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Czarnecka and Keles 61 by positioning a shampoo as a “time saver” in a busy world which draws on the appeal of “saving time. ” This could be acknowledged as an operational symbol of global consumer culture. The paper, however, took a very modest stand in describing what other symbols or values ex pressing the GCCP strategy in the studied advertisements were. Hence, the main question of how one could look for representations of GCCP strategy if they are not clearly defined and described has to be addressed by marketing researchers. Therefore, with the aim of filling a gap in the marketing literature, the first objective of the present study is to create a list of GCCP advertising appeals that are clearly and specifically defined and described. In addition, the proposed framework of the GCCP advertising appeals is then tested with a sample of advertisements from four European countries (Poland, Hungary, Ireland, and the UK) to investigate the use of GCCP appeals in print advertisements in two product categories (i. e., durables and non-durables) in these countries. To meet the second objective, two hypotheses were tested. First, it has been demonstrated in previous research that the global brand effect (i. e., the acceptance of global brands) is stronger in less developed countries (Dimofte, Johansson, & Bagozzi, 2011). Based on this assumption, and because this study focuses on two less developed countries (Poland and Hungary) and two developed countries (Ireland and the UK), the following is proposed: H1: GCCP appeals will be used more frequently in advertising from Poland and Hungary, less de veloped countries, than in advertising from the UK and Ireland, more developed countries. Secondly, this research investigated the use of GCCP appeals for two product categories: durables and non-durables. It has been suggested that the GCCP strategy should be more relevant to durable products than nondurable ones (Gammoh, Koh, & Okoroafo, 2011). Such products lik e electronics, cars, and furniture are more appropriate for global markets because these products are easier to standardise. By contrast, non-durable products such as food or clothes are embodied in the local cultures and are more difficult to standardise across cultu res (Ozsomer, Bodur, & Cavusgil, 1990), which suggests that: H2: GCCP appeals will be used more frequently in adve rtising for durable than non-durable goods. METHODS AND RESEARCH PROCEDURE Global Consumer Culture Positioning Appeals The proposed framework is based on the list of 42 advertising ap peals of Pollay (1983). The appeals are typically carried in the illustration and headlines of the advertisement and are supported and reinforced by the text (Pollay, 1983). The approach followed in this study was to select a number of value appeals which could describe and represent the GCCP strategy as broadly as possible. With this aim, three cross-cultural researchers who are from different three countries (Belgium, Poland, Turkey) and well-versed in the areas of cultural differences, global cultures, and globalisation were asked to rate these 42 appeals in terms of how well they reflect, in their opinion, global consumer culture. The researchers categorised themselves as consumers belonging to the global consumer culture category of “cosmopolitans,” described as people who identify themselves with cosmopolitan culture (Alden, Steenkamp, & Batra, 1999). Each of the researchers, firstly, rated the appeals independently as	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
62 JOURNAL OF EUROMARKETING either “reflecting global consumer culture” or “not reflecting global c onsumer culture. ” In case of differences in opinions, this was re-solved through discus sion between the re-searchers until they agreed on the appeal cate-gory. The final list of the selected 12 GCCP appeals is presented in Table 1. As a second step, magazine advertisements from four Eu-ropean countries, Poland, Hungary, the UK, and Ireland, were content-analysed. Weekly TV listings with the highest read-readership figures in each country were used as sample magazines. Such publications were selected due to their comparability across the four countries in terms of the target segment, format and editorial content as general appeal magazines. In total, 847 full-page advertise-advertisements were included in the sample: 180 from Poland, 178 from Hungary, 206 from Ireland, and 283 from the UK. Two coders from each country coded the advertisements using a coding schedule in their own languages. In ter-coder reliability measured using Kappa had high and acceptable values:. 92 in Poland,. 91 in Table 1: Proposed Framework of Advertising Appeals Representing Global Consumer Culture Positioning (GCCP). Appeal Characteristics EFFECTIVE Feasible; workable; useful; pragmatic; appropriate; functional; consistent; efficient; helpful; comf ortable (clothes); tasty (food) DURABLE Long-lasting; permanent; st able; enduring; strong; powerful; hearty; tough CONVENIENT Handy; time-saving; quick; eas y; suitable; accessible; versatile TECHNOLOGICAL Engineered; fabricated; formulated; manufactured; constructed; processed; resulting from science; invention; discovery; research; containing secret ingredients MODERN Contemporary; modern; new; improved; progressive; advanced; introducing; announcing PRODUCTIVITY References to achievement; accomplishment; ambition; success; careers; self-development; being skilled; accomplished; proficient; pulling your weight; contributing; doing your share INDEPENDENCE Self-sufficiency; self-re liance; autonomy; unattached; to do-it-yourself; to do our own thing; or iginal; unconventi onal; singular; nonconformist ENJOYMENT To have fun; laugh; be happy; celeb rate; to enjoy games, parties, feasts, and festivities; to participate HEALTHY Fitness; vim; vigour; vitality; strength; heartiness; to be active; athletic; robust; peppy; free from di sease, illness, infection, or ad-diction DISTINCTIVE Rare; unique; unusual; scarce ; infrequent; exclus ive; tasteful; ele-gant; subtle; esoteric; hand-crafted WISDOM Knowledge; education; awarene ss; intelligence; curiosity; satis-faction; comprehension; sagacity ; expertise; judgement; experi-ence ADVENTURE Boldness; daring; bravery; cour age; seeking adventure, thrill, or excitement	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
Czarnecka and Keles 63 Hungary,. 82 in Ireland, and. 86 in the UK (Neuendorf, 2002). RESULTS Table 2 presents the use of GCCP appeals by country. As expected, there were similarities and differences between the four countries under study in terms of the use of the GCCP appeals. For example, the most used appeal was “distinctive” in Poland (32. 8%), “convenient” in Hungary (55. 1%), and “wisdom” in both the UK (37. 5%) and Ireland (39. 6%). More GCCP appeals were found in advertisements from Poland and Hungary than in the UK and Ireland. In order to test Hypothesis one (H1), to see the association between the country's development level and the use of GCCP appeals, a chi-square test was used for each appeal between pairs of countries in terms of less developed vs. developed countries combination: Poland-Ireland, Poland-UK, Hungary-Ireland, and Hungary-UK. In total, out of the 48 pairs, 29 pairs supported the use of more GCCP appeals in advertising from less developed countries, with 8 additional pairs providing directiona l, but not statistically significant support (for significance levels, please see Table A1 in Appendix). It is therefore reasonable to propose that H1 is partially supported in the present study. GCCP appeals were more commonly used in advertising from less developed countries (Poland and Hungary) than developed countries (the UK and Ireland). Table 2: Proportions of Value Appeals Present in Print Advertising in Poland, Hungary, Ireland, and the UK (in %). Appeal Poland Hungary UK Ireland Effective 15 37. 1 14. 1 5. 8 Durable 6. 7 7. 3 1. 8 4. 3 Convenient 23. 3 55. 1 14. 5 9. 2 Distinctive 32. 8 18 10. 6 15. 5 Modern 31. 1 20. 2 13. 4 29 Technological 16. 1 30. 3 4. 2 15. 9 Wisdom 25 13. 5 37. 5 39. 6 Productivity 6. 7 15. 7 2. 1 4. 9 Enjoyment 13. 9 34. 8 7. 4 26. 1 Adventure 8. 9 21. 3 3. 5 4. 8 Independence 5 9 2. 5 2. 4 Healthy 5 7. 9 8. 1 24. 2 In order to test Hypothesis two (H2), the sample was divided into two product groups: durables (i. e., electronics, automobiles and parts, furniture, and home appliances) and non-durables (i. e., services, food and beverages, clothing, and footwear). Table 3 presents the proportions of advertisements displaying the appeals by the product category. The most used appeals in advertisements for durable goods were	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
64 JOURNAL OF EUROMARKETING “wisdom” (34. 3%) and “modern” (21. 9%). On the other hand, the most used appeals in advertisement for non-durable goods were “convenient” (29. 3%) a nd “wisdom” (26. 5%). Table 3: Proportions of Advertisements for Du rable and Non-durable Goods Featuring the GCCP Appeals (in %). Appeal Durables Non-durables Effective** 13. 8 20. 4 Durable 4 5. 2 Convenient* 17. 6 29. 3 Distinctive 16. 4 19. 7 Modern 21. 9 22. 7 Technological 11. 4 18. 7 Wisdom* 34. 3 26. 5 Productivity 5 8 Enjoyment 15. 2 22. 7 Adventure* 6. 7 10. 8 Independence 3. 1 5. 6 Healthy 10 12. 6 * p≤. 001; p ≤. 01; *p ≤. 05 When the overall sample (all four countries) is considered, in half of the cases (six appeals), the propor tion of advertisements with the use of GCCP appeals is higher for non-durable goods than durable ones. For the remaining six appeals, there is a directional support. This is contra ry to our expectation that GCCP appeals should have been more frequently used in advertisements for durable goods than for non-durable goods. H2, hence, was not supported in the present study. DISCUSSION, LIMITATIONS, AND FUTURE RESEARCH This study as an atte mpt at responding to the calls made by several researchers (Taylor, 2010; Akaka & Alden, 2010) to include more theoretical frameworks to study cultural influences in advertising. With this aim in mind, we proposed a theoretical framework of advertising appeals used to express the GCCP strategy and empirically tested this across four countries. The results of the present study demonstrated that GCCP appeals were used more frequently in advertising from less developed markets of Poland and Hungary than in more developed markets of the UK and Ireland. This is in line with the past research, which showed that consumers in less developed countries have more positive attitudes to global bran ds than consumers in developed countries and that advertisers also make more use of such appeals in less developed countries (Dimofte, Johansson, & Bagozzi, 2011; Guo, 2013). Consumers in less developed countries may perceive global brands as offering higher quality as compared to local brands. In addition, global brands may be perceived superior by local consumers due to less competitive environment in the less developed markets. Moreover, advertisers may also push a more “global” rather than “local” image of the brand in less developed markets as they may have less knowledge about effective, local marketing communications in those markets. Also, consumers in developed countries may be more resistant to branding and marketing	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
Czarnecka and Keles 65 communications and may therefore see global brands as less attractive. In addition, this st udy demonstrated that GCCP appeals were more often used in advertisements for non-durable goods than for durable goods. This is contrary to the view that durable products are easier to standardise. For example, Alden, Steenkamp, and Batra (1999), in their seminal paper on the use of GCCP, empirically supp orted their proposition that suggested that GCCP should be used most frequently for durable goods, and least frequently for such non-durable goods like foods, with the other goods categories in between. However, the difference between the present study and their study is the operationalization of GCCP appeals, which may lead to the differences in the results or contradictory findings. This indeed is a surprising finding worthy of further investigation. This study should be viewed within its own limitations. The proposed framework was tested by content analysing advertisements from a small number of countries. However, in the future studies, the proposed framework should be tested with consumers themselves, for example, by using an online survey target ed at global consumers and asking them to rate the appeals on how much they reflect global consumer culture. Moreover, the set of appeals which are assigned to GCCP st rategy may be also portrayed as local values in some of the countries examined. This would then pose a question: When using the proposed appeals, does the brand position itself as a global or local brand? The “globalness” of appeals may differ by country. Future research should focus on establishing a wider, more comprehensive framework of GCCP sym bols, values, appeals, and executions as the present study only focused on appeals. It could potentially include interviews wi th consumers on how they understand and perceive advertisements which feature GCCP appeals. Moreover, the use of such appeals does not imply effectiveness, and it would be important to investigate the effectiveness of these GCCP appeals across different segments in the international market. For example, “distinctive” appeal is frequently used in Poland but it is unknown how effective it is. In addition, further cont ent analysis of GCCP advertisements will provide more insight into how the appeals are executed. There were also some methodological limitations in this study. The sample sizes of the magazine advertisements varied across countries. The number of countries included in the study was limited to four, two Eastern European and two Western European ones. Future research should investigate the use of GCCP strategy in advertising from a larger number of countries cove ring various cultures including non-European ones. Other advertising media, such as TV or newspapers, should also be investigated. In addition, the c oncept and meaning of global consumer culture itself poses problems. Some appeals may be global and local at the same time. For example, being individualistic has been considered a global appeal in this study, but also a local cu ltural appeal in the UK context. Moreover, the appeals may be global, but their execution may be local resulting in “glocal” consumer culture positioning strategy (Merz, He, & Alden, 2008). Some argue that consumers in this global market draw from all available global, local, new, and old s ources as they use products and services to position themselves with regards to the local age, gender, social class, religious, and et hnic structures (Merz, He, & Alden, 2008). Then, it is reasonable to assume that advertisers would also draw from both global and local cont exts or that they would combine global and local symbols, values, or execution strategies. For example, the appeal “convenient” may be linked to GCCP, but its execution (for example, using	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
66 JOURNAL OF EUROMARKETING local celebrities) may be drawn from local cul-culture thus representi ng glocal positioning. The next step of our research is to test the perceived “globalness” of the appeals amongst segments of global consumers and examine their effectiveness across various country markets and consumer segments also through including brand in the research design. REFERENCES Akaka, M. A. & Alden, D. L. (2010). Global brand positioning and perceptions: Inter national advertising and global consumer culture. International Journal of Advertis ing, 29 (1), 37-56. Alden, D. L., Steenkamp, J. B. E. M., & Batra, R. (1999). Brand positioning through advertising in Asia, North America, and Europe: The role of global consumer culture. Journal of Marketing, 63 (1), 75-87. Arnould, E. J., & Thompson, C. J. (2005). Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty years of research. Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (4), 868-882. Cleveland, M. & Laroche, M. (2007). Accul turation to the global consumer culture: Scale development and research paradigm. Journal of Business Research, 60, 249- 259. Dimofte, C. V., Johansson, J. K., & Bagozzi, R. P. (2010). Global brands in the United States: How consumer ethnicity mediates the global brand effect. Journal of Inter national Marketing, 18(3), 81-106. Gammoh, B. S., Koh, A. C., & Okoroafo, S. C. (2011). Consumer culture brand posi tioning strategies: An experimental inves tigation. Journal of Product and Brand Management, 20(1), 48-57. Guo, X. (2013). Living in a global world: Influence of consumer global orientation on attitudes toward global brands from developed versus emerging countries. Journal of International Marketing, 21 (1), 1-22. Merz, M. A., He, Y., & Alden, D. L. (2008). A categorization approa ch to analyzing the global consumer culture debate. Interna tional Marketing Review, 25(2), 166-182. Neuendorf, K. A. (2002). The content analysis guidebook. London: Sage Publi cations. Okazaki, S., Mueller B., & Taylor, C. R. (2010). Global consumer culture position ing: Testing perceptions of soft-sell and hard-sell advertisi ng appeals between US and Japanese consumers. Journal of In ternational Marketing, 18(2), 20-34. Ozsomer, A., Bodur M., & Cavusgil, T. (1991). Marketing standardisation by multinationals in an emerging market. Eu ropean Journal of Marketing, 25(12), 50- 64. Pollay, R. W. (1983). Measuring the cultural values manifest in advertising. Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 6 (1), 71-92. Taylor, C. R. (2010). Towards stronger theory development in international advertising research. International Journal of Adver tising, 29(1), 9-14. Westjohn, S. A., Singh, N. & Magnusson, P. (2012). Responsiveness to global and lo cal consumer culture positioning: A per sonality and collective identity perspec tive. Journal of Interna tional Marketing, 20 (1),58-73.	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
Czarnecka and Keles 67 APPENDIX Table A1: Significance Levels for Country Pairs. Country pair Appeals with sign ificantly different usage * * Poland/UK Distinctive; modern; technological Durable; convenient; wisdom; productivity; adventure Enjoyment Poland/Ireland Convenient; distinctive; healthy Effective Adventure Hungary/UK Effective; convenient; technological; wisdom; productivity; enjoyment; adventure Durable; independence Distinctive; modern Hungary/Ireland Effective; convenient; technological; productivity; healthy; adventure Independence Modern; enjoyment * significant at. 001 level, significant at . 01 level, * significant at. 05 level	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
Journal of Euromarketing, 23: 68-71, 2014 Copyright © IMDA Press ISSN: 1049-6483 print / 1528-6967 online 68 BOOK REVIEW E-Negotiations; Networking and Cross-cultural Business Transactions by Harkiolakis, Nicholas with Halkias, Daphene and Abadir, Sam (2012). Gower Publishing, Surrey, UK, 228 pages. ISBN: 978-1-4094-0196-4. Li st price £ 65. (hardcover). Reviewed by Claude Cellich Professor and Vice President International University in Geneva, Switzerland Doing business today without access to Internet is unthinkable. This is even more applicable to firms operating globally. As there is a growing interest in online negotiations, e-negotiations is a timely addition to the growing body of knowledge concerning Internet-based media. Since business negotiation and communications are increasingly carried out by email, knowing how to optimize this new media channel is becoming a must. Moreover, as negotiation is a highly complex decision-making process relying on information-sharing, offers, and counteroffers between two or more parties, the Internet is an ideal communication medium to facilitate such exchanges. Up to now, e-negotiation has often been treated as an additional chapter and not addressed in its own right. In their book, the authors provide a comprehensive coverage of the technical aspects of the Internet (Chapters 2&3), followed by an excellent introduction to negotiation theory including cross cultural negotiations (Chapters 4, 5, & 7) and a remarkable chapter on communication tools, modes, and issues (Chapter 6). In this chapter, the authors describe the requirements, advantages, disadvantag es, when and how to use voice and video-based teleconferencing, videoconferencing, web conferencing, and text-based and email messaging. From a negotiator's perspective, this chapter stands out for its in-depth description and new insights concerning the role of modern communication channels. The book ends with a number of special topics (automated negotiations, e-diplomacy, and e-ethics) and addressing present and future trends in e-negotiations (chapter 8). A summary listing the main advantages, disadvantages and key points to remember when communicating via email is provided as Annex 1. Business executives pl anning to negotiate online require certain skills that carry more weight than others due to the very nature of the communication medium. Successful negotiators relying on face-to-face interaction may not gain similar advantages communicating online due to the depersonalized nature of e-negotiations. As a result, online negotiations tend to reduce the power of stronger negotiators over the weaker ones. Negotiating online offers various advantages; however, its inadequate use may be counterproductive. For instance, negotiating online may encourage the use of unethical tactics, reduce the amount of information-sharing and make it easy to leave the discussions by not responding. It also	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
Cellich 69 makes it difficult to develop personal contacts unless both parties have an existing relation-relationship from previous dealings. The advantages are mainly in the speed of communication, elimination of time zones and travel costs, as well as overcoming organizational, gend er, status, and age barriers. The authors argue that status has the most dramatic impact on e-negotiations as it is no longer a source of inequality or discrimination. Similarly, negotiators with poor people skills, unable to control negative emotions may do better relying on online communications. In addition, the greater psychological distance between the negotiators can help them manage their emotions better and reduce anxiety (Friedman & Belkin, 2013). Despite the benefits of online negotiation, the authors point out that face-to-face encounters should not be dropped. Furthermore, as e-nego tiators have to rely solely on written messages, it reduces social interaction, social influence, and trust among the parties. The impact of email can be optimized by attaching charts, graphs, and slides (Ebner, 2011). Concerning relationship building online, the authors suggest that the parties express greater empathy by showing interests in their common needs, asking questions about the other party's requirements, and concentrating the exchange of messages on shared interests. In Chapter 7, the authors highlight the generational gap concerning communication online. For example, older people are more comfortable making phone calls and having face-to-face discussions while younger ones are more familiar with the latest online technology and its app lications. Besides, younger executives tend to be concerned with tangible results and are likely to be more self-centered, resulting in the greater use of aggressive strategies, tactics, and adversarial behavior. As age and status command respect in more conservative societies and relationship oriented cultures, a bl end of competitive and cooperative strategies and face-to-face negotiations are likely to dominate future business transactions both domestically and globally. Concerning low-context cultures (mainly Western), the c ontent of the textual message carries most of the needed information while in high-context cultures (for example Asia and the Middle East) messages carry plenty of non-e xplicit information relating to the context. To avoid unnecessary cultural conflicts that can easily derail the negotiations, e-negotiators have to acquire cross-cultural competencies. Another issue that it is worth considering is that whatever we say on Internet leaves an electronic trace. The advantage is that it provides an automatic data storage that is easily retrieved. However, the same holds true for the other party. If negative statements are made about the othe r side, they will have access to this information and could use it to their advantage during th e negotiations. This calls for greater care when drafting each message. To ensure clarity and respect and whenever possible, have someone else reread the text before sending it. As email communication preserves the experience of the moment, it provides background information for the next round of discussions as well as contributing to the firm's database. In relationship-oriented cultures where trust is a condition for doing business, face-to-face negotiations should continue to be given preference over online negotiations except for exchanging non-confidential information, placing small repeat orders, and implementation issues. However, there are several instances where negotiators should rely on the Internet. These include collecting information on competition, their counterpart's background including its reputation, checking assumptions, as well as exchanging emails concerning the number of people attending the nego tiations, their status,	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
