An example of hit song making is one of the biggest hits of 2007: “Apologize” from the band One Republic. There are two versions of the song; the original version which appears on their album “Dreaming out Loud”, and the remix version, produced by (now) legendary super-producer Tim “Timbaland” Mosley which appeared on his “Shock Value” album. The interesting thing for me is that the Timbaland version ended up being the “hit”, since the original version of the song is musically far superior to the remix version. here’s my analysis of why Timbaland’s version is more “hit worthy” compared to the original:

1. It’s simple.

In listening to the album version of “Apologize”, there are lots of little things (the cello opening in the beginning, the spacious nature of the arrangement, the interaction of the different instruments, the overall mix of the song) that make the song musically pleasing to my ear. By comparison, the Timbaland version is reduced to it’s “core” sound elements: Bass, beat (including human beatbox-enhanced rhythm effects), piano, vocals, and some synth effects. By stripping out the musically pleasing but superfluous elements of the song, the remix version is more accessible to a wider listening audience.

2. It’s complexly monotonous.

As mentioned in example one, the original version of “Apologize” contains very subtle interactions between particular instruments: the cellos play harmoniously with the piano, the beat is very sparsely programmed, giving the other instruments and vocals more space, allowing for more musical movement. In Timbaland’s version, the dominant theme in the track is the drum groove which, while complex in structure (again, the human beatbox effects combined with the main beat is a Timbaland signature production technique), is extremely monotonous, almost hypnotic in nature. A hit song always has a mesmerizing effect on the listener.

3. It’s short.

The original version of Apologize clocks in at 3:28 minutes. The remix version is 3:04. The vast majority of today’s hit music clocks in at under 3:30, mainly in order to be radio friendly (by allowing radio stations to have more time for commercials), but psychologically to create a sense of wanting more in the listener.

4. It has a chorus AND a “hook”.

One of the questions aspiring songwriters have asked since the beginning of pop music is “what’s the difference between a ‘chorus’ and a ‘hook’ in a pop song?” The simple explanation is this: the chorus is the part of the song that gives the song it’s lyrical / melody recognition; in other words, it’s the repetitive part of the song everyone eventually will sing, hum, or whistle along to. The hook is the part of the song that immediately grabs the listeners attention (it “hooks” the listener into the song). The hook can be a sung melody, an instrumental line, or a musical effect; it’s the thing the makes a listener go, “Aaah, I know that song!” In the case of Timbaland’s “Apologize” there are multiple hooks; the piano intro, Timbaland’s signature “ehh – eh – eh” vocal riff, and the chorus itself. A true hit song has both a strong chorus and one or more hooks, and in many cases the chorus is the hook. Both concepts are designed to grab attention and hold onto it.

5. It has one or more gimmicks.

This aspect of hit songwriting relates directly to the previous point; all hit songs have a gimmick or “ear worm”, an element that makes it stand out from the rest of the pop music pack. The gimmick in Timbaland’s version is his signature vocal riff, which doesn’t appear in the album version of “Apologize”. A gimmick can be anything, from the sublte to the obvious; a guitar riff (“Walk This Way” by Aerosmith or “My Girl” by the Temptations), a drum groove (“Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson), a synth melody (“SexyBack” by Justin Timberlake or “Clocks” by Coldplay) or the song itself (belgian pop star Milow’s version of “Ayo Technology” by 50 Cent, performed with acoustic guitar). The next time you catch yourself whistling a song you just heard on the radio that you swear that you hate (we’ve all done this at one time or another), ask yourself; why is this song in my head? More than likely due to the song’s use of gimmicks.

Sadly, we live in a culture of disposable media, as evidenced by the incredibly short life span of a hit pop song, blockbuster movie, or popular video game. there’s lots of fierce competition for consumer’s money, so songwriters and other creative types must pull out all the stops to grab the most attention for their wares. A little understanding of how the formula of making hit music works goes a long way towards helping aspiring artists further realize their dream of superstardom.

