'The Middle': Watch How a Pop Hit Is Made | Diary of a Song
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 เม.ย. 2018
- Using voice memos, demos, texts and interviews, we reconstruct the wild ride of how Zedd, Maren Morris and a 23-year-old songwriter turned a few chords into an enormous hit, “The Middle.”
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sarahs voice is sick
Red Official get her voice some meds
pitch correct makes everyone sound sick
I wonder why they didn’t just use her voice! Stupid to just try and find a sound a like! Seems kinda disingenuous
Sarah doesn't want to be a singer. She likes staying in the background and writing. She has stated that she has no interest in being a singer. That's why they used someone else.
Red Official omg red I love you so fricking much!!!😭😭😍😍
The songwriter Sarah I actually really liked her vocals too. I would love to hear her whole rendition of it as well.
joendeo yaaaaa she sounds good
me too
yes!! I need to hear more from her!
yaaaaaaas
Actually I wanted to her all demos. But Maren's is probably the best to do it
the producers for months: why can't we find someone.. exactly like sarah... but that isn't sarah...
As said many times already, Sarah isn’t a performer. She said herself she prefers songwriting. Apparently she has rheumatoid arthritis, which basically means she can never be a pop star because it’s too physically taxing. But she can still share her talent with the world through able bodied performers like Zedd and Maren Morris.
lol yes i know it was a joke haha. it's really great that her talent was able to be recognized in this video at least :)
=[
@@Gingerm0nster temporarily able bodied* TAB.
Did you seriously miss the first 5 seconds of Sarah in this video? "I'm terrible at singing in front of people". How did that immediately not give away why she's not the vocal artist? She writes, that's her job and she's paid handsomely for it. If she wanted to be a stage musician she would be.
This is like a group project, Sarah is the quiet one who did the bulk of the work but doesn't get much recognition and then Zedd is the popular kid that does the bare minimum but gets the most recognition lmao
Raheem D Zedd did the voice recordings and the vocoder synths .
But did he do the vocal producing as well? IMO he didn't do much if he did the voice recordings and vocoder synths. I believe Sarah and the other producers should get more credit for this.
Dion Isaiah yes voice recording includes voice production and processing as well as recording harmonies, it’s not that simple to do harmonies, also you can hear some synths from zedd on the drop
O.K, but me being a songwriting and having a producer of mine own. I feel that the bulk of the load is done in the actual creative session (songwriting). I believe Sarah should have gotten more exposure for her work in this project. When the song came out, I thought it was another Zeed song with a new feature. I know in this business there are many songwriters and producers on one song, but I would prefer then that it will be a collaboration project instead one person name. I give Zeed credit for not giving up to find the right vocalist for the song, but for me Sarah did most of the labor.
you may not like to admit it, but i think without his name attached to it ,this song wouldn't go as far..you may be the potato but he's the one who sells the potato, without him you're still on the floor somewhere slowly rotting and nobody wants to eat you..
Can't find Sarah's name anywhere and the vocalist don't even know her!! Wtf?! Is this how the industry works?!
Nihal Habeeb her name is Sarah Aarons!
Kinda crazy right, but on the flip side who do you think gets more respect in the industry. Also who do you think collects 50% off rip for the song writing. If her publishing A1 no need to be known when them 6-7 figure checks come in monthly.
Yeah she definitely will be making money off of it but as a songwriter (very beginner) myself. I'll be very sad if a song that is literally mine goes out to the public completely stripped away from me.
You might want to reconsider being a songwriter then.
I don't understand your complaint? Writing its behind the scenes work, if course only people who care about the process are going to know who she is. Marvel has gotten 90% of the audience to sit through their credits yet I doubt most of those people know who wrote Avengers IW.
Sarah should get credit for this
she gets paid for every time you listen to it
Yeah. Probably paid quite a big portion
Caleb Lim Hopefully. If she doesn’t get the recognition she deserves, she should at least get the money.