70 JOURNAL OF EUROMARKETING selecting the site, drafting the agenda, the lan-language to be used, and any other details that would facilitate the negotiations. Another benefit for e-negotiators is their ability to take breaks to gather addi tional information, to think more clearly, to contact other experts for technical advice, and to develop new ideas and counter proposals, as opposed to face-to-face negotiations where the team members are expected to respond pr omptly. Negotiators wanting to negotiate online international sales contracts can consult The ABA Guide to International Business Negotiations for expert advice. Thanks to the widening use of online negotiations, the Internet provides new opportunities for e-commerce, while at the same time raising concerns regarding security, ethics, and confidentiality. Furthermore, the risk of doing business worldwide is likely to increase making e-negotiation a rough playing field (Ebner, 2011). Global managers planning to negotiate on line should be aware of the cultural, generatio nal, and digital divide as well as the role of relationship and status in high-context cultures. Executives mastering online technology based on technical skills and with confidence will be in a better position to improve their success rate in future negotiations. Finally, scholars should be encouraged to identify the impact of e-media on negotiations and how business executives can manage e-negotiation successfully in the world economy. REFERENCES Ebner, N. (2011). Negotiations via email. In M. Benoliel (Ed. ), Negotiation excellence: Successful deal making (pp. 397-415). World Scientific, Singapore. Friedman, R. & Belkin, L. (2013). The costs and benefits of e-negotiation. In M. Olekalns & W. Adair (Eds. ), Handbook of research on negotiation (pp. 357-384). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar. Klotz, J. (2009). Current issues in negotiating international sales over the internet. In J. Silkenat, M. Aresty, & J. Klosek (Eds. ), The ABA guide to international business negotiations: A comparison of cross-cultural issues and successful approaches (3rd ed. ), (pp. 115-142). Chicago, American Bar Association. ANNEX 1 Main advantages communicating via email Allows for more reflection before responding Provides for storage and easy access to information Access to a wide range of sources of information Allows for research when preparing for a negotiation Overcomes organizational barriers, age gap and gender differences Overcomes geographical locations and time zones Ideal to supplement face to face negotiations with information Avoids personal hostilities particularly for those persons who cannot control their emotions Empowers shy persons and negotiators with low power or status Useful when the negotiating parties do not want their agents to develop a relationship with the other party Some disadvantages of using email Tends to be impersonal Leads to the greater use of distributive tactics Encourages self-centered behavior Leads to a higher rate of impasse Makes it difficult to develop relationships Raises security and privacy issues	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
Cellich 71 One dimensional communication medium Conveys limited interpersonal information Key points to remember when communicating on the Net Keep messages short Focus on clarity Avoid bundling too many issues in one message Avoid words that may a double meanings Extra effort is needed in drafting in cross cultural contexts Assume that you have on privacy as your email may be read by others Careful who you cc Don't use abbreviations that may not be understood by the other party It is more difficult to detect deceptive tactics It is better to place important issues at the beginning of the text Avoid CAPS Use font size 11 or 12 Avoid colors particularly blue as it is used to display links Avoid the use of emoticons, icons, smileys	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
JOURNAL OF EUROMARKETING Enlarged Europe is playing an increasingly more important role in the global economy. The purpose of the Journal of Euromarketing is to meet the needs of academics, practitioners, and public policy makers in the discussion of marketing issues pertaining to Europe and European countries' trading relationship with other nations. The purpose of this journal is to increase our understanding of the strategic planning aspects of marketing management in Europe. As well, marketing and international business aspects of th e trading relationship between European and foreign firms are also explored conceptually and analytically. The unique position of the region provides fascinating reading material for practitioners, public policy makers and academicians. The articles submitted to the journal create a forum whereby a conceptual understanding of the European markets and marketing systems be operationalized, analytical insights obtained as well as the past, the present, and the future of European marketing be highlighted. The manuscripts submitted should report the results of cross-cultural/national and comparati-ve studies conducted among countries of Europe and European countries and other nations. The articles submitted can be based upon a single country of the region and/ or industry there upon with a concerted effo rt to contrast the results/findings and ma nagerial implications with those obtained by international marketing scholars/practitioners elsewhere. Both thought provoking and well-developed and documented conceptual/ theoretical as well as empirical contributions are sought. But every manuscript must have an applied, ma nagerial orientation. With its 28 full and 6 associate members, EU is the world's largest internal market possessing nearly $13 trillion economy. Its importance is constantly increasing. Currently, there is a vacuum in the marketing literature which needs to be filled by relating the Europe factor to the global marketing scene; emphasizing on an interaction mode-that is, the horizontal dimension as well as the inter and intra trade and marketing activities in Europe. As such, Journal of Euromarketing covers the following areas of inquiry: a) Functional areas of marketing in Europe and comparison with the practices of those in other regions. b) The dynamics that account for the linkage of European national markets into markets of the developing world, North and Latin America, the Far East and Africa. c) Determine the best methods available for marketing goods and services in different socio-economic, demographic, cultural, competitive, and legal-political environments of Europe at nationa l and regional levels. d) The method by which European marketing institutions are linked together into viable and coherent business systems. e) The type of environmental factors prevailing in different European countries of the region which force changes in the marketing structure of the area countries and industrial sectors f) How efficiently does the marketing system perform its universal functions in the countries of Europe and how the weaknesses of the marketing system can be overcome in the region? g) The various stages of market and marketing system development in Europe as a working device for generalizing and, possibly, predicting likely developments in marketing in individual countries of the region. Articles submitted must contain practical information for the marketing practitioners, public policy makers, classroom teachers and researchers with a majo r emphasis on European marketing. The Journal tries to appeal to a larger group of readers, so th e articles should be written in such a manner that those outside the field can comprehend the expertise and attitudes of those who work within it. Hence, a major	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
criterion is that the lang uage used should be as simple as possible without altering in any way, form, or shape the quality of the information to be communicated. Although not exhaustive, the following topics are illustrative of the subject areas to be covered in the Journal:  Cross-National Consumer Segments in Europe  Export behavior of European Firms  Marketing Strategies of European Multinationals  Marketing Implications of Strategic Alliances of European Firms  Markets and Marketing Systems of European Countries  Marketing Practices of Europe Companies  Public Sector Marketing in Europe  Comparative Marketing Systems in Europe  Diffusion of Innovations Among European Nations  Transfer of Marketing Technology and Reverse Technology Transfer in Europe  Buyer-Seller Interactions and Organizational Buyer Behavior Issues in European Markets  Business Customs and Practices Among European Countries  Marketing Interaction/Interrelationships Between Europe and Other Trading Blocs  European Corporate Cultures  Legal-Political Aspects of Marketing in Europe  Marketing Issues Pertaining to EU, EFTA, Council of Europe, European Members of OECD, and Associate Members of EU  Marketing Research in Europe  Communication/Promotion/Advertising Strategies of European Firms  Other Topics Directly Related to European Marketing The Journal is published four times a year. Papers are blind reviewed by at least two members of the Editorial Review Board. Book reviews and special cas e study materials based on product/service, success and/or failure of European companies in global markets and industries shall also app ear as regular items in the Journal of Euromarketing. Prospective authors are requested to attempt to restrict their submissions to approximately twenty-five double spaced pages including figures, tables, and references. Authors should submit their manuscripts electronically along with a short abstract and a one-page executive summary (this is in addition to an abstract which emphasizes on the managerial and/or public policy implications of the article) to either Editor-in-Chief Erdener Kaynak at ek9@comcast. net or Associate Editor Svetla Marinova at svetla@business. aau. dk. The IMDA Press style guidelines should be used in preparing manuscripts. If in doubt, prospective authors should either refer to the inside back cover of any IMDA Press journals or use The APA Style Guidelines. For more information and subscription to the journal visit http://journals. sfu. ca/je/index. php/euromarketing For “Instructions for Authors” and for additional information, please contact the Editor-in-Chief. Erdener Kaynak, Ph. D. D. Sc. Editor-in-Chief Journal of Euromarketing The IMDA Press P. O. Box 399 Hummelstown, Pennsylvania 17036 U. S. A Telephone: (717) 566-3054 (Journal) (717) 948-6343 (Office) Fax: (717) 566-1191 (Journal)	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
CALL FOR PAPERS Special Issue Journal of Euromarketing Marketing in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States Submission Deadline: 30 April 2015 Guest Editor: Professor Dr. Marin Marinov The Journal of Euromarketing is published by IMDA Press and by the end of 2014 published twenty-three volumes. It is the official Journal of the Internat ional Management Development Association (IMDA). The aims of the journal are to serve the needs of academ ics, practitioners, and public policymakers concerning marketing issues pertaining to the European contex t. The journal is a premier publication outlet in international/global marketing with a distinct focus on the enlarged Europe as well as the emerging business relationships between European countries and other regions and countries worldwide. The call for a Special Issue on Marketing in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States invites submissions focusing on the uses of marketing in the entire region of Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Marketing in this part of the world has undergone significant changes. The regional characteristics are impressive. This region was in the recent past the former Soviet Union. Being the key decedent of that state contemporary Russia is among the largest economies in the world. Russian businesses and population are with ever increasing potentials. The country forms a part of the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Afri ca (BRICS) conglomeration of emer ging economies, and a fresh entrant to the World Trade Organization (WTO). The CIS region is on the ascent with ever increasing economic significance and augmenting middle class. The Special Issue invites submissions dealing with mark eting in Russia and CIS in the following areas, but not limited to them: ‐ Current issues in marketing; ‐ Segmenting the Russian market and the markets of the CIS; ‐ Consumer behavior: ‐ B2B marketing; ‐ Company product and brand strategies across various international markets; ‐ Cultural specifics of marketing; ‐ Domestic and international marketing strategi es of Russian firms and firms from the CIS;; ‐ Promotional strategies of Russian firms and firms from the CIS; ‐ Distribution strategies of Russ ian firms and firms from the CIS; ‐ Pricing strategies of Russian firms and firms from the CIS; ‐ Marketing of non-for-profit firms in Russia and the CIS; ‐ Environmental impacts on firm marketing strategies . The manuscripts can be theoretical and empirical, incl uding quantitative and qualit ative studies. Full papers should be sent to Professor Marin Marinov (marinov@id. aau. dk) by 30 April 2015. The manuscripts should be no longer than 9000 words, double spaced (including references, tables, figures and abstracts) with a margin of at least one inch (2. 54 cm) on all sides. The pages of the manuscript should be numbered throughout. Each manuscript has to be accompanied by a statem ent that it has not been published and has not been submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere. Au thors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material from other sources. All accepted manuscripts, artwork, and photographs become the property of the publisher.	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
will be held from May 27th through 31st 2015 in Famagusta, North Cyprus in cooperation with Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Business and Economics, Department of Business Administration 24th World Business Congress devoted to “Regional and National Competitiveness: Defining National and Governmental Drivers of Productivity, Growth and Profitability” Venue: Salamis Bay Conti Resort Hotel For details http://www. imda. cc "For Your International Career" 24th ANNU AL World Business Congress of the	Snapshots of Men and Women in Interaction An Investigation of Stereotypes in Print Advertisement Relationship Portrayals.pdf
INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS Aims and Scope. The Journal of Euromarketing aims to meet the needs of academicians, practitioners, and public policymakers in the discussion of marketing issues pertaining to Europe. It helps to increase our understanding of the strategic planning aspects of marketing in Europe and the marketing aspects of the trading relationship between European and foreign firms. Today's Europe is going to play an increasingly more important role in the global economy, so the unique position of the region is cer tain to provide fascinating reading material. The Journal of Euromarketing fosters a conceptual understanding of the European markets and marketing systems, provides analytical insights, and highlights the past, present, and future of European marketing. Manuscript Submissions. Authors are strongly encouraged to submit manuscripts electronically. If submitting a disk, it should be prepared using MS Word or Word Perfect and should be clearly labele d with the authors' names, file name, and software program. Manuscripts should be submitted in triplicate to Dr. Erdener Kaynak, Editor, Journal of Euromarketing, School of Business Administration, Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, 777 West Harrisburg Pike, Middletown, PA 17057 or by e-mail at k9x@psu. edu or ek9@comcast. net Each manuscript must be accompanied by a statement that it has not been published elsewhere and that it has not been submitted simultaneously for publication elsewhere. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce copyrighted material from other sources and are required to sign an agreement for the transfer of copyright to the publisher. All accepted manuscripts, ar twork, and photographs beco me the property of the publisher. 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1 A Century of Portraits: A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks† Shiry Ginosar, Kate Rakelly, Sarah M. Sachs, Brian Yin, Crystal Lee, Philipp Kr ¨ahenb ¨uhl and Alexei A. Efros Abstract —Imagery offers a rich description of our world and communicates a volume and type of information that cannot be captured by text alone. Since the invention of the camera, an ever-increasing number of photographs document our “visual culture” complementing historical texts. But currently, this treasure trove of knowledge can only be analyzed manually by historians, and only at small scale. In this paper we perform automated analysis on a large-scale historical image dataset. Our main contributions are: 1) A publicly-available dataset of 168,055 (37,921 frontal-facing) American high school yearbook portraits. 2) Weakly-supervised data-driven techniques to discover historical visual trends in fashion and identify date-speciﬁc visual patterns. 3) A classiﬁer to predict when a portrait was taken, with median error of 4 years for women and 6 for men. 4) A new method for discovering and displaying the visual elements used by the CNN-based date-prediction model to date portraits, ﬁnding that they correspond to the tell-tale fashions of each era. Index Terms —Historical Data, Data Mining, Image Dating, Deep Learning I. I NTRODUCTION IN their quest to understand the past, historians—from Herodotus to the present day—primarily rely on textual records. However, some details are perceived as too mundane to put down in writing or too difﬁcult to accurately describe. For example, it would be hard for a future historian to understand what the term “hipster glasses” refers to, just as it is difﬁcult for us to imagine what “ﬂapper galoshes” might look like from a written description alone [2]. The invention of the daguerreotype in 1839 as a means of relatively cheap, automatic image capture heralded a new age of massive visual data creation with potentially profound implications for historians. This new format was complementary to historical texts, as it could capture those nuances and transmit non-verbal information that would otherwise be lost. The study of history is often an exercise in ﬁnding patterns in large amounts of data. For written accounts, historians have begun to use digital humanities techniques to automatically mine large text corpora. For example, using Google Books it is possible to study a diverse set of topics such as word usage over time and the histories of events like the Civil War or †This is an extended version of a paper that ﬁrst appeared as [1]. Sections IV. B. 2-3 and VI contain new material while section V has been expanded. S. Ginosar, K. Rakelly, B. Yin, C. Lee and A. A. Efros are with the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Berkeley. P. Kr ¨ahenb ¨uhl is with the Department of Computer Science, UT Austin and was with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, UC Berkeley during the majority of this work. S. M. Sachs was with Brown University. Fig. 1. Average images of high school students by decade. The evolving fashions and facial expression throughout the 20th century are evident in this simple aggregation. For example, notice the increasing extent of smiles over the years and the recent tendency for women to wear their hair long. In contrast, note that the suit is the default dress code for men throughout. the spread of inﬂuenza [3]. In contrast, despite the abundance of historical visual data over the last century and a half, historians are still limited by the speed of manual curation. There are perhaps many unseen visual connections that are missed because tools for large-scale visual data mining have yet to be introduced into the ﬁeld. We take a new approach to the analysis of visual historical data by introducing data-driven methods suited to mining large image collections. Speciﬁcally, we apply these methods to discovering one of the most interesting historical trends—the evolution in the appearance of people over time. We present a collection of one type of widely available yet little used historical visual data—a century's worth of United States high school yearbook portraits (Fig 1). Yearbooks, an iconic American high school staple, have been published since the wide adoption of ﬁlm (the ﬁrst Kodak camera was released in 1888) and contain standardized portrait photos of the graduating class. Yearbook portraits provide a consistent visual format through which one can examine changes in content from personal style choices to developing social norms. In this paper, we present a large-scale dataset of yearbook portraits spanning the entire 20th century, and report on a number of experiments to analyze it. First, we mine the portrait data to discover trends over time and date-speciﬁc visual patterns. We examine changes in social norms by studying the practice of smiling to the camera and men's changing hair styles during the social changes of the 1960s. Additionally, we discover that ﬂuctuations in the popularity of eyewear is correlated with advances in contactar Xiv:1511. 02575v2 [cs. CV] 12 Jun 2019	A Century of Portraits A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks.pdf
2 lens technology. Finally, we mine for the quintessential “look” of each decade by employing a technique of discriminative clustering. Our data-driven results are consistent with existing historical records of the fashion trends in hair, makeup and eyewear from the 20th century. Second, we use the time-correlated visual variability in the portraits to predict, from an image of a face alone, when the photograph was taken. Using a convolutional neural network (CNN) trained on our dataset, we are able to date yearbook portraits within a median error of four years of their true date. We further demonstrate some generalization to an unseen dataset of historical celebrity portraits despite the large differences in appearance between high school students and adult actresses and models. Finally, while CNN classiﬁers have proven to be the leading tool for many image domains, it remains challenging to tell why a speciﬁc classiﬁcation decision has been made. This is particularly important for tasks like dating where the labels are weak, the visual space is huge, and much of the visual data might be irrelevant to the task. We propose a method to discover which parts of the image were most useful for pinpointing the date in which it was taken. At the core of our approach lies the insight that we can disable parts of the network without altering the dating decision. The main contributions of this paper are: 1) A publicly-available historical image dataset that comprises a large scale collection of yearbook portraiture from the last 120 years in the United States. 2) Data-driven methods to discover historical visual patterns in fashion and social norms. 3) A CNN classiﬁer to predict the date in which a portrait was taken, with median error of 4 years for women and 6 for men. 4) A method for visualizing the time-speciﬁc elements used by the CNN to date the portraits. II. R ELATED WORK 1) Historical Data Analysis: Researchers in the humanities tease out historical information from ever larger text corpora thanks to advances in natural language processing and infor-mation retrieval. For example, these advances (together with the availability of large-scale storage and OCR technology) enabled Michel et al. [3] to conduct a thorough study of about 4% of all books ever printed resulting in a quantitative analysis of cultural and linguistic trends. To date, the automated analysis of historical images has been relatively limited. Some examples include modeling the evolution of automobile design [4] and architecture [5] as well asimage dating-determining the date when historical color photographs were taken [6], [7]. Here we extend upon these works by presenting a yearbook dataset that we use to answer a broader set of questions. Concurrent and independent of our work, [8] also proposed using yearbook data for image dating but focused on yearbooks from two counties in Missouri. Our work differs in that we mine for various patterns in yearbook data beyond date prediction. Moreover, our dataset is unique as it a broader sample of locations across the United States as well as constant coverage over time (see Figure 2). 2) Modeling Style: Recently several researchers began modeling fashion. In Hipster Wars, Kiapour et al. [9] take a supervised approach and use an online game to crowd-source human annotations that are then used to train models for style classiﬁcation. Hidayati et al. [10] take a weakly-supervised approach to discover the recent (2010-2014) trends in the New York City fashion week catwalk shows. They extract color and texture features and use these to discover the representative visual style elements of each season via discriminative clustering [11]. While we also deal with fashion and style in this paper, our focus is on changes in style through a much longer period. Because our dataset includes scanned images from earlier time periods, much of it consists of grayscale photographs and of lower resolution than the recent datasets described above. This makes some of the above approaches such as the usage of color and texture features unsuitable for our data. 3) Deep Neural Networks: Of the many CNN architectures designed in recent years, the VGG [12] network is one of the best-performing and most versatile. It is designed as a deep network of 16convolutional layers with spatially-grouped feature maps and two fully connected layers on top. The VGG model trained on ILSVRC 2012 [13] has been able to generalize well to various computer vision tasks with proper ﬁne-tuning (further training) on the target data and task. In this paper, we use VGG for the task of portrait dating and visualize which image regions it uses to make inference decisions. 4) Deep Neural Network Visualization: Several attempts have been made to visually understand the inner-workings of deep networks. One approach taken by [14], [15], [16] visualizes images that produce a speciﬁc set of features in CNNs. Another approach aims to ﬁnd input images that maximize the activation of single units in the network [16], [17]. In the realm of faces, [18] synthetically generate images that maximally activate individual neurons. Unlike our method, these approaches do not explain which spatial locations in an input image contribute to the classiﬁcation. Zeiler et al. [19] examine which parts of the image result in the highest response of single spatial units by systemati-cally obstructing parts the image. They use deconvolutional networks to invert the effect of pooling layers and reconstruct an approximation of the input pixels from the activations of intermediate layers of the network. Unlike this approach, our method outputs pixel locations rather than an approximation of the input. Following a similar approach, Zhou et al. [20] ask which segments of an image are most responsible for a particular classiﬁcation decision. In contrast, we do not force our visual elements to be enclosed in image regions, allowing us to discover ephemeral visual structures beyond objects. Most similar to our approach, Simonyan et al. [21] use the network gradient propagated back to pixel space for a single input image as an approximation of which spatial locations would maximize the classiﬁcation score if changed. This method discovers the spatial locations that affect the class score for a canonical image from this class and only reveals the general location of the object in the image. In contrast, our approach takes into account the unique path which the input image takes through the network and therefore discovers	A Century of Portraits A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks.pdf