Gig 1: May 20 – Session Werk, Walldorf

I’ve performed in many, many venues in Germany over the last 15 years or so; from bars, clubs and restaurants, to city and village festivals, to huge open-air concerts with thousands of people. From seaside hangouts to ski resorts in the Alps, I’ve played almost everywhere, especially in Baden-Württemberg (where I live), which makes it hard to believe that there are quite a few venues that I have never performed in. One such place was the bar belonging to the well-known music store Session Music, located in Walldorf, near Heidelberg. I’d been asked to perform there with the house band off and on for five years, but I never had time until recently, when friend and colleague Stefan Breuer asked me to perform there with his band. The emcee of the the night was another colleague, a singer named Gonzo. I knew most of the musicians in the house band from other bands that I’d performed with, but this was the first time I played with this particular formation, and we had no time to rehearse together, which made me a little nervous. The interesting thing to me was how full the club was (it’s a huge venue), despite being hot outside, a holiday and the UEFA Cup Finals being on TV.

Gig 2: May 21 – King Kamehameha Club, Frankfurt am Main

My spot. I LOVE this club, Especially in the summer. It was packed (as usual), and this particular night there were three front singers, which is rare. Considering that it was also very warm outside on this evening (even at eleven o’clock) and there are four other clubs on the same street as the KingKa, having so many people on that night was truly amazing. Again, it’s a testament to the hard work we put into making Thursday night a success.

Gig 3: May 22 – Restaurant Nizza, Frankfurt am Main

Change of pace (or so I thought): A wedding reception in a fancy restaurant on the banks of the Main River. A rather small gathering, only about 50 to 60 guests, all extremely stylish, with the ladies in their gowns and the men in either suits or tuxedos. What they lacked in comfort, however, they more than made up for in endurance, partying well into the early morning, way after we had finished our show (the father of the bride was particularly amusing). Even at 3:00 AM, the weather was still warm enough to engage in various outdoor activities.

Gig 4: May 23 – City Festival, Bad Homburg

My favorite gig of my little tour; a duo gig in one of the town squares of Bad Homburg, just me on vocals and my colleague Jan Stürmer on acoustic guitar. Very relaxed yet very challenging; our job was to entertain a large group of spectators (up to a thousand people at any given time) over a three hour time span using just our voices and a single instrument. That is music-making in it’s purest form, and we were successful in our mission.

Gig 5: May 24 – Radio RPR1 Family Festival, Bingen

After having performed four days in a row, I was exhausted. The last thing my body needed was to perform outside on the hottest day of the year. Being the soldier that I am, however, that’s exactly what I did. My final show of the week was in Bingen, a city on the banks of the Rhine River. It was 33° Celsius (91° Fahrenheit) outside, which is very hot by german standards. The bad part: we had to perform four sets during the day, starting at 1:30 in the afternoon. The festival was not very well attended, perhaps due to the extreme heat.

Summer Madness

What all five shows had in common was the effect the excellent weather had on people’s ability to enjoy themselves. Sunshine and warm temperatures are known to activate feelings of happiness and pleasure in humans; it’s no coincidence that more alcohol is sold, more concerts are attended, and more relationships are either begun or made permanent through marriage in the warm-weather months than the cold-weather months.

Unfortunately, it also tends to deactivate our sense of fashion, especially color coordination, in many cases. In that respect, summer-like weather also deactivates our sense of shame, which can be a blessing or a curse, depending on your point of view. I’ve been witness to people dressing in ways I’ve only laughed about on really bad sketch comedy shows or soft porn movies on cable TV. Simply AMAZING.

So, what have I learned from my latest road trip?

1. NEVER book a hotel room in a big city on the side of the building facing the street.

2. If you’re confident in your abilities, it doesn’t matter if new to a situation or not.

3. The warmer it is outside, the more willing people are to make total fools of themselves.

4. The passage of time is relative when you’re in good spirits.

5. Just because it’s warm outside doesn’t mean that the party’s dead inside.

6. Take time to appreciate not only what you do, but where you do it.

7. Sandals and socks are NOT CUTE.

8. Big t-shirts and sport leggings are WORSE.

9. If you’re going to wear a sleeveless top and sport leggings, at least be in shape.

10. Just when you think you’ve done it all, you quickly realize that you haven’t.

Judging by what I’ve experienced on this latest road trip, it’s going to be a very interesting summer indeed.

