If you have never heard of Max Martin, you may be surprised as to who he is. In a sense, Max Martin is the powerhouse of pure pop. Wait what? He’s a singer? No, not necessarily. Max Martin is the man behind many of our favorite popular songs. Realizing this the other day made me have that “my whole life is a lie” moment. When listening to popular songs in middle or high school, I was totally thinking that the singer was behind the inspiration and lyrics for the song. Songs like “Shake it off,” and “Teenage Dream” by Taylor Swift, “Roar” by Katy Perry, “Can’t Stop The Feeling” by Justin Timberlake, and “Since You Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson were all iconic songs many teenage or 20 something females would jam to, including myself. While listening to the song, I felt a relatability to the singer for composing such lyrics that often related to my emotions. I think that is often what makes us fall in love with the singer, right? However, little did I know that someone else, a 46 year old Swedish dude, was behind the inspiration and lyrics of these songs and the singers were simply performing the ideas. Like What?? Realizing this makes us realize that the world is not often what it seems. We often become so infatuated with a certain genre of music or a musician, not knowing that the music is unauthentic and fabricated by someone we don’t relate to at all, and possibly trying to influence a young generation for the benefit of a societal or market demand. In a similar sense, the person behind the franchise lingerie store “Victoria’s Secret,” was created by an old man in Ohio. But that’s a whole other topic for a different day. After knowing that some of our most popular influences are actually not what they seem to be – that is, not transparent or representative of it’s source – we should realize that many other popular influences are also not what they seem. We should proceed with caution and research before so easily conforming to or buying what is “popular.” Ask yourself questions like, Who is behind this product, idea, trend, etc? What are their individual and/or company’s values? Who or what am I supporting when I give in to receiving it or part-taking in the ideologies of the trend? We always always always need to ask ourselves these questions before easily part-taking in trends or hopping on a bandwagon just because it seems cool and everyone else is doing it.

For reference, here are some more popular songs that were actually created/written and produced by Max Martin:

The Official Top 40 biggest Max Martin songs

POS	TITLE	ARTIST	PEAK	YEAR
1	CAN’T STOP THE FEELING	JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE	2	2016
2	LOVE ME LIKE YOU DO	ELLIE GOULDING	1	2015
3	ROAR	KATY PERRY	1	2013
4	BABY ONE MORE TIME	BRITNEY SPEARS	1	1999
5	SHAKE IT OFF	TAYLOR SWIFT	2	2014
6	CAN’T FEEL MY FACE	WEEKND	3	2015
7	BANG BANG	JESSIE J/GRANDE/MINAJ	1	2014
8	2002	ANNE-MARIE	3	2018
9	NO TEARS LEFT TO CRY	ARIANA GRANDE	2	2018
10	I DON’T CARE	ED SHEERAN & JUSTIN BIEBER	1	2019
11	SIDE TO SIDE	ARIANA GRANDE FT NICKI MINAJ	4	2016
12	I KNEW YOU WERE TROUBLE	TAYLOR SWIFT	2	2012
13	DYNAMITE	TAIO CRUZ	1	2010
14	INTO YOU	ARIANA GRANDE	14	2016
15	DARK HORSE	KATY PERRY FT JUICY J	4	2013
16	BLANK SPACE	TAYLOR SWIFT	4	2014
17	DOMINO	JESSIE J	1	2011
18	CALIFORNIA GURLS	KATY PERRY FT SNOOP DOGG	1	2010
19	I WANT IT THAT WAY	BACKSTREET BOYS	1	1999
20	SEND MY LOVE (TO YOUR NEW LOVER)	ADELE	5	2015
21	PROBLEM	ARIANA GRANDE FT IGGY AZALEA	1	2014
22	I KISSED A GIRL	KATY PERRY	1	2008
23	HOT N COLD	KATY PERRY	4	2008
24	SO WHAT	PINK	1	2008
25	WE ARE NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER	TAYLOR SWIFT	4	2012
26	EVERYBODY (BACKSTREET’S BACK)	BACKSTREET BOYS	3	1997
27	TEENAGE DREAM	KATY PERRY	2	2010
28	DANGEROUS WOMAN	ARIANA GRANDE	17	2016
29	BREAK FREE	ARIANA GRANDE FT ZEDD	16	2014
30	CHAINED TO THE RHYTHM	KATY PERRY FT SKIP MARLEY	5	2017
31	RAISE YOUR GLASS	PINK	13	2010
32	SINCE U BEEN GONE	KELLY CLARKSON	5	2005
33	BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE	ED SHEERAN FT KHALID	1	2019
34	IT’S MY LIFE	BON JOVI	3	2000
35	OOPS I DID IT AGAIN	BRITNEY SPEARS	1	2000
36	GOD IS A WOMAN	ARIANA GRANDE	4	2018
37	ON MY MIND	ELLIE GOULDING	5	2015
38	AS LONG AS YOU LOVE ME	BACKSTREET BOYS	3	1997
39	ONE MORE NIGHT	MAROON 5	8	2012
40	TAKE ME BACK TO LONDON	ED SHEERAN FT STORMZY	1	2019

And last, but most definitely not least, here is a stand-up comedy bit about how Max Martin and Cosmo influenced our favourite pop songs. You know, because laughing about a “my whole life is a lie” moment is way better than freaking out about it! 🙂