Collaborating Till the World Ends

For a song with the lyrics “sicker than the remix,” there sure has been a lot of hype surrounding the official remix of Britney Spears’s “Till the World Ends,” which features fellow pop princesses Ke$ha and Nicki Minaj.

The remix, released last week after a series of cryptic tweets from all three stars and countdowns on their official websites, features an opening verse by Minaj and chorus vocals from Ke$ha, who co-wrote the original song.

Spears’s remix is only one example of the trend that’s been sweeping the pop charts over the past few years: The Collaboration. The Collaboration isn’t about featuring a new or little-known singer on a track. It’s not even defined by two moderately-known artists coming together. The trend of contemporary collaborating focuses on artists who are already established to mass audiences by their consistent chart-topping and sales records. “Till the World Ends,” for example, shows off the talent of Spears, Minaj, and Ke$ha, who were all established household names before they appeared as a trio on that track.

The hip-hop and R&B world has capitalized on The Collaboration since the establishment of the genre, with Kanye West’s “All of the Lights,” featuring John Legend, The-Dream, Elly Jackson of La Roux, Alicia Keys, Fergie, Kid Cudi, Elton John and Rihanna being the most notable and extensive recent example.

But pop artists – specifically solo female pop vocalists – historically seem to favor competition over collaboration. Even so, 2001’s “Lady Marmalade,” from the Moulin Rouge! soundtrack, is an early version of the contemporary pop Collaboration with Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mýa and Pink all appearing on the track. More recently, Aguilera collaborated with Minaj on her album Bionic. But prior to 2010, “Lady Marmalade” was the only song in her six-album arsenal to feature a collaboration with other female pop artists.

Aguilera and Spears’s careers are both rooted in the late 90s/early 2000s pop scene, and they were one another’s competition in the relatively new game of contemporary female pop solo artistry. Battling with pop girl groups like the Spice Girls and Destiny’s Child (where Beyoncé started her career), but Aguilera and Spears’s singles still dominated the Billboard Hot 100. Even “Lady Marmalade” was originally released by girl group Labelle in 1974, then reincarnated by a supergroup of solo artists.

By late 2009, the girl group fad had long since died down, and the pop world had welcomed a new breed of solo singers like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Ke$ha Fergie, and, of course, Lady Gaga.  The pop game changed with Gaga’s introduction of the first contemporary, high-profile collaboration: “Telephone,” featuring Beyoncé. Whereas pop singers have frequently featured lesser-known artists or collaborators, Gaga’s single prominently showed off Beyoncé’s vocals and featured her in the video.

Both singers’ albums are certified multi-platinum, according to the RIAA, and both have had multiple singles take number one on the Billboard Hot 100. With those kinds of charting and sales histories, Gaga and Beyoncé are arguably leading ladies in contemporary pop. By putting them together on one track, though, they got the extra boost that popstars after them have strived to gain by mimicking their strategy. “Telephone” charted in ten countries, garnered sales certifications in five countries, and spawned eight official remixes that were released after the original track.

In the post-“Telephone” pop industry, we’ve seen pop star after pop star doing The Collaboration, with the “Till the World Ends” remix being the latest in a string of tracks. Gaga, Beyoncé, Minaj, Rihanna and Spears have mastered the move, arranging themselves in different groupings and reappearing on one another’s tracks. This phenomenon is bigger than anything before: artists who already reside at the top of Billboard’s charts come together to record ground-breaking singles.

Statistics show that all these collaborations work to increase the popularity and sales (read: total revenue) of these artists, but it is important to maintain the fan loyalty of each singer as an individual. Moves like this can market an artist to double (or triple, etc) the number of consumers they would reach if they were solo on the track.

“It’s so trendy because the stakes are higher to be in the top ten nowadays. The production value of a song is more expensive, so you have to hire more talent to get more sales,” said WTBU Assistant Music Director Leah Roh, drawing from her firsthand work in A&R at Los Angeles-based music promotion company Art of Broadcast.

In an age in which few young people own radios and illegal file-sharing runs rampant, Billboard charts, measured by airplay and sales statistics, still hold significance to record labels in their business and marketing approach.

“From a business standpoint, this is the easiest way to get to the top of Billboard: combine the top artists on one track,” said Justin Monestime, WTBU General Manager and Business Development Associate at Sonicbids, a Boston-based internet music company. “I think it’s just what people want to hear.”

The fiscally-focused business strategy behind The Collaboration might be off-putting to some fans, but according to Monestime, true artistic integrity shines through the laundry lists of “ft.” artists on tracks like these.

“If they wanted to sell [records] solely to be on Ryan Seacrest’s top 40 countdown every week, they would have done a collaboration with the Black Eyed Peas already.”

Check out the songs on this time line, highlighting the main moments of female pop collaboration history:

March 2001: Christina Aguilera, Lil’ Kim, Mýa and Pink | “Lady Marmalade” | Moulin Rouge!
November 2009: Lady Gaga, Ft. Beyoncé | “Telephone” | The Fame Monster
December 2009: Beyoncé ft. Lady Gaga | “Video Phone (Extended Remix)”
June 2010: Christina Aguilera ft. Nicki Minaj | “Woohoo” | Bionic
November 2010: Nicki Minaj ft. Rihanna | “Fly” | Pink Friday
April 2011: Rihanna ft. Britney Spears | “S&M (Official Remix)”
April 2011: Britney Spears ft. Ke$ha and Nicky Minaj | “Till the World Ends (Official Remix)”