For more than half a century, the Billboard Hot 100 has been documenting the biggest, most commercially successful hits in the U.S. The chart—compiled by Billboard magazine using record sales, radio ...

If you've listened to any pop music since the 1990s, you've listened to Max Martin. The Swedish songwriter and record producer has been omnipresent in the industry for decades, and he has masterminded ...

With all due respect (and possible future apologies) to Beyoncé, whose path recently overlapped with hers on the “Vogue”-sampling “Break My Soul (The Queens Remix),” Madonna is set this week to remind ...

In 1985, a washed-up singer named Derek Stevens walked into a meeting with record company execs in hopes of reviving his ...

7/21 Books; 191 pp. David Klein reads at the Regulator Bookshop in Durham on Thursday, March 22, at 7 p.m. I readily admit that I’m a numerically hyper-aware guy. In numbered lots, I’ll only park in ...

The rush to put everything in easily digestible lists of 10 has finally come to a subject I know something about – abysmal songs that have captured the public fancy long enough to reach number one.

Barry Manilow has written a lot of songs, but he didn't write "I Write The Songs." (In fact, Manilow didn't write any of his three #1 hits.) "I Write The Songs" isn't intended to be a statement of ...

Randy Houser’s “Song Number 7” is probably the finest single representative of his Fired Up album. It’s a big country power ballad that leans progressive, but stops short of crossing a bridge that ...

Over the years, Dolly Parton has placed much emphasis on how much she likes writing songs. While she loves to sing, she believes her true talent lies in her abilities as a songwriter. Parton writes ...

When it comes to making a Disney Animation musical, there’s always going to be high pressure for the songwriters in particular, simply because of the sheer number of bangers that presumably made the ...