Girls Like Us: Kelly Clarkson, P!nk & the Max Martin Factor (Pt 2)

Yesterday I introduced two artists that have to potential to be Girls Like Us. Here is the rest of the story:

After Kelly's massive success with Max Martin/Dr Luke penned singles "Since U Been Gone" and "Behind These Hazel Eyes" Pink was the next female star to hook up with the hit making duo. Her next disc, 2006's I'm Not Dead opened with the single "Stupid Girls" - a scathing indictment of fame-chasing celebutants. While the song was controversial, with a video clearly lampooning Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton and the Olsen twins, it didn't translate into the massive hit. Releasing the song was the start of her very public political side. Lyrics like "What happened to the dream of a girl president/she's dancing in the video next to 50 Cent" are hard hitting and bold.

She followed that single with a slow rising track "Who Knew" - a powerful ballad co-written with Martin and Luke. Exploring the themes of a lover who leaves after promising to never go was more universal than the bratty woman-child of her previous albums. The song never fully explains the reason for leaving, the video suggests drug use caused a rift but it could be interpreted as a lover dying. "If someone said three years from now/you'd be long gone/I'd stand up and punch that mouth/'cuz they're all wrong/I know better/'cuz you said forever/who knew" is a powerful lyric that resonates with so many.

She also showcased her political side with a protest song "Dear Mr. President" - an open letter to an already vastly unpopular president. She takes him to task on his views on gay rights and a lack of compassion for the poor.

While Pink was racking up hit singles with Max Martin's catchy pop formula's, Kelly Clarkson was riding high on her ASCAP win for Songwriter Of The Year. Ignore her label head, legend Clive Davis, she wanted to co-write all the songs for her next album. The result was 2007's commercial flop My December.

The difference between between her hits with Martin and Luke songwriting team and her own compositions was minimal at first glance. Her songs were angry pop/rock in some places, while others were slow burning ballads. The whole album was a unified artistic statement, a story of a young woman burned yet again by love. From the sweeping sadness of "Sober" - "three months and I'm still breathing/been a long road since those hands I left my tears in" to the bitter ex of "Never Again" - "I hope the ring you gave her turns her finger green/I would never wish bad things but I don't wish you well" to the most heartbreaking moment of her career.

"Irvine" was written while burnt out and exhausted, after trying to remove people from her life that were bringing her down. It's a prayer born out of pain, it's almost suicidal. Yes, American Idol's original sweetheart asks God "Can you feel how cold I am? Do you cry like I do? Are you lonely up there by yourself? Like I have felt all my life?" and "Are you there watching me/As I lie here on this floor? Do you cry with me/cry with me tonight?" It's heart breaking and beautiful.

While the album failed to create the singles and sales that Breakaway did, it's vastly more personal. Both Kelly and Pink have continued to work with Max Martin and Dr Luke (as have other hit making chicas like Avril Lavigne, The Veronicas and Katy Perry) and they have created some major hits. But the difference between those hits and the hits of Carole King or Joni Mitchell is that they aren't always their own words, their own stories. In the pop world it is hard to sell your own voice, but it's how you make that connection.

Post Script: Kelly Clarkson worked with a new songwriting giant Ryan Tedder on a track for her All I Ever Wanted called "Already Gone" It is great example of how a singer/songwriter can be paired with a songwriting producer and create a masterpiece. If only Tedder hadn't used a similar track for a Beyonce single a few months later. Lyrically, Kelly explores the pain of breaking up with someone who loves you but you know you are not able to love back in the right way. It's something that I know about, and something people I know have really related to.

Pink released her Greatest Hits... So Far!! with new singles written with Max Martin and his newest collaborator Shellback. Both "Raise Your Glass" and "Fuckin' Perfect" shows the political Pink, finding her siding once again with the underdogs and bullied of the world. Collaboration can create fine music.

These are the songs that make Kelly and Pink Girls Like Us:

"Irvine" (from Kelly's My December)


"Who Knew" (from Pink's I'm Not Dead)


"Already Gone" (from Kelly's All I Ever Wanted)


"Fuckin' Perfect" [uncensored version] (from Pink's Greatest Hits... So Far!!)

