Standing at the top of the music industry are almost the same artists who release hit after hit and have sold out performances one after the other. What most people don't know is that there is a smaller group behind these stars, performing and contributing to each of their critically-acclaimed list of songs. Here are four people secretly behind most of your favorite songs.
If it's an 80s movie soundtrack with a synthesizer, it's probably Giorgio Moroder
Known as the "Father of Disco," this Italian composer is an electronic music pioneer. The now 80-year-old DJ-composer has some fifteen studio albums under his name aside from the countless hits he composed for other artists.
Almost every relevant music theme from the 80s was from the mind and synthesizers of one man - from the inspirational "Push It To The Limit" of the 1983 "Scarface" to the suspenseful "Chase" from "Midnight Express." Giorgio Moroder also wrote the score for the films "American Gigolo," "The Neverending Story," and the first "Battlestar Galactica." Lastly, if you're a fan of the Tom Cruise-led flick "Top Gun," thank Moroder for "Take My Breath Away" and "Danger Zone." He also narrates his life story in the Daft Punk single "Giorgio by Moroder." Lastly, one of the strongest candidates for the 80s soundtrack, "What A Feeling," from the 1983 movie Flashdance, was also a Moroder work. No, this is not an assembly line of music. Meet Ester Dean, the one person behind most of the last decade and a half. At just 20 years old, she left Omaha with just $500 and went to Atlanta to pursue a career in music. Known as "The Song Factory," she has written songs for Rihanna ("Rude Boy," "What's My Name," "S&M"), Katy Perry ("Firework," "Peacock"), Pussycat Dolls, ("Jai Ho!"), Beyoncé ("Start Over," "Countdown"), Nicki Minaj ("Super Bass"). She has also created hits for many other artists, including Nelly, Ludacris, Kelly Clarkson, Usher, Scotty McCreery, 50 Cent, Rita Ora, and Kelly Rowland. She has also played Cynthia-Rose Adams in all three "Pitch Perfect" movies and has also voiced characters from animated movies "Rio," "Ice Age: Continental Drift," and recently, "Trolls World Tour." Starting with Sam Cooke's "Summertime" and Ritchie Valens "La Bamba" of the late 1950s, there has been a single bassist who played on almost every significant album released after that, and not a lot of people know her name. Starting as a jazz player, Carol Kaye was originally a guitarist, playing electric on The Crystals' 1963 single "Then He Kissed Me" and acoustic on "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by The Righteous Brothers. It was by accident, though, that she realized she wanted bass more after the scheduled session player didn't show up. She then went to become the most in-demand bass player, working on some 10,000 recordings in her five-decade career. Aside from her session work in landmark albums such as The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" and The Beatles' "Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," Carol Kaye also worked on the theme songs for most of the 60s and 70s hit TV shows Batman, Hawaii Five-O, M*A*S*H, Mission: Impossible, and Wonder Woman. Also, she played bass on the theme song for the 1971 "Shaft," which Isaac Hayes sang. Swedish singer-songwriter and producer Karl Martin Sandberg, better known as Max Martin, probably wrote the other good chunk of the hits you've come to love. He is behind 23 of Billboard's Hot 100 chart-toppers, starting with the 1999 Britney Spears mega-hit "...Baby One More Time" and the recent "Blinding Lights" by The Weeknd. If you've danced to Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl," "Teenage Dream," "Last Friday Night (TGIF)" and "Roar," thank Max Martin. If you sang along to Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together," "Blank Space," or "Bad Blood," yes, also Max Martin. Maroon 5's "One More Night," Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop The Feeling," or maybe NSYNC's "It's Gonna Be Me," only one man wrote all those hits you've loved all these years. He is already the third among the list of songwriters with the most number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, behind The Beatles' songwriting duo of Paul McCartney (32) and John Lennon (26). The 49-year-old music producer has won five Grammys and ten ASCAP Pop Music Awards for "Songwriter of the Year." For more surprises about your favorite music, see 4 Pieces of Classical Music That Mean Quite The Opposite and 5 of the Most Expensive Records Ever Sold.Almost half your favorite pop hits are from "The Song Factory"
Carol Kaye, the genius bassist of ten thousand records
You might not have heard of "Max Martin," but surely you know his works
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