Oscar Holter

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Oscar Holter is a Swedish songwriter and producer, born in 1986 in Degerfors. He began in electronic music and played in the Swedish band Necro Facility, which made EBM: hard, danceable electronics. Later he became a writer and producer of pop songs, often together with Max Martin, the Swedish producer behind many of the biggest hits since the 1990s. Holter lives and works in the United States.

Music and breakthrough

His best-known song is Blinding Lights (2019) by The Weeknd, which he wrote and produced together with Max Martin and The Weeknd, for the album After Hours. According to Billboard, the song became the longest-charting hit in the history of the Hot 100. Holter also worked for Taylor Swift, as writer and producer of Dancing With Our Hands Tied (2017), and for Pink, including on Hair Up and Just Like Fire (2016). Katy Perry, Tove Lo, Charli XCX, Carly Rae Jepsen, Troye Sivan and Coldplay are on his list as well.

Influence

Holter is an example of how the hit factory works in the 21st century. A song like Blinding Lights has five writers. The star sings and gives the song a face, but behind the scenes a small team of regular writers and producers is at work, a striking proportion of them from Sweden. Their names are in the credits, not on the sleeve, and the general public rarely knows them.

Listening

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

• Mixtape 12: The Hit Factory^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Blinding Lights SongThe credits list five writers, including Max Martin and Oscar Holter.