Max Martin has co-written 28 Billboard number-one hits. That number is not an accident -- behind every one of those songs sits a repeatable set of melodic, harmonic, and structural techniques.
This is not a list of abstract principles. These are specific moves you can apply the next time you sit down to write, each with a real example and a way to put it to work immediately.
Billboard #1 Hits
Melody techniques
1. Keep the verse melody narrow. Most hit melodies stay within four to five scale degrees, rarely exceeding an octave. Small intervallic jumps -- seconds and thirds -- show up far more often than large leaps, which keeps the vocal accessible and the melody singable for a broad audience. Listen to "Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson: the verse melody sits within roughly a fifth.
2. Save the money note for the chorus. Reserve your highest (or most distinctive) pitch for the chorus. If your verse already touches the top of the range, the chorus has nowhere to go. In "So What" by Pink, the verse is strictly pentatonic, but on the downbeat of the chorus she sings the seventh scale degree for the first time -- a note we haven't heard until that moment. The payoff is immediate.
3. Use pentatonic in the verse, diatonic in the chorus. By omitting the fourth and seventh scale degrees in the verse, you create a naturally smooth, intuitive set of pitches -- almost like a nursery rhyme. When the chorus introduces those extra notes, it feels like an expansion. This pattern appears across Martin's catalog.
4. Descend in the verse, ascend in the pre-chorus. The verse melody trends downward, mirroring introspection. The pre-chorus reverses direction and climbs. "Since U Been Gone" does this cleanly: the verse pulls toward the root, then the pre-chorus leaps up, preparing the ear for the chorus explosion.
5. Build your hook on chord tones. The chorus of "Since U Been Gone" outlines the root, major third, and fifth of the key -- an arpeggiated triad with rhythm. Three notes, one hook. A strong melody over a simple triad beats a complicated melody over elaborate chords.
Map out your chorus melody as scale degrees. If you are using more than five or six different pitches, you may be overcomplicating the hook. The strongest hooks tend to orbit the triad.
6. Use octave displacement for section contrast. The verse and chorus can use the same set of notes but positioned in different octaves. This maintains cohesion while making the chorus feel like a natural lift.
7. Match melodic contour to lyric emotion. When the lyric expresses strength or release, the melody should rise. When it expresses vulnerability, it should fall. In "Since U Been Gone," the word "breathe" sits on an ascending major third -- a bright, open sound for a lyric about freedom.
Repetition techniques
8. Start with an AA phrase. Repeat the opening melodic phrase immediately. Bonnie McKee, who co-wrote several of Katy Perry's hits with Martin, pointed out that Max almost always opens a section with two identical melodic lines. In "Teenage Dream," the first two lines of the verse share the same melody and rhythm. By the time line two is done, the melody is already familiar.
9. Use micro-repetition within the hook. Small melodic fragments that repeat in quick succession create stickiness. The repeated "baby, baby" in "...Baby One More Time" implants the word in your head through sheer repetition. In "Shake It Off," "shake it off, shake it off" is the same three-note figure sung four times in a row.
10. Foreshadow the chorus in the verse. Introduce a stripped-down or fragmented version of the chorus melody earlier in the song. In "E.T." by Katy Perry, the verse melody is nearly identical to the chorus melody, performed differently over different chords. By the time the chorus hits, it feels familiar without feeling repetitious.
11. Vary every repetition. Repeat your hook three or four times in the chorus, but change something each time -- extend it, shorten it, shift the register, add a harmony. Repetition embeds the melody in memory while variation keeps the ear interested. The rule: never repeat identically twice in the same song.
Write a four-bar hook melody. Copy it three times. Now change one thing in each copy: add two beats to the second, drop the third an octave, and layer a harmony on the fourth. Sing all four in sequence. That is your chorus.
12. Use rhythmic repetition across sections. A phrase can keep the same rhythm but shift in pitch to follow chord changes. This lets you create continuity without monotony -- the listener feels the pattern without hearing an exact copy.
Harmony techniques
13. Use fewer chords. Martin has never had a number-one song with more than six chords. Most use three or four. Limiting the harmonic palette makes a song hookier because the listener focuses on the melody and groove instead of getting pulled around by chord movement.
