A viral video is circulating from "Boy in a Band" vlogger entitled: "The Biggest Secret in the Music Industry." In the vlog, "Boy in a Band" (aka Dave) explains his discovery that a crazy high number of Billboard number-one smash hits have all come from the same Swedish producer: a man who goes by Max Martin (Karl Martin Sandberg). Gawker was quick to point out this isn't exactly a secret, though Max Martin is relatively unknown for having such a huge hand in the wildly popular music industry of pop.
Martin produced Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time" in 1998 and continued pumping out hits with her. He worked on the majority of songs from the Backstreet Boys' Millennium album in 1999 (hitting on all the hits, of course). In that pre-Millennium era he also collaborated with Céline Dion. Since 1999, he's had 16 Billboard number-one hits and counting.
Here are just a few of the artists he's brought to the top of the charts: Kelly Clarkson ("Since U Been Gone," "Behind These Hazel Eyes"), P!nk (much of the I'm Not Dead album), Avril Lavinge (much of the Goodbye Lullaby album), Katy Perry ("I Kissed a Girl," "California Gurls"), Christina Aguilera (much of Lotus, her seventh album), Taylor Swift ("We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together").
He's also worked with Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, Taio Cruz, Usher, and probably some actual "secret" ones we don't know of.
In the vlog, "Boy in a Band" (Dave) says that Martin has taken few interviews, but Dave did find him saying "...it's music -- it has to be fun and inspirational." Dave finds this inspirational, while Gawker writer Neetzan Zimmerman views this as an explanation for why so many pop songs sound the same. Watch the video yourself and tells us how you see it.