Pink - Fuckin Perfect - Official Music Video found on Pop

Girls Like Us: Kelly Clarkson, P!nk & the Max Martin Factor (Pt 1)

In many ways, I've felt like Kelly Clarkson sings my life. Just like Taylor Swift yesterday, Kelly Clarkson has sung so many songs that tell my story and tell the story of so many young women and men. That could make her one of the Girls Like Us. I also would posit that Pink could make the same claim.

Kelly made a splashy entrance into the pop world with her win on the inaugural season of rating juggernaut American Idol in 2002. Her debut album was the usual pop fare, with 16 producer credits and 26 writers (including Clarkson herself on 4 tracks.) It produced a couple of decent singles, including the smash "Miss Independent" which was originally written with Christina Aguilera in mind. While the result was pleasant pop/rock music with r&b undertones the only saving grace was Kelly amazing voice.

In a similar vein Pink released her debut album Can't Take Me Home in 2000. Like Kelly's debut, the album had a strong theme but didn't seem connected to the artist in any way. With 8 producers and one song alone boasting 9 writers, it was a standard pop release with very little artistic aim. One way Pink did put her stamp on it was with her brash attitude, which would remain a recurring theme on her later releases.

In 2001 Pink released her sophomore disc M!ssundaztood. This time the young pop star took more control, contacting Linda Perry of 4 Non-Blondes out of the blue to ask her to produce some songs. The album had a blend of pop, rock and r&b influences but seemed to be the work of one artist. Pink's attitude bloomed fully, with angry tracks like "Don't Let Me Get Me" and "Just Like A Pill" showing a self-destructive side that would resonate with an increasingly angry young America. Pink also showed the vulnerable side that would underscore the basis for such anger, with the tender ballad "Family Portrait" about the aftermath of her parent's divorce.

Pink would go all the way around the bend to rock on the lead single for her third commercially disastrous album Try This. "Trouble" has the singer in full bad-ass mode, but it's somewhat noticeable that her heart wasn't in it. Follow up single "God Is A DJ" is more fun, but the personal side of Pink wasn't carried over from the prior release.

Meanwhile, Kelly Clarkson headed to Sweden to record a song written for her by pop masterminds Max Martin and Dr. Luke. Kelly had hoped to expand her songwriting skills on her sophomore album, but "Since U Been Gone" was non-negotiable. Despite the fact she didn't write the song, it will forever be her defining hit. She sings the angry rock song like she means it, which puts her in a league of master song-interpreters.

She did get to put her songwriting skills to the test for Breakaway, though. She co-wrote the single "Behind These Hazel Eyes" with Martin and Luke, resulting in a blistering attack song that shows the fury of a woman scorned. She slowed it down for the most personal song of her career, "Because Of You" The ballad relays the pain that resulted from her parents divorce and her strained relationship with her mother when she was 16. It's one of the songs that resonates most with me, and I would imagine with anyone who has felt leaned on too much by a parent.

"Because Of You" would net Clarkson an ASCAP award for songwriter of the year and would be remade by Clarkson and country legend Reba as a duet.

Pink's star rises again, Kelly's falters: tomorrow in Part 2.

These are the songs that make Pink and Kelly Girls Like Us:
"Family Portrait" (from Pink's M!ssundaztood)


"Don't Let Me Get Me" (from Pink's M!ssundaztood)


"Because Of You" (from Kelly's Breakaway)


"Behind These Hazel Eyes" (from Kelly's Breakaway)

Girls Like Us: Taylor Swift

Anyone who knows me knew that Taylor Swift was going to be one my modern day Girls Like Us. Despite being just 21, Taylor has been telling the stories of every young woman's life.

Bursting onto the country scene in 2006 with an debut album co-written by Swift with Lisa Rose. The album featured plenty of songs about young loves won and lost. Her first single, despite being named after country superstar Tim McGraw, is a universal tale of music transporting people back to place of romance.

