4 Famous Pop Staples That Were Written in Under 30 Minutes

For some songwriters, it’s a delicate craft, with certain songs taking a lot of time and attention before they’re ready to be recorded. But for others, inspiration strikes hard and fast. And because it can be fleeting, it can be important for artists to follow it wherever it leads in the moment. For some, the result is a killer pop song, including career-making hits, in mere minutes.

“Just Dance” by Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga burst onto the scene in 2008 with “Just Dance”, her first single from debut album The Fame, and has been a pop superstar pretty much ever since. She wrote the song along with producer RedOne and singer Akon, and it came together quickly–in just ten minutes. Gaga has said she was hungover at the time, which aligns with the song’s lyrics about partying and having had too much to drink, and was somewhat surprised by the song’s success.

“We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” by Taylor Swift

For her fourth album, Red, Taylor Swift teamed up with Swedish producers and songwriters ​​Max Martin and Shellback. They helped her write the hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”. After a friend of Swift’s ex-boyfriend stopped by the studio where she was writing and recording, Martin suggested she write about it. “Max says, ‘This is what we’re writing; we’re writing this song,’” she said in an interview. “And I picked up the guitar and just started singing ‘we are never.’ It just happened so fast. It was so much fun.”

“Royals” by Lorde

Lorde’s debut single, “Royals”, was written with the help of producer Joel Little. Lorde wrote the lyrics in just a half-hour while she was at home and repurposed some older lyrics for it. “I think one of the first lines I wrote from that song, which was, ‘We’re driving Cadillacs in our dreams,’ was in a diary that I had when I was like 11 or 12, so young,” she once told Radio.com. When she was finished, she took the song to Little in the studio.

“Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” by Beyoncé

Beyoncé’s hit “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” was a collaborative effort. She worked on the track with Terius “The-Dream” Nash, Thaddis “Kuk” Harrell, and Christopher “Tricky” Stewart. With lyrics about a man struggling to commit to his girlfriend, Stewart has said he wanted the song to feel like “a coffee-table conversation.” Likewise, Beyoncé was drawn to the song’s universal appeal. The-Dream explained the song came together in less than 20 minutes. And he also touched on why he thinks songs that are written fast end up being hits: “You’re not thinking about it. It’s just a mood.”