Max Martin
Karl Martin Sandberg (Swedish: [ˈmǎʈːɪn ˈsânː(d)bærj, - ˈsâmːbærj]; born 26 February 1971),[1][2] known professionally as Max Martin, is a Swedish record producer and songwriter. He rose to prominence in the late 1990s with production credits on a string of hit singles, namely Britney Spears's "...Baby One More Time" (1998), the Backstreet Boys' "I Want It That Way" (1999), Céline Dion's "That's the Way It Is" (1999) and NSYNC's "It's Gonna Be Me" (2000).
Martin has written or co-written 27 Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles; 25 of which he has produced or co-produced, an all-time record for the chart as of March 2024. His credits include Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" (2008) and "Roar" (2013), Maroon 5's "One More Night" (2012), Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" and "Blank Space" (2014), and the Weeknd's "Blinding Lights" (2019) and "Save Your Tears" (2020). "Blinding Lights" is the best performing song of all time according to the chart.[3][4] Martin has written the second-most number-one singles on the chart, behind only Paul McCartney (32), having surpassed John Lennon (26) with his 27th number one in March 2024.[5][6][7] Many of Martin's hits were used in the 2019 jukebox musical & Juliet.
In early 2019, his single sales were tallied by The Hollywood Reporter to be at over $135 million.[8] According to Variety, his net worth was approximately $260 million in 2017; the previous year, his corporate entity generated revenue of $54 million with a profit of $19 million.[9] Martin has won the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year award for a record of 11 times.[10][11][12] He has also won five Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, and nominations for an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
Life and career[edit]
Early career and It's Alive[edit]
Sandberg was born and grew up in Stenhamra, Ekerö Municipality, Stockholm County. His mother was a middle school teacher and his father was a police officer.[13] As a child, Martin was a student of Sweden's public music-education scheme, and once said he had "public music education to thank for everything".[14]
As a teenager he sang in a variety of bands before joining a glam-style metal band called It's Alive in 1985 as their singer and frontman.[15] It's Alive was formed by Peter Kahm and ex-Lazy members Per Aldeheim and Kim Björkgren on guitars, and John Rosth who had been a member of Lineout. Martin eventually dropped out of high school to pursue a career in music with his band under the nickname "Martin White". In 1988 It's Alive participated in Rock-SM (English: Swedish Rock Championship), a nationwide battle of the bands, and had a residency at a nightclub in Cyprus. The band got a breakthrough in 1991, as Dave Constable of Megarock Records offered them to make a demo record. The later debut album was originally pressed in 1,000 copies and later on given away as a free cover tape in the UK by the Metal Forces magazine.
The decision to focus on a music career paid off as they landed a record deal on producer Denniz PoP's label Cheiron Records, a BMG affiliate. After recording their second album Earthquake Visions, they released three singles in conjunction with the record and toured through Europe in 1994 supporting Kingdom Come. Earthquake Visions eventually sold a disappointing 30,000 copies, despite being released in as many as 30 countries. More importantly though, Martin also began collaborating on songs with Denniz Pop. Recognizing a talent for writing pop songs in the young rocker, Denniz Pop renamed his new protégé Max Martin and eventually became Martin's mentor.[16]
Artistry[edit]
Influences[edit]
When accepting the Polar Music Prize, Martin highlighted ABBA, Kiss, Prince and Lasse Holm as inspirations.[59]
Creative process[edit]
The traditional division of work in the record industry often has the artist or songwriter writing the songs and then hiring a producer to help shape the sound. But at Cheiron, it was the other way around; the producers wrote the songs, played the instruments, and engineered and mixed the recordings, and the artist was only brought in near the end of the process to do the vocals. For example, on Britney Spears's second album Oops!… I Did It Again (2000), Cheiron had already written seven songs and had proceeded to record the layers of music before Britney even arrived at the studios in early November 1999. It took her only one week to do the vocals. Martin and his team worked more like a band that alternated singers. Martin explained his working method: