Like Max Martin, Karl Johan Schuster had heavy metal roots—the producer who would be known as Shellback was first a vocalist for a melodic black metal band called Blinded Colony. Schuster signed to Max Martin’s production company, Maratone, at the age of 22, and he got right to work making hits. ”So What” is a songwriting collaboration with Martin that demonstrates the younger producer’s ability to meet the moment of the late ‘00s. The sound is “rock,” the chorus is massive, but tucked into the mix is a zippy hint of the electronic moment to come, and most importantly, there’s more than a hint of parasociality in the lyrics. Pink, just a couple of years away from going full Cirque du Soleil with her whole thing, was unafraid to channel her brash personality into a song about her (at the time) estranged husband Cary Hart—“I guess I just lost my husband, I don’t know where he went”—and was rewarded for her boldness with a #1 hit, her biggest-selling single ever. “So What” places Max Martin and Shellback at the forefront of Pop Songs We Know Are About Real People, essentially removing the generic “U” in “Since U Been Gone” forever.
Usher feat. Pitbull, “DJ Got Us Falling in Love” (2010)
Another Martin/Shellback collab, this one features both producers on songwriting duty (along with another Martin associate, Savan Kotecha) and heralds the new decade’s full shift into Eurodance. By the time the 2010s rolled around, it was all about 4-on-the-floor rhythms, big-room synths, and lyrics about enjoying yourself to the fullest at the discothéque. This was a striking transition from the hip-hop and R&B-dominated 2000s; a handful of years prior, the Swedes were trying to make their clients sound more like Usher, but now Usher wanted to sound Swedish. A reject from Rihanna’s slush pile, “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” is a little more generic than prior Cheiron Studio hits, but there’s an unmistakable Scandinavian melancholy in song’s minor key, as well as the wistful way Usher coos about the romantic influence of his local disc jockey.
Maroon 5, “Moves Like Jagger” (2011)
