The best piece of writing about modern pop music is in this week’s New York magazine.
I’ve written glowingly about Dr. Luke, the New York producer behind everything from “Since You’ve Been Gone” thru “California Gurl”. He is to 2010 what Timberland was to 2004. Dr. Luke is the zeitgeist.
There is an excellent profile of Dr. Luke by Adam Sternberg and here is the link: “http://nymag.com/guides/summer/2010/66784/index2.html
And here is Adam’s description of how Luke brought together the Taio Cruz song “Dynamite”: “he created a basic beat track with his fellow producer Benny Blanco. (Dr. Luke has a slate of producers signed to his company, Prescription Songs.) The track was originally intended to go to the rapper Flo Rida, but it wasn’t a good fit as a rap song, so Luke sent it to Sweden, to Max Martin, who wrote half of a hook for the chorus. Luke wrote the other half, then sent that track to Bonnie McKee, a lyricist. Then Luke started looking for the right vocalist to attach.”