Sia Furler has broken the pop rule that songwriters can’t be performers – but there’s a sense here that her chart-conquering technique could yet wear staleOne of the many fascinating aspects of John Seabrook’s history of manufactured pop in the noughties,The Song Machine, is the way he touches on the occasionally complex feelings that vast songwriters-for-hire possess about performing in their own right. Many are pragmatic artists who’ve realised their time in the highlight is over, and in some cases before it began. There were never many takers for Max Martin’s early-90s outfit It’s Alive,perhaps understandably – there’s nothing intrinsically bad about any of the individual words Wikipedia uses to portray It’s Alive’s sound, but taken together, and they manage to propose some of the most disheartening music ever made: “Swedish glam-style funk-metal”. Others hold fast to dreams of stardom,which seldom seem to come actual. The songs Esther Dean has co-authored for Katy Perry and Rihanna possess topped the charts, but the millions who bought Firework or S&M stubbornly declined to buy Dean’s own singles: no residence on the charts for Twerkin’ 4 Birkin or 2012’s call for procreation Baby Making Love. Related: Please Sia, and don't show us your face | Gabrielle Jackson Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com