3 Fig. 2. The distribution of portraits per year and region. Our dataset is unique in that it is diverse in terms of both geographic location and time coverage. which visual elements were used by the CNN to classify this image. As a result, our method focuses on localized areas that correspond to discriminative visual features. III. T HEYEARBOOK DATASET We are at an auspicious moment for collecting historical yearbooks as it has become standard in recent years for local libraries to digitally scan their yearbook archives. This trend enabled us to download publicly available yearbooks from various online resources such as the Internet Archive and numerous local library websites. We collected 949 scanned yearbooks from American high schools ranging from 1905-2013 across 128 schools in 27 states. These contain 168,055 individual senior-class portrait photographs in total along with many more underclassmen portraits that were not used in this project. After removing all non-frontal facing we were left with a dataset of 37,921 photographs that depict individuals from 814 yearbooks across 115 high schools in 26 states. On average, 28. 8 faces are included in the dataset from each yearbook with an average of 329 faces per school across all years. The distribution of photographs over year and region is depicted in Figure 2. Overall, 46. 4% of the photos come from the 100 largest cities according to US census [22]. Let us consider the potential biases in our data sample as compared to the high school age population of the United States. Since 1902 America's high schools have followed a standard format in terms of the population they served [23]. Yet, this does not mean that the population of high school students has always been an unbiased sample of the US youth population. In the early 1900s, less than 10% of all American 18-year-olds graduated from high school, but by end of the 1960s graduation rates increased to almost 50% [23]. More-over, the standardization of high schools in the United States left out most of the African American population, especially in the South, until the middle of the 20th century [24]. In our dataset 53. 4% of the photos are of women, and 46. 6% are of men. As the true gender proportion in the population is only available in a census year we are unsure if this is a bias in our data. However, the gender imbalance may be due to the fact that historically girls are disproportionately more likely than boys to attend high school through graduation [23]. In order to turn raw yearbooks into an image dataset we performed several pre-processing operations. First, we manu-ally identiﬁed the scanned pages of senior-class portraits. After converting these to grayscale for consistency across years, we automatically detected and cropped to faces. We then extracted facial landmarks from each face and estimated its pose with respect to the camera using the Intra Face system [25], [26]. This allowed us to ﬁlter out images of students who were not facing forward. Next, we aligned all faces to the mean shape using an afﬁne transform based on the computed facial landmarks. Finally, we divided the photos into those depicting males and females using an SVM in the whitened HOG feature space [27], [28] and resolved difﬁcult cases (conﬁdence score lower than 90%) by crowdsourcing a gender classiﬁcation task on Mechanical Turk. Our ﬁnal dataset consists of cropped portraits with year, state, city, school and gender annotations. IV. M INING THE VISUAL HISTORICAL RECORD We demonstrate the use of our historical dataset in answer-ing questions of historical and social relevance. A. Getting a Sense of Each Decade The simplest visual-data summarization technique of facial composites dates back to the 1870s and is attributed to Sir Francis Galton [29]. Here we use this technique to organize the portraits chronologically. Figure 1 (ﬁrst page) displays the pixel-mean of images of male and female students for each decade in our data. These average images showcase the main modes of the popular fashions in each time period. B. Capturing Trends Over Time We capture changes in attributes that always occur in a portrait (degrees of smiling) as well as in accessories or styles that are present in only some of the population at a given time. 1) Smiling in Portraiture: A close observation of the decade average images in Figure 1 reveals a change over time in the facial expression of portrait subjects. In particular, today we take for granted that we are expected to smile when our picture is being taken; however, smiling at the camera was not always the norm. In this section we attempt to quantify this change. In her paper, the historian Kotchemidova studied the appear-ance of smiles in photographic portraits using the traditional historical methods of analyzing sample images manually [30]. She reports that in the late 19th century people posing for photographs still followed the habits of painted portraiture subjects. These included keeping a serious expression since a smile was hard to maintain for as long as it took to paint a portrait. Also, etiquette and beauty standards dictated that the mouth be kept small-resulting in an instruction to “say prunes” (rather than “cheese”) when photographed [30]. All of this changed during the 20th century when amateur photogra-phy became widespread. In fact, Kotchemidova suggests that it was the attempt to associate photography with happy occasions like holidays and travel that led the photographic monopoly, Kodak, to educate the public through advertisements that the obvious expression one should assume in a snapshot is a smile. This multi-decade ad campaign was a great success. By World War II, smiles were so widespread in portraiture that no one questioned whether photographs of the GIs sent to war should depict them with a smile [30].	A Century of Portraits A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks.pdf
4 To verify the apparent trend in our average images and Kotchemidova's claims regarding the presence and extent of smiles in portrait photographs in a data-driven way, we devised a simple lip-curvature metric and applied it to our dataset. We compute the lip curvature by taking the average of the two angles indicated in Figure 3 (Left) where the point that forms the hypotenuse of the triangle is the midpoint between the bottom of the top lip and the top of the bottom lip of the student. The same facial keypoints were used here as in image alignment (see section III). Figure 3 (Right) depicts a montage of students ordered in ascending order of lip curvature value from left to right. Visually, the lip-curvature metric quantiﬁes the smile intensities in our data in a meaningful way. We verify that our metric generalizes beyond yearbook portraits by testing it on the BP4D-Spontaneous dataset that contains images of participants showing various degrees of facial expressions with ground truth labels of expression intensity [31]. BP4D uses labels drawn from the Facial Action Coding System, which is commonly used in facial expression analysis. This system consists of Action Units (AU) that correspond to the intensity of contraction of various facial muscles. Following previous work done on smile intensity estimation [32], we compared our smile intensity metric with the activation of AU12 (Lip corner puller) as it corresponds to the contraction of muscles that raise the corners of the mouth into a smile. A higher AU12 value represents a higher con-traction of muscles around the corner of the mouth, resulting in a larger smile. Figure 4 displays the average lip curvature for each value of AU12 for 3 male and 3 female subjects, corresponding to 2,500-3,000 samples for each AU12 value (0-5). As the simple lip-curvature metric we used correlates with increasing AU12 values on BP4D images, it is a decent indicator for smile intensities beyond our Yearbook dataset. Using our veriﬁed lip-curvature metric we plot the average smile intensities in our data over the past century in Figure 5. Corresponding montages of smile intensities over the years are included in Figure 6, where we picked the student with the smile intensity closest to the average for each 10-year bucket from 1905 to 2005. These ﬁgures corroborate Kotchemidova's theory and demonstrate the rapid increase in the popularity and intensity of smiles in portraiture from the 1900s to the 1950s, a trend that still continues today; however, they also reveal another trend—women consistently smile more than men on average. This phenomenon has been discussed extensively in the literature (see the review in [33]), but until now required intensive manual annotation in order to discover and analyze. For example, in her 1982 article Ragan manually analyzed 1,296 high school and university yearbooks and media ﬁles in order to reveal a similar result [34]. By use of a large historical dataset and a simple smile-detector we arrived at the same conclusion with a minimal amount of manual effort. We note that smiles could also be detected using the expres-sion recognition software from [26]. However, this software was not publicly available at the time of our experiments. 2) Glasses: Measuring the degree of smiles is easy to apply to each portrait in the collection since every subject exhibits some degree of mouth curvature, albeit sometimes a negative one. We now extend our study of trends to accessories and Fig. 3. Smile intensity metric. Left: the lip curvature metric is the average of the two marked angles. Right: women and men portraits sorted by increasing lip curvature. 1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 AU-12 Label 10 5 0 5 10 15 20Average Lip Curvature (°)Average Lip Curvature (°) of AU-Labeled Images Fig. 4. Average lip curvature on BP4D data correlates with AU-12 labels which correspond to a contraction of the mouth muscles. Error bars denote standard deviation. 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 Year 5 0 5 10 15 20Average Lip Curvature (°)Average Lip Curvature (°) vs Year Female Male Fig. 5. Smiles increasing over time, but on average, women smile more than men, across all decades: Male and female average lip curvature by year with one standard deviation error bars. Note the fall in smile extent from the 50s to the 60s, for which we did not ﬁnd prior mention. 1905 2005 Fig. 6. Images with the closest smile to the mean of that period (10-year bins from 1905 (left) to 2005 (right)). Note the increasing extent of smiles.	A Century of Portraits A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks.pdf
5 Fig. 7. The use of glasses over time dips in correlation with advances in contact lenses, but glasses are consistently more popular among men. 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 Years 0. 00 0. 05 0. 10 0. 15 0. 20 0. 25 0. 30 0. 35Fraction of population Fraction of hair type in males Long Hair Afro Fig. 8. The fraction of male students with an “afro” or long hair. fashions that are only worn by a fraction of the population and that require a classiﬁcation decision per portrait to determine if the speciﬁc style or accessory is exhibited. We ﬁrst study the usage of glasses by taking advantage of a small set of annotated celebrity portraits from the Pub Fig dataset [35]. We ﬁne tune VGG [12], a deep classiﬁcation system pre-trained on ILSVRC [13], on the celebrity portraits that are marked as wearing glasses. We then apply the trained classiﬁer to our Yearbook dataset to ﬁnd persons wearing glasses in our data. In Figure 7 we graph the fraction of the student population that is wearing glasses for males and females over time. It is interesting to note that glasses are more popular among male students, and to observe that the dips in glasses popularity correlate with the introduction of contact lenses. 3) Men's Hairstyles post 1960: The ﬁnal trend we study is changes in men's hairstyles since the social movements of the 1960s which brought about long hair styles and “afros”. Here we could not ﬁnd an existing annotated dataset with appropriate annotations. We therefore segmented out the hair in each portrait following [36] and determined whether the depicted person had long hair or an afro by checking whether the segmentation map consists of hair under the depicted person's chin or high above his face, respectively. (Note that this approach worked well on our data due to the lack of facial hair among most high school students). Unfortunately, due tothe low resolution of some of the portraits in our dataset the fully-automatic approach was not accurate enough and extra manual ﬁltering was required. Figure 8 shows the fraction of the population with these hairstyles after a manual process of removing false positives and adding some false negatives to our classiﬁcations. We note that our ﬁndings corroborate other sources [37], [38] which claim that the afro hairstyle was predominantly popular from the late 1960s through the late 1970s after which many individuals switched to a more styled version of the natural hairdo. C. Mining for Date-Speciﬁc Patterns The average images of each decade from Figure 1 show us the main modes of the styles of each decade. However, in each time period or even classroom not every one shares the same style. In fact, we would expect to ﬁnd several representative and visually discriminative features for every decade. These are the things that make us immediately recognize a particular style as “20s” or “60s”, for example, and allow humans to effortlessly guess the decade in which a portrait was taken. They are also the things that are usually hard to put into writing and require a visual aid when describing; this makes them excellent candidates for data-driven methods. We ﬁnd the most representative women's styles in hair and facial accessories for each decade using a discriminative mode seeking algorithm [39] on yearbook portraits cropped to contain only the face and hair. Since our portraits are aligned, we can treat them as a whole rather than look for mid-level representative patches as has been done in previous work [11], [39]. The output of the discriminative mode seeking algorithm is a set of detectors and their detected portraits that make up the visual clusters for each decade. We sort these clusters according to how discriminative they are, speciﬁcally, how many portraits they contain in the top 20 detections from the target decade versus other decades. In order to ensure a good visual coverage of the target decade, we remove clusters that include in their top 60 detections more than 6 portraits (10%) that were already represented by a higher ranking cluster. Figure 9 displays the four most representative women's hair and eyeglass styles of each decade from the 1930s until the 2000s. Each row corresponds to a visual cluster in that decade. The left-most entry in the row is the cluster average, and to its right we display the top 6 portrait detections of the discriminative detector that created the cluster. We only display a single woman from each graduating class in order to ensure that the afﬁnity within each cluster is not due to biases in the data that result from the photographic or scanning artifacts of each physical yearbook. Looking at Figure 9, we get an immediate sense of the attributes that make each decade's style distinctive. For example, the particular style of curly bangs of the 40s or the “winged” ﬂip hairstyle of the 60s [38]. Finding and categorizing these manually would be painstaking work. With our large dataset these attributes emerge from the data by using only the year-label supervision. V. D ATING HISTORICAL IMAGES In Section IV-C we found distinctive visual patterns that occur in different decades. Here we ask whether there are	A Century of Portraits A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks.pdf
6 Fig. 9. Discriminative clusters of high school girls' styles from each decade of the 20th century. Each row corresponds to a single detector and the cluster of its top 6 detections over the entire dataset. Only one girl per graduating class is shown in the top detections. The left-most entry in each row displays the cluster average. Note that the clusters correspond to the quintessential hair and accessory styles of each decade. Notable examples according to the Encyclopedia of Hair [38] are: The ﬁnger waves of the 30s. The pin curls of the 40s and 50s. The bob, “winged” ﬂip, bubble cut and signature glasses of the 60s. The long hair, afros and bouffants of the 70s. The perms and bangs of the 80s and 90s and the straight long hair fashionable in the 2000s. These decade-speciﬁc fashions emerge from the data in a weakly-supervised, data-driven process. enough decade-speciﬁc visual patterns to be able to predict the year in which a portrait of a face was taken. We refer to this task as the portrait dating problem. We extend the work of Palermo et al. [6] in dating color photographs to the realm of black and white portraiture photography where we cannot rely on the changes in image color proﬁles over time. We choose to train a deep neural network model for dating portraits based on the recent success of such models for other visual recognition tasks [12]. While the portrait dating problem can be cast into a regression framework, a standard regression formulation models the data with a Gaussian distribution, eliminating the possibility of multiple modes. We therefore choose to model the problemas classiﬁcation. We pose the task of dating the portraits of female and male students as an 83-way year-classiﬁcation task between the years 1928 and 2010, the years for which we have more than 30 female and male images per year. Separate classiﬁers are trained for each gender to discourage the model from using low-level image artifacts as a discriminatory signal. The models trained on women and men are referred to as the women's model and men's model respectively. We evaluate our model on a subset of images drawn from the Yearbook dataset, the Yearbook test set, which is also divided by gender. To assess the generalization capability of our dating model, we conduct experiments including testing the model on yearbook	A Century of Portraits A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks.pdf
7 Accuracy [%] L1 Med Error [yrs] Model Test Other Celeb Test Other Celeb Women Chance 1. 2 1. 2 1. 2---Partial FT 8. 1 3. 4 0 5 11 27 Full FT 10. 9 4. 0 5. 2 4 8 17Men Chance 1. 2 1. 2 1. 2---Partial FT 4. 8 3. 2 0 6 10 20 Full FT 5. 5 3. 7 0 6 10 20 TABLE I CLASSIFICATION ACCURACY AND L1MEDIAN ERROR FOR THE YEARBOOK MEN 'S AND WOMEN 'S CLASSIFICATION MODELS ON THE TASK OF 83-WAY YEAR CLASSIFICATION BETWEEN YEARS 1928-2010. “TEST”REFERS TO THE TEST SET OF THE SAME GENDER, “O THER ” REFERS TO THE TEST SET OF THE OPPOSITE GENDER, “C ELEB ”REFERS TO THE CELEBRITY TEST SET. photos of the opposite gender, evaluating the model on a small set of celebrity photos, and training a classiﬁer on random background crops. 1) Dating Yearbook Portraits: Our date-prediction model is based on the VGG-16 model [12] that was pre-trained on the ILSVRC benchmark image classiﬁcation task [13]. The network implementation and training procedure are detailed at the end of this section. In Table I, we present results for two network models and a baseline: Partial FT : freeze the weights of all convolutional lay-ers and train only the fully connected layers and ﬁnal classiﬁcation layer of the network. Full FT : ﬁne-tune all layers of the network. Chance : a baseline deﬁned as the inverse of the number of classes. Results for the Yearbook test set for each gender are shown in column Test. Fine-tuning the full network on the Yearbook data provides a performance boost over partial ﬁne-tuning, indicating that the convolutional ﬁlters in the lower layers can be effectively tuned to Yearbook-speciﬁc features. Quantitatively, 65. 3% of the women and 46. 4% of the men test images are classiﬁed within 5 years of the true year. To investigate the large gap in performance between the men's and women's models, we trained models for both genders on the easier problem of 10-way “decade” classiﬁcation. This classiﬁer achieves 61. 0% accuracy when trained on the women's data, but only 44. 3% when trained on the men's data. We conclude that there is simply less discriminative signal present in the images of men, and hypothesize that men's appearances change less over time, resulting in few time-speciﬁc semantic features. For example, the average images in Figure 1 demonstrate that sporting short hair and a suit was the default fashion choice across all decades. For the women's model, full ﬁne-tuning improves the L1 median error in addition to the accuracy on the women's test set. Furthermore, the confusion matrix visualized in Figure 10 reveals that the predictions are rarely far off the mark. The diagonal structure indicates that most of the confusion occurs between neighboring years, matching our intuition that visual trends such as hairstyle transcend the single-year boundary. 2) Generalization: The success in dating yearbook portraits may be misleading since there are biases in the Yearbook 1928 1938 1948 1958 1968 1978 1988 1998 2008 Predicted Year 1928 1938 1948 1958 1968 1978 1988 1998 2008True Year 0. 0 0. 1 0. 2 0. 3 0. 4 0. 5 0. 6 0. 7 0. 8 0. 9 1. 0 Normalized Counts Fig. 10. Confusion matrix for the fully ﬁne-tuned women's model evaluated on the Yearbook women test set, with each row normalized by the number of images in that year. Darker off-diagonal regions indicate more confusion. The mostly diagonal structure demonstrates that confusion mostly occurs between neighboring years, indicating that the dating model can distinguish between time periods. dataset that the network can exploit, such as similar back-grounds and low-level image statistics. To determine the poten-tial usefulness of such low-level cues, we train a classiﬁcation model on 32 by 32 pixel crops of portrait background (crops are taken from the corners of each image in the Yearbook women training set). This model achieves 2. 8% accuracy, and 24. 1% accuracy within ﬁve years. Such poor performance demonstrates that low-level image statistics and portrait back-grounds are not sufﬁcient to date the portraits. To further test the generalization power of our portrait dating model, we test it on two different datasets not seen during training. First, we test each model on the Yearbook photos of the opposite gender than those with which the model was trained. High performance across genders would indicate that the model leverages low-level statistics common across all the Yearbook photos. Second, we test each model on the celebrity test set-a small set of 100 gray-scale head shots of celebrities (58 female, 42 male), annotated with year labels, that we cropped and aligned to the Yearbook images. High performance across students and celebrities would indicate that the model uses higher-level cues such as hairstyle to perform the dating task. The results for these two generalization experiments are presented in Table I, in columns Other and Celeb respectively. For both the men's and women's models, performance on the yearbook photos of opposite gender is substantially worse than for the gender on which the model was trained, thus low-level image statistics cannot account for the success of the dating model. The fully ﬁne-tuned women's model greatly improves performance on the celebrity test set compared to the baselines, suggesting that generalizable features are learned from the Yearbook data. The performance gap between the Yearbook test photos and the celebrities for both models indicates that some cues used by the model are Yearbook-speciﬁc. This reduced per-	A Century of Portraits A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks.pdf
8 Years Probability Years Probability Years Probability (a) Ground truth year: 1953. Predicted 1953. (b) Ground truth year: 1989. Predicted 1987. (c) Ground truth year: 1999. Predicted 2001. Fig. 11. The dating model generalizes somewhat to celebrity glamour shots, a signiﬁcant domain shift from the yearbook photos on which the model was trained. Shown are good celebrity dating predictions. Red indicates the ground truth year. Blue indicates the prediction distribution. formance may be due to the domain shift between portraits of high school students and celebrity glamour shots; celebrity hairstyles can be quite different than those of the general public. Additionally, our celebrity test set may simply be too small to serve as an informative test set. However, while dating does not generalize well for all celebrities, approximately 40% of the L1 errors on female celebrities are less than a decade and most predictions are within two decades of the ground truth year. Figure 11 displays individual good predictions. 3) Implementation Details: For the dating task, we use portraits that were cropped to the face and hair alone. The yearbook test set consists of approximately 30% of the por-traits taken between 1982 and 2010: 4,227 women and 4,489 men. The remaining 80% of images are used for training and validation: 15,370 women and 13,184 men. To minimize training biases due to photographic and scanning artifacts, we separate test and training images drawn from the same school by at least a decade. To further minimize these biases, we use the built-in Photoshop noise reduction ﬁlter on all the Yearbook images and resize them to 96 by 96 pixels. In all of our experiments, we use the Caffe [40] framework for training deep learning models. For the classiﬁcation model, we use the VGG network architecture [12] that was pre-trained on the ILSVRC benchmark image classiﬁcation task [13]. We modify the fully connected layers to accommodate 96 px inputs, and add an 83-output classiﬁcation layer followed by a softmax cross-entropy loss. All networks are trained for 5K iterations of mini-batch size 64 with horizontal mirroring data augmentation, using SGD with learning rate 0. 001, momentum 0. 9, and weight decay 5e-4. 1 VI. W HAT TIME SPECIFIC PATTERNS IS THE CLASSIFIER USING FOR DATING ? In section V we demonstrated that it is possible to train a classiﬁer to guess the date in which a portrait was taken. But what is the classiﬁer doing? What time-speciﬁc visual features is it picking up on? In this section we visualize which pixels are responsible for a given dating decision. The latent representations at the intermediate layers of a feed-forward convolutional neural network fare grouped into spatial locations, such that several features are activated at each spatial location in different feature channels. While the ensemble of hidden activations learns a large, distributed code for the training data, it is never used in its entirety to represent 1Code to reproduce our results is available at https://github. com/katerakelly/ yearbook-dating. a single input-different inputs take different paths through the network during inference. Therefore, for a single input we can safely disable the spatial locations throughout the network that are not part of the path for this speciﬁc input while keeping the same output. This process of removing unused locations that do not participate in the computation of a particular y=f(x) allows us to visualize the parts of the input image that do. Next we present an algorithm that implements this process. 1) Top-Down Selection of Spatial Units: Our goal is to ask 'What parts of the image were used to make thisdecision?'. We therefore would like to maintain the same output distri-bution while removing unnecessary units. Given an input x we compute its resulting probabilistic output y=f(x)by running a forward pass over the network. Here the output y is a vector with nentries corresponding to nyears, where each entry contains the probability that a given photograph is from a given year. We then run a single top-down optimization pass where we disable units in spatial locations that are not needed to produce the probability distribution y. Since our goal is to maintain the same output distribution, we use the KL divergence, a distance measure between two distributions, as our objective function. Speciﬁcally, we deﬁne the objective to be the KL divergence DKL(y\|\|ˆyl)of the predicted output ˆyl after spatial unit removal at layer lfrom the true ﬁnal output distribution of the network y: DKL(y\|\|ˆyl) =∑ c(yclogyc ˆylc), (1) where crefers to a single entry in the probabilistic output of the CNN (or a single class). We minimize the KL divergence via the following optimiza-tion that forces the network to keep only a sparse set of active units, while maintaining the same output distribution: minimize Ml∈{0,1}NDKL(y\|\|ˆyl) subject to∥Ml∥0≤sl N. (2) Where Mlis a2Dbinary mask that disables spatial units at the input to layer lwhere its elements are 0, and slis the desired sparsity percentage over the Nspatial units in layer l. For simplicity, we use the same ﬁxed sparsity percentage throughout all layers. To perform the above optimization we use a greedy algo-rithm that traverses the network once from top to bottom and minimizes the objective with respect to the constraint at every layer. For each layer, we iterate over all spatial locations of its input feature map and output a binary mask Mlwhich removes	A Century of Portraits A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks.pdf