She does. If you get the single it will say "lyricist: Sarah Aaron"
I dont like how Zedds name is all over it
Can we get a version with just Sarah. Her voice works better.
Aaron Davis I know right?
th-cam.com/video/ZmeSlzx4EP4/w-d-xo.html
there is the demo
nahhh maren morris better
Am I the only one that keeps playing Sarah's version over and over? The rasp and tonality! At least let us get the full demo version.
I like both version tho.
nope- same here
Would love to hear a full version on Sarah!! Her demo had magic.... Anyway, I would love if you had a moment to pop over to my channel and check out some of my songs. Thoughts welcomed.
Same !!
they should at least just drop the demo there's nothing to lose at this point
and it’s here! look it up her full demo is on youtube now and it’s awesome
Zed, Morres and a '23 year old songwriter' ? How bloody hard is it to give someone credit by their name?
Yep eversince the first album of Zedd, he didnt give credita for hooks
@@notchloe3396 The same way most singers don't credit their producers. Even though they do the most work.
zed did almost nothing with that song xD
she literally won songwriter of the year in LA.....she's a writer....not performer.....she gets all the credits she needs.....
@@djkidii sad you dk anything about producing music
I'd love to hear a version with just Sarah
I'm the 666th like
@@THEONE-kh8iw oh man I’ve been looking for this video but totally forgot what the song was and the title of the video! Had no idea this comment even had some popularity, but your comment helped me find the video again so thanks? 😄
th-cam.com/video/ZmeSlzx4EP4/w-d-xo.html
there is the demo
You can clearly see how Zedd barely did much. It’s due to the fact he has the connections. Sarah could literally work by herself. I love Sarah. She is so talented and has so much value.
truue
Literally?
Bro Zedd produced the music in the song. U can hear all the signature sounds from him like the classic Vocoder that he puts on the vocals and also the edm style music + the Synths like the drop for example which prob woudnt have existed if it wasn´t Zedd who produced the song
dude, did you miss how many singers he had to pick through to find the one that worked? lol
It's by zedd
He's the genius behind it
Sarah's demo is the romanticized nostalgia version you hear in your head when you remember this song. She really did it best.
Yesss this
I feel Like Sarah is better?
Buur92 I know right Sarah has an edgier sound to her voice.
Would've saved them some trouble
Buur92 both sounds good
rt back atcha mario
Same..
I hope Sarah made the most $ from this, she deserves it the most, it came from her.
no google plus let’s be honest this song would be nothing would just the lyrics the production does all the work
yeah
PngDotZip but the production could do nothing, if there was not a melody and lyrics made by the songwriter
I don’t know exactly the royalties how they are distributed, but I think Sarah and the first 2 producers are the ones owning the IP for it
@@questionm2786
You're why music is dead.
I really like the song, and I love Zedd. But after seeing this I felt kind of weird when he said "my new song". When it was originally written by this other girl, produced by these other two guys who gave it to these other two guys who talk to Zedd about about it ...? thoughts?
I feel the same way. Like zedd didn't really do anything so why does he get credit.
Meeting with all the vocalists is a huge task that he took on. Being a producer is about more than just writing the music, in fact the term 'executive producer' means just this.
Ethan Elshyeb yeah I definitely know what it is as a matter of fact I also produce music but I make it all on my own. It just sounded weird to say my music instead of our music but at the same time I get it because like if Ariana Grande has a song It's a song by Ariana Grande but in fact there has been a lot of writers and producers and she is just singing it
Yeah it's just a marketing thing really
a lot of modern music is like this. if all the people who worked on the song gets the main credit, the artist list would be so long. just like you said, in an ariana song, ariana gets the main credit when a lot of writers and producers have worked on it.
Sounds like Sarah is on track to become the new Julia Michaels
jzaszczurynski I was thinking the same! Julia Michaels started that way too
Yes please
UMM, no?!
