This unfortunately has been a long used tactic in the music world. In the old times it was sharpie producers putting their names as writers for songs of poor black artists, so they (the producers) can get royalties in addition to their usual fees. Now it is the singers taking advantage of the songwriters and composers.
It is all evil but it kind of shows who has the negotiation leverage. Todays pop music scene is all about creating a celebrity image consumers want to identify with. Once said image is created the actual music is not that important. So the writers do not get much credit.
As a huge fan of blackpink I highly recommend you check out the documentary they have on Netflix. It became obvious after watching it that the genius behind blackpink is Teddy Park, who was also behind another massively successful girl group 2NE1.
I've thought about it slightly and without Teddy Park there is no blackpink, but without the individual members each bringing their own flavour to the group, there is no blackpink either.
If you're familiar with the concept art industry, this is essentially just character design but with living people.
We are being fed a story, Katy Perry and Ariana Grande are good examples of this.
Katy Perry found success as a songwriter before she found success as a singer, and has written songs for Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Selena Gomez, and Nikki Minaj, among others. (https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/katy-perry-wr...) Most of her own songs are co-written in studio with her collaborators on the song (meaning the feat artist and the producers), with each collaborator pitching in or more of the hooks or verses.
Ariana Grande has written a few of her own songs (though none of these were released as singles).
Perhaps you meant that neither Katy Perry or Ariana Grande are composers (who write the instrumental portion of the song)?
I think they mean "Katy Perry" and "Ariana Grande" are fictional characters as the public knows them. They are characters played by two artists and supported by media/storytelling.
This reminds me a bit of what I've heard about pro wrestling. There's a bit more story and theater to pro wrestling, but a lot of times the characters' personality derives from the person 'playing' them, with the knob turned to 12.
For others wondering about this style of entertainment, it's called 'kayfabe'
"Kayfabe, in the United States, is often seen as the suspension of disbelief that is used to create the non-wrestling aspects of promotions, such as feuds, angles, and gimmicks in a manner similar to other forms of fictional entertainment. In relative terms, a wrestler breaking kayfabe during a show would be likened to an actor breaking character on-camera."
Outside of the entertainment industry, politics is an obvious example, though wikipedia states:
"It has long been claimed that kayfabe has been used in American politics, especially in election campaigns, Congress, and the White House, but no evidence of actual usage of kayfabe in Washington has ever been uncovered. In interviews as Governor of Minnesota, former wrestler Jesse Ventura often likened Washington to wrestling when he said that politicians "pretend to hate each other in public, then go out to dinner together.""
I find the idea of being fed a story fascinating because a successful story feels more real than life itself and I'm not sure you can separate the two (life and the stories we tell ourselves). Once you can see it for what it is, that it's just a story, it breaks the illusion. But a really powerful story sucks you back in time and time again, and sometimes, you forget that you were being told a story in the first place.
And now after typing the above paragraph I sit wondering how many stories I currently believe are real, are just stories after all. Money being one of the most powerful.
With these types of "manufactured" performance groups I don't think there's any question that they are not composers. The Lady Gaga case (she promotes herself as a composer / guitarist / pianist) is much more of an intentional mislead, in my opinion.
No argument there. Does she credit her songwriters? Is it well known that she doesn't write 100%? Or does that not matter to anyone because she's so awesome?
> "I have worked with and written with some UNREAL artists who let me into their lives to create with them who deserved their credit and publishing, ..."
I think most people think she falls under this category.
I know that the average clubgoerand radio listener assumes songs are produced entirely by the headline artist. From my life experience advocating for composers.
I'd say they are performers not artists. The girl running Photoshop is an artist, the HP LaserJet that prints it out isn't. We don't consider choir members to be artists, but if it's just one voice we assume they are?
Members of the choir are performing artists. They make artistic choices related to the actual performance of the song, like how to sing the words written on the page.
Members of the choir do not make those choices. The conductor does. The singers are the instrument in that case. Like a pipe in an organ. Their job is to blend and produce the sounds according to the interpretation of the conductor. Source: am a choir member. You will be fired if you interpret the music against the conductor's desires.
Why isn't there a question about manufactured performance groups not being composers? There are manufactured performance groups that are composers and they look just like Blackpink. An example of such a group is GI-DLE
It's broken down of there is X royalties then A, B, C, D each have percentages. In this Case Say producers are A, they're getting a cut that's established, but now they're taking a percentage of D. So in this instance they're expanding their ownership through pressure of taking a cut from someone else.
Record producers are not entitled to royalties unless they have songwriting, composer, or performance credits on a song. Essentially, they're the guys who bring everyone together and make sure a song comes out at the end.
Many record producers do participate in the songwriting or composition process and are credited for that work (for example, Jay-Z), but the vast majority don't (for example, Glen Wallachs, co-founder of Capital Records).
Some producers do get "points" just for production, even if they don't get a full writer credit.
Production can mean anything and everything from project management, sound design, co-writing, arranging to hands-on instrumental parts - to turning up once a week and saying "Sounds great. Carry on."
The split depends on the producer/artist agreement.
Session musicians don't usually get points even though they may literally write their parts. In publishing terms a song is melody+lyrics, and everything else is work-for-hire arrangement.
This often gets renegotiated because it's clearly nonsense. But that's the starting point.
No, the law, and more importantly, the guilds (here, the SGA and SCL), are quite strict on these points.
A producer cannot "negotiate" creative credit if they did not earn it, because the guilds will not allow it.
If a producer wants writing credit, they must earn the writing credit by performing creative activities as specified by the guild rules. Project management and other "producing" activities do not count. Note however that the creative contributions of session musicians under WFH arrangements are generally attributed to their employer--i.e., to the producer, and SCL rules generally apply to determine the creative contribution the producer may claim for the work of session musicians.
Co-writing and arranging are not "producing" activities, they are writing and composition activities which can qualify for songwriting and composing credit. Few producers participate creatively in their songs, but the ones that do tend to be the more famous ones (like Dr. Dre, Jay-Z, Dr. Luke, etc.) and are use usually artists in their own right.
It is all evil but it kind of shows who has the negotiation leverage. Todays pop music scene is all about creating a celebrity image consumers want to identify with. Once said image is created the actual music is not that important. So the writers do not get much credit.