WHAT THE ACADEMIC COMMUNITY IS SAYING
“Hit Songs Deconstructed is a game changer for teaching up and coming producers.”
Director of Music Production, Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology
“Berklee College of Music uses the Hit Songs Deconstructed reports and database for our songwriting, music production and music business curriculums. It’s an extremely valuable tool for both students and faculty alike.”
Grammy Award Winner & Professor, Music Production and Engineering, Berklee College of Music
“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 and I’m thrilled to say that Middle Tennessee State University is at the forefront of songwriting education as a result of this partnership.”
Award Winning Hit Songwriter, Middle Tennessee State University Assistant Professor | Vanderbilt University Lecturer of Music
“It’s a huge time-saver when it comes to prepping for classes. I can pick any compositional variable in the database based on what I’m going to be discussing in a lecture and easily find examples of current hits.”
Founding Director, Popular Music Program, Professor of Songwriting, USC Thornton School of Music
“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.”
Director, Blair Songwriting Program at Vanderbilt University
“I am using HSD’s analysis techniques as a benchmark for my students to apply when analyzing songs, their compositional analytics to keep them in tune with what’s happening now, and the quarterly trend reports to keep them up to speed with who the key industry players are.”
Founding Director, Popular Music Program, Professor of Songwriting, USC Thornton School of Music
“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.”
Senior Lecturer, Popular Music Performance | Solent University, Southampton UK
“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.”
Songwriter w/50 million album sales | Top-selling author, Billboard Books
“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.”
Assistant Professor, Berklee College Of Music
SAE Institute/Hit Songs Deconstructed Demo
Watch this video for an overview of the Hit Songs Deconstructed platform, it features, and how it can be used.
HIT SONGS DECONSTRUCTED @ BERKLEE COLLEGE OF MUSIC
Hit Songs Deconstructed is an interactive platform that provides in-depth analysis of today’s hits, uniting compositional analytics for the Hot 100 Top 10 with analysis of the songwriting and production techniques that went into crafting them.
Our mission is to provide creatives and music industry professionals with powerful interactive tools, data, and analysis to support their creative process, stay in tune with how today’s hits are evolving, and make strategic songwriting, production and business decisions.
Our subscribers range from songwriters, producers, engineers, labels, and publishers to leading music schools and universities throughout the world.
In April 2019, Hit Songs Deconstructed was hosted by the Hot 100 Club at Berklee College of Music. This video of the presentation includes an introduction by the Berklee Hot 100 Club co-president, Jan Franco Glanc Gomez, discussing how he uses Hit Songs Deconstructed as a resource.
The Hit Songs Deconstructed platform offers a trove of interactive tools, data and analysis that will keep faculty and students in tune with what's driving modern music at the compositional level.
Students 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 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 compliment topics being covered
- Downloadable DAW arrangement for recent hits that can be used for assignments
- Compositional analytics for the Hot 100 Top 10
- Easy access to examples from current hits that that can be referenced in the classroom. It’s a huge time saver!
Songwriting and Production Techniques Library
This section of the database features a curated searchable archive of techniques that provides access to the latest techniques being used in today’s hits.
Whether you want to maximize the impact of a chorus, improve dynamic flow, or gain insight into duet structure options, our technique archive has it all right at your fingertips.
Downloadable DAW Arrangements
Our custom library of downloadable Logic Projects is the perfect way to take a deeper dive into these songs and analyze each track instrument by instrument, section by section.
Alternatively, they can be used as a template to get started on a new musical projects.
The Hit Song Deconstructed Reports
The Hit Song Deconstructed reports provide unparalleled insight into the craft behind today’s hits. Using musical notation, charts, graphs, and commentary, each report analyzes a recent hit and takes a deep dive into its harmony, melody, structure, vocal production, dynamics, and much more.
For those who prefer audio/visual learning, our videos provide the perfect way to study today’s hits. Each video offers a one-on-one lesson focusing on the techniques used to craft a hit – from intro to outro – with DAW visualizations of vocal melody and arrangement.
Find Songs with Very Specific Characteristics
Mix and match over 200 filters for compositional characteristics, artists, producers, songwriters and labels. It’s a great place to find songs by a particular artist, producer, songwriter or label, find reference tracks to take into the studio, or get inspired. Drill down to see any song’s key compositional characteristics.
Compositional Trends at a Granular Level
These interactive searches help you understand the landscape you’re writing, producing or working in at a granular level, helping you identify the compositional trends driving today’s hits.
This fully interactive database offers hundreds of different searches including genres and influences, instruments, key, song structure and more. Trends are visualized through bar and line graphs and you can simply click on the graph to drill down to see the songs behind each trend.
What Artists, Songwriters, Producers and Labels Are Topping the Charts and with What Songs
These searches keep you in tune with trends related to artists, writers, producers, and labels. For example, you can easily find who was in the Top 10 during a specific time-period, for how long, and with which songs.
Compare Compositional Characteristics Across Songs, Artists, Writers, Producers, and Labels
Our comparison tool allows you to do just that. It’s a great way to gain insight into a specific body of work or see what compositional characteristics are making an artist’s body of work unique.
The State of the Hot 100 Top 10
Published quarterly as a downloadable PDF, these reports provide an in-depth, data-driven snapshot of Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 compositional and industry trends.
What People Say About us
“Hit Songs Deconstructed is a game changer for teaching up and coming producers.”
Director of Music Production, Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology
“Berklee College of Music uses the Hit Songs Deconstructed reports and database for our songwriting, music production and music business curriculums. It’s an extremely valuable tool for both students and faculty alike.”
Grammy Award Winner & Professor, Music Production and Engineering, Berklee College of Music
“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 and I’m thrilled to say that Middle Tennessee State University is at the forefront of songwriting education as a result of this partnership.”
Award Winning Hit Songwriter, Middle Tennessee State University Assistant Professor | Vanderbilt University Lecturer of Music
“It’s a huge time-saver when it comes to prepping for classes. I can pick any compositional variable in the database based on what I’m going to be discussing in a lecture and easily find examples of current hits.”
Founding Director, Popular Music Program, Professor of Songwriting, USC Thornton School of Music
“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.”
Director, Blair Songwriting Program at Vanderbilt University
“I am using HSD’s analysis techniques as a benchmark for my students to apply when analyzing songs, their compositional analytics to keep them in tune with what’s happening now, and the quarterly trend reports to keep them up to speed with who the key industry players are.”
Founding Director, Popular Music Program, Professor of Songwriting, USC Thornton School of Music
“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.”
Senior Lecturer, Popular Music Performance | Solent University, Southampton UK
“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.”
Songwriter w/50 million album sales | Top-selling author, Billboard Books
“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.”
Assistant Professor, Berklee College Of Music
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