Nice Bathrooms

That being said, there are in more cases than not certain little things that can greatly influence how a musician performs their duties at such events. An example is the quality of the hotel room they’re booked in; specifically, the cleanliness of the bathroom. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m more than a little spoiled when it comes to hotel accommodations, since I’ve been fortunate enough to worked my way up far enough in the pro musician food chain as to (almost) always get a decent hotel in the cities that I perform, always paid for by the client. I’m somewhat of a bathroom fetishist; it’s usually the first thing I check when I enter a room, and over the years I’ve seen some really “interesting” things in some really top hotels, all in the bathroom. I’ve stayed in rat holes with very clean bathrooms, and in 5-star hotels with really disgusting ones, and everything in between. Let’s just say that an improperly cleaned hotel room is a mood killer in just about any situation, but especially when you want to relax before a long show, and very many of my fellow musicians (at least the singers I know) spend a large chunk of their time in the bathroom; our vanity dictates this.

Long Gigs

Roughly eighty percent of a musicians time at a company party of similar event is spent waiting. Waiting. Waiting even more. Keep in mind that the average band arrives at a venue five hours or more before the show actually starts, depending on the size of the venue, the position of the band in the overall evening plan, and the preparation and serving of the food (if there is food to served, which there almost always is). A typical show starts between 8 and 10 PM, with “dinner music”, a.k.a. “music to be ignored by”. I hate dinner music. Seriously. There’s nothing more nerve-wracking than trying to entertain people who aren’t paying the slightest bit of attention to you. It’s often the case, however, that the band will play instrumental music, so that’s a small consolation. Afterwards, the party goes into full effect.

Very often we run into the situation that the event organizer, who generally always makes a big fuss about something prior to the start of the event, will ask us for an extra set, because he or she is so excited (alcohol-induced, of course) about the great job the band is doing, that we obviously have to play longer. I attribute this euphoric attitude to the age-old notion that musicians perform on stage purely for the fun of it; in other words, making music is “not a real job”, so it should be no problem if we play all night long, as long as we get a little extra for it. “Not a real job”; I often wonder how these event organizers would react to the knowledge that many of the pro musicians they hire for their events earn probably much more on average than they do. So much for “not being a real job”…

The Gala Event Food Chain

We musicians are indeed a spoiled bunch, at least most of the time. Granted, I’ve only ever worked as a musician in Europe, so I have no idea how it is to work a similar scene in the States, but I can imagine it’s pretty much the same everywhere. Having said that, there is a certain hierarchy in the event business; we musicians are somewhere in the middle of the food chain. We very often enjoy the perks of getting special treatment from the heads of the organizations for which the event is being held, being allowed to mingle with the guests, eating the same meals as the guests, and being able to leave right after our performance is done, all luxuries not afforded to the others who also make such events possible like the technical crew, caterers and bartenders, security personnel and cleanup crew, or the event agencies themselves.

At the end of the day, however, we are no less “service crew” as the others are: we have to do what we’re told, when we’re told to do it. When we’re asked to play extra sets, more often than not we honor that request, for the simple fact that not honoring it could jeopardize our standing with the client, thus making the prospect of future gigs at other events doubtful, thus affecting a future source of income. Over the years, though, I’ve modeled my attitude toward such requests after the motto, “not all money is good money”. Sometimes, though, beggars can’t be choosers, especially if you have bills to pay and a lifestyle to support.

So, what have I learned from my latest road trip?

1. Everyone was a musician at some point in their existence.

2. For some people, speaking into a microphone is the highlight of their year.

3. If you see a group of 4 or more men huddled around the dessert table, it’s most likely the band.

4. DJ’s have a much easier job than musicians do.

5. DJ’s have a much harder job than musicians do.

6. If one person asks if the band can play longer, it’s most likely the one who will actually pay the band.

7. If more than one person asks if the band can play longer, they most likely have nothing to do with the ones who actually pay the band.

8. Sometimes we take the amount of time we spend traveling for granted.

9. As a songwriter, I envy the person who wrote “I Will Survive”.

10. As a musician, If I ever meet the person who wrote “I Will Survive”, they’re getting punched in the nose.

The band planned to pick me up in Dresden at 2:30 PM at the train station, which was fine, except that Dresden is a seven hour train ride from home, which meant I had to leave home at 6:45 AM. Luckily the train wasn’t too full, so I could relax a little until I reached Dresden. When I reached Dresden, I was picked up by the guys and we then drove another 350 KM to the show. To get to our destination, we had to drive through the city of Prague, and rush hour traffic an Prague is no joke, as anyone who’s ever been to the Czech capital can tell you; we were of course stuck in a traffic jam, due to the endless construction zones. After we made through traffic hell, we ran into our next road trip challenge: a thunderstorm. Thankfully, it didn’t last very long, and 50 kilometers before we reached our destination, the roads were clear and the weather was good.

