The Formula To A Catchy Pop Song

What's up my good people! Today I'm going to do my best to quickly breakdown the production process that goes into our current pop hits. For those who don't favor Top 40 music, and are already thinking of skipping this, I would stick around for this one. I'm going to have some fun with it and sort of mock particular sections of the process throughout the way, yet keeping it at a professional level at the same time. Just to make it entertaining for both Pop enthusiasts and neglectors. Let's get started!

Drum Beat: First, you're going to want to write a good drum beat over a tempo between 95-128bpm. Something with 808 drums (kicks, snares, and claps) might be the way to go.

Instrumental Hook: Next, you're going to need an instrumental hook. Find an instrument and a catchy hook that will get stuck in people's heads. In some cases you don't want it to sound too good, so playing an instrument that you're not really good at may be ideal. Keep it very simple! When you think you got it, try simplifying it a bit more.

Vocal Hook: Think of a memorable phrase, or sentence, that can be repeated over time and works as the title of the song. Find rhythm words. Something with rhymes is also ideal. 

Lyrics / Verse: This section of the song usually isn't the most memorable, and others would say it's not the most important. Artist can get away with saying whatever they want really, as long as it's generic. Keeping it broad is good, but, don't forget to keep it relevant to the hook.

Arrangement: Get the listener's attention fast! I'd suggest making some variations to the main chorus and adding that as the intro to the song. Oh and thrown in a rap section somewhere; it's pretty popular now a days.

Finally record your lead vocals, layers of backing vocals, add bass, keys, percussion, build-ups, vocal FXs (stutters/chops) and vocal processing (autotune/harmonizers/compression/reverb/delays/stereo-width). Now you got a hit song. Till next time guys!