Forced Hit Songs Fail

Mike Posner shares a story about learning that trying to deliberately create hit songs doesn't work.

"I experienced a lot of success in my early twenties and got addicted to it - the fame, the adoration, the money, really the fame. I can remember trying to replicate the success I had from my first hit song 'Cooler Than Me.'

I would go into the studio trying to make a hit, trying to make something everyone else likes. Whenever I tried to create from that vantage point, the only thing I succeeded in making was something I hated. Sometimes I'd think 'Wow, even if I don't like it, maybe everyone else will - it kind of checks all the boxes, it's the right BPM, it's got a catchy melody and a cool lyric.' It doesn't really meet my standards for my aesthetics, what I think is beautiful, but who cares what I think, this is about me being famous.

And of course, if you don't like it, nobody's going to like it. I thank God that it never gave me success with one of those songs because it wanted me to learn that very lesson that I could teach to others. Could you imagine if one of those things I didn't really like got really popular? That would have been even worse. I'd still be doing interviews about that song now, still be singing that song at my shows now."