Shaun Fergus Lol why no? she said she is bad at singing at larger crowds the same as Julia when she starts singing
Julia Michaels is the new Julia Michaels
why go through all the trouble of finding someone that was as good as Sarah? Just use Sarah...
not quite as marketable
A lot of songwriters don't want to be the performer. If she was to be the vocalist on a no.1 hit she'd be expected to tour it, promote the single and essentially take on a career as a performer. A lot of people just want to write songs.
LagiNaLangAko23 Neiter I OR Zedd had heard about Maren Morris until this song
Apparently Sarah has health problems (autoimmune disease?) so she's a songwriter rather than a singer.
Like Avicii😔
k I need to find out more about this Sarah person
melloe She’s actually done some vocal features under the name Paige IV 🔥
awesome, thanks
Sarah wrote the hit Stay for Zedd as well.
Sarah aarons
th-cam.com/video/BQm1pLPt9ow/w-d-xo.html
Forreal Sarahs voice is amazing, and i think Zedds name is big enough by itself to have had Sarahs vocals in the final product, and still have the same success
I feel like Sarah is the one that actually sang it.
Because she did?
Well she wrote it so she has the most emotional connection to it
If you couldn't find a vocalists then why didn't you try Sarah Zed?!
Henry Sanchez because she doesn't look like a diva
Which is the unfortunate reality.
Sarah has stated many times that she does not want to be a performer, she prefers just writing the songs. She also has rheumatoid arthritis which is a big reason she decided to go into songwriting full time because a lot of other jobs were out of the question. She said in an interview that if her conditions worsens as she gets older her hope is they'll be able to build a ramp into the studio"
They need a professional singer who can not only sing, but also perform on stage and promote it, not a person who just sings well. After all, their main goal to make money from it.
Zedd wanted to, but Sarah didn't
I love how Zedd said he was premiering “his” new song...that someone else wrote the melody and lyrics to and another person did the vocals for...nice work Zedd...
And most of the production was done by Grey before Zedd got on board lol.
It's not exactly uncommon in pop music for a song to be one artist's release with half a dozen (or more) other writers/producers that did a lot of the work though.
lmao yeah, I get the benefits for the writers when they choose to do it this way, although if I was Zedd I would still feel kind of lame about it.
lol shared ownership..
man none of you know how the music industry works
@@questionm2786 Seems like it.
it's so sad how the monsters and the strangers and Sarah ain't getting any recognition for their work :(
Vincent Tieo they’re getting sweet sweet money though
2:55 - anne marrie
2:58-tove lo
3:00- carly ray jepsen
3:14 - lauren
3:16 - charli xcx
3:18 - elle king
cruelmee dang good job I think you're right.
It's Ryn Weaver, not Carly, and Zara Larsson, not Elle King
I swear I heard Ellie Goulding at 3:00 , towards the end of that clip.
Tove Lo's version is the one at 3:14, not Lauren.
3:14 is Tove. Can recognize that voice anywhere.
Accents: Funny how Sarah slips in and out of her Aussie accent, and Zedd, who is a Russian German has none ))
ЭлектромонтажUSA he has a slight accent
Zedd does have an accent. It's American English.
if you bother you can find interviews of a 2011 zedd where he speaks with an anccent of an russian oligarch lol
link??
He DEFINITELY has an accent. A very noticeable one. Its nice.
I want to hear Sarah's version. #WeWantSarah
Sarahs voice is amazing! Would love to hear songs from her.
Lika28 I think this might be her singing.
th-cam.com/video/XOjw7dWjzRU/w-d-xo.html
Okay, to all the people here saying "why doesn't Zedd give the writers credit" or whatever. The writers doesn't care about public attention. What they need is to be recognized within the industry to be able to get more work and have sessions with bigger artists. Believe me, everyone in the industry knows exactly who worked on what when it's a big hit like this.
All the writers of the song have writing credit filed with bmi or ascap etc. So whenever you see credits for this song their names are listed.