A strong melody over a simple progression beats a weak melody over an elaborate progression in the pop world.
14. Use looping progressions. A chord progression that stays unchanged throughout the song creates a stable harmonic bed. The focus stays on the melody, the groove, and the production. "Blinding Lights" by The Weeknd loops the same four chords from start to finish, and the melody and arrangement do all the heavy lifting.
15. Accelerate harmonic rhythm in the pre-chorus. If the verse changes chords every two bars, make the pre-chorus change every bar. In "I Knew You Were Trouble" by Taylor Swift, the verse changes chords every bar, but the chorus changes chords five times every two bars. The faster movement creates urgency.
16. Anticipate chord changes. Shift to the next chord a quarter note or eighth note before the downbeat. Martin does this in "Since U Been Gone," "Raise Your Glass" by Pink, and "Higher Power" by Coldplay. A small move that pushes the song forward.
17. Simplify the chorus harmony. In the chorus, one chord per full measure -- or even per two measures -- lets the melody dominate. Complex chords fight for the listener's attention. Get the harmony out of the melody's way.
Structure and rhythm techniques
18. Write in four-bar phrases. Nearly every phrase in a Martin-penned song lasts four or eight bars. Four bars is the shortest unit that feels complete in modern pop, aligning with natural breathing rhythm and how the brain segments musical information.
19. Place key words on off-beats. "Since YOU'VE been GONE" lands the stressed syllables on beats two and four. This syncopation feels more propulsive and memorable than landing on beat one -- the brain is more engaged by patterns that play against the downbeat.
20. Use strategic silence. A beat of rest right before the biggest moment -- the chorus entry, the final hook statement -- draws the ear in. The brain notices absence as sharply as presence.
Shake It Off
Taylor Swift
"Shake it off, shake it off" repeats the same three-note figure four times, landing each repetition on the backbeat. The hook combines micro-repetition (#9), off-beat emphasis (#19), and a looping progression (#14) all at once. Three techniques, one phrase, permanently stuck in your head.
21. Use call and response. A musical question in the first half of the phrase, answered in the second half. The ascending "Since U Been Gone" is the question, and the descending "I can breathe for the first time" is the answer. The brain craves completion, and call-and-response delivers it.
22. Use a three-part song structure. Verse sets the scene. Pre-chorus builds momentum. Chorus delivers the payoff. Not every song needs a pre-chorus, but Martin uses this three-part architecture on most of his biggest hits because it creates natural escalation.
23. Break your own rules in the bridge. The bridge should introduce something the song hasn't done before -- a new chord from the parallel minor, a new high note, a different rhythmic feel. It gives the listener a reason to pay attention again before the final chorus resets everything.
Production techniques
24. Build arrangement density across sections. Verse: sparse (vocals, bass, light drums). Pre-chorus: add guitar, fill out the drums. Chorus: full band, layered harmonies, wider reverb. Each section should feel physically bigger than the last. Then strip it back for the next verse and reset the cycle.
25. Test your hook a cappella. If the melody works with just a voice -- no production, no instruments -- it is a real hook. If it needs the beat or the synth to sound good, it's a production trick, not a hook. Martin's melodies always pass this test.
Record yourself singing your chorus hook with no accompaniment. Send it to someone who has never heard the song. If they can hum it back after one listen, you have a hook. If they cannot, revise.
How to use this list
You don't need all 25 in every song. Pick the five or six that match your genre and the section you're working on. A verse problem calls for techniques 1-4 and 8. A chorus that isn't sticking probably needs 5, 11, and 19. A song that feels flat between sections needs 15, 16, and 24.
The point isn't to follow a formula mechanically -- it's to have a toolkit you can reach for when a section isn't working and you can't figure out why.
This list gives you the what. The Melodic Math ebook gives you the how -- showing where each technique appears across fifteen number-one hits, how they interact (foreshadowing paired with buffering, pentatonic verse paired with diatonic chorus), and how to diagnose which one a struggling section actually needs. If you flagged five or six that apply to a song you're writing, the ebook connects them into a process.