“When people expect me to go right, I’ll go left. I’m unpredictable.”
~Paula Abdul
Def Leppard’s Rock of Ages video introduction
Mutt Lange may be one of the most accomplished music song writers and producers you have never heard of. He’s helped create the success of bands such as AC/DC with Back in Black (approximately 22 million U.S. copies sold), Def Leppard with Pyromania (over 10 million U.S. copies sold) and of his former wife, Shania Twain with Come On Over (over 20 million U.S. copies sold).
Mutt Lange: Content Developer
If Mutt Lange were a content developer for your company, I bet he’d be worth his weight in gold in helping create remarkably sticky stories, videos and music.
While I am not an expert on his production techniques and since “he has not given an interview of any kind for decades,” what I’ve recognized about him is that he’s has mastered using the unexpected. While there are many techniques he’s used to success, my two favorite examples are:
He starts songs with unusual sound combinations that grab your attention:
- Any rock music listener immediately knows the introduction to Hell’s Bells with its tolling church bell (a church bell in a hard rock song?!?);
- Any country & western listener immediately knows the introduction to Man I Feel Like a Woman! with its sing-song keyboard intro + “Shania’s call “Let’s go girls” then cutting into an electric guitar pulse (a pulsing electric guitar in a C&W song?!?);
- And of course the introduction to Rock of Ages with it’s gibberish “gunter glieben glauchen globen”) followed by a cow bell overlayed with a funky drum beat (a cow bell and a funky drum beat in a hard rock song?!?)
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