Zedd is an artist/producer. As seen in the video the original writers sent it up the chain because they know that this song in the right hands will get the exposure it needs/deserves.
What did Zedd do on this song? Check his email?
Rohme Giuliano hahaha I know right??
I think the DJ
He made the synths in the drops
Probably the bleach blonde producers, if not Nexus and Sylenth made those synths
The song was pretty much done after Grey produced it, but their publisher didn't think they were "Famous enough", and wanted to give the song to someone else. So they went to Zedd to prevent the song from getting taken away from them :/
WHAT THE HECK? Sarah sound way better, she should've sang that song
Sarah's voice is amazing. Not quite the same powerhouse style of the final vocal but I think that's why they took so long, was to find someone who could convey that same emotion. by the way, are you the real Post Malone or a fan? if so you flew on my plane to Vegas once with Scott D.. how's it going?
@@peterhoffman5616 lmao adorable bro ..asking if they're real poste malone
Wow such a shame. Maren has an amazing voice but Sarah's voice is outstanding! I hope to hear her more from her soon! Girl you can sing! These producers are deaf.
Sarah’s voice just gives me chills and goosebumps all over! Love her!
I never knew how many different people collaborate on a track that’s “by one person”
The song has three artists in the title though (Zedd, Grey, Maren Morris). But yes, it's quite a common thing, particularly in the pop world.
This happens every-time in music every popular artist and even small ones have 3 to 10 people working on a track
CuePoints Podcast yeah i once produced a single song with at least 6 other producers and songwriters and my name wasn't even credited on the track listing
rex ross it’s not just pop music is everyone singer in the industry.
I didn't even knew they putted this much effort in to The Middle, I highly appreciate Zedd, Sarah, Maren Morris, Grey for making my favourite song.
Sarah's flow, tone the swag whit it is just on another level
thank you for making this videos!!! and showing the people who are really behind of the music. i’m so happy sarah got get recognition as she deserved it. we need more music of her 🤍🤍🤍🤍
I would love love LOVE to hear the demo released with Sarah’s vocals! ❤️
I feel like they should've just used Sarah her voice is insane! I LOVE that girl's voice!!!
It’s so cool to see the behind the scenes. How do you know how long to make the lines of the song, how many verses, etc., and how to make variations in the music (beats etc)?
Sarah no words to describe your talent… you are an amazing person……💐💐💐 Thank you New York Times for bringing the story behind this masterpiece into limelight…
I love this style of video
I love this video! Super interesting
this video was SO COOL. I loved seeing how this song was created and the whole presentation of it was awesome. I'm an aspiring journalist and I've been in Joe Coscarelli's seat before, and I am SUCH a huge music person. I hope to some day interview people behind the scenes like he did and be a part of cool videos like this, especially in music. thank you for this!
Hope you guys do more of these videos. Interesting how much work and how many people are involved in the process.
Justice for Sarah! It’s 100% her song and her original vocals are incredible.
This is how lyricist works, they base on the music that’s already provided.
Listen to the interviews, they already have the music, Sarah worked on it.
I would love to hear Sarahs version of The Middle omg
Seriously, I’ve watched this at least 24 times. Well done NY Times producer for putting this together. It’s incredible.
Woooow, this is one of the coolest and best, educational video I've ever seen. I'm so thankful for this content, worth more than gold!!
wow seeing the behind the scenes of making this song is amazing :o s/o to all the hidden writers who deserve much more recognition!
I truely love zedd, but how is this his song if most of the work was done before he got the project. He refers to it as ‘my song’
Yeah same! can't lie i feel abit dissapointed, lied to almost😂 but i guess thats how thats how this music industry works? Still love him tho
Amazing, I love seeing how songs are made, and the magic that comes with it. Thanks for sharing 👊
Sarah's voice is amazing! Oh my god. I want an album now Sarah!!! The raspy of her voice wow
Great piece, really well edited, cool narrative. Complex does a similar thing for rap, but I really appreciated getting all the contributors’ thoughts. Loved it! Do more!
