but according to john seabrook, there is one more. >> it's not just all, you know, machines and coldc in the air. >> reporter: valerie simpson says the same thing. >> my inspiration is to say it in a way that you haven't heard it and hope that it means something in your life, that it >>> we end this half hour on a high note, which steve hartman heard "on the road." >> reporter: he's only in third grade, but 9-year-old henry boyer of howell, michigan already knows what he wants to be. last fall he attended his first university of michigan football game, and he was wowed. they were that good? >> my mind was blown with how good they played. >> reporter: but it wasn't the football that he fell for. it was the marching band. and from that moment to this, henry has been rocking out to their cd. >> let's go blue! >> reporter: and watching old halftime shows on youtube. he even wrote a letter to the band saying how he would love to sign up some day. in response, they sent him a bunch of swag and a card inviting him to audition when he is old enough. >> i just really liked the card. >> report

. >> john seabrook is the author of "the song machine," which describes how hit songs are written today hit song? >> it clearly has something to do with reputation, because the brin loves patterns that it can recognize. ♪ i stay out to late >> a perfect example is the taylor swift song "shake it off," and not just in the catchy chorus. ♪ shake it off shake it off ♪ >> but this is the real genius of a pop song, is to make something that's simple enough to be kind of repetitive but doesn't get boring after it's been repeated 200 or 300 times. and that's very, very hard. ♪ help i need somebody ♪ help not just anybody ♪ >> no matter the era, the ingredients for a hit song have all the been melody, rhythm, harmony, and lyrics. but today the way songs are written is almost unrecognizable. it's not even called songwriting anymore. it's called production. >> it used to be writing a song back in the 1906s where you sit at a piano and pull out a pad and you write a song. well, production is that now. you pull out a laptop, you have a keyboard, and you produce a track. >> when you say "track"? >>