Cutting-Edge Interactive Tools for Today’s Songwriting, Production and Music Business Programs
Join the Worldwide Academic Community Using Hit Songs Deconstructed
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"I have been giving hit record analysis exercises to my students for years, but the level of depth in a single Hit Songs Deconstructed report is a full semester’s worth of information. My entire thought process as a producer, an engineer, a musician, and a songwriter are fleshed out in the pages of the HSD reports."
"Prince" Charles Alexander
Grammy-winning, multi-platinum producer, audio engineer, and recording artist and professor, Music Production and Engineering, Berklee College of Music
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"The depth, detail and level of care that Hit Songs Deconstructed exercises in their song analysis is something I want my students to aspire to. I am using their analysis techniques as a benchmark for them to apply when analyzing songs and their compositional analytics to keep them in tune with what’s happening now."
Chris Sampson
Founding Director of Popular Music Program
USC Thornton School of Music
Director of Popular Music Pedagogy
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"Hit Songs Deconstructed is a great teaching tool and an extremely valuable resource for my songwriting students. We’ve made it an integral part of the songwriting curriculum at MTSU. I’m thrilled to say that Middle Tennessee State University is at the forefront of songwriting education as a result of this partnership."
Odie Blackmon
Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Commercial Songwriting Concentration for the Recording Industry Program,
Middle Tennessee State University
Lecturer, Music at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music
How will students and faculty benefit from Hit Songs Deconstructed?
Students will gain an edge for success by having real-time information related to how today’s popular music is evolving at the compositional level and learn how to leverage this type of information to make strategic songwriting, production and business decisions.
They will benefit from:
- Real-time information related to how today’s modern music is evolving
- Strengthening song analysis skills through our hit song analysis reports
- Gaining a granular understanding of the trends driving today’s hits through our compositional analytics
- Staying ion top of today’s key industry players through our quarterly trend reports
- Discovering new ways to maximize different sections of a song through our searchable technique archive
- Learning how to write and produce in the style of a particular song or artist through one of our downloadable hit song DAW arrangements
- And so much more!
Faculty members will have instant access to proprietary data and analysis that can be used in songwriting, production and music business classes and keeps them in tune with how the craft and trends behind today's most successful songs are evolving.
They will benefit from:
- A reference library of the latest songwriting and production techniques being used in today’s most successful songs
- In-depth song reports that complement topics being covered
- Downloadable DAW arrangements for recent hits
- Compositional analytics for the Hot 100 Top 10
- Easy access to examples from current hits that can be referenced in the classroom. It’s a huge time saver!
Hit Songs Deconstructed offers flexible and highly discounted academic plans.
IP-Based Authentication or Group Subscriptions
Secure and seamless integration with your library network using EZproxy and other authentication systems.
If you require a subscription for a small group, you will receive an account where you can manage subscribers yourself.
Individual User Profiles
Faculty and students have the ability to create their own individual profiles so that they can save their personal searches privately.
Customized Lesson Plans
Faculty can easily create customized lesson plans by saving searches and reference material to a dedicated page in their private account.
Students also have their own private account where they can save searches for assignments and their own personal projects.
What does a subscription include?
Hit Song Deconstructions
Discover the patterns behind today's hits!
The Hit Song Deconstructions provide unparalleled analysis of today's hits.
Each deconstruction breaks down a current hit to its foundational building blocks and pulls back the curtain on the patterns and science behind how the song was written, produced and arranged.
Leaving no stone unturned, everything is presented in a clear and concise manner and is complimented with unique Hit Songs Deconstructed visualizations that can be used to assess your own songs for strengths and weaknesses as well.
Among them are the HSD melodic parts tables and graphs, rhyme scheme tables, narrative structure tables, energy graphs, and more.
Each report is published in six segments every two weeks, and analyze:
- Structure, Genres and Sub-Genre Fusion
- Instruments and Arrangement
- Energy and Dynamics
- Vocal Melody and Vocal Production
- Lyrics and Rhymes
- Benchmark, Highlights & Takeaways
By reading these deconstructions, you'll become privy to the same tools and techniques today's hitmakers are using.
The insight you'll gain will take your craft to the next level, guaranteed.
Downloadable DAWs
A visual roadmap for understanding how today's hits are arranged.
Every Hit Song Deconstruction includes a downloadable DAW project (Logic).
Using empty MIDI regions to visualize the instrumental arrangement, effects, energy, vocal melody and production, structure, select techniques and more, these DAW projects provide you with a visual roadmap for understanding how today’s hits were effectively arranged.
By watching as you listen, you will gain valuable insight into the strategic decisions today’s hitmakers made to help prime their songs for maximum impact, giving you a host of new tools, techniques, and ideas to help take your own songs to the next level.
A Searchable Database of Songwriting Techniques
Fuel your inspiration with the techniques that helped today’s most successful songs become global hits!
Want to maximize the impact of your hooks? Or looking for examples of sub-genre fusion techniques? Or ways to incorporate audience participation moments into your song?
Then look no further! Updated on a monthly basis, this interactive searchable database houses hundreds of the most effective techniques used in Hot 100 Top 10 hits.
Techniques include: Hook Techniques, Intro Techniques, Outro Techniques, Duet/Group Lead Vocal Structure Techniques, Audience Participation Moment Techniques, Energy Techniques, Section Impact Accentuator Techniques, Sub-Genre Fusion Techniques, Chorus Vocal Structure Techniques, Departure Section Techniques, Prosody Techniques, and Rhyme Techniques (with more technique categories to come!)