We arrived at our destination, and were impressed by the number of people in attendance and the great atmosphere; people were running around dressed funny, drinking and having a good time, typical for a rock festival. We were also a bit surprised by the size of the festival; small compared to Rock am Ring, of course, but still very well attended. Three stages, 12 bands, each band playing for one hour. We were the headlining band, and only band at the festival who wasn’t from the Czech Republic. The stage was huge, but with the help of great stage crew we were able to build up our gear, soundcheck and perform within a short amount of time. Within minutes the crowd was at full capacity in front of the stage, and we rocked them as hard as we could, which was a tall order, given that we hadn’t played together since February. We love playing in the Czech Republic, because the crowds have always been very responsive and ready to have a good time, which makes our job a lot easier. Of course, the majority of the crowd probably didn’t understand a word I was saying to them, but they responded anyway.

After the gig we signed autographs and sold a few CD’s, talked with the fans, and took lots of pictures. I was surprised how many of our Czech fans spoke English and German, which made the conversations with them a lot easier. Afterwards we packed up our gear and had our customary round of beer and vodka, and talked about the show. The verdict: mission accomplished.

So, what did I learn from the last show?

1. As much as I like train travel, I really hate certain routes.
2. The Czech Republic is in many aspects much more laid back than Germany.
3. Former east block countries are far more beautiful than I was lead to believe as a child.
4. Good music knows no language or cultural barriers; if it rocks, it rocks.
5. Czechs really do smoke a lot. A lot.
6. I HATE smoke machines like the devil hates holy water.
7. I REALLY HATE smoke machines!
8. “In vino veritas” rings true in almost every case.
9. Practice doesn’t always make perfect, but it comes close.
10. When thousands of people yell out your name, you must be doing something right.

Thankfully, my gigs on Thursday and Friday were a blast. The gig in the KingKa (our nickname for the King Kamehameha Club) was awesome as usual, especially considering that the club has been packed on Thursday night every week for the past 8 years; we worked hard to gain such a following, and it’s paying dividends; Thursday is the busiest night of the week for the club thanks to the band, and many of the higher paying gigs I perform all over Germany are a direct result of my appearances at the KingKa.

Friday I played at the Essen Convention Center (known in german as the “Messe”) for an event sponsored by the German Federation of Fitness Studios, known as the DSSV (Deutsche Sportstudio Verband), I was hired as the guest singer for the Freddy Wonder Combo, one of the busiest show bands in south Germany, with whom I performed last year in Wuppertal, together with a 40-piece orchestra. Of course I was stressed out, being that I had only performed once before with this band and we didn’t rehearse, but one of the advantages of playing within multiple pro musician circles is that we all end up having the same repertoire, thus making it easier to perform concerts without having to practice.

This band knows how to get a party going, so performing with them was a lot of fun, and ultimately less stressful for me. Especially entertaining was watching the bandleader Freddy drink beer out of the female lead singer’s shoe. The corniest thing I’ve seen on stage this year so far, and the crowd went crazy for it. I even saw a few people in the audience that I met years ago at other shows in other parts of the country, which is always a highlight for me in my travels. Of course there were very good looking people in the audience, but given that the majority of the crowd either worked at or owned fitness studios, it was hardly a surprise. Tight pants everywhere.

After the two very successful gigs, I arrived at the hotel and got what I had been longing for since the beginning of my gig blitz: a good night’s sleep.

So, what did I learn from the last two gigs?

1. I like trains a lot more than I thought I did.

2. I have a new appreciation for the phrase, “if you build it, they will come.”

3. Even in bad economic times, (most) people still just want to have a good time.

4. Nothing is more satisfying than watching total strangers dancing together on top of bars and tables Coyote Ugly style.

5. Half shirts or tops that show off the midsection should be banned for some people.

6. People who can dance love to show off that they can dance.

7. People who can’t dance love to show off that they can’t dance.

8. Guys with huge muscles don’t look as cool as I thought they did when I was younger.

9. Women with huge muscles (unfortunately) look even worse.

10. I really need to visit Spain more often.

11. Sleep is the most unappreciated human necessity. EVER.