9 all spatial units that are not necessary for computing the output distribution y. We jointly disable all features grouped at a single spatial location (all channels for a single location). Note that when Mdoes not remove any spatial locations this objective is minimized but the sparsity constraint is violated. We therefore start from a full mask Mof all 1's for each layer and remove (zero out) those locations whose removal increases the value of the objective as little as possible. This approach is similar to Orthogonal Matching Pursuit [41], although there the objective is usually a Euclidean distance. For a detailed description, refer to Algorithm 1. Algorithm 1 Greedy top-down selection of spatial units 1:foreach layer ldo 2: Start from a mask Mlof all 1's 3: while number of active spatial units > sl Ndo 4: foreach spatial location ido 5: Zero out iin layer l 6: Run a forward pass from l, zeroing locations in higher layers hthat were previously disabled 7: Compute predicted output ˆyland loss DKL(y\|\|ˆyl) 8: end for 9: Zero out the spatial location with the smallest increase in the loss function: DKL(y\|\|ˆyl) 10: end while 11:end for 2) Gradient Approximation: The iterative greedy algorithm of removing one spatial location at a time at each layer is too slow to run in practice for lower-level layers of the CNN since it iterates over all spatial locations of the feature map for every spatial unit it disables. To make the optimization faster we ﬁrst present an alternative interpretation of Algorithm 1 and then show how to approximate the expected change in loss for any unit using a single backward pass through the network. At each step of Algorithm 1 we ﬁnd a spatial single unit i, which when set to 0increases the loss the least. This increase in loss can be measured as follows: di=DKL(y\|\|ˆyl′)-DKL(y\|\|ˆyl), (3) where ˆylandˆyl′are at a single spatial location ithat is zeroed out in ˆyl′. Equation 3 can be thought of as a ﬁnite-difference approximation with di=zl,i∂ ∂zl,i DKL(y\|\|ˆyl)(though the dif-ference here may be large), and can thus be approximated by the product of the gradient of the KL divergence objective function∂ ∂zl,i DKL(y\|\|ˆyl)and the value of the input activations zl,iof layer l. While this linear approximation is crude it works well in practice and only requires a single backward pass through the network, replacing lines 4-8in Algorithm 1. Note that when the two distributions, yandˆyl, are equal the gradient of the objective is zero. In implementing this approximation we therefore reverse the direction of the op-timization-we start from a mask Mlof all 0's (in line 2 of Algorithm 1) and add the subset of spatial units that are necessary to maintain the output distribution. 3) Experimental Setup: We run our spatial unit selection algorithm on the dating classiﬁcation network that we ﬁne tuned from the ILSVRC-trained VGG [12] as in section V. The VGG network consists of a deep stack of convolutional layers and two fully-connected layers at the top. While the Simonyan et al. [21] Ours Fig. 12. Discriminative regions for a 1940 portrait found by each method, overlaid on the mean training image. Method Accuracy Avg L1 Error Med L1 Error [21] 0. 017 24. 0 20. 0 ours 0. 033 18. 1 11. 0 TABLE II CLASSIFICATION ACCURACY AND ERRORS ON VISUAL ELEMENTS. algorithm runs out-of-the-box on VGG, the fully connected layers discard the spatial component of their input feature maps that was maintained throughout the convolutional stack. We therefore modify the network where, following Long et al. [42], we replace the fully-connected layers with convo-lutional ones creating a fully convolutional version of VGG. Unlike [42], we use 1×1convolutions to replace all upper layers, reducing the parameters of the model as well as the receptive ﬁeld size of each unit. This allows us to treat each image-pixel as an independent predictor for image-class c. Since we do not have pixel-level ground truth annotations for the image-level dating task, we take the ﬁnal image-level date prediction to be the average over all spatial predictions. In our experiments we use a ﬁxed sparsity sl= 20% for all layers. 4) Quantitative Evaluation: Unfortunately, network visual-ization papers have historically only provided qualitative eval-uations of their results. A noteworthy exception is [43] who propose a method based on region perturbation for evaluating pixel relevance heatmaps. We provide a simpler quantitative measure of the discriminativeness of the discovered regions by testing how a pre-trained network could predict the year label of Yearbook images only from the discovered elements. To this end, we use a network that has been ﬁne-tuned on the original training data to classify the pixel-level discriminative regions for different methods. For each test instance, we start with the training-set mean image and add the color values of the discovered regions (see Figure 12). Table II shows the accuracy of our approach compared with Simonyan et al. [21] on the resulting images. As expected, our method achieves a higher classiﬁcation accuracy since it retains more discriminative elements. 5) Qualitative Evaluation: The results of applying our spatial-unit selection algorithm are shown in Figure 13 and compared to the results of the Simonyan et al. [21] method. Our algorithm extracts image parts that are meaningful for dating such as 40's and 50's dark lipstick, 60's ﬂat bangs, 80's curls and 90's hair partings. Referring back to Figure 9, we have veriﬁed that we can localize the visual elements that resulted in these full image decade clusters. In comparison, the Simonyan et al. method tends to pick out the center of the object, here the forehead and nose of the depicted person, which is less relevant for predicting the era of the photograph.	A Century of Portraits A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks.pdf
10 (a)1945 (b)1953 (c)1966 (d)1966 (e)1989 (f)1999 (g)1999, [21] Fig. 13. (a)-(f) Results on celebrity portraits from different eras. (g) In comparison with column (f), [21] tends to focus on the middle of the object, the nose and forehead. Rows represent the selected spatial units in the inputs to layers pool 5(top) and conv 1(bottom). While the unit selection process is a hard-selection, we shade the receptive ﬁeld of each unit in the pool 5layer using a tent ﬁlter for displaying purposes. The images used here are all correctly predicted images from theunseen set of female celebrity portraits. VII. C ONCLUSION In this paper, we presented a large-scale historical image dataset of yearbook portraits, which we have made publicly available. These provide us with a unique opportunity to ob-serve how fashions and habits change over time in a restricted, ﬁxed visual framework. We demonstrated the use of various techniques for mining visual patterns and trends in the data that signiﬁcantly decrease the time and effort needed to arrive at the type of conclusions often researched in the humanities. We showed how deep learning techniques can leverage the time-speciﬁc visual information in a single facial image to date portraits with great accuracy. Moreover, we presented a technique to visualize which parts of the image are used in dating the portraits thus ﬁnding the discriminative visual elements of each time period. Through the process of working with historical images we often pushed the current state-of-the-art computer vision techniques to their limits. While some automatic methods, such as face detection, are robust enough for low resolution and low quality scans, there is much room for the improvement of other methods that are often only tested on high quality imagery. Some examples include automatic ﬁgure-ground and hair segmentation methods, facial keypoint detection that captures the full facial mask, 3D alignment of faces that respects hair and accessories, accurate pose estimation and the detection of face attributes and accessories such as long hair and jewelry. Finally, our main challenge working with CNNs was ensuring that they do not memorize semantically unimportant artifacts such as portrait backgrounds and noise. Much remains to be done in the application of machine learning techniques to visual historical datasets, and in partic-ular the one at hand. For example, historical yearbook portraits can be used to characterize the spread of styles over spatio-temporal domains and the inﬂuence of celebrity styles on the public, to discover the cycle-length of fashion fads and can be used as a basis for data-driven style transfer algorithms. Ultimately, we believe that data-driven methods applied tolarge-scale historical image datasets can radically change the methodologies in which visual cultural artifacts are employed in humanities research. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to thank Bharath Hariharan, Carl Doersch and Evan Shelhamer for their insightful comments. This material is based upon work supported in part by the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship to Shiry Ginosar, ONR MURI N000141010934 and an NVIDIA hardware grant. REFERENCES [1] S. Ginosar, K. Rakelly, S. Sachs, B. Yin, and A. A. Efros, “A century of portraits: A visual historical record of american high school yearbooks,” in ICCV, 2015. [2] “Flappers ﬂaunt fads in footwear,” The New York Times, p. 34, Sunday, January 29, 1922. [Online]. Available: \url{http://query. nytimes. com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res= 9E0CEFD91239E133A2575AC2A9679C946395D6CF } [3] J.-B. Michel, Y. K. Shen, A. P. Aiden, A. Veres, M. K. Gray, T. G. B. Team, J. P. Pickett, D. Holberg, D. 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Hidayati, K.-L. Hua, W.-H. Cheng, and S.-W. Sun, “What are the fashion trends in new york?” in ACMMM, 2014. [11] C. Doersch, S. Singh, A. Gupta, J. Sivic, and A. A. Efros, “What makes paris look like paris?” SIGGRAPH, 2012. [12] K. Simonyan and A. Zisserman, “Very deep convolutional networks for large-scale image recognition,” Co RR, vol. abs/1409. 1556, 2014. [13] O. Russakovsky, J. Deng, H. Su, J. Krause, S. Satheesh, S. Ma, Z. Huang, A. Karpathy, A. Khosla, M. Bernstein, A. C. Berg, and L. Fei-Fei, “Image Net Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge,” IJCV, 2015. [14] A. Mahendran and A. Vedaldi, “Understanding deep image representa-tions by inverting them,” in CVPR, 2015.	A Century of Portraits A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks.pdf
11 [15] A. Dosovitskiy and T. Brox, “Inverting convolutional networks with convolutional networks,” Co RR, vol. abs/1506. 02753, 2015. [16] J. Yosinski, J. Clune, A. Nguyen, T. Fuchs, and H. Lipson, “Understand-ing neural networks through deep visualization,” in ICML, 2015. [17] D. Erhan, Y. Bengio, A. Courville, and P. Vincent, “Visualizing higher-layer features of a deep network,” in ICML, 2009. [18] W. Chu, F. D. la Torre, and J. F. Cohn, “Modeling spatial and temporal cues for multi-label facial action unit detection,” Co RR, 2016. [19] M. D. Zeiler and R. Fergus, “Visualizing and understanding convolu-tional networks,” in ECCV, 2014. [20] B. Zhou, A. Khosla, A. Lapedriza, A. Oliva, and A. Torralba, “Object detectors emerge in deep scene cnns,” in ICLR, 2015. [21] K. Simonyan, A. Vedaldi, and A. Zisserman, “Deep inside convolutional networks: Visualising image classiﬁcation models and saliency maps,” in ICLR, 2014. [22] C. Gibson, “Population of the 100 largest cities and other urban places in the united states: 1790 to 1990,” www. census. gov/population/www/ documentation/twps0027/twps0027. html, accessed: 2014-12-11. [23] C. Goldin, “America's graduation from high school: The evolution and spread of secondary schooling in the twentieth century,” Journal of Economic History, 1998. [24] C. Goldin and L. F. Katz, “The race between education and technology: The evolution of u. s. educational wage differentials, 1890 to 2005,” National Bureau of Economic Research, Working Paper 12984, 2007. [25] X. Xiong and F. De la Torre, “Supervised descent method and its applications to face alignment,” in CVPR, 2013. [26] F. De la Torre, W.-S. Chu, X. Xiong, F. Vicente, X. Ding, and J. F. Cohn, “Intraface,” in IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition, 2015. [27] N. Dalal and B. Triggs, “Histograms of oriented gradients for human detection,” in CVPR, 2005. [28] B. Hariharan, J. Malik, and D. Ramanan, “Discriminative decorrelation for clustering and classiﬁcation,” in ECCV, 2012. [29] F. Galton, “Composite portraits made by combining those of many different persons into a single ﬁgure,” Nature, vol. 18, no. 447, pp. 97-100, 1878. [30] C. Kotchemidova, “Why we say “cheese”: Producing the smile in snap-shot photography,” Critical Studies in Media Communication, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 2-25, 2005. [31] X. Zhang, L. Yin, J. F. Cohn, S. Canavan, M. Reale, A. Horowitz, P. Liu, and J. M. Girard, “BP4D-spontaneous: a high-resolution spontaneous 3d dynamic facial expression database,” Image and Vision Computing, vol. 32, no. 10, pp. 692-706, 2014. [32] J. M. Girard, “Automatic detection and intensity estimation of sponta-neous smiles,” Ph. D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 2014. [33] M. Lafrance, M. A. Hecht, and E. L. Paluck, “The contingent smile: A meta-analysis of sex differences in smiling,” Psychological Bulletin, pp. 305-334, 2003. [34] J. M. Ragan, “Gender displays in portrait photographs,” Sex Roles, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 33-43, 1982. [35] N. Kumar, A. C. Berg, P. N. Belhumeur, and S. K. Nayar, “Attribute and simile classiﬁers for face veriﬁcation,” in In ICCV, 2009. [36] C. Rousset and P.-Y. Coulon, “Frequential and color analysis for hair mask segmentation,” in ICIP, 2008. [37] P. Garland, “Is the afro on its way out?” Ebony, pp. 128-136, 1973. [38] V. Sherrow, Encyclopedia of Hair: A Cultural History. Greenwood Press, 2006. [39] C. Doersch, A. Gupta, and A. A. Efros, “Mid-level visual element discovery as discriminative mode seeking,” in NIPS, 2013. [40] Y. Jia, E. Shelhamer, J. Donahue, S. Karayev, J. Long, R. Girshick, S. Guadarrama, and T. Darrell, “Caffe: Convolutional architecture for fast feature embedding,” ar Xiv preprint ar Xiv:1408. 5093, 2014. [41] Y. C. Pati, R. Rezaiifar, Y. C. P. R. Rezaiifar, and P. S. Krishnaprasad, “Orthogonal matching pursuit: Recursive function approximation with applications to wavelet decomposition,” in Annual Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, 1993. [42] J. Long, E. Shelhamer, and T. Darrell, “Fully convolutional networks for semantic segmentation,” in CVPR, 2015. [43] W. Samek, A. Binder, G. Montavon, S. Bach, and K. M ¨uller, “Evaluating the visualization of what a deep neural network has learned,” Co RR, 2015.	A Century of Portraits A Visual Historical Record of American High School Yearbooks.pdf
Wesleyan University The Honors College Melodies, Music, and Mentorship: The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden, America, and Beyondby Lucas Larson Class of 2023 A thesis submitted to thefaculty of Wesleyan Universityin partial fulﬁllment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Artswith Departmental Honors in Music Middletown, Connecticut January, 2023	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Contents A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t s i i i L i s t o f F i g u r e s v I n t r o d u c t i o n 1 Sweden as a Global Pop Music Capital 4 Who Is Karl Martin Sandberg? 7 Literature Review 9 Key Terms and Concepts 16 Structure 18 C h a p t e r O n e : A S h o r t H i s t o r y o f t h e S w e d i s h M u s i c I n d u s t r y 2 1 From Folk to Pop 22 Pop Radio and TV 31 School of Pop 37 Eurovision and the ABBA Effect 45 Denniz Pop and the Cheiron Sound 51 Making Connections 67 C h a p t e r T w o : D e f i n i n g M a x M a r t i n 7 1 Melody-first 73 Melodic Math 79 Simplicity and Immediacy 86 Collaboration Is Critical 90 The Voice as an Instrument 94 The Legacy of “... Baby One More Time” 100 C h a p t e r T h r e e : T h e M a n y P h a s e s o f M a x M a r t i n 1 0 7 Phase One: Pop-rock; Dr. Luke 109 Kelly Clarkson's “Since U Been Gone” 111 Phase Two: Dance-pop; Benny Blanco, Cirkut, and Bonnie Mc Kee 121 Katy Perry's “Teenage Dream” 125 Phase Three: “Musician-driven”; Shellback 136 Taylor Swift's “Blank Space” 140 A Summary of Max Martin's Impact (2004-2014) 150 C o n c l u s i o n 1 5 5 A p p e n d i x A : M a x M a r t i n ' s B i l l b o a r d H o t 1 0 0 T o p T e n H i t s 1 6 5 A p p e n d i x B : “... B a b y O n e M o r e T i m e ” L y r i c s 1 7 1 A p p e n d i x C : “ S i n c e U B e e n G o n e ” L y r i c s 1 7 3 A p p e n d i x D : “ T e e n a g e D r e a m ” L y r i c s 1 7 5 A p p e n d i x E : “ B l a n k S p a c e ” L y r i c s 1 7 7 G l o s s a r y 1 8 1 S o n g s C i t e d 1 8 3 i	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
B i b l i o g r a p h y 1 8 5 ii	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Acknowledgements This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and support of so many people. First and foremost, I must thank my advisor, Su Zheng, for her tireless commitment, encouragement, and enthusiasm throughout this project. It has been a pleasure and a privilege learning from you and hopefully teaching you a few things along the way. I must also extend a thank you to the professors I have been fortunate enough to study with during my two short but formative years at Wesleyan and the many teachers who have come before. To my dear friends--Ernest, Bea, Irene, and Lily--thank you for asking questions and for listening to lengthy answers, and more importantly, for friendship. I cannot imagine my life without you. A special thanks to Tristan for your excitement. To my housemates—Sophie, Emmet, Guy, and Molly—and my “extended housemates” Becca, Adina, Anna, and Stevie, thank you for making Wesleyan feel like home. To my family--mom, dad, Paloma, Declan, and Aurelia--and Anya and Mike, thank you for your unconditional love. Mom, in particular, this thesis would not exist without the endless time and energy you so graciously provided. You are our rock. I love you. Finally, thank you to the creatives—songwriters, producers, artists, and more—who write the songs that are the soundtrack to my life and so many others. In the words of ABBA, “Thank you for the music. ” iii	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
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List of Figures Fig. 0. 1: Max Martin in Los Angeles, 2016............................................................. 2 Fig. 1. 1: Cheiron Studios in Stockholm................................................................. 54 Fig. 1. 2: Max Martin and Denniz Pop during an interview, 1995......................... 66 Fig. 2. 1: “... Baby One More Time” verse fragment............................................... 81 Fig. 2. 2: “... Baby One More Time” pre-chorus..................................................... 81 Fig. 2. 3: “... Baby One More Time” b-chorus........................................................83 Fig. 2. 4: “... Baby One More Time” chorus............................................................83 Fig. 2. 5: “... Baby One More Time” chorus and b-chorus in counterpoint............. 84 Fig. 2. 6: Britney Spears in the music video for “... Baby One More Time,” 1998......................................................................................................................102 Fig. 2. 7: Max Martin and Britney Spears, 1998..................................................105 Fig. 3. 1: Opening phrases of “Maps” and “Since U Been Gone”........................1 14 Fig. 3. 2: “Maps” descending chorus melody and “Since U Been Gone” verse fragment............................................................................................................... 1 14 Fig. 3. 3: Katy Perry and Max Martin at the 2012 ASCAP Pop Music Awards................................................................................................................. 134 Fig. 3. 4: Max Martin, Shellback, and Taylor Swift circa the recording period of 1989......................................................................................................................147 v	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
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Introduction Melodies are like time capsules. Melodies define their time and are spread from person to person, across borders and across generations. In the last 20 years, no composer in the world has written melodies as sustainable or as widespread as those of Max Martin. Right now, at this very moment, someone, somewhere in the world will be singing a hit song written and produced by Max Martin. With his ear for song melodies, his musical precision and craftsmanship, he has refined and developed the world' s popular music. —Max Martin 2016 Polar Music Prize Announcement 1 The Swedish songwriter and producer Max Martin has profoundly impacted the direction of twenty-first-century pop music and pop songwriting. Most people who do not closely follow popular music are likely unfamiliar with the name Max Martin. However, his music is ubiquitous. For over two decades, Martin' s songs have dominated record charts worldwide. Martin is widely recognized as one of the most commercially successful writer-producers in history. As a songwriter, he has written or co-written twenty-five number-one hits on the United States Billboar d Hot 100 record chart. Only John Lennon and Paul Mc Cartney have written more number-one hits. As a producer, he is tied with Geor ge Martin (unrelated to Max), the producer of the Beatles, for the most number-ones on the Hot 100 with twenty-three (see Appendix A for a full list of Max Martin' s Billboar d Hot 100 top ten hits). In 2019, Nielsen Sound Scan 1 “Max Martin,” Polar Music Prize, 2016, https://www. polarmusicprize. org/laureates/max-martin/. 1	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
reported Max Martin' s single sales at over 135 million units. 2 Martin has won the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year award a record ten times and is the recipient of five Grammys. F i g. 0. 1 : Max Martin in Los Angeles, 2016 (Photo by Axel Öberg) 3 3 Neil Shah, “The Swedish Hitmaker Behind Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and the Weeknd,” T h e W a l l S t r e e t J o u r n a l, December 2, 2021, https://www. wsj. com/articles/max-martin-the-hitmaker-poised-to-become-the-biggest-pop-music- producer-of-all-time-11638453600. 2 Fred Bronson, “THR's Hitmakers 2013: How Producer Max Martin Sold 135 Million Songs,” T h e H o l l y w o o d R e p o r t e r, February 6, 2013, https://www. hollywoodreporter. com/news/general-news/britney-spears-pink-how-max-418097/. 2	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Despite Max Martin' s remarkable success, he has remained largely anonymous, intentionally limiting public appearances and interviews and working exclusively as a writer-producer rather than a performer. The voices behind Martin' s songs are some of the biggest names in contemporary pop music, including Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Kelly Clarkson, P!nk, Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, and The Weeknd. While Martin has had an unusually prolific career, the reality is that many of the biggest hits of the twenty-first century are created by Swedish writer-producers. Including those mentioned above, artists such as Madonna, Lady Gaga, One Direction, Maroon 5, Nicki Minaj, Justin Timberlake, Ed Sheeran, and Coldplay have collaborated with Swedes. Like Max Martin, many of these Swedes keep a low profile and work primarily or exclusively as writer-producers for hire. This thesis explores the history, influence, and legacy of Max Martin, the leading Swedish writer-producer and the most successful writer-producer of the twenty-first century, measured by Billboar d Hot 100 number-one hits. With roots in both Sweden and the U. S., the latter of which is the center of the global pop music industry, Martin is an exemplary case study of a Swedish writer-producer who routinely writes and produces for American pop stars. I will examine Martin both through the lens of commonly accepted explanations and theories for Sweden' s musical success and my own interpretation of his songwriting and production techniques. Some of the questions I ask include: How have different socio-cultural influences in Sweden influenced Martin and the other Swedish writer-producers I discuss in this thesis? Do these influences materialize in the 3	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
music they produce? What are the defining characteristics of Martin' s songs? What musical and non-musical factors have contributed to Martin' s immense global commercial success? What are the broader outcomes of Martin' s success for Sweden specifically and the Swedish music industry' s relationship to the American music industry? I intend to answer these questions to improve our understanding of both Martin and the phenomenon that is Sweden' s songwriting and production industry. Sweden as a Global Pop Music Capital Various assertions and statistics quantify Sweden' s profound impact on the global pop music scene. By the end of the twentieth century, Sweden was the third-highest exporter of music in the world. 4 According to a 2020 report by Export Music Sweden, Sweden is one of only three countries (the other two being the United States and the United Kingdom) that is a net exporter of music, meaning that they export more music than they import. 5 Swedish musicians are responsible for more number-one hits on the Hot 100 than any European country besides the United Kingdom. 6 Sweden was also one of the earliest adopters of the 6 Rob Garratt, “From Avicii to Ace of Base: Why We Have Sweden to Thank for the Great Music,” T h e N a t i o n a l, August 6, 2019, https://www. thenationalnews. com/arts-culture/music/from-avicii-to-ace-of-base-why-we-have-swe den-to-thank-for-the-great-music-1. 895309. 5 Will Page and David Safir, “Ex MS Report-Sustaining Sweden's Music Export Success,” Export Music Sweden, 2020, https://report2020. exms. org/. 4 Boel Lindberg and Gunnar Olofsson, “From Combating to Supporting Pop Music. The Paradox of Municipal Music Education in Sweden 1940 to 2000,” 2009, http://urn. kb. se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:vxu:diva-6688. 4	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