Jack Dillon it's actually Genius who does the breakdowns for rap, Complex doesn't really do that from what i've seen.
So basically THIS IS NOT ZEDD’S SONG. This was sarah’s song 🙄🙄🙄
Lol! You are so wrong. is it bad being this dumb?
Shaun Fergus ur dumb. What Franklin sais make sense . Stop replying to everyone's comments
No it's Priyanka Chopra's In My City
Franklin Ramos unfortunately this is how the music industry works and has worked for decades.
You could be a homeowner, and even though you could technically do everything, you're gonna hire a plumber, a gardener, an electrician, some other guy's work who came up with the idea for the table you got from IKEA, but in the end it's your home because you made those calls to choose those people to make the best house that you envision.
There needs to be many more of these. This series is awesome!
that's the best making of a song video I've ever seen! Sarah has an amazing voice!
Sarah's voice gave me goosebumps and she can easily become as big as Sia if she chooses to. Why is her name not in the description?!?
Sarah’s demo sounds like she could’ve been the one featured on that track!! OMG HER SINGING THE SONG PARTS THROUGHOUT THE VIDEO WERE INCREDIBLE
This was an incredible piece. To the producers of the short doc - what a really cool way of engaging and finding ways to make this work through mobile video. So cool.
I love this series...please keep it coming!
This truly shows how underappreciated songwriters are. The artist who sang it couldn't even identify the songwriter who wrote this hit for her. Wowwwwwwwwwwww.
And where did you come up with that idiocy? Because it's nowhere in this video.
Blake Forehand How could you not come to that conclusion? The artist can’t even identify the person who wrote her mega hit! Without the songwriter this would have never happened. And according to literally all the comments on here, Sarah’s version was better than Maren’s. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 underappreciated.
Blake Forehand 5:43
But we only know the song as Zedd ft Maren Morris. We need to acknowledge the Sarahs of the music industry!!
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!
I found this really fascinating to look at all the work put on behind the scenes for a great song! Such a cool video
Sarah Aarons you're an inspiration ! Hope you'll feel better at singing publicly one day, your voice is a gift
Thank You For Sharing 💙💙💙
I love how these guys give her a couple of chords and she makes a great song out of them. Then they take credit for the song when it's really all her genius. Sarah's vocals and lyrics are amazing.
You literally know absolutely nothing on how music production and the industry works
I love these! Please keep making more
I love this song and i appreciated seeing behind the scenes into how the song was made
it is definitely one of zedd's best. its so good and does not get old quickly like most top 40
i wish sarah would've been in the song though
Zedd pretty much did nothing on this track.
Not zedds best but it's still good.
Worst* have you even heard True Colors?
It's pretty much Stay 2.0
They snubbed Sarah so bad...
No
This is A Great Story of how much work goes into a Hit Song!!!!!!..Thank you all for your Contribution to Good Music..we love the Song!
Very interesting videos, love them. Keep them up!
2:55 ANNE-MARIE!
Why didn’t SARAH do the song? I MEAN I LOVE MAREN SO MUCH BUT LIKE SARAH GIRL
bobby because she needs to do concerts if it blows up, didn't you hear her said she's bad at singing in front of people? Not everyone wanted to be in spotlight, they just love to create music and then sell it to producer to find an artist to sing it. It is like making money with your hobby
Sarah Aaron should release her own version! It has this raw authenticity and heart felt!!! Her voice is insane!
Sarah's story is amazing like, from being a student in Melbourne, Australia to becoming a songwriter for crazy cool artists like Alessia and Demi 🙏🏼 aspirations. Keep doin what you're doing Sarah :)
I like Sarah's vocals better. It would have been cool if they let her sing it on the final track.
