Despite their obvious differences, Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream,” Maroon 5’s “Payphone,” Britney Spears’s “Circus,” and Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” all have one person in common: Benny Blanco. The Virginia native has created a name for himself within the music industry as a producer and writer. Blanco’s affinity for the music industry began early, with him loving music as a child and wanting to become a rapper. This dream shifted, as Blanco explains in an NPR interview. “I realized no one wanted to hear a chubby Jewish kid rap, so I was like, ‘Oh I guess I’ll make all my own music, and I’ll write songs for other people.”