streaming model, 7 which has revolutionized the music industry and is home to two of the largest streaming platforms in the world, Spotify and Soundcloud. On Spotify, North America is the biggest consumer of Swedish music, including songs written and produced by Swedes. 8 These outstanding achievements, among others, have led media sources to use the term “Swedish music miracle” or “Sweden' s music miracle” when discussing Sweden in the context of pop music. As I will outline in this chapter, Sweden' s success in the global pop music scene is due to various factors. The most obvious is the commercial success of Swedish pop music. The pop super group ABBA is unquestionably the most commercially successful and well-known Swedish act worldwide. 9 Other Swedish acts, such as Europe, Roxette, Neneh Cherry, Ace of Base, Rednex, Robyn, and The Cardigans, experienced international success post-ABBA during the twentieth century. More recently, female performers, including Tove Lo, Icona Pop, Zara Larsson, Lykke Li, and First Aid Kit, and the disc jockeys (DJs) Avicii, Swedish House Mafia, and Alesso, have been popular worldwide. Notably, all of these artists record and perform primarily or exclusively in English. In addition to these performers, Sweden' s global success, especially in the twenty-first century, is owed to the Swedish writer-producers behind primarily American and British pop stars. The number of successful writer-producers is too long to list fully, but some of the most prominent include Max Martin, Denniz Pop, Shellback, Rami Yacoub, Carl Falk, Bloodshy & Avant, Alexander 9 “The Swedish Music Miracle,” sweden. se, April 29, 2022, https://sweden. se/culture/arts-design/the-swedish-music-miracle. 8 Ibid. 7 Page and Safir, “Ex MS Report-Sustaining Sweden's Music Export Success. ” 5	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Kronlund, Red One, Ali Payami, Ilya Salmanzadeh, Peter Svensson, Mattman & Robin, Jörgen Elofsson, Andreas Carlsson, Kristian Lundin, Anders Bagge, Jake Schulze, David Kreuger, Per Magnusson, Klas Åhlund, Oscar Holter, Oscar Görres, Vincent Pontare, and Salem Al Fakir. Nearly all of these writer-producers are connected in some way to the iconic Cheiron Studios in Stockholm, and these writer-producers frequently collaborate on songs for a similar pool of recording artists. Furthermore, many of them are connected to Max Martin as collaborators or mentees. Sweden' s close-knit music industry and Max Martin' s mentorship of many writer-producers will be of particular interest to this thesis. The story of the Swedish writer-producer begins in Stockholm, the capital of and the largest city in Sweden. Stockholm is the source of Sweden' s robust economy and the center for Swedish music production. 10 Journalist Whet Moser described Stockholm as “an agglomeration of talent, business infrastructure, and competing firms all swirling around one industry, in one place. What Hollywood is to movies, what Nashville is to country music, and what Silicon Valley is to computing, Stockholm is to the production of pop. ” 11 Economic geographers have identified Stockholm as an “industrial cluster” because of its concentrated network of musical talent (songwriters, producers, and performers) and related industries (music publishing, video production, music schools, music venues, and record labels). 12 Most Swedish writer-producers discussed in this thesis established their careers in Stockholm, and many continue to work and 12 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 14. 11 Whet Moser, “Swedish Pop Mafia,” P a c i f i c S t a n d a r d, June 14, 2017, https://psmag. com/social-justice/swedish-pop-mafia-music-world-influence-73966. 10 Ola Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n : S h a p i n g P o p C u l t u r e i n a G l o b a l i z e d M u s i c I n d u s t r y, Geographies of Media (Singapore: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), 81. 6	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
collaborate in Stockholm today. Stockholm' s small population (1. 7 million people) 13 means that many writer-producers who grew up in Stockholm knew each other as children through school or connected through musical collaboration and in spaces like nightclubs. Stockholm' s reputation as an “industrial cluster” also attracts many non-Swedish writer-producers who travel to Stockholm to develop their skills and network. 14 Historically, many American and other international artists traveled to Stockholm to write and record with Swedish writer-producers. These factors have created a highly conducive environment for musical development, production, and collaboration, especially in combination with music infrastructure and the other factors I will discuss in this chapter and throughout this thesis. As we will see with Max Martin, Stockholm is the primary setting for the formation of his musicality and career. Who Is Karl Martin Sandberg? Max Martin was born Karl Martin Sandber g in Stenhamra, just outside of Stockholm, in 1971. His father was a police officer, and his mother was a teacher and sang in a local choir. As a child, Martin' s parents played popular music acts of the 1960s and 1970s at home, including Elton John, Queen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and The Beatles, and classical musicians such as Vivaldi and Mozart. 15 Martin' s older brother was a glam rock fan and introduced Martin to the 15 John Seabrook, “Blank Space: What Kind of Genius Is Max Martin?,” T h e N e w Y o r k e r, September 30, 2015, 14 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 16. 13 “Stockholm, Sweden Metro Area Population 1950-2023,” Macrotrends, Accessed January 2, 2023, https://www. macrotrends. net/cities/22597/stockholm/population. 7	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
flamboyant American band Kiss, which influenced young Martin' s musical preferences. Martin recalled his introduction to Kiss in a Billboar d interview in 2017: I remember my older brother coming home with a Swedish magazine called Poster. Remember that one? It had posters you could unfold. They were two-sided so you could take your pick. On one side, Kiss — the iconic image with the band up on [the] Empire State Building. On the other side of the poster, a weird band out in the woods, who called themselves Led Zeppelin. To me, the choice couldn' t have been easier. Kiss, this is my life! I've always chosen the most colorful, the one that crackles the most. Zeppelin never made it up on my wall.... The thing that was so great about Kiss was that they thought worldwide. Arenas, the Alive! album, the attitude. The fact that they had such a grand scope was so great. 16 The “worldwide appeal” and “larger than life” persona of Kiss inspired Martin to become a rock star and write songs that everyone could sing. 17 He took music lessons on the recorder, French horn, drums, and keyboard at municipal music schools and attended high school in Stockholm during the 1980s. In the late 1980s, he dropped out of high school to front a Stockholm-based glam rock band called It's Alive, adopting the stage name Martin White. It's Alive secured a record deal with the Swedish label Cheiron Records (based in Stockholm) and released their album Earthquake V isions in 1994 to disappointing sales. 18 18 John Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e : I n s i d e t h e H i t F a c t o r y, First edition. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015), 65. 17 Jessie Ware and Lennie Ware, “S12 Ep 8: Max Martin,” Table Manners with Jessie and Lennie Ware, Accessed January 2, 2023, https://open. spotify. com/episode/33Jz EO23fe10CFnb3qr6DY?si=be6b5344c48a4da3. 16 Colin Stutz, “Max Martin Talks Lessons From Prince, Trying to Stay Anonymous & How Pharrell Nearly Ruined His Career in Rare Interview,” B i l l b o a r d, February 28, 2017, https://www. billboard. com/music/pop/max-martin-prince-anonymous-pharrell-career-interview-77 02298/. https://www. newyorker. com/culture/cultural-comment/blank-space-what-kind-of-genius-is-max-m artin. 8	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Though It's Alive never reached the commercial heights that Martin imagined, their relationship with Cheiron presented Martin with a unique opportunity. Denniz Pop, the founder of Cheiron Records and its affiliated recording studio Cheiron Studios, recognized Martin' s talent for writing pop melodies and encouraged him to write pop songs. Denniz, who rose to international prominence in 1993 as the producer behind the Swedish group Ace of Base, became a mentor to Martin and many other Swedish writer-producers during the 1990s. Martin' s first credit as “Max Martin,” the name Denniz gave him, was alongside Denniz on the 1995 European hit “Right Type of Mood” by British musician and Cheiron collaborator Herbie Crichlow. 19 At the turn of the century, Cheiron and its team of writer-producers were among the most in-demand hitmakers in pop music, writing and producing hits for the teen pop acts Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Britney Spears, Robyn, Westlife, and Boyzone. In the following chapter, I will provide a more detailed history of Denniz and Cheiron and their connection to Martin and other Swedish writer-producers. Literature Review Before I explicate the history of the Swedish music industry, its relationship to the American music industry, and Martin' s position within these two industries, I must first acknowledge the existing scholarship and other writings on related topics. At present, there is an abundance of short articles from 19 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 67. 9	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
newspapers and magazines that describe the “Swedish music miracle” and explain Sweden' s success in the global pop music scene. The BBC documentary Flat Pack Pop: Sweden' s Music Miracle, the This Is Pop television series episode “Stockholm Syndrome,” and several podcast episodes highlight the success of acts like ABBA and Ace of Base, as well as Denniz and Martin. Many interviews with major Swedish writer-producers can be found in print and online in the form of audio and video recordings. In spite of a healthy number of short-form materials, just one book, Ola Johannson' s 2020 monograph Songs Fr om Sweden: Shaping Pop Cultur e in a Globalized Music Industry, covers the modern Swedish music industry and Swedish writer-producers in depth. The 2015 book The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory by John Seabrook spends a substantial amount of pages on Denniz and Martin, and their impact on American pop music, but the book is also concerned with many other writer-producers not directly connected to Sweden. As the only two books I found with significant mention of Martin and other contemporary Swedish writer-producers, Johannson' s and Seabrook' s works were invaluable to my research and the development of this thesis. The remainder of my research comes from periodicals, scholarly journal articles, documentary and podcast episodes, and primary source materials, such as publicly available interviews with Martin, his collaborators, and other Swedish writer-producers or musicians. As no academic sources or books, including biographies, focus primarily on Martin, I hope this thesis will offer a much-needed perspective on one of pop's most influential and overlooked composers. 10	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Throughout this thesis, I refer to Ola Johannson' s seven theses, defined in his monograph, that explain potential reasons for Sweden' s musical success. These seven theses did not originate strictly from Johansson' s research, and many of them have circulated for years, even decades, before the publication of his monograph in 2020. Other sources, such as newspapers and magazines, offer similar explanations for Sweden' s musical success, and elements of these theses are often indirectly paraphrased by Swedish writer-producers in interviews. These seven theses, as defined and labeled by Johansson, are paraphrased below and will be expanded upon in the following chapters. Ola Johansson' s Seven Theses 1, The Role Model Thesis ABBA 's international breakthrough in 1974 and enduring popularity act as a role model for other Swedish artists. ABBA 's music, performed and recorded mainly in English with an emphasis on simplicity and catchiness, is also a template for Swedish pop songwriting, prioritizing simple melodies that a global audience can appreciate. The effect of role models in other disciplines supports these claims. For example, the successes of the Swedish tennis player Björn Borg and the Swedish skier Ingemar Stenmark in the 1970s and 1980s resulted in an influx of successful Swedish athletes. 20 20 The primary criticism of the Role Model Thesis is that the time between ABBA's debut and the global success of another Swedish artist was over ten years. One potential explanation for this is that the Swedish music industry was underdeveloped prior to ABBA, so a lag time was reasonable as music infrastructure needed to be built. 11	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
2, The Early Adopter Thesis Sweden has been noted as an early adopter of new technology and has historically been receptive to global influences before many other European countries. Sweden was one of the first European countries in the twentieth century, aside from France, to embrace jazz. Several influential British bands, including the Beatles and the Sex Pistols, made Sweden the first destination for their first tours abroad. Contemporary Swedish pop music is considered “current” and “unabashedly commercial. ” In other industries, Sweden is similarly quick to adopt trends. The major Swedish companies H&M and IKEA capitalize on trending aesthetics to produce fashionable and utilitarian products. 3, The English Pr oficiency Thesis Sweden is ranked the second highest English-fluent country in the world, where English is not the official language (the first is the Netherlands). Most Swedes are fluent in English and speak with ease, allowing Swedish-born singers to compete with other English-speaking artists in the global music industry. While other European countries like France have historically displayed linguistic purism, Sweden has accepted the practical aspects of speaking English, and English is taught widely in schools. 4, The Globalization Thesis During the late 1980s and early 1990s, Swedish music began to globalize and gain international popularity. At this same time, the world economy globalized, and an increased number of artists from around the world also found global success. ABBA was an outlier in the globalization of Swedish music and 12	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
even experienced resistance from certain markets, including the U. S., during their active years. The music television channel MTV, which rolled out globally throughout the 1980s, was pivotal to globalizing the Swedish mediascape. 5, The Small Market Thesis In order to grow in a small market like Sweden, where the number of potential consumers is limited, a company, brand, or individual must look to an international audience. The Swedish economy is dominated by companies that acquired domestic success first and then expanded internationally. The most internationally successful Swedish artists typically built a dedicated fanbase in their home country before launching their careers globally. Sweden' s small population can be advantageous to cultivating a tight fanbase, but it also means artists can only play in Sweden so many times before it is necessary to pursue an international audience for growth. 6, The Industrial Cluster Thesis In his 1990 book The Competitive Advantage of Nations, Michael Porter argues that an industrial cluster, in other words, a geographic concentration of businesses, “promotes productivity, innovation, and new business. ” 21 Geographers at Uppsala University in Sweden found that both the music industry in Stockholm and the music industry in Sweden are industrial clusters that foster innovation and competition. Sweden' s small but developed music industry is a national cluster in which many people know each other as partners and competitors. Many major international labels have subsidiaries in Sweden, which grants domestic artists 21 Nolan Feeney, “Why Is Sweden So Good at Pop Music?,” The Atlantic, October 29, 2013. https://www. theatlantic. com/entertainment/archive/2013/10/why-is-sweden-so-good-at-pop-music/ 280945/. 13	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
increased opportunities for making connections and distributing music overseas. These subsidiaries are relatively free to expand within Sweden, increasing competition and potential profit. 7, The Governmental and Institutional Support Thesis The Swedish government considers music an asset and invests in music infrastructure to expand potential wealth and global recognition. Sweden has a national publicly subsidized municipal music school program that is widely accessible to children and affordable for families. In addition, other nonprofit education associations make rehearsal space, musical equipment, workshops, and performance opportunities available for adults. Government programs like the Swedish Arts Council ( Statens kulturråd ) fund music projects, including recording grants for artists. Johansson' s seven theses offer a firm understanding of how various factors have contributed to Sweden' s immense global success in music. Several additional explanations, two of which Johansson discusses in his monograph, support his theses. The first additional explanation Johansson proposes is that Sweden' s broadband internet infrastructure and highly computer-literate population are ideal for the virtual collaboration and digital production required in contemporary pop. 22 The second additional explanation is related to the Role Model Thesis. Johansson argues that reputation is a gatekeeper in the music industry that determines “who gets to do what. ” 23 Developing a reputation is 23 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 30. 22 “Why Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Britney Spears and More Turn to Sweden for Help,” ABC News, August 13, 2020, https://www. abc. net. au/news/2020-08-14/sweden-dominates-pop-music-could-australia-follow-its- lead/12541620. 14	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
necessary to establish credibility, especially within the global music industry. 24 A positive reputation, primarily based on past and recent commercial or critical performance, increases opportunities for an artist, songwriter, or producer. 25 The success of ABBA, Martin, and other Swedish musicians has created a positive reputation for Sweden and Swedish music. Another popular theory, derived from the Law of Jante or Jantelagen, explains the Swedish writer-producer cluster 's behaviors, specifically their relative anonymity and tendency to collaborate in partnerships and mentorships. The Law of Jante is a fictional code of conduct created by the Danish-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose that describes a general Scandinavian social attitude of humility, a lack of ego, and a minimization of individual success in favor of collective success. 26 This social attitude is exhibited in the socialist and egalitarian nature of Swedish policy, including universal healthcare and other benefits like unemployment insurance, child daycare, and a publicly funded education system at the college level. Both Ola Johansson and John Seabrook assert that the Law of Jante explains why so many Swedish writer-producers choose to maintain a low public profile and embrace a system of collaboration. American singer-songwriter Ryan Tedder, who fronts the band One Republic and has written hits for Beyoncé, Kelly Clarkson, and Adele, observed: The American way of approaching songwriting is, 'Nope, just me! I'm gonna do it, watch me do it!' Even a lot of my first hits were 100 per cent [ sic ] me, because I came up under the school of [American songwriter] Diane Warren. The Swedes are like, 'Let' s put four or five writers in the same room, chipping away at the same song, until it's perfect. There' s 26 Ibid, 76-77. 25 Ibid, 30-31. 24 Ibid. 15	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
strength in numbers, which is why I think they've dominated the charts for so long. 27 As I will explain, Martin' s collaborative songwriting methods, songwriting partnerships, and mentorships have contributed significantly to his longevity in the competitive music industry. Collaboration can also result in increased productivity as writer-producers divide tasks, and skills are passed on and exchanged in partnerships and mentorships. Key Terms and Concepts Now that I have summarized existing explanations and theories for the development of Sweden' s music industry, I will define several key terms and concepts foundational to this thesis, beginning with what is meant by “Swedish pop music” or “Swedish pop. ” Here, I borrow again from Johannson' s monograph. Johannson states, “Swedish popular music is a hybrid with musical influences that are mainly global, while the music is shaped locally. ” 28 Local influences include a musician' s experiences, the character of local music scenes, and the cultural attributes of the place or places a musician inhabits. 29 In a song, these local influences can translate musically to references to Swedish culture, a melancholic or nostalgic tonality and minor key, a Swedish folk music style, nature themes and imagery, or a Schlager music style with strong melodic 29 Ibid. 28 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 38. 27 Roisin O'Connor and Patrick Smith, “The Winners Take It All: How Scandipop Took over the World,” T h e I n d e p e n d e n t, November 18, 2021, https://www. independent. co. uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/scandipop-abba-max-martin-pop -music-b1955141. html. 16	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
features. 30 Swedish pop does not need to include lyrics in Swedish, and internationally successful Swedish pop often does not. Additionally, Swedish pop tends to be “placeless” or “Americanized,” particularly in its sound, style, and production. 31 Thus, Swedish pop is not always easy to distinguish, and the parameters for defining “Swedish pop” are loose and up to interpretation. In this thesis, the term Swedish pop denotes the involvement of at least one Swedish musician, whether as a performer or writer-producer. The term writer-producer is taken from Johansson' s monograph and refers to a musician who is both a songwriter and a producer. The term producer describes a musician responsible for determining a song' s sonic qualities, usually by coaching an artist during a recording session and combining and editing vocal, instrumental, and other musical elements in a digital audio workstation (DAW). Every Swedish musician I discuss in this thesis is a songwriter and producer (excluding certain performing artists), often taking on both roles in the song-making process, and therefore making the term writer-producer highly appropriate. The final terms I will define and distinguish between are “popular music” and “pop”/“pop music. ” Though often used interchangeably, these terms are not necessarily the same and, in this thesis, are intended to represent two different but generally overlapping concepts. Popular music is an umbrella term for various music genres (pop, rock, R&B, hip-hop, country, dance, etc. ) and commercially successful songs that are popular with a wide range of audiences. Pop music, by contrast, is a diverse genre and compositional tradition that typically involves 31 Ibid, 38. 30 Ibid, 37. 17	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
catchy, singable melodies and hooks, relatable lyrics, repeated chord progressions, and verse-chorus or other familiar song structures. 32 Structure This thesis is divided into five chapters, including this Introduction and the Conclusion. In Chapter One, I outline key developments and figures in Sweden' s music history that contributed to the modern Swedish music industry. These developments and figures include the emer gence of pop music as a genre, Swedish globalization and modernization through radio and TV, municipal music schools, Eurovision, ABBA, Denniz Pop, and Cheiron Studios. I discuss potential impacts of each development on Martin and other Swedish writer-producers and conclude the chapter by tying all of the developments to one of Johansson' s seven theses. Chapter Two and Chapter Three use a combination of narrative and first-hand accounts and my own analysis of Martin' s music. I begin Chapter Two by outlining what I deem to be Martin' s five essential songwriting characteristics: Melody-first, Melodic Math, simplicity and immediacy, collaboration, and vocal-oriented. Each of these characteristics is defined and fleshed out through a musical analysis of the 1998 song “... Baby One More Time,” written by Martin, produced by Martin and his protégé Rami Yacoub, and recorded by Britney 32 Spencer Kornhaber, “How Pop Music's Teenage Dream Ended,” T h e A t l a n t i c, September 1, 2020, https://www. theatlantic. com/culture/archive/2020/09/katy-perry-and-end-pop-smile-album/615757 /. 18	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Spears. Chapter Two concludes with a summary of the impact of “... Baby One More Time” on pop music, popular culture, and Martin' s and Spears' careers. Chapter Three builds upon my analysis of Martin' s songwriting characteristics by introducing three additional examples: “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson, “Teenage Dream” by Katy Perry, and “Blank Space” by Taylor Swift. Critical to this musical analysis is the contextualization of these songs and Martin' s career alongside his expanding network of collaborators and the developing American music industry. The division of Martin' s and his collaborators' contributions can be difficult, if impossible, to distinguish, especially when several co-writers are present. There is a famous adage in the music industry, “change a word, get a third,” that implies that changing a “word,” or a single lyric, can get an artist or “co-writer,” who, in reality, did not contribute much to the composition, a third of the royalty payment. Fortunately, many individual contributions to these songs that are not obvious have been defined explicitly in interviews and other commentaries. Because much or, in some cases, all of the instrumentation in the songs under consideration is electronically programmed, transcripts containing all musical notation are unavailable. I performed all score-based analyses using sheet music purchased from Musicnotes, a website that provides relatively accurate albeit incomplete transcripts. I also consulted the four songs in three forms--the officially released version and “unof ficial” acapella and instrumental edits created by You Tube users--so that I could study intricate production nuances and backing vocals separate from the busier final versions. Using a musical and historical 19	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
