Can our favs read music?

[Red Wine Supernova]

I know professionally trained musicians can definitely read music to some extent. I’m pretty sure artists like GaGa can definitely do it. 
However, I heard a lot of pop musicians, even song writers and producers usually just write songs and play instruments by ear and rarely use sheet music. 
I know Mariah works with someone who can write down the melodies for her. And we have footages of Taylor writing songs in the studio. Despite the fact that she plays several instruments she also writes by ear(probably out of convenience). Almost all singers can harmonize by ear as well.

Is music theory even important for pop music?

[HearMeOnYourRadio]

I’m sure they pick up some capabilities along the way, but maybe not as much as someone whose been trained classically. 

[cocodeluxe]

So Alicia Keys is a trained pianist, so she is definitely able to do it. I know that Avril can do it too, I saw it in one of the behind the scenes videos of her third album. I guess that some trained singers like Ariana, Pink and Kelly Clarkson should at least have some knowledge about notes too. Other than than that I have no idea.

Edited May 8 by cocodeluxe

[Red Wine Supernova]

27 minutes ago, HearMeOnYourRadio said:

I’m sure they pick up some capabilities along the way, but maybe not as much as someone whose been trained classically. 

I’m not even sure if it’s necessary because it seems like they just get in the studio and start writing on the site. They usually come up with the lead melody and lyrics first then start working on the instrumental and other layers of vocals with their producers. At least that’s what Taylor does. Maybe other artists have a different approach. 
 

 

28 minutes ago, cocodeluxe said:

So Alicia Keys is a trained pianist, so she is definitely able to do it. I know that Avril can do it too, I saw it in one of the behind the scenes videos of her third album. I guess that some trained singers like Ariana, Pink and Kelly Clarkson should at least have some knowledge about notes too. Other than than that I have no idea.

Oh yeah Ariana is a musical genius. I’ve seen videos of her using a looping machine at a young age. It looks like she does everything by ear as well. I guess it’s just easier.