All recorded music since they went to LP records has been to some extent formula music. From Patti Page/Doris Day to Tony Martin/Tony Bennet, They followed what was selling at the time. If you stretch the point a bit, Mitch Miller was the first super producer, pre-dating Phil Spector.

Most of the early Do-Wop songs all used the same musicians. And as time passed the same could be said for the Philly Sound, The MoTown sound and the Stax sound. All used a core set of musicians. Out on the West Coast you had Carol Kay and Tommy Tedesco and in Nashville Jimmy Capps would be doing 500 sessions a year. You could say it was formula, or it was just a group of musicians that people at that time really enjoyed listening to. I tend to side with the fact that people really enjoyed that group of musician's playing style.

The other day I played my boyfriend a cut from an album I did 30 years ago and compared it to a White Stripes cut. His comment was that their music was danceable and mine wasn't. I was lucky enough to get put together with a well known drummer who wanted to create a Power Duo. I was the newbee and all the others were well seasoned studio people with a heck of a track record. But it just didn't work. It wasn't till I heard the White Stripes that the reason became clear why. Jack White distilled the music to it's most basic while we were to busy trying to show off our musical skills and forgot it's about the song stupid. So it wasn't about how skilled the musicians are or how many hits a producer has had. We weren't listenable and the White Stripes were.