framework, I evaluate Martin' s impact on the Swedish and American music industries through the commercial, critical, and compositional success of his music, the vastness of his mentorship, and the dissemination of his songwriting techniques. 20	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Chapter One: A Short History of the Swedish Music Industry To fully understand Sweden' s present position in the global pop music industry and the socio-cultural factors that have influenced Swedish writer-producers requires an examination of Sweden' s music history. From the end of the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, Sweden, like many nations, underwent a period of modernization largely due to increased travel and the development of new technologies. A previously rural society, Sweden transformed into an industrial cluster as hundreds of thousands of people migrated to city centers and started businesses. 33 In addition, millions of people emigrated to the U. S. and other countries where they exchanged goods and ideas. 34 This mass emigration continued significantly during the second half of the twentieth century in different and comparatively accelerated ways. Naturally, music and its production methods changed due to globalization and the commercialization of the music industry shortly after. Swedish music, that is, music written, produced, or performed by Swedes, became a form of economic commerce whose value would only increase by the end of the twentieth century. Though Sweden' s presence as a global pop music capital was not firmly established until the 1970s with ABBA, its trajectory was premeditated by 34 Ibid. 33 “History of Sweden,” sweden. se, November 15, 2022, https://sweden. se/culture/history/history-of-sweden. 21	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
decades-long investment in music infrastructure. Infrastructure, defined in this thesis as adequate government arts funding, targeted radio and television programming, municipal music schools, and broadband internet access granted the Swedish music industry tangible resources which, when combined with the cultural customs and social behaviors discussed in the Introduction and throughout this chapter, allowed for substantial growth to occur. In this chapter, I will trace the development of musical society in Sweden and the development of the “modern” Swedish music industry from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century. This period, and the resulting developments, have not only shaped the Swedish music industry today but influenced the writer-producers who were raised and continue to operate within or close to Sweden. From Folk to Pop The beginning of popular music in Sweden can be traced most directly to Swedish folk music in the nineteenth century. Swedish folk music was recognized as a genre and point of study by academic scholars during the early nineteenth century, first appearing in print as folkvisa (folk song) in 1804 and folkmusik (folk music) in 1823. 35 Before this and the formal establishment of folk music communities, music was often a solitary experience with a utilitarian purpose. 35 Owe Ronström, Krister Malm, and Dan Lundberg,“Concerts and Festivals: Public Performances of Folk Music in Sweden,” T h e W o r l d o f M u s i c 43, no. 2/3 (2001): 50, http://www. jstor. org/stable/41699365. 22	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Early Swedish music is defined by ballads and kulning, or herding calls, typically sung by women to lure livestock down from the hills where they grazed. 36 Kulning melodies sit within the head voice (the higher, often airier range of the voice) and include half-tones (also called a semitone; the interval between a white key and its neighboring black key on a piano keyboard) and quarter-tones (half of a semitone). 37 These narrow intervals, commonly found in traditional Scandinavian music and American jazz, give the melody a haunting, melancholic quality which some listeners suggest is influenced by the long, dark winters Scandinavia is known for (for example, the far north of Sweden can experience total darkness in January). 38 Sweden, which to this day has a small population relative to its area (approximately 10. 5 million people across 204,035 mi² compared to California' s approximately 39 million people across 163,696 mi²), was even more sparsely populated centuries ago (approximately 2. 4 million in 1804, the “beginning” of Swedish folk music), 39 meaning people were physically separated and operated alone or in small groups. Public performances of Swedish folk music emer ged in Swedish city centers when folk music gained critical recognition in the mid-1800s. As such, they tended to skew toward the tastes of the bourgeoisie and featured young 39 “Population Statistics,” Statistics Sweden, Accessed January 3, 2023, https://www. scb. se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subject-area/population/population-compositi on/population-statistics/; “U. S. Census Bureau Quick Facts: California,” Census Bureau, Accessed January 3, 2023, https://www. census. gov/quickfacts/CA. 38 Malcolm Jack, “Why Sweden Is Top When It Comes to Pop,” T h e B i g I s s u e, March 11, 2022, https://www. bigissue. com/culture/music/why-sweden-is-top-when-it-comes-to-pop/; “Time and Daylight in Sweden,” Visit Sweden, December 22, 2022, https://visitsweden. com/about-sweden/time-and-daylight-hours/. 37 Ibid. 36 Lara Anderson, “Evolution of Swedish Folk Music,” S w e d i s h P r e s s, August 1, 2016, https://swedishpress. com/evolution-of-swedish-folk-music/. 23	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
working-class professionals or spelmän (folk musicians) performing in newly-established concert halls. 40 The primary instruments used by these musicians were the nyckelharpa and the fiddle, string instruments that became widespread in the early seventeenth century and are emblematic of Swedish folk music tradition. Bour geoisie audiences typically were unaware of the history of folk music, and so the performances also became a way of educating the public and preserving tradition. 41 Simultaneously, folk music, in its newly communal atmosphere, instilled a sense of patriotism and pride within urban audiences. 42 Perhaps the best example of this is when “Du gamla, du fria” (“Thou ancient, Thou Free”), a folk song based on a traditional ballad with original lyrics by Swedish lyricist Richard Dybeck, was unofficially adopted as the Swedish national anthem in 1866. 43 Urban audiences played an integral role in the evolution of folk music, and its assimilation into the mainstream, similar to the role Stockholm and other urban settings would have in the development of pop music several decades later. With its growing popularity among the educated upper-class, folk music was formally acknowledged as a significant part of Swedish cultural heritage. The Götiska Förbundet, or the Geatish Society, formed in 1811, institutionalized folk music. Members of the society studied and archived traditional literature and music. 44 Though it was impermanent, dissolving in 1844 after a decade of 44 Anderson, “Evolution of Swedish Folk Music. ” 43 Ibid. 42 Ibid, 51. 41 Ibid, 50. 40 Ronström, Malm, and Lundberg, “Concerts and Festivals: Public Performances of Folk Music in Sweden,” 50-51. 24	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
stagnancy, the society served a vital role in preserving folk tradition, particularly as a wave of religious fundamentalism swept over Scandinavia and declared music and dance sinful. 45 Consequently, music from this period was not well documented despite the abundance of activity and output. Erik Gustav Geijer and Arvid Afzelius, members of the Geatish Society, managed to compile an anthology of folk music, Svenska folk-visor från forntiden, between 1814 and 1816, which features instrumental folk songs as well as songs from the Swedish ballad tradition. 46 The Swedish ballad tradition, dating back to the end of the eighteenth century, experienced a surge of popularity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries with troubadours like Sven Scholander. In 1920, the troubadour Evert Taube became nationally recognized for his songs about travel and idealized Swedish life. 47 Taube' s career, which lasted more than five decades and contained a bounty of hits, effectively likened traditional Swedish music to mainstream music preferences. Taube was, in a sense, the first Swedish “pop star” on a national scale. Around the start of his career, the German word Schlager was introduced in Sweden to mean “hit,” replacing the older Swedish term slagdänga. 48 As a genre, Schlager music is defined by a catchy instrumental to a pop-style vocal melody. 49 The 1930s saw dance orchestras made up of working-class men and the occasional female singer performing Schlager music 49 Ibid, 17. 48 Alf Björnberg and Thomas Bossius, eds., M a d e i n S w e d e n : S t u d i e s i n P o p u l a r M u s i c (New York: Routledge, 2017), 3. 47 Ibid. 46 Ibid. 45 Ibid. 25	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
in the style of contemporary foxtrots and waltzes. Schlager music became the folk or popular music of the time and has maintained popularity today in Sweden (and internationally, particularly at Eurovision), albeit in a different form. By the mid-twentieth century, folk music became an international movement as folk musicians, particularly those from America, became emblems of youth culture. Prague hosted the first international “Youth festival” competition in 1947. 50 Like the earliest folk music performances in Sweden, the “Youth festival” was a source of nationalism for performers and audiences who represented their respective nations through song, dance, and dress. 51 Similar events had existed in Sweden since the early twentieth-century when the famous Swedish painter Anders Zorn organized the first spelmanstävling (fiddlers' competition) in Dalarna in 1906. 52 These competitions later evolved into spelmansstämmor (fiddlers' gatherings), non-competitive events resembling festivals, wherein musicians and audiences hailed from rural lower-class and urban middle-class societies. 53 In Sweden, where practices such as fiddling had historically been solitary, public competitions and gatherings helped cultivate a connected musical society. 54 The popularity of folk music internationally and in Sweden would wane over the years as a new, more youth-centered genre was on the horizon. Still, folk musicians continued to meet in both formal and informal settings. Inspired by 54 Anderson, “Evolution of Swedish Folk Music. ” 53 Ibid. 52 Ibid, 51. 51 Ibid. 50 Ronström, Malm, and Lundberg, “Concerts and Festivals: Public Performances of Folk Music in Sweden,” 53. 26	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
American singer-songwriters in the 1960s, many young Swedes took up the nyckelharpa and fiddle to form spelmänslag (amateur folk music groups), some of which played on mainstream TV and radio. 55 The Woodstock Music and Art Fair was adopted as the new model for a folk/rock/pop festival and aided in the commercialization of folk music. 56 From the 1970s through the 1990s, music festivals resembled parties with food, installations, and other activities drawing crowds of thousands (and in the case of Woodstock, hundreds of thousands). 57 In the early 1980s, the Swedish National Institute for Concerts organized carnivals known as kultur dagar (culture-days) or kulturnatta (culture-night) as a means of disseminating “culture” to suburbians living outside of Stockholm, Gotëbor g, and Malmö (the three biggest cities in Sweden). 58 Policymakers and politicians took note and began investing in festivals to promote “goods and images. ” 59 Swedish music festivals, and the Swedish music they promote, have since served as a commodity to promote culture not only to Swedes but tourists. 60 Additionally, the international success of ABBA and other Swedish musicians has contributed to music-related tourism. 61 In 2009, a Swedish cultural policy law was passed to provide ample financial resources to artists, including musicians ($220 million was spent on arts 61 Maria Lexhagen, Christine Lundberg, and Tatiana Chekalina, “Traveling in the Footsteps of ABBA,” T h e J o u r n a l o f P o p u l a r C u l t u r e 52, no. 6 (December 2019): 1408-32, https://doi. org/10. 1111/jpcu. 12859. 60 Ibid. 59 Ibid. 58 Ibid. 57 Ibid. 56 Ronström, Malm, and Lundberg, “Concerts and Festivals: Public Performances of Folk Music in Sweden,” 58. 55 Ibid. 27	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
funding in 2016, with at least $7. 8 million for music). 62 Every year, in a move that would be considered exorbitant by comparable nations, millions in public money is invested toward commercial musicians and festival marketing (classical music gets the most funding). 63 Public funding is seen as a method of promoting national culture in the American-dominated music industry, and in countries like Sweden, it preserves a valuable export. 64 The Swedish Arts Grants Committee has granted about 19 million SEK ($2. 7 million) to musicians annually, and many Swedish record labels apply for recording funding biannually. 65 From its humble beginnings in rural Sweden to its eventual commercialization and mainstream appeal, Swedish folk music shaped the future of Swedish popular music. Swedish writer-producer Klas Åhlund described one effect folk music tradition has had on Swedish songwriting: Swedes are very musical, and they love to write songs. But it's a big country, and it has very few people in it. So you had these farmers out there who were good at writing songs but had no one to sing them. Songwriting was just a thing you did on your own when you were watching the cows, a kind of meditation. You didn' t focus as much on your ability as a performer as you did on the structure and craft of the songs. Which is really not the case in the U. S., where your charm and your voice and your powers as a performer come immediately into play. 66 Ahlund' s description of the contrast between Swedish musicians, who are uninterested in the spotlight but have a gift for melodic songwriting, and American performers, who may not write their own material, explains one reason 66 Seabrook, “Blank Space. ” 65 Ibid. 64 Ibid. 63 Marc Hogan, “What's the Matter With Sweden?,” P i t c h f o r k, March 29, 2010, https://pitchfork. com/features/article/7776-whats-the-matter-with-sweden/. 62 “Swedish Cultural Policy,” Swedish Arts Council, Accessed January 3, 2023, https://www. kulturradet. se/en/about-us/swedish-cultural-policy/. 28	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
for Sweden' s musical success. Swedes provide a service that Americans, though capable of their own songwriting, can employ in a mutually beneficial exchange. Borrowing from the melancholy “blue tones” (the quarter-and half-tone intervals) of kulning melodies, much of Swedish pop is “sad-sounding. ” 67 Svensk folkton (Swedish folk tone) is frequently used in Swedish-language pop music and can be described as an aural representation of Swedish folk music via its inclusion of quarter-tone and half-tone intervals, minor harmony, and fifth-leaps up or down to the tonic. 68 Björn Ulvaeus, one-fourth of ABBA and a former member of the folk band the Hootenanny Singers, acknowledged the melancholic quality of ABBA 's music, stating: Someone described the music of ABBA in a very interesting way when they said that the melodies are melancholic-very often minor key and very often the lyrics are very dark but somehow the arrangements and the two girls' voices especially makes it sound kind of exuberant and uplifting still. It's a paradox. That' s the best description I've heard. 69 Benny Andersson, also of ABBA, recognized the harsh Swedish climate as an influence on the melancholic tone of ABBA, Swedish folk music, the Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, and the Scandinavian classical composers Jean Sibelius and Edvard Grieg. 70 John Seabrook further suggests that Max Martin' s melodies resemble Grieg' s 1875 composition “In the Hall of the Mountain King” as much as they do contemporary pop and, like ABBA, Martin' s work with Backstreet Boys uses “major and minor chords in surprising combinations (going 70 Barry Walters, “ABBA's Essential, Influential Melancholy,” NPR, May 23, 2015, https://www. npr. org/sections/therecord/2015/05/23/408844375/abbas-essential-influential-melanc holy. 69 Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, “How Sweden Became a Pop Music Powerhouse,” F i n a n c i a l T i m e s, November 1, 2013, https://www. ft. com/content/55f7bdf6-40c4-11e3-ae19-00144feabdc0. 68 Björnberg and Bossius, M a d e i n S w e d e n, 132. 67 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 120. 29	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
to a minor chord on the chorus, say, when you least expect it), producing happy songs that sound sad, and sad songs that make you happy--tunes that serve a wide variety of moods. ” 71 Martin told The T elegraph, “My favorite feeling in music is dancing with tears in your eyes. I guess it's a Scandinavian thing. ” 72 Many Scandinavian musicians, including the pop artists Dagny, Sigrid, and Tove Lo, describe a similar sensation when discussing Scandinavian pop songs. 73 “Dancing On My Own,” a heartbreaking dance-pop anthem set to a major key by Swedish singer-songwriter Robyn and writer-producer Patrik Berger is arguably the definitive example of contemporary “sad-sounding” Swedish pop. The song references the climate of Stockholm, Robyn' s hometown, with the lyric, “There' s a big black sky over my town,” as Robyn sings about watching her ex-partner in a club with someone else. Pitchfork writer Jamieson Cox compared Robyn' s music to ABBA 's “cavernous, sprightly, desperate dance-pop confections built for crying in the club... by pinning down this same sad-ecstatic balance and welding it to modern, muscular production. ” 74 Robyn remembers Martin' s manager telling her that Martin believes “it's [“Dancing On My Own”' s] one of the best pop songs ever made. ” 75 Considered the best song of the 2010s by a multitude of publications and a defining song in the modern pop canon, “Dancing 75 Steve Holden, “Dancing On My Own: The Story behind Robyn's 2010 'Sad Banger,'” B B C N e w s, June 1, 2020, sec. Newsbeat, https://www. bbc. com/news/newsbeat-52817969. 74 Jamieson Cox, “ABBA: Gold: Greatest Hits,” P i t c h f o r k, September 29, 2019, https://pitchfork. com/reviews/albums/abba-gold-greatest-hits/. 73 O'Connor and Smith, “The Winners Take It All”; Sasha Frere-Jones, “The Sound of Sweden,” T h e N e w Y o r k e r, November 24, 2014, https://www. newyorker. com/magazine/2014/12/01/sound-sweden. 72 Michele Amabile Angermiller, “Max Martin Finally Speaks on Hit Songwriting Secrets: 'It's Almost Like Science to Me,'” V a r i e t y, November 18, 2019, https://variety. com/2019/music/news/max-martin-speaks-interview-telegraph-1203407590/. 71 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 120. 30	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
On My Own” has become the modern archetype for the melancholic dance-pop song dubbed the “sad banger. ” 76 Contemporary female artists, in particular, are quoted as being inspired by Robyn and the sound of Swedish pop. Pop Radio and TV Modernization in Sweden, beginning in the 1890s and progressing rapidly from 1900 to 1930, ushered in enhanced music infrastructure and technology. Before the invention of sound reproduction technology, a hit song materialized through live entertainment. 77 This meant that a hit was more localized and unable to be easily reproduced and listened to outside of a live context, making access difficult for the lower class and rural living. The Swedish music industry progressed rapidly with the establishment of radio and the pronounced expansion of the gramophone business during the 1920s. 78 As a result, Swedish music had a greater national, and eventually international, reach, but was also limited in content by gatekeepers. 79 The first Swedish public-service radio program was broadcast by AB Radiotjänst (Radio Service; the original name for the Swedish national broadcasting company) in 1925. 80 Genre distinctions were unclear at the time, and as there would only be one national radio channel until 1955, the program contained a mix of musical styles. 81 81 Ibid. 80 Ibid. 79 Ibid, 25. 78 Ibid. 77 Björnberg and Bossius, M a d e i n S w e d e n, 4. 76 Ibid. 31	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Throughout the 1950s and until commercial satellite channels became available in the 1980s, Swedish radio was controlled by public-service broadcaster Sveriges Radio (SR). 82 As with mainstream folk music, traditional bourgeois values shaped perceptions of popular music in Sweden. 83 However, when rock and roll became popular in the U. S. and the U. K., these perceptions were challenged as Anglophone popular music became a signifier of European youth culture, and the sound of rock became synonymous with the sound of English. 84 Radio Luxembour g, a commercial radio station that targeted the U. K. and Ireland, but reached audiences across Europe, was one of the first to recognize this shift. 85 In 1955, just as rock spread widely across Europe, they changed their programming to be youth-oriented (Anglophone-oriented), a stark contrast to stations like SR, which were national, especially linguistically, in reach. 86 By the early 1960s, English had become the dominant language of popular music in Sweden, threatening the relevance of Swedish-language pop music. 87 The authority of SR was threatened further by the arrival of Radio Nord (Radio North), a Swedish radio pirate station that began broadcasting from the Swedish archipelago in March 1961. 88 The following month, Radio Nord debuted a new program, a hit parade based on mailed-in votes, that quickly became popular among teenagers in Sweden. 89 To counteract the program, SR created T io i topp 89 Ibid. 88 Ibid, 40. 87 Ibid. 86 Ibid. 85 Ibid. 84 Ibid, 39. 83 Ibid, 17. 82 Ibid. 32	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
(Top Ten), a competing hit parade featuring a rotating jury of 200 teenagers from two Swedish cities. 90 While it was successful in dissolving Radio Nord, T io i topp presented another problem: because its focus was on the musical preferences of teenagers, the featured music was largely from the Anglophone world. 91 Accordingly, SR launched Svensktoppen, which required jurors to be at least twenty years old and appropriately showcased Schlager music and the Swedish troubadour tradition, all performed in Swedish. 92 Though the notion of an all-Swedish language program seems antithetical to Sweden' s eventual position in the global music industry, Svensktoppen helped save the Swedish music industry from a total Anglophone takeover. 93 Still, English-language music and media prospered and had been, to varying degrees, everyday exposure to Swedes since the 1930s. 94 Their acceptance and ultimate embrace of this phenomenon would prove essential to the global expansion of the Swedish music industry in the following decades. During the early 1960s, the term “pop” was used in lieu of “rock” to describe “youth music,” replacing the terms “rock” or “rock and roll,” which, though still used, now designated a genre and not necessarily “popular music. ” 95 Similarly, “hit” replaced Schlager. 96 Popular music in Sweden at the time was divided between pop (English-language music) and svensktopp (Swedish Top, derived from Svensktoppen ; Swedish-language music), which catered to different 96 Ibid. 95 Ibid, 6. 94 Ibid, 39. 93 Ibid. 92 Ibid, 41. 91 Ibid. 90 Ibid. 33	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
age demographics. 97 Svensktoppen became the most popular radio program in Sweden and by October 1972, a decade after its launch, the definitive platform for national exposure. 98 This remained true until the 1980s, when broadcasting became deregulated, and local radio stations emer ged with an emphasis on Anglophone popular music programming. 99 While Ola Johansson proposes the Early Adopter Thesis, the reality is that Swedes had limited opportunities to soak up international influences before the 1980s because of the finite number of radio stations available. TV options were similarly sparse, with just two public service channels until the arrival of foreign commercial TV in the 1980s. 100 Transnational programming on both radio and TV increased the amount of Anglophone popular music played in Sweden. 101 MTV Europe, the European iteration of the American music TV channel, first aired in Sweden in the late 1980s. The channel became so popular in Sweden that MTV Europe increased the number of Swedish artists on their programs, leading to greater exposure of Swedish artists internationally and, conversely, more Anglophone artists on Swedish TV. 102 As a result, more Swedish musicians and songwriters began seeking international success with English-language music. 103 As expressed by the Early Adopter Thesis, Sweden was receptive to outside influences even with limited access to foreign programming. Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA observed, “Swedish radio would play Italian ballads and 103 Burnett, “Dressed for Success: Sweden from Abba to Roxette,” 149. 102 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 12-13. 101 Ibid, 146. 100 Ibid, 145. 99 Robert Burnett, “Dressed for Success: Sweden from Abba to Roxette,” P o p u l a r M u s i c 11, no. 2 (May 1992): 145, http://www. jstor. org/stable/852937. 98 Ibid, 37. 97 Ibid. 34	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
French chansons and German Schlager-a big huge mix. What comes out in ABBA is a mix of all of that, which makes it exotic perhaps, and not what would have come out of a pen from England or America. ” 104 Martin' s involvement in the glam rock band It's Alive, and his equal love of hair metal and pure, unabashed pop illustrate the often contradictory tastes of Swedish producers. Two of Martin' s collaborators, Andreas Carlsson and Shellback, were also part of the Swedish metal scene prior to their involvement in pop. Anders Bagge, an early member of Cheiron Studios and founder of the music production company Murlyn Music, proposed that a multifaceted musical background is vital in a small country like Sweden, where a songwriter or producer, especially one working in pop, needs to wear many hats. 105 Though unsustainable considering Sweden' s global ambitions, the decades-long restrictions on radio and TV produced centralized programming. As a result, practically every Swede was tapped into the same musical content, as exemplified by the popularity of Svensktoppen, which, five years into its run, had passed 2. 8 million listeners out of a population of 7. 9 million people. 106 Today, TV shows like Eurovision and Melodifestivalen (the national show responsible for determining Sweden' s Eurovision song submission) amass more than eighty percent of TV viewers in Sweden, or half of all Swedes. 107 Swedes listened to a range of genres because programming was limited; thus, programming had to 107 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 115; William Lee Adams, “This Is How Sweden's Global Music Factory Works,” Bloomberg, March 30, 2015, https://www. bloomberg. com/tosv2. html?vid=&uuid=5609fd98-8bbb-11ed-94dc-46734f4d6641&u rl=L2dy YXBoa WNz Lz Iw MTUtc3dl ZGVucy1nb G9i YWwtc G9w LW11c2lj LWZh Y3Rvcnkv. 106 Björnberg and Bossius, M a d e i n S w e d e n, 37. 105 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 122. 104 Hunter-Tilney, “How Sweden Became a Pop Music Powerhouse. ” 35	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
