He's one of the most successful songwriters of all time. He has produced 64 US top 10 hits, including 22 number ones for Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears and many others.
The New Yorker describes him as "the Obi-Wan: the reclusive master..."
Collectively, the songs he has written have been sold over 135 million times and his music videos have generated over 22 billion views on YouTube. He is worth $250 Million
But, hardly anyone knows about him
Accolades from Artists
Justin Timberlake said that he is the master of making ear-worms. Ear-worms are those catchy piece's of music that continually repeat through a person's mind long after they're played. You've probably experienced this yourself. No matter what you do, ear-worms are very difficult to get rid of, which makes them excellent pop songs.
Adam Levine says that he is "awesome to work with. He's the most obsessed with music and that's it. He doesn't talk about politics. He just loves to make music and he's amazing at it. I learned so much from working with him"
Britney Spears describes him as a perfectionist, but adds that being with him is "kind of hard" because she's always scared that she may do something wrong, so she has to "pull out her goods" when she works with him.
Katy Perry says "He has great energy. He's a good person, a kind person. He's happy to search for whatever road you want to go down, songwriting wise, and he's a friend and a listener, not someone who is just a titan of industry. He just loves music"
So, Who is He???
His stage name is Max Martin. His real name is Karl Martin Sandberg. He was born in Stenhamra, a small suburb of Stockholm, in 1971. As a child, he was a student of Sweden's public music-education program and said that he had "public music education to thank for everything". As a teenager, he sang in a variety of bands before joining the metal band "It's Alive" in 1985.
The life of a struggling artist
While in the band he changed his name to Martin White. In 1988, he participated in the national rock championships in Cyprus. In 1991, Megarock Records offered to make them a demo-record. 1,000 copies of the record were made and given away as a free cover tape in the UK by Metal Forces magazine.
Eventually, the band landed a record deal with producer Denniz Pop's (PoP) label Cheiron Records. Denniz was a Swedish DJ, music producer and songwriter. In 1994, they released Earthquake visions and toured through Europe. Unfortunately, Earthquake Visions only sold a disappointing 30,000 copies, despite being released in as many as 30 countries.
Martin's Big Break
Despite Martin's poor sales, Pop recognized his talent and renamed his protege Max Martin and eventually became Martin's mentor.
In 1993, Martin was hired by Cheiron Studios and spent time learning the basics of how to craft the perfect pop song. They coproduced the Rednex song "Wish You Were Here" in 1994. They then went to work on Swedish pop music group Ace of Base's second album "The Bridge" in 1995.
Later that year, Michael Jackson asked Martin to work for him. Martin ended up traveling with Pop to Los Angeles to rework a song for Jackson's nephew's group 3T for the album "Brotherhood". While in LA, Martin was asked by record company Zomba to submit a few songs for a little band called The Backstreet Boys. Martin took part in the production of "Quit Playing Games with my Heart", co-written with Herbie Crichlow, a single that quickly went platinum and climbed to No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Martin went on to co-write and co-produce 7 out of the 12 songs on the Backstreet Boys' third album Millennium. "I want it that way", co-written by Martin and Andreas Carlsson, became the band's biggest song to date and is still popular today.
Cherion wasn't a normal production company
Cheiron Studios was founded in 1992 by Denniz Pop and Tom Talomaa.
Normally, the artists and songwriter write the songs and then hire a producer to shape the sound. At Cheiron, the producers wrote the songs, played the instruments and engineered and mixed the recordings. The artist was only brought in near the end. For example, for Britney Spears' second album "Oops..I did it again", Cheiron had already written seven songs and recorded layers of music before Britney even arrived at the studios in early November 1999. It only took her a week to do the vocals.
Martin took over Cheiron in 1998 when Denniz Pop died. 2 years later, Cheiron closed. Max Martin reformed the company as The Location. Martin and Talomaa then formed a new production company named Maratone in January, 2001.
Martin's Growing Influence
The list of singers Martin has worked with read like a who's who of the pop industry. These include Celine Dion, Kelly Clarkson, Marion Raven, The Veronicas, Pink, User, Avril Lavigne, Jessie J, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande. He even co-wrote The Weekend's "Can't Feel My Face".
So, the next time you hear a new catchy pop song on the radio, think of Max Martin. There's a good chance he had something to do with the creation of it.
Top 50 Songs by Max Martin
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Great article. I also have "public music education to thank for everything". Unfortunately, music programs in schools are usually seen as a luxury, despite playing music being so good for the development of the mind.
Check out this recording of my public high school's jazz band. That's me on drums.
https://steemit.com/dsound/@songsmiths/songsmiths-ep-1-the-greenwich-high-school-jazz-band-1988