The title of today’s song was inspired by a theory popularized by author Malcolm Gladwell that it takes this many hours to truly master something. Even relationships!
As Gladwell tells it, the rule goes like this: it takes [this number of] hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials, like playing the violin or getting as good as Bill Gates at computer programming.
While writing today’s song, today’s duo started to think about what it'd be like if Justin Bieber were on it.
They envisioned him singing the second verse before they even reached out to ask. Both artists share a manager, and Taylor Swift’s arch enemy, Scooter Braun, so that's how they got in touch.
"He hit back right away like, '(He) loves the song. Wants to do it,'" said the duo, which was a delightful surprise for them. "So we connected and he wrote a couple of lines on it, put his spin on it.
This song debuted at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 which is the first country song to debut in the top ten since 2012. This is also this country duo’s first top ten hit in the US and Bieber's 16th. On the Country Airplay chart, it is the duo's seventh number one and Bieber's first.
It was Anders Ericsson’s research on expert musicians that Malcolm Gladwell cites as a basis for the [this number of hours] rule. But Ericsson says the rule is an oversimplification, and in many ways, an incorrect interpretation of his research.
He says the number is catchy and easy to remember, but not really based on anything substantial. By the age of 18, promising violinists had put in an average of 7,400 hours. And even at 20, they were very good at playing the violin, but they were not yet experts, so the number of hours in today’s song was meant as an average and NOT the rule.
But as a metaphor for how much time you want to spend on perfecting love and marriage, it worked like a charm!
Dan and Shay (feat. Justin Bieber)...10,000 Hours...I Know That Song!