But it was the follow up single, "Teardrops On My Guitar" that really took her onto the mainstream radar. A tragic tale of unrequited love, "Teardrops" tells the story of Taylor's crush on Drew. What could have been sappy and immature was instead, once again, universal and heart wrenching. Even as a 24-year-old man I knew exactly what she was talking about. "He says he's so in love, he's finally got it right. I wonder if he knows he's all I think about at night." Who among us hasn't felt the sting of nonreciprocated emotion and knows that place Taylor is coming from.

Of Sheila Weller's Girls Like Us, Taylor reminds me most of Carly Simon. Not just because she has dated a series of Hollywood hotties like Taylor Lautner, Jake Gyllenhal and Joe Jonas, but because she's not afraid to use her back story to create art. When her heart is broken, she writes angry songs like "Should've Said No" and "Forever And Always" or sad ones like "You're Not Sorry." When she's in love, beautiful emotion rolls off songs like "Love Story" and "Our Song." When she's secretly crushing, songs like "Teardrops" or "You Belong With Me" she speaks the same language as the rest of us - hurt, disbelief, hope and fear.

But even though she is so young, songs like "Back To December" show a mature woman realizing the mistakes she's made in a relationship, "White Horse" has her rejecting old stirrings brought on by a careless ex-lover in a startling grownup way and "Fifteen" finds Taylor counseling a young person to anticipate that things are not always what they seem in your youth - "in your life you'll do greater things than dating the boy on the football team, I didn't know it at fifteen."

I've said it before somewhat facetiously, but I actually mean it. Taylor Swift sings our lives. Like Loretta Lynn or Dolly Parton before, Taylor embodies what country music can do greatly - tell true stories about real life that we all know.

These are the songs of a Girl Like Us:
"White Horse" (from Fearless)


"Teardrops On My Guitar" (from Taylor Swift)


"Back To December" (from Speak Now)

Where Are Today's Girls Like Us?

I recently finished reading Sheila Weller's 2008 triple biography Girls Like Us. Subtitled "Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon and the Journey of a Generation" the book recounts in detail the turbulent life, times and interactions of three of the most influential female singer-songwriters of the 1970s. These women are the stuff of legends.

Carly is the poor little rich girl whose sensuality and free-spirited attitude buoyed her and colored her musical legacy of songs both intimate and emotive. The storied life that led her to blast her famous lovers in "You're So Vain" and weep for the costs of modern romance on "We Have No Secrets" leads her to a marriage to junkie James Taylor and a tour and duet intended to salvage their relationship.

Meanwhile Joni is still reeling from giving her illegitimate daughter up for adoption and channels that hurt, pain and confusion into deeply personal lyrics. The steely strength she develops causes deep rifts with each man that enters her life, but created masterpieces of music.

And Carole is a young mother forced into an early marriage to avoid scandal. Writing the melodies and her husband writing the lyrics, they created some of the greatest pop songs in history. As if inspiring and co-creating "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" wasn't enough, she went on the record one of the classic LPs of all time, Tapestry.

The three ladies connected with a primarily female audience, telling their stories through song and giving a voice to the strong wellspring of emotion in a woman. That is the key to their success, they weren't parroting the words of a male-written song while a man drove their sound, look and career. That allowed them to connect, to become Girls Like Us.

These women inspired their peers and women to come with the talent and drive required to thrive in a male dominated industry. They paved the way for social changes in the music industry, but that door remains merely cracked open and is need of being blown off the hinges.

Women in pop music are sold as sex objects as much as musicians. Taking control one's sexuality is one of the central premises of Girls Like Us. However, the fact that, of the women that appeared on VH1's Top 100 Artists of All Time list (including Joni), their looks are just as discussed as their talent is sad and telling. And while some women have taken the reins on the production end of their songs and albums, it is rare for a women to produce (i.e. boss around) male artists.

Who is taking the reins now? All this week on Pictures And Conversations we are gonna look at the Girls Like Us 2011, the female artists who are telling the story of the women of today and the future.