account for many tastes. However, the prominence of pop music on Svensktoppen and Eurovision makes Sweden noticeably more pop-centered than the U. S., where the mass of cultural and musical diversity renders it impossible for one genre to reign supreme. In the U. S., as with the rest of the world, pop is among the most widely listened to genres, but unlike Sweden, the American pop market competes for attention with genres like rock, country, R&B, and hip-hop, reflective of the country' s diversity. However, where American radio tends to be more format-driven (focused on one genre), Swedish radio is more fluid. 108 One reason for this is the racist legacy of American radio; stations were historically divided between white music (pop) and black music (“urban contemporary,” an industry term for R&B and hip-hop). 109 Sweden, in its ethnic homogeneity, avoided this division, a factor that John Seabrook believes has had a profound effect on songwriting: A white American songwriter composing R. & B. tunes was not likely to get very far on the balkanized pop-music scene in the U. S., but a Swedish writer, free of the racist legacy of the R. & B. /pop dichotomy, could create music that combined both, and that is just what Martin has done. The resulting hybrid, one could argue, has become the mainstream sound on Top Forty radio today. 110 Martin and his collaborators, however ignorant, have benefitted from the ability to adapt, or appropriate, R&B and hip-hop for their melodic pop. There is no shortage of white American pop producers appropriating black musical influences. However, the less racialized history of Swedish popular music made 110 Ibid. 109 Seabrook, “Blank Space. ” 108 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 122. 36	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
this process, examined in the following chapter, less weighted for Swedish writer-producers. School of Pop By the late 1930s and early 1940s, the prospect of a youth-led musical revolution was on the horizon. In response, Swedish church leaders and conservatives convened to combat what they saw as “degenerate music” (rock and roll) coming from the United States. 111 Their answer was a municipal music program focusing strictly on classical music. 112 These programs, often free or at a low fee, offered children access to lessons and a library of instruments. 113 While the original objective was to provide students with the resources to appreciate traditional art music and deter them from rock' s lure, the paradoxical result laid the groundwork for Sweden' s musical success. 114 Initial pushback against popular music came in 1938 when the bishop of Växjö, a small city in the south of Sweden, sent a letter to the Swedish government demanding reform to the state of music and entertainment. 115 A Royal committee was established to address the issue; meanwhile, the municipality and the Church formed a Youth Council responsible for creating a music school in 1947. 116 The school provided private lessons to students aged fourteen and older 116 Ibid. 115 Ibid. 114 Lindberg and Olofsson, “From Combating to Supporting Pop Music. The Paradox of Municipal Music Education in Sweden 1940 to 2000. ” 113 Ibid. 112 Ibid. 111 Moser, “Swedish Pop Mafia. ” 37	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
in voice, piano, string instruments, and wind and brass instruments, as well as classes in music theory and music history. 117 In addition, a private music school run by the Swedish musical instrument manufacturer Hagström had opened one year earlier in Växjö. 118 Hagström taught classes in accordion, chord-based pop guitar, keyboard, percussion, and wind and brass. 119 These classes endured significant popularity across Sweden until the 1980s when Hagström folded, taking their music program in the process. 120 Nevertheless, municipal music schools prevailed. The same year Hagström initiated their music program, the School Commission' s report, which was critical in educational reform throughout the remainder of the twentieth century, determined that music education curriculum should revolve around Western art music aesthetics. 121 Schools would later prioritize the participation and inclusion of the individual student, and as the number of local music schools across the country increased, music education curriculum would change. Municipal music schools and compulsory schools, though both managed by the municipal government (local representatives using local funds), are different. For one, municipal music schools are extracurricular and, as the name states, are devoted to music education. On the other hand, compulsory education, introduced in the 1960s, 122 encompasses nine years of schooling (from ages seven to sixteen) and comprises four stages (preschool, primary school, middle school, 122 Ibid, 22. 121 Eva Georgii-Hemming and Maria Westvall, “Music Education-a Personal Matter? Examining the Current Discourses of Music Education in Sweden,” B r i t i s h J o u r n a l o f M u s i c E d u c a t i o n 27, no. 1 (March 2010): 22-23, https://doi. org/10. 1017/S0265051709990179. 120 Ibid. 119 Ibid. 118 Ibid. 117 Ibid. 38	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
and upper stage lower secondary school). 123 In the compulsory school curriculum, music constitutes a part of the curriculum (a minimum of 230 hours out of a possible 6,665 hours in musical instruction over nine years). 124 During upper stage lower secondary school (from ages thirteen to sixteen), students can specialize in music alongside their general education and pursue advanced music in upper secondary school (from ages sixteen to nineteen) or at the university level. 125 The Swedish National Agency for Education and the Education Act outline regulations for required curriculum at compulsory schools. 126 The music offerings at municipal music schools and compulsory schools evolved parallel to each other, particularly during the 1960s when the curricula underwent major changes. Music became a formal school subject in 1955. 127 Previously, music had been called singing and focused on hymns and church singing. 128 Military musicians or local bands largely taught classes in other instruments or genres, and private lessons were available to those who could afford them. 129 With the expansion of the municipal music program and the diversification of music offerings, children of a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds were granted access to regular and affordable music education. Contrary to their intended effect, the municipal music schools increased the 129 “Music and Arts Schools in Sweden,” Kulturskolerådet, Accessed January 3, 2023, https://www. kulturskoleradet. se/om-oss/english/. 128 Ibid. 127 Georgii-Hemming and Westvall, “Music Education-a Personal Matter?,” 22. 126 Ibid. 125 Ibid. 124 Ibid. 123 “Music Education in Schools (SE),” European Association for Music in Schools, September 15, 2015, https://eas-music. org/music-education-in-schools-se/. 39	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
likelihood that students would become musically literate and adapt their classical music training to fit their musical preferences; in most cases, this was rock or related genres like jazz and pop. 130 The curricula at municipal music schools and compulsory schools soon reflected this change. Throughout the 1960s, the municipal music program expanded, gaining significant popularity post-ABBA. 131 By the 1980s and 1990s, offerings grew to include rock and pop, recording and mixing, and instruction in other art forms 132 (the curriculum at compulsory schools had been revised in 1969 to incorporate “teenage music” with increasingly inclusive subsequent revisions). 133 Integrated arts schools, or kulturskola (culture schools), are common in Sweden today. 134 Presently, the municipal music program is a vibrant, interconnected, and interdisciplinary web of schools. According to the Swedish Arts Schools Council (Kulturskolerådet), 283 of 290 municipalities have arts schools. 135 Staffed by approximately 5,000 teachers, these schools serve more than 230,000 students weekly. 136 Specific to music, there are lessons on a variety of musical instruments, solo singing, and choir, all with an emphasis on popular repertoire. 137 The ability of personal computers to function as a music-making device and their prevalence in Sweden (the government subsidized some computer purchases during the 137 Ibid. 136 Ibid. 135 Ibid. 134 “Music and Arts Schools in Sweden. ” 133 Georgii-Hemming and Westvall, “Music Education-a Personal Matter?,” 23. 132 “Music and Arts Schools in Sweden. ” 131 Siobhan Hegarty, “Why Does Sweden Win at Pop Music? Like, Every Time,” SBS, April 12, 2016, https://www. sbs. com. au/programs/eurovision/article/2016/04/12/why-does-sweden-win-pop-musi c-every-time. 130 Moser, “Swedish Pop Mafia. ” 40	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
1990s), 138 coupled with the Early Adopter Thesis, has increased the number of music technology courses offered. In addition, broader arts schools provide drama, dance, and visual media lessons. 139 Most students attend one music or arts class each week. 140 The average tuition is 643 SEK (approximately $60) per semester, 141 and nearly thirty percent of students receive free tuition. 142 Compared to the U. S., where music education is severely underfunded, unaffordable, and unavailable in such a capacity to many, Sweden ensures that nearly all children receive access to an arts education. 143 Entrance examinations to music schools generally do not exist because the goal, unlike many conservatory and specialized music programs in the U. S., is to educate the musically interested and not just the musically talented. 144 Music education in Sweden thereby becomes a public good rather than a privilege. 145 Aside from its accessibility, one of the most substantial results of the municipal music program is the network it creates among young musicians. Since it began, the municipal music program has fostered a community for bands and groups, such as songwriting circles, to form. Many Swedish writer-producers who work in popular music and collaborate today first met at music programs during 145 Ibid. 144 Marja Heimonen, “Music and Arts Schools-Extra-Curricular Music Education: A Comparative Study,” A c t i o n, C r i t i c i s m a n d T h e o r y f o r M u s i c E d u c a t i o n 3, no. 2 (July 2004): 16, http://act. maydaygroup. org/articles/Heimonen3_2. pdf. 143 Ibid. 142 Tom Barnes, “One Country Is Giving Kids a Music Education That U. S. Children Could Only Dream Of,” M i c, July 31, 2014, https://www. mic. com/articles/95380/one-country-is-giving-kids-a-music-education-that-u-s-childr en-could-only-dream-of. 141 Ibid. 140 Ibid. 139 “Music and Arts Schools in Sweden. ” 138 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 83. 41	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
the 1980s when music offerings diversified. 146 Södra Latin, a high school in Södermalm, Stockholm, has long boasted a premier arts program. Martin, Alexander Kronlund, and Klas Åhlund overlapped at Södra Latin during the 1980s. 147 The same is true of Carl Falk and Salem Al Fakir during the 1990s. 148 These initial meetings morphed into valuable partnerships. For example, Martin and Kronlund worked together at Cheiron, later co-writing hits for Britney Spears, Demi Lovato, and Ariana Grande. They have both individually collaborated with Åhlund. Shellback attended high school in Blekinge, a province in southern Sweden, where he met Julius Petersson, whose sister, Jenny, married Martin. 149 Via Jenny and Julius, Martin met Shellback, who, since 2008, has been one of his most frequent collaborators and successful protégés. 150 Martin, Shellback, and Petersson make up part of Wolf Cousins, Martin' s songwriting and production collective. Another high school in Stockholm, Rytmus, brought together singer-songwriter Tove Lo and Icona Pop member Caroline Hjelt, a songwriting partnership that allowed Tove Lo to transition into a songwriting career that includes collaborations with Martin and Kronlund. 151 Casual musicians have also benefited from musical networks, a good case in point being choirs. Sweden has the highest number of choirs and choristers per capita in the world at 500 and 600,000, respectively, numbers which are likely the combination of developed 151 Ibid. 150 Ibid. 149 Ibid. 148 Ibid. 147 Ibid. 146 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 63. 42	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
music programs and a tradition of singing folk songs at celebrations like Midsummer and Christmas. 152 The future of the municipal music program and related music and arts programs is uncertain. Funding for municipal music schools has waned recently, and fees have become more common. 153 Criticism regarding teaching popular music is still recurrent, the central argument being that it does not reflect the diversity of students' musical interests, fails to foster artistic and creative skills, and lacks direction. 154 However, criticism like this overlooks the fact that this early education and exposure allows Swedish writer-producers to enter the world of global pop seamlessly. In countries where music education is inaccessible, the possibilities for any form of musical learning, let alone diverse musical learning, are significantly reduced. Even wealthy nations like the U. S. have disproportionate funding for music and arts programs, with low-income and rural schools at the highest risk of losing their music programs. 155 For example, only one in five public schools in California, which along with New York, is the home of the American pop music industry, has a dedicated teacher for music and arts classes. 156 Meanwhile, in Sweden, only seven municipalities (283 out of 290 156 Austin Beutner, “Arts Education Is Woefully Underfunded in California Schools,” Cal Matters, February 28, 2022, http://calmatters. org/commentary/2022/02/arts-education-is-woefully-underfunded-in-california-sc hools/. 155 “How to Secure Funding for Music Education for Public Schools,” Teachers College, Columbia University, June 19, 2021, https://musiconlinehybrid. tc. columbia. edu/articles/how-to-secure-funding-for-music-education-for -public-schools/. 154 Georgii-Hemming and Westvall, “Music Education-a Personal Matter?,” 22. 153 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 142. 152 Hegarty, “Why Does Sweden Win at Pop Music?” 43	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
municipalities) lack a municipal music school, and even though resources across schools are not standardized, basic access exists. 157 When understood in conjunction with the musical customs discussed in the previous two sections of this chapter, including Sweden' s propensity for pop and the popularity of music-oriented radio and TV shows, the strength of Swedish music programs has created a highly musical society. Music plays an active role in everyday life in Sweden, as demonstrated by the number of citizens participating in musical activities. Speaking to the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail in 2018, Swedish writer-producer Patrik Berger reflected on the normalcy of music in early Swedish life: “It was just part of life: Kids should learn how to swim, kids should learn how to play an instrument. If you can't afford a saxophone, you just rent it-for basically nothing. What can be more encouraging than that?” 158 Adult education associations make music accessible to adults through rehearsal and studio spaces, equipment, and workshops. 159 Until recently, government-recognized “study circles” (amateur bands affiliated with adult education associations) had been able to apply to receive grants. 160 Martin credited the ease of access to rehearsal spaces and the encouragement he received in school to try a variety of instruments as the reasons for his success, asserting, “I have public music education to thank for everything. ” 161 Several prominent 161 Gary Barlow, “Max Martin,” Gary Barlow-We Write the Songs, Accessed January 3, 2023, https://open. spotify. com/episode/6Z3b MWRm5Jp ASw WCx4M1j V?si=64b3a962b9b24652; 160 Ibid. 159 Lindberg and Olofsson, “From Combating to Supporting Pop Music. The Paradox of Municipal Music Education in Sweden 1940 to 2000. ” 158 Josh O'Kane, “How Sweden Became a Dominant Force in Global Pop Music,” T h e G l o b e a n d M a i l, January 12, 2018, https://www. theglobeandmail. com/arts/music/how-stockholm-became-a-dominant-force-in-global- popmusic/article37541953/. 157 “Music and Arts Schools in Sweden. ” 44	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
writer-producers, including Anders Bagge and Andreas Carlsson, have established schools concentrating on songwriting and production. 162 In 2021, a report presented by the Inquiry on the Restart for Arts and Culture on behalf of the Swedish government promised to allocate 200 million SEK ($19. 2 million) to municipal music and arts schools annually from 2023 onwards, a sign of possibility. 163 Eurovision and the ABBA Effect As explained, centralized programming of radio and TV established Sweden as a pop-centered country, where millions of people tuned into the same content. Melodifestivalen and Eurovision are among the most popular TV shows in Sweden and have transformed the Swedish music industry in the wake of ABBA 's 1974 Eurovision win. The Eurovision Song Contest is a joint venture between the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), an international alliance of public service media organizations, and national EBU members representing their respective countries, some of which are outside Europe. 164 For a country to participate in Eurovision, the national broadcaster must select a song and 164 “How the Eurovision Song Contest Works,” Eurovision Song Contest, Accessed January 3, 2023, https://eurovision. tv/about/how-it-works. 163 “Restarting the Arts and Culture in Sweden” (Stockholm: Swedish Government Inquiries, 2021), 18, https://www. regeringen. se/4a941c/contentassets/c96ef2e953fd481ebb68d41b980a1d0a/restarting-t he-arts-and-culture-in-sweden---summary-sou-202177. pdf. 162 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 142. Barnes, “One Country Is Giving Kids a Music Education That U. S. Children Could Only Dream Of. ” 45	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
performer in a process that can take various forms: an internal selection by a committee, a publicly televised show, or a combination of both. 165 Since 1959, Sweden has hosted Melodifestivalen, a six-week nationally televised show that determines Sweden' s Eurovision song submission through a panel of jurors and, beginning in 1999, a public vote. Eurovision brings that song and its performer(s) to a global audience of 200 million. 166 At the Eurovision contest, typically held for three nights in May, a performer (or performers) from each participating country performs their song. 167 Then, a panel of five music industry professionals and TV viewers from each country vote to determine the winning song (voters cannot vote for their own country). 168 Sweden has the second most Eurovision wins in history, with six behind Ireland' s seven. 169 ABBA remains the most successful winner in the program' s sixty-six-year history. 170 ABBA 's career is a remarkable example of Swedish musicians' vision for international success. From the beginning, ABBA thought beyond Sweden. All four members--Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (the first letter of each of their first names' gives the group their name)--had experienced considerable national success as solo artists or members of groups before forming ABBA. ABBA 's first Eurovision submission was a song called “Ring Ring,” released in February 1973 as a single from their debut album of the same name. Though not chosen to represent Sweden at 170 Ibid. 169 “Sweden,” Eurovision Song Contest, Accessed January 3, 2023, https://eurovision. tv/country/sweden. 168 Ibid. 167 “How the Eurovision Song Contest Works. ” 166 Lee Adams, “This Is How Sweden's Global Music Factory Works. ” 165 Ibid. 46	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Eurovision, it became a major hit in Sweden and several other European countries, both in its Swedish and, more importantly, English versions. The following year, ABBA reentered Melodifestivalen with “Waterloo,” also recorded in Swedish and English. On April 6, 1974, “Waterloo” was crowned the winning song at Eurovision. Instantly, ABBA was catapulted to international fame as “Waterloo” peaked at number one across European music charts and at number six in the United States. 171 Its parent album featured songs performed entirely in English (save for the Swedish version of “Waterloo”) and was released to major commercial success in Europe. ABBA would continue to achieve international hits until their disbandment in 1982, including a number-one single and four top-twenty albums in the U. S., establishing the sound of global Swedish pop in the process. 172 ABBA 's influence in transforming the Swedish music industry from national to international and in the songwriting approach of contemporary Swedish writer-producers cannot be overstated. Before ABBA, there had been a few successful international Swedish acts, namely the instrumental band The Spotnicks and the rock band Blue Swede (who had a number-one hit in the U. S. in 1974 with a cover of B. J. Thomas' “Hooked on a Feeling”), but none with consistent chart success. 173 ABBA was the first Swedish act to unabashedly embrace singing in English, with the primary aim of reaching a global audience. 174 According to John Seabrook, ABBA adapted Schlager music for the 174 Lee Adams, “This Is How Sweden's Global Music Factory Works. ” 173 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 7. 172 Ibid. 171 Bronson, “45 Years Ago Today, ABBA Started Its Global Conquest With Eurovision Win for 'Waterloo. '” 47	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
international pop soundscape, disguising any trace of its origin while simultaneously embracing Swedish music tradition. 175 Though rooted in Swedish music tradition, ABBA 's music, like much of contemporary Swedish pop, is global in its sound and style, meaning it can be appreciated by and compete within a diverse musical and cultural climate. Returning to Ola Johansson' s Role Model Thesis, ABBA created a template for Swedish pop, from simple English lyrics to catchy, major-minor melodies that combined emotion with dance-driven fun. Anders B, a member of the Danish pop band Alphabeat, compared ABBA 's music to that of Max Martin' s: “[Martin' s] early stuff is like ABBA-you can just tell it's his melody and vocal arrangement.... It's super-bright and super-pop, but also has these minor chords, so there' s a sense of tension in it. ” 176 Post-ABBA, Swedish musicians saw increased exposure and success as acts like Europe, Roxette, Neneh Cherry, Ace of Base, Rednex, The Cardigans, and The Hives reached international music charts. Roxette, in particular, followed a similar career trajectory to ABBA; the fusion of two nationally successful solo artists resulted in an internationally chart-topping duo that outperformed ABBA in terms of U. S. chart success. 177 Björn Ulvaeus asserted, “No one would listen to Swedish music before ABBA-we were door-openers definitely. ” 178 Martin agreed, indirectly paraphrasing the Role Model Thesis: “Having a role model. 178 Hunter-Tilney, “How Sweden Became a Pop Music Powerhouse. ” 177 Burnett, “Dressed for Success: Sweden from Abba to Roxette,” 145. 176 Nick Levine, “Max Martin: The Secrets of the World's Best Pop Songwriter,” BBC, November 19, 2019, https://www. bbc. com/culture/article/20191119-max-martin-the-secrets-of-the-worlds-best-pop-son gwriter. 175 DJ Louie XIV, “MAX MARTIN (with The New Yorker's John Seabrook),” Pop Pantheon, Accessed January 3, 2023, https://open. spotify. com/episode/44PLa Mpy Zlo Mp7Mc AAgb Gx?si=93e0b0c029de47b2. 48	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
ABBA, they could do it, we could probably do it too. ” 179 “They put Sweden on the map in music history, and they have inspired many artists and next-generation songwriters that it's possible to reach success internationally, even coming from such a small country as Sweden,” said Caroline Fagerlind, director of ABBA The Museum in Stockholm, to The National in 2019. 180 Aside from influencing Swedish pop songwriting and demonstrating the possibility of international success, ABBA helped develop the Swedish music industry. 181 They provided the necessary industry training for continued music export by sourcing local labor for recording their music. 182 As a result, music infrastructure developed, and municipal music schools became widespread throughout ABBA 's 1970s reign, coinciding with the increase in internationally successful Swedish acts during the 1980s and 1990s. 183 Four decades after their final public performance, ABBA 's relevance has endured. Their greatest hits compilation album, ABBA Gold: Gr eatest Hits, is the second highest-selling album of all time in the U. K. and one of the best-selling albums worldwide. 184 Mamma Mia!, a jukebox musical based on the music of ABBA, has played on London' s West End since 1999 and Broadway from 2001 to 2015. Two blockbuster movie-musical adaptations were released in 2008 and 2018, respectively. American pop icons Madonna and Cher, the latter of whom appeared in the second Mamma Mia! film, have both absorbed ABBA 's music 184 Hunter-Tilney, “How Sweden Became a Pop Music Powerhouse. ” 183 Hegarty, “Why Does Sweden Win at Pop Music?” 182 Ibid. 181 Hunter-Tilney, “How Sweden Became a Pop Music Powerhouse. ” 180 Garratt, “From Avicii to Ace of Base. ” 179 Barlow, “Max Martin. ” 49	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
