Some of the biggest hits in music occur when two separate music industry icons get together and collaborate to form a powerhouse track. Some memorable examples from music history include:
Under Pressure by Queen & David Bowie
Walk This Way remake by Aerosmith and Run-D.M.C.
And, All For Love by Sting, Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart:
It seems like every other song on Top 40 radio stations today is by "________ featuring ________," and there's good reason for that. Just like the saying goes "two heads are better than one," often times two music artists are better than one. Collaborating can bring two talents together to fill in the gaps where each other may be lacking, add extra elements to an already great song, or create something completely new and unheard of (especially when two different music genres are combined).
Some of my favorite music collaborations from the past decade include:
The song that launched Lady Gaga's career - Just Dance featuring Colby O'Donis
One by U2 and Mary J. Blige
Numb/Encore mash-up by Jay-Z and Lincoln Park
And, of course, any collaboration with Rihanna. Rihanna has become a collaboration queen with her long list of song partners, including Jay-Z, Ne-Yo, Kanye West, Eminem, Drake, T.I., Young Jeezy, Maroon 5, Nicki Minaj, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. She only continues to grow that partnership list further by working with Coldplay on a track off their upcoming Mylo Xyloto album called "Princess of China." The majority of Rihanna's collaborative works have been a huge success and she and her team clearly understand the power of a good artist combination.
Outside of actual artists working together in the industry to combine sounds and create some amazing hit records, you also have the collaboration of music industry executives and performers-turned-mentors that come together in search of the next big music star. American Idol's original team of judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson worked together over the last decade to influence America's top vote that brought about stars like Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Jordin Sparks. Now we also have The Sing-Off, where this season Ben Folds, Shawn Stockman and Sara Bareilles decide which competing a cappella group will win a Sony Music recording contract and $200,000; The Voice where coaches Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine and Blake Shelton are joined together in search of the next great singer; and most recently Simon and Paula are back together again, but now also working with Nicole Scherzinger and L.A. Reid to find an American vocal act with The X Factor. Take a look at this video to see how much fun big time L.A. Reid and Simon Cowell are together as they answer questions about the show so far:
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The lesson to be learned here - if you are an artist looking to up your game in the music world or a music businessman looking to capitalize on what you've done in the industry so far, find someone great to collaborate with and let the sparks fly (and hopefully the money will start rolling in right behind).
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