4:08 - I just got back from Nashville, and I bet she's talking about Hattie B's. Got to be the best hot chicken place in town.
ЭлектромонтажUSA I remember seeing his Snapchat when he was in Nashville. That’s what he was doing here! It makes sense now. And yeah, definitely Hattie bs 😍
Yeah with a line out the door. He must’ve gotten it to go.
Hattie B's is a beautiful place omfg
This was amazing! Great Content!
holy crap sarah's voice sounds amazing!!! can we get her whole demo?! LOVE
The Middle sounds so awesome
Rob_temsis listen to Priyanka Chopra's In My City
Rob_temsis yeah the Jimmy eat world version
I really wanna hear Demi Lovato's demo
i heard sarah on the radio a little while back and was so obsessed with her voice i had no clue this was basically her ! kinda sucks she didnt get more recognition especially with this being such a popular song
Its really cool that you can actually hear the engineer's reactions in sarah's first take!
So what exactly did Zedd do?....
the music
Mandy R are you stupid..
So Sarah wrote the song, Grey did the majority of the production, and Zedd found the vocalist. I assume Zedd mixed the vocal in with the track, and it sounds like he did some work with the vocal to create the harmonies. He probably added a little to the production of the track and finished it up.
If you've heard "Starving" and know how Grey's production sounds, you can tell that they did the majority of the production on it as well.
Mandy R Lol
please respect DJ as an artist
This is everything that's wrong with the music industry.
Adrian MH Exactly
Agree
What do you mean?
There's more when you get to know their tune is a rip off
Ashwathi Menon Well she could be accoustic, but if she wanted her song as a pop-EDM song, dis is da wey, girl..... :/
I got chills when they played the first idea she recorded. She got a great voice
The introvert with the talent versus the extrovert that makes the talent look good
I've clearly been living under a rock because my first thought was Jimmy Eat World
Glad to see I wasn't the only one!
Yeah, I gotta admit I thought this was gonna be a retrospective video when I clicked on it
Same!!
Me too! ...And frankly since this video isn't about the Jimmy Eat World song, I'm not going to watch the rest :P
if you feel like sarah’s voice fits better, it’s likely just because it’s different. this is a very common thing that music producers need to watch out for. if you listen to something a lot of times and then make a change, you’ll sometimes like that change more even if it isn’t actually better. that’s part of why people like nightcore. sarah is obviously **instanely** talented as both a singer and a songwriter, but at the high levels of zedd and grey, they have to get the perfect voice for the song and nothing less.
This is one awesome track!!!
Amazing story behind it top!!
Ughh I love this song so much and the video too
Love Sarah 😍😍
video description: "How Zedd, Maren Morris, and **some 23-year-old that we won't name** turned a few chords into..."
This is really really interesting! I’ve always been curious on how songs are constructed.
I become obsessed with Sarah. We need full version of Sarah’s!!
Why spend so much time and almost giving up to find someone who sang like Sarah? Why not use Sarah originally? Or this some weird legal music thing rule that the songwriter can't sing her own song?
She doesnt wanna be famous nor does she want to be an artist on a song, she enjoys other people singing her songs, lots of a songwriters do.
No it's because Sarah's a songwriter, that's her job. The songwriter and artist are usually separate jobs in pop music. If Sarah sings on the song then she becomes an artist (Which means she'll likely be expected to tour the song, do press interviews, photoshoots, release an album, etc). Look at Charlie Puth who originally was just the demo vocalist for See You Again. The label and Fast & Furious crew went through about 20 vocalists before finally saying "we want the guy who sang the demo". After that Charlie inevitably started his artist career.
Steven Gold I didn't know that! Thank u, that's truly inspiring
You're really dumb.
Steven Gold I thought Charlie was the one who said he wanted to sing the song. I read something like that, it’s fake?
I loved Sarah's version :(
The imperfections in sarah's voice are what make her so good
Sarah's voice really fits this song. That huskiness in her voice makes the song really good