into their own; Cher with an ABBA cover album aptly named Dancing Queen and Madonna with a prominent sample of ABBA 's “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)” in her 2005 hit “Hung Up. ” Following in the footsteps of Mamma Mia!, a jukebox musical featuring Max Martin-penned songs premiered on the West End in 2019 and on Broadway in 2022. In 2021, ABBA returned with their first studio album in forty years, reaching number one across Europe and number two in the U. S., their highest-charting album in the U. S. to date. 185 After decades of dismissal by critics who viewed them as manufactured and saccharine, ABBA has entered the modern pop canon, their music everlasting as it transcends generations. To this day, they are the sound and face of Swedish pop. 186 Eurovision was a crucial stepping stone for ABBA 's international visibility and, consequently, the visibility of future Swedish performers and writer-producers. Eurovision and Melodifestivalen have consistently provided work opportunities for some of the most successful Swedish writer-producers, including Red One, David Kreuger, Carl Falk, and Kristian Lundin, who have written Swedish entries, and Jörgen Elofsson and Anders Bagge, who have written entries for other countries. Entries are mainstays on the Swedish charts and radio, likely influencing Swedish writer-producers who follow national popular music. 187 The requirement that songs be less than three minutes (per Eurovision rules) and that they should ideally be instantly identifiable and 187 Ibid, 115. 186 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 7. 185 Keith Caulfield, “ABBA Achieves Highest-Charting Album Ever on Billboard 200 With Debut of 'Voyage,'” B i l l b o a r d, November 14, 2021, https://www. billboard. com/pro/abba-voyage-billboard-200-highest-charting-album/. 50	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
memorable (votes are cast live to determine the winner) 188 can be traced across Swedish pop songwriting, whether or not that songwriting is for Eurovision. Denniz Pop, the other significant twentieth-century Swedish musician who influenced modern pop songwriting besides ABBA, is one of the most adamant adopters of these songwriting practices: brevity and memorability. Along with Martin and many of the Swedish writer-producers referenced in this chapter, Denniz repurposed elements of the Eurovision and ABBA sounds to create something modern and mainstream. Denniz Pop and the Cheiron Sound The current practice of American record labels hiring Swedish writer-producers began in the early 1990s with Dag Krister Volle. Born on April 26, 1963, Volle, better known as Denniz Pop (also stylized as Denniz Po P), started his music career as a DJ in Tullinge, a suburb of Stockholm, in the early 1980s. He soon became involved in the Stockholm nightclub circuit, where he joined a collective of Swedish DJs operating under the name Swe Mix. 189 Headed by René Hedemyr, also known as Jack Master Fax, Swe Mix produced remixes of popular American and British songs for the European market. 190 Denniz was among the group' s most successful, and his remixes, notably a slowed-down version of Michael Jackson' s “Billie Jean,” broke Swe Mix internationally. 191 191 Björnberg and Bossius, M a d e i n S w e d e n, 143. 190 Ibid, 21-23. 189 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 21. 188 “How the Eurovision Song Contest Works. ” 51	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Eventually, Swe Mix remixes were played in clubs across Europe and sold on twelve-inch vinyl discs. 192 The financial success of these remixes encouraged Swe Mix to establish a dance-oriented record label, Swe Mix Records & Publishing, separate from the original Swe Mix Productions. 193 Several dance acts signed to Swe Mix Records and scored sizable hits in Sweden and Europe during the 1990s, most notably the 1990 dancehall song “Hello Afrika,” recorded by Swedish-Nigerian rapper Dr. Alban and produced by Denniz. 194 One of the distinguishing characteristics between Denniz and the rest of his Swe Mix counterparts was his unabashed love of commercial pop music. The name Denniz Pop is a reference to the comic strip character Dennis the Menace and Denniz' s obsession with pop 195 (“Pop,” in this context, also stands for “Prince of Pick-ups,” referencing Denniz' s skill with a turntable stylus). 196 While spinning records at Ritz, a popular club in Stockholm, Denniz observed audience reactions to particular songs. 197 He noticed that catchy, arguably cheesy choruses and simple melodies got the most people on the dance floor. 198 Using this strategy to test music in a live setting, Denniz perfected the songwriting techniques that would become the norm for Swedish writer-producers and transform pop songwriting industrywide. 199 A few years later, writer-producers at Cheiron would 199 Ibid. 198 Ibid. 197 James Ballardie, “Denniz Pop: The Man Who Created the Sound of Modern Pop,” BBC, April 4, 2019, https://www. bbc. com/culture/article/20190314-denniz-pop-the-man-who-created-the-sound-of-mo dern-pop. 196 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 25-26. 195 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 51. 194 Ibid. 193 Björnberg and Bossius, M a d e i n S w e d e n, 143. 192 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 24. 52	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
test up to one hundred variations of a song across Stockholm clubs in search of which version was the “hit. ” 200 Though Denniz' s strategies were seemingly simple, they were meticulous; the goal of producing a song for mass appeal is intimidating and elusive. Denniz' s foray into commercial pop music meant severing ties with the DJs at Swe Mix, who ultimately could not support his global ambitions. 201 In 1992, Denniz and Tom Talomaa, a Swedish club owner, sold Swe Mix Records & Publishing to Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG). 202 That same year, with the help of BMG, they opened Cheiron Studios in Stockholm. 203 The remaining DJs at Swe Mix continued to operate under the name Swe Mix Productions. One of them, Stone Bridge, had a momentary commercial breakthrough in 1993 with his remix of American dance singer Robin S. 's “Show Me Love. ” 204 204 Björnberg and Bossius, M a d e i n S w e d e n, 144. 203 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 43. 202 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 43; Björnberg and Bossius, M a d e i n S w e d e n, 143-144. 201 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 51. 200 Ibid. 53	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
F i g. 1. 1 : Cheiron Studios in Stockholm 205 Initially envisioned as a Swedish record label (a venture that proved unprofitable), Cheiron became the go-to hit factory for international artists seeking pop smashes. However, its rise to fame relied on the success of a Swedish group. Ulf Ekber g and Jonas Berggren, school friends and musicians, heard the song “Another Mother,” recorded by Swedish-Nigerian singer Kayo and produced by Denniz, at a record store in 1990. 206 After hearing the song, the two men, who were in a techno group with Berggren' s sisters Jenny and Malin, decided to travel to Stockholm in search of its producer. 207 Unable to locate Denniz, they sent a 207 Ibid. 206 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 35. 205 Polar Music Prize, “Max Martin. ” 54	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
demo tape to Swe Mix, where Denniz was still working at the time 208 (Denniz remembers it being sent to his house). 209 As the story goes, the demo tape got stuck in Denniz' s car stereo, forcing him to listen to it every time he drove. 210 Denniz' s initial distaste for the demo tape, titled “Mr. Ace,” turned into appreciation, and after receiving a follow-up call from the group, Denniz agreed to produce them. 211 “Mr. Ace” was reworked and retitled “All That She Wants. ” Denniz aimed for simplicity, stripping away much of the song' s original instrumentation and a rap verse in favor of a four-on-the-floor reggae groove accompanied by a spacey synth patch and whistled melody. 212 In typical Swedish fashion, the verse chords are major, and the chorus chords are minor. Several lyrics contain slight grammatical errors and quirks, the most glaring being the repeated hook: “All that she wants is another baby,” an awkward and unclear attempt at saying that the narrator is searching for a boyfriend or partner rather than a child. 213 None of these peculiarities mattered to Denniz. Hardly a musician in the traditional sense, Denniz mostly cared that the music and lyrics sounded “good” together. 214 Whether or not they made sense compositionally or grammatically was an afterthought. This philosophy, born from his experience as a DJ and his audience “tests,” would inform the Max Martin school of pop songwriting, particularly Martin' s Melody-first and Melodic Math approaches explained in Chapter Two. 214 Ibid. 213 Ibid, 40 212 Ibid, 39. 211 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 36-37. 210 Ibid. 209 I n t e r v i e w w i t h D e n n i z P o p & M a x M a r t i n ( H o w T h e y S t a r t e d W o r k i n g w i t h A c e o f B a s e ), 1995, https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=gb Vcg Euc Md Y. 208 Ibid. 55	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
“All That She Wants” by Ace of Base was released in Scandinavia in 1992 and became a number-one hit in Denmark (it peaked at numbers two and three in Norway and Sweden, respectively). 215 By the spring of 1993, it had reached high positions across Europe, including number one in the United Kingdom. 216 Clive Davis, the legendary American record executive and then-president of Arista Records, heard the song while vacationing in Europe and determined it was a hit with crossover appeal. 217 He met and signed Ace of Base at the BMG Building in New York City under the agreement that they record two more “hits” for the U. S. version of their debut album, Happy Nation, which had been released in Denmark in 1992 and other parts of Europe in 1993. 218 Those hits were the Denniz-produced “The Sign” and the Tina Turner cover “Don' t Turn Around. ” Released in the U. S. in November 1993, Ace of Base' s debut album, retitled The Sign, was a surprise smash and reached number one on the Billboar d 200. 219 The title track sat at number one on the Billboar d Hot 100 for six non-consecutive weeks and became the best-selling single of 1994. 220 “All That She Wants” and “Don' t Turn Around” peaked at numbers two and four, respectively. 221 The Sign went on to sell over 23 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. 222 For their sophomore album, The Bridge, Ace of Base collaborated with Denniz and a young Martin. The 222 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 45. 221 Tom Breihan, “The Number Ones: Ace Of Base's 'The Sign,'” S t e r e o g u m, February 28, 2022, https://www. stereogum. com/2177528/the-number-ones-ace-of-bases-the-sign/columns/the-number -ones/. 220 Ibid, 45. 219 Ibid, 42. 218 Ibid, 41-42. 217 Ibid, 42. 216 Ibid. 215 Ibid, 41. 56	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
album' s commercial success was inconsistent worldwide (the lead single, “Beautiful Life,” produced by Denniz, Martin, and Ace of Base member Jonas Berggren, peaked at number fifteen in the U. S. ) and represented a significant sales slump from their debut. 223 Ace of Base quickly faded into obscurity, but they had convincingly put Denniz and Cheiron on the map. Ace of Base' s spellbinding success and unique sound attracted public interest in Denniz and Cheiron by national and international record labels and executives. In response, Denniz began assembling a team of in-house writer-producers who could provide the skills required for mass music exportation. 224 This team included Martin, Kristian Lundin, Andreas Carlsson, Herbie Crichlow, Jake Schulze, David Kreuger, Per Magnusson, Jörgen Elofsson, and John Amatiello. Many of these collaborators, like Lundin and Kreuger, had been DJs in Stockholm, and others, specifically Carlsson, Elofsson, and Martin, were briefly signed to Cheiron Records as recording artists. 225 Denniz approached songwriting as collaborative and believed that the best songs borrowed from the minds of many. 226 Songs at Cheiron were written in groups, where different songwriters were responsible for different parts of the composition. One person might write a verse, another a chorus, another a bridge. Melody, lyrics, arrangement, and production could each be handled by different people. 226 Polar Music Prize, “Max Martin. ” 225 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 52. 224 Ibid, 64. 223 Ibid, 46. 57	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Nearly all instrumentation was programmed electronically using the DAW Logic. 227 Sounds--synth pads, drum hits, horn stabs--were frequently reused, and samples (like the snap of a finger) were recorded live or ripped from foreign CDs, partially due to financial limitations and the still-new and underdeveloped music technology available at the time. 228 When a song was successful, sounds and samples were often repurposed for a subsequent release by the same artist or a different artist. 229 Unsurprisingly, Cheiron established a highly sought-after signature sound replicated by competing studios. 230 American label Jive Records had the key ingredient to keeping Cheiron at the top: a boy band. South African businessmen Clive Calder and Ralph Simon founded Jive in 1981 as an extension of their music publishing company Zomba Corporation. Throughout the 1980s, Zomba provided songs to Arista artists via a partnership with Clive Davis, while Jive signed and managed a roster of hip-hop and R&B acts. 231 In 1991, BMG purchased 25 percent of Zomba and agreed to distribute Jive releases worldwide (BMG would later purchase 20 percent of Jive in 1996 and the entirety of Zomba in 2002). 232 However, Calder needed to sign a pop act because hip-hop and R&B were not considered internationally marketable. 233 Conveniently, American entrepreneur Lou Pearlman had crafted Backstreet Boys, 233 Ibid, 61. 232 Ibid, 60-61. 231 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 59-60. 230 Ibid. 229 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 106. 228 Ibid. 227 Daniel Griffiths, “Pop Super-Producer Rami Yacoub: “Max Martin Said 'This Is the Magic'... It Was Pretty Amazing”,” Music Radar, March 31, 2021, https://www. musicradar. com/news/pop-super-producer-rami-yacoub-max-martin-said-this-is-the- magic-it-was-pretty-amazing. 58	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
a group of five male teenagers, in 1993. The group signed with Jive at the Zomba building in 1995. 234 Immediately, Jive began searching for material, but after lukewarm enthusiasm from American writer-producers, they turned to Martin Dodd, head of artist and repertoire for Jive in Europe, who suggested Denniz. 235 In the summer of 1995, Backstreet Boys recorded “We've Got It Goin' On” 236 and “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” 237 at Cheiron. Both songs epitomize the “Cheiron sound”: a repeated instrumental melodic motif introduces the theme and leads to a climax of an arena rock chorus paired with flashy synths (typically the Roland JV-2080) 238 and the signature Cheiron snare (created by Martin) 239 and kick-drum combination (layered to maximize impact). Though both songs and their corresponding international debut album made Backstreet Boys a household name across Europe, they failed to make a dent on the Hot 100, a notoriously tough landscape for boy bands and girl groups. 240 Things changed, however, with the explosive global debut of the Spice Girls in 1996. Hoping to break America, Jive reconfigured the international version of Backstreet Boys' self-titled debut album, stitching together previously released songs, including the original Cheiron contributions, and new Cheiron singles “As 240 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 76. 239 T h e L e g a c y o f D e n n i z P o p-D o c u m e n t a r y, 2017, https://www. youtube. com/watch?v=Gm51kn Lr Jek. 238 Griffiths, “Pop Super-Producer Rami Yacoub. ” 237 Written by Max Martin and Herbert Crichlow and produced by Max Martin and Kristian Lundin. 236 Written by Max Martin, Denniz Pop, and Herbert Crichlow and produced by Denniz Pop and Max Martin. 235 Ibid, 63-64. 234 Ibid, 62. 59	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Long As You Love Me” 241 and “Everybody (Backstreet' s Back)” 242 to form the track listing. 243 Within months the album became a bestseller in America, landing two of the Cheiron singles in the top five. 244 Denniz and Martin had proven themselves essential to Backstreet Boys and the sound of teen pop. The reverse was true as well. Though Denniz and Martin found success working with other teen acts, specifically Swedish singer Robyn and British boy band 5ive, no partnership was as fruitful as the one they forged with Jive. Capitalizing on the success of Backstreet Boys, Pearlman developed plans for a competing boy band and a corresponding girl group. NSYNC, the boy band, debuted with the Denniz-Martin produced “I Want You Back” in 1996. After flopping in America, BMG Ariola signed NSYNC and copied the Jive strategy by rereleasing a U. S.-and U. K.-specific version of their self-titled debut album in 1998. 245 Around the same time, a teenage girl from Louisiana who had coincidentally worked with NSYNC members Justin Timberlake and JC Chasez on Disney Channel' s The All-New Mickey Mouse Club auditioned for Pearlman' s girl group Innosense. 246 She was admitted but passed in favor of a solo career. 247 Jive signed her as an American alternative to Robyn and sent her to Sweden. 248 248 Ibid, 88-89. 247 Ibid, 86. 246 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 85-86. 245 Taylor Weatherby, “NSYNC Reflects on Making U. S. Debut & Competing With Backstreet Boys as Self-Titled Album Turns 20: 'It Was Us Against the World,'” B i l l b o a r d, March 24, 2018, https://www. billboard. com/music/pop/nsync-debut-album-us-20th-anniversary-oral-history-82581 81/. 244 “Backstreet Boys,” B i l l b o a r d, Accessed January 4, 2023, https://www. billboard. com/artist/backstreet-boys/. 243 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 82. 242 Written and produced by Denniz Pop and Max Martin. 241 Written by Max Martin and produced by Max Martin and Kristian Lundin. 60	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
While at Cheiron, she recorded four of the five singles for her debut album... Baby One Mor e T ime. 249 Britney Spears was an instant success owed to her unmistakable charisma and perfectly packaged pop sound and image. “... Baby One More Time,” her debut single written by Martin, announced the presence of a superstar. The song reached number one in nearly every major chart across the world, marking the first of Martin' s twenty-five U. S. number ones, and, with the help of its music video, became a cultural phenomenon. 250 It is one of the best-selling singles of all time and a hallmark of teen pop. The album of the same name has sold twenty-five million copies worldwide 251 and is the best-selling debut album by a female artist in history. Subsequent singles, “Sometimes,” 252 “(You Drive Me) Crazy,” 253 and “Born to Make You Happy” 254 were all written by Cheiron writer-producers and dominated charts globally. In 1999, Martin and an assortment of other Cheiron collaborators produced all four singles--“I Want It That Way,” “Larger Than Life,” “Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely,” and “The One”--for Backstreet Boys' blockbuster album Millenium which sold a staggering 1. 1 million copies in the U. S. its first week. 255 Cheiron repeated this success with the even bigger openings of Spears' 255 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 98. 254 Written by Andreas Carlsson and Kristian Lundin and produced by Kristian Lundin. 253 Written by Jörgen Elofsson, Max Martin, David Kreuger, and Per Magnusson and produced by Per Magnusson, David Kreuger, and Max Martin. 252 Written by Jörgen Elofsson and produced by Per Magnusson and David Kreuger. 251 Tierney Bricker, “Secrets You Never Knew About Britney Spears'... Baby One More Time,” E ! O n l i n e, November 26, 2021, https://www. eonline. com/news/1003846/britney-spears-baby-one-more-time-turns-20-secrets-you- never-knew-about-her-debut-album. 250 Ibid, 97. 249 Ibid, 94. 61	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
Oops!... I Did It Again (1. 3 million copies) 256 and NSYNC' s No Strings Attached (2. 4 million copies), 257 both released by Jive at the turn of the millennium. The Cheiron team was responsible for the biggest singles from each album, including the Martin-penned “Oops!... I Did It Again,” 258 “Lucky,” 259 and “Stronger” 260 for Spears, and “It's Gonna Be Me” 261 for NSYNC. Unfortunately, Denniz never got to witness their global reign. On August 30, 1998, a month before “... Baby One More Time” was released, he died of stomach cancer. He was thirty-five years old. Denniz' s death was the first sign that Cheiron was coming to an end. Following Denniz' s death, a twenty-seven-year-old Martin took over as Cheiron director and mentored the new Cheiron addition, Rami Yacoub (also known as Rami). Their songwriting partnership, which mirrored the one Martin had shared with Denniz, spawned mega hits for Spears, *NSYNC, and the final Backstreet Boys album released in their commercial prime, Black & Blue. Martin continued to work with other Cheiron writer-producers on hits for Céline Dion and Irish boy band Westlife and won the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year award in 1999 and 2000. However, though success continued, it was dwindling. Teen pop had fallen out of favor for something gritty and less polished sounding. While cost and 261 Written by Max Martin, Andreas Carlsson, and Rami Yacoub and produced by Rami Yacoub. 260 Written and produced by Max Martin and Rami Yacoub. 259 Written by Max Martin, Alexander Kronlund, and Rami Yacoub and produced by Max Martin and Rami Yacoub. 258 Written and produced by Max Martin and Rami Yacoub. 257 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 104. 256 Gary Trust, “This Week in Billboard Chart History: In 2000, 'Oops,' Britney Spears Hit No. 1 'Again,'” B i l l b o a r d, May 29, 2017, https://www. billboard. com/pro/this-week-in-billboard-chart-history-in-2000-oops-britney-spears/. 62	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
time-ef ficient, recycling samples ultimately created a stale sound that competitors easily replicated. By the early 2000s, reliable Cheiron clientele like Spears and Justin Timberlake, who was embarking on a solo career post-*NSYNC, began trading the Cheiron pop gloss for a comparatively “black” sound helmed by American producers Timbaland and the Pharrell Williams-Chad Hugo duo The Neptunes. 262 A message posted on the Cheiron website by Martin and Tom Talomaa, the co-founder of Cheiron, announced the closure of Cheiron in 2000: “Cheiron was created with the intention of having fun, making a few hits and not getting too serious about it. At the end of this year we have fulfilled our commitments and are able to do as we please. We feel that the 'hype' of Cheiron has become bigger than itself and it's time to quit while we're ahead. ” 263 Almost instantly, the Cheiron team splintered, forming companies in small groups while remaining connected in the Stockholm music scene. Former Cheiron member Anders Bagge and record store owner Christian Wåhlber g founded Murlyn Music in 1998. Adopting a similar workflow to Cheiron, where songwriters worked in pairs on different parts of the same song, Murlyn produced hits for American boy band 98° as well as Céline Dion, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez, Madonna, and Britney Spears. 264 Other companies, Location Songs, founded by Andreas Carlsson, Kristian Lundin, and Jake Schulze, and A Side Productions, founded by Per Magnusson, 264 Johansson, S o n g s F r o m S w e d e n, 53. 263 “Cheiron Special Announcement,” Internet Archive, October 5, 2000, https://web. archive. org/web/20001005195819/http://www. cheiron. se/. 262 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 123. 63	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
David Kreuger, and Jörgen Elofsson, emer ged in 2001. Martin and Tom Talomaa started Maratone in January 2001 and enlisted Rami Yacoub as a collaborator. Given their reputation with Cheiron and the extensive network of writer-producers in Stockholm, Martin and Yacoub attracted a string of former customers like Spears, Dion, and Nick Carter of Backstreet Boys and worked with the three Cheiron spin-of fs. However, the hits were not as bountiful this time, forcing Martin to recalibrate, a story reserved for Chapter Three. Despite being short-lived, Cheiron left a lasting impact on the sound of Swedish pop and the songwriting methods that continue to permeate the global music industry. In the same way ABBA functioned as a role model for Swedish performers chasing international success, Denniz proved that Swedish writer-producers could compete in the American-dominated music industry. Assembling a team of pop masterminds who continue to operate in the global music industry, Denniz provided many of the Swedish writer-producers referenced in this thesis with the training, resources, and connections they needed to find sustained success. Most, if not all, of these writer-producers, can trace their roots to Cheiron as members of the studio or mentees of Martin or other Cheiron writer-producers. 265 “He [Denniz] just put together a bunch of people who really had nothing to do with each other, and he created this band of brothers,” remarked Andreas Carlsson. 266 Martin' s close relationship with Denniz, in particular, was integral to his success as a writer-producer musically, personally, and professionally. 266 Ballardie, “Denniz Pop. ” 265 Johansson, S o n g s f r o m S w e d e n, 45. 64	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf
While Martin was a trained musician who understood the technicalities of music composition, Denniz had experience from his career as a DJ and a sharp ear for what “worked. ” Reflecting on his relationship with Denniz, Martin stated, “It changed everything. The fact that he even noticed me, let alone bring me into his world. It changed my whole life. His approach, that it should be fun, that we could be a team... It's stayed with me throughout my career. ” 267 Many of Martin' s songwriting characteristics defined in Chapter Two stem from his experience working with Denniz. These characteristics have been passed on by Martin to his hugely successful protégés, including Dr. Luke, Shellback, Savan Kotecha, ILYA, and Ali Payami, and continue to circulate among writer-producers around the world. Denniz also helped popularize widely practiced strategies, such as the collaborative songwriting model at Cheiron and “The L. A. Car Test” (a practice in which pop songs are played in a car driven up and down the Pacific Coast Highway to ensure they sound right for the radio). 268 The Cheiron sound ultimately became synonymous with Swedish pop in the late 1990s and early 2000s and a designation of precision and chart success. Though the average listener may not realize it, the teen pop sound of Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and Britney Spears, plus contemporaries like Jessica Simpson and Mandy Moore, who emulated these artists in part, is essentially that of the Cheiron writer-producers. 268 Seabrook, T h e S o n g M a c h i n e, 36. 267 T h e L e g a c y o f D e n n i z P o p-D o c u m e n t a r y. 65	Melodies Music and Mentorship The Legacy of Max Martin in Sweden America and Beyond.pdf