A lot goes into an album. Artists spend time writing, either solo or with a team, to develop the perfect lyrics. Producers create catchy beats, labels want to ensure a successful release and employees manage everything from budgets and marketing to publishing deals. All parties involved want the project to be successful. The fuel for this success is hype – the excitement the consumer has for the project’s release. Hit songs are key for building hype and are a major tool for creating a successful project.

Singles are released separately from the projects they appear on. They’re a sample for fans to listen to, building hype for what the project has in store. The singles an artist releases are often a dead giveaway for the songs they intended to be hits.

Almost every genre uses singles in similar ways, and they often share similar features: catchy hooks, memorable punchlines, faster tempos and “danceability.” By knowing which songs were singles, or designed to be hits, we can listen to albums with better ears.

As with most things, as the love for music grows deeper, you begin understanding and seeing the trends that casual fans may miss – not just in how a song sounds, or how the lyrics flow, but in how the song intended to impact the listener.

Some songs were crafted to provoke thought while others were crafted to provoke movement. Put another way, some songs are created to be hits and others are for an artist’s core fan base.

Music made for a core fan is different from the artist in his or her truest form, which reminds you why you’re a fan in the first place.

On Jan. 16, Harlem rapper Dave East dropped his highly anticipated project “Paranoia 2,” a sequel to last year’s EP, “Paranoia: A True Story.” While this project doesn’t have any singles yet, listening closely will reveal the hit versus core trend in action. East’s third EP is a solid mix of introspective, up-tempo, flashy and hard songs. In them he talks about his upbringing, mistakes, hustle and the experiences that brought him to where he is today.

In this 15-track project, songs like “Woke Up,” “Thank You” and “Maintain” that were up-tempo, had catchy hooks and were clearly intended to become more popular records. It also featured slower, more introspective songs like “Powder,” “Corey” and “What Made Me,” where he spoke about becoming a better father, old friendships and artists who had an impact in his life. These songs are what his core fans love: they remind us of how an artist overcomes obstacles, just like us, and strives to be a better person, just like us.

While hit songs are exciting, their substance is different. They have a less direct meaning, less passion and more flash. The song “Thank You” is about thanking haters. It’s a good song with clever lyrics, an up-tempo beat and catchy hook, but it lacks real substance. “Thank You” may turn into a hit, and a lot of people may play the song, but if you ask his fans they’ll probably prefer other songs. It isn’t the kind of song his day-one fans would go wild over, but is the kind of song you can imagine being played on the radio.

Whether you love or hate an artist’s hit songs, it’s likely that most aren’t at the top of a personal favorites list. Nevertheless, art is fluid and artists have the right to progress their sound and widen their fan base. As fans, instead of losing love for the artist or accusing them of “selling out,” we should understand why they’re releasing the music in the first place. By doing that, we get a better handle on things and understand where the music is coming from.

Jalen Nash is a sophomore political science major. His music column appears biweekly in Pulp. You can email him at janash@syr.edu or follow him on Twitter @ja_nash3.

Published on January 24, 2018 at 10:52 pm