistic qualities.

Lastly, another little quirk with this whole subject for me is - I STILL think of Luke as a Jazz Guitarist TURNED songwriter - (he even said it himself, he was the guitarist at Saturday Night Live for all those years.)  And I don't think there's been many Jazz Guitarists, who at age 30 start to write pop melodies so well.

Genius pop melody writers usually internalize that stuff from a young age.  It's still very odd to me that Luke started at such a late age writing pop and can do it as if he's done it his whole life.

[J_A24]

To me that's called loving what you do and working harder than everyone. One of the things that struck me the most when I came back from L.A. is that a lot of people who admired Luke's work never really thought about him as being arguably the hardest working person in the music industry.

He didn't go from jazz guitarist to mega-songwriter overnight. And coming from a jazz background doesn't mean that he wasn't supposed to become pop's most prolific producer/writer.

He loves pop music, he's passionate about "winning" in the charts and has had a lot of experience writing pop songs with great songwriters. His tastes in melody evolved thanks to that and that's pretty much all it takes to come up with great results; High standards. His vision of what is a good record is what truly takes him there. And lots of work, well now a bit less because he has a lot of people working for him.

It's all about the evolution of your standards, forget the background.

[RoyFan]

To me that's called loving what you do and working harder than everyone. One of the things that struck me the most when I came back from L.A. is that a lot of people who admired Luke's work never really thought about him as being arguably the hardest working person in the music industry.

I had that impression as well.  He has a strong burning fire in him.  You need that emotional/physical spark as well as the
craftsmanship - And since he's done so much, what you say makes lots of sense.

And this last part I don't say to sound criticizing, but I also had that notion cause he seems tired looking in a lot of the photos.
A certain subtle quality in the eye, not blatant, but I've seen it on other people as well.  I get that for people like him, there's NOTHING
he'd rather do than create.  But I just hope he's at the point where he can take a break when he needs it.

In an interview, he had said ("we all could use a vacation") - that's the only reason I doubt whether or not he's gotten to the point
of allowing himself one

[J_A24]

I had that impression as well.  He has a strong burning fire in him.  You need that emotional/physical spark as well as the
craftsmanship - And since he's done so much, what you say makes lots of sense.

And this last part I don't say to sound criticizing, but I also had that notion cause he seems tired looking in a lot of the photos.
A certain subtle quality in the eye, not blatant, but I've seen it on other people as well.  I get that for people like him, there's NOTHING
he'd rather do than create.  But I just hope he's at the point where he can take a break when he needs it.

In an interview, he had said ("we all could use a vacation") - that's the only reason I doubt whether or not he's gotten to the point
of allowing himself one

Oh I didn't take it as criticism towards him, I just find that sometimes people who look up to someone tend to glamorize their job. I know at some point I was guilty of that. When you said that you found it a bit odd that Luke went from jazz to pop and was able to become amazing at melodies, I don't think it's odd. I think his journey started way before that, in his room, listening to his favourite songs and trying to play them on guitar. I don't think you're born with the ability to be amazing at melodies. You have certain aptitudes and you chose to hone your skills towards something. I don't think it's anything magical, it's just experience. I think pop music is mostly about what sounds right rather than what sounds good.