A Music Week study that analyzed the top 100 singles of 2016 found that an average of 4.53 people wrote the hits, and those in the top 30 averaged 4.67 people. Many songs feature even more writers, with 13% of the top 100 written by eight or more songwriters. Only five top 100 songs were written by a single songwriter. Aside from being more likely to rightly recognize minor contributors today, the labels and publishers are increasingly bringing multiple songwriters together to create songs with a particular client in mind. What can be sacrificed in the process is creativity. Often using this “team” approach leads to more formulatic songwriting.
