As Gawker pointed out, it's probably best to keep this "secret" in quotation marks. After all, the identity of producer Max Martin hasn't been hidden and his work creating indelible, chart-topping songs for Britney Spears, Katy Perry, P!nk, The Backstreet Boys, and many, many others hasn't been concealed by the powers that be. Still, this video by music vlogger Boy in a Band puts Martin's influence on modern pop music in perspective in a way that does sort of boggle the mind. Just as an example, Boy in a Band claims that the Swedish producer has had more #1 hits than Michael Jackson. Yes, that, Michael Jackson. And yet, Martin himself is barely on the public's radar.
Now, there's a lot a reasons why the man who helped create "Baby, One More Time," "I Want It That Way," "I Kissed A Girl", "California Gurls," "Teenage Dream," "Since U Been Gone," "Oops!... I Did It Again," "Show Me Love" — you get the point — might want to stay in the shadows. Perhaps he's a lil' embarrassed about his glam-metal past. Perhaps he's just the kind of guy who likes to do his work and come home, curl up with a good book and a glass of chardonnay, and hit the bed early. Or, as Gawker suggests, perhaps with so much of modern pop music being created essentially by the same few producers and writers (and sounding so often the same), the public prominence of people like Max Martin might undermine our interest in singers who execute and add their visuals to a song. Then again, maybe it's because having a public image would cause Martin to slow down, stick to one genre, or basically get in the way of making more amazing pop tunes than anyone else on the planet. So long as he stays mum on the subject, we'll just have to speculate wildly. (Gawker)
Video: Via YouTube.