Reference Track Search
200+ filters to find the exact song you are looking for with the click of a button.
Need reference tracks? Mix and match 200+ compositional filters to find Hot 100 Top 10 songs with very specific compositional characteristics.
In addition, this tool can be used to:
- See how your song stacks up against proven hits with similar compositional characteristics
- Get insight for ways to take your song to the next level and/or give it a unique spin
- Understand the space you are looking to compete in
- Or simply get inspired!
Search Filters include:
Unlike AI-Powered analytics, each song is manually analyzed and every data point is vetted in accordance with HSD's proprietary methodologies for accuracy.
Compositional Analytics
Round out your toolbox with songwriting analytics for today's most successful songs.
Looking for insight into what today's hits have in common?
Or want to spot trends on the rise, or in decline?
Or need to back up gut feelings with factual data?
This powerful, fully interactive database provides you with critical insight into how the current musical landscape is evolving with valuable, real-time intelligence on the compositional characteristics of the songs that land in the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100.
Hundreds of different searches keep you in tune with what’s driving the Hot 100 Top 10 at the compositional level. Trends are visualized with graphs and tables with each data point linking to a list of the corresponding songs.
Search for trends pertaining to primary genres, sub-genres/influences, instruments, lead vocals (gender, vocal delivery, etc.), lyrics (lyrical theme, title placement and appearances, etc.), song structure (key, tempo, song length, song form, etc.), song sections (intro characteristics, first chorus occurrence, post-chorus types, etc.), and much more.
Save your most important searches to your dashboard for easy access!
Benchmark Tool
Compare and contrast compositional characteristics across songs, artists, songwriters, producers and labels.
This powerful tool gives you the ability to compare and contrast any of the compositional characteristics in The Immersion Database across songs, artists, songwriters, producers and labels.
- Gain insight into a specific body of work of a particular artist, songwriter, producer or label
- Understand what compositional characteristics a select group of songs have in common
- Discover how songs stand out from the pack by going against the grain
- Make targeted pitches by researching what creates the signature sound of a particular artist, producer, or songwriter
Trend searches include number of songs in the Top 10, weeks in the Top 10, trends for featured artist, genre breakdown, team size, and more.
Searches can be filtered in a multitude of ways including by date range, primary genre, peak chart position, among others.
All search results include links to the corresponding songs and profile pages.
Artist, Songwriter, Producer and Label Database
Stay in tune with the artists, writers, producers, and labels behind today’s hits and the trends behind them.
Every artist, songwriter, producer and label has its own personal profile detailing which artists, songwriters, producers and labels they’ve collaborated with, their compositional profile, charting information and a link to their Twitter and Instagram pages.
Quarterly Trend Reports
The State of the Hot 100 Top 10 Delivered to You Every Quarter
Every quarter Hit Songs Deconstructed publishes trend reports that deliver an easy-to-digest snapshot of the trends driving each quarter’s most successful songs and gets you in tune with today’s rapidly evolving hit song landscape.
Reports include:
- NEW ARRIVALS DECONSTRUCTED: A deconstruction of the most recent quarter's new arrivals, and how they differ from the songs that carried over from the previous quarter.
- HOT 100 TOP 10 DECONSTRUCTED: This report delivers an in-depth look at trends for all the compositional categories we track, including primary genres, sub-genres, lead vocals, lyrical themes, instruments, key, tempo, song length, song structure, and much more.
- TOP PERFORMING HITS DECONSTRUCTED: A deconstruction of #1 hits and songs that chart 10+ weeks detailing what qualities differentiate them from the overall Top 10.
- HIP HOP VS. NON-HIP HOP DECONSTRUCTED: A spotlights on hip hop and non-hip hop songs that details the trends unique to each.
- WHO'S WRITING THE HITS? Trend data for artists, songwriters, producers and labels who have charted in the Hot 100 Top 10.
Give your students a competitive edge!
Hit Songs Deconstructed is also used by leading songwriters, producers, labels and publishers.
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We’ve had rave reviews from students and educators about Hit Songs Deconstructed.
Stephanie Maatta Smith, PhD
Director of Library Services
Full Sail University
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Hit Songs Deconstructed is an integral resource used in our teaching of popular music analysis on both the Popular Music Performance and Popular Music Performance/Production BA (Hons) degree courses here at Solent University.
Esther Frake
Senior Lecturer, Popular Music PerformanceSolent University, Southampton UK
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Whether you want to work with the current trends or against them HSD is a powerful tool in music production strategy.
Dean Nelson
Director of Music ProductionOntario Institute of Audio Recording Technology
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Hit Songs Deconstructed is an astonishingly thorough look at contemporary hits. The site takes a comprehensive look at both lyrics and music, and is an extraordinary tool for anyone interested in understanding and absorbing what makes commercial songs successful.
Deanna Walker
Director, Blair Songwriting Program at Vanderbilt University
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Finally… here is a great service for producers and writers that explains in great detail what makes a hit song… HSD gives you not only the 'How they did it’, but also the Why… I highly recommend HSD.
Tony Carbone
Assistant Professor
Berklee College Of Music
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As a teacher AND a songwriter, an important part of my job is to analyze what works in successful songs. HSD does the research for me. It's an amazing tool--and one I highly recommend to my students and collaborators throughout the world.
Jason Blume
Songwriter w/50 million album sales | Top-selling author, Billboard Books