Taylor Swift owes her 2016 Grammy to this reclusive Swedish producer

Take a look at the full list of the Grammys and you'll find an unfamiliar name next to Taylor Swift's album of the year, "1989."

It's Max Martin, the thoroughly Swedish producer and songwriter who has quietly shaped the world's catchiest hits.

In addition to winning album of the year for "1989," he was credited for two nominees for song of the year, "Blank Space" by Taylor Swift and "Can't Feel My Face" by The Weeknd.

Curiously, it's only Martin's second Grammy - despite powering more than 50 hit songs in Billboard's top 10.

He's behind songs that have been stuck in your head since the 1990s, stretching back to Britney Spears ("... Baby One More Time"), Kelly Clarkson ("Since U Been Gone"), and The Backstreet Boys ("I Want It That Way").

Martin's songwriting has made American pop music what it is today, and he delivered Swift's first number one hit in 2012 with "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together."

According to Jon Seabrook, author of the new "The Song Machine: Inside the Hit Factory," the Max Martin sound "combines ABBA's pop chords and textures ... eighties arena rock's big choruses, and early-nineties American R. & B. grooves."

The reason you might not have heard of Martin (given name Karl Martin Sandberg) is probably because of his Swedishness. As Seabrook observes, the songwriter is a primary example of Scandinavian Jantelagen, or disdain for being seen as a celebrity (which makes him perfect for producing and co-writing songs for divas and hearthrobs).

Martin's musical gifts can be found in his Swedishness, too, particularly the country's world-class education system. He got his start in music with state-sponsored music education programs, beginning with the recorder and then the French horn, drums, and keyboard, while also playing in the school orchestra.

Today, some 30% of students attend these after school programs.

Oddly enough, the music public education movement in Sweden came out of a backlash to American music in the 1940s. Swedish church leaders and conservative politicians wanted to create a robust music program in the public education system so that youth could create their own tunes instead of being infected by the "scandalous" jams starting to come out of the United States.

"Because their purpose was to inoculate the masses against the corrosive effects of popular entertainment - and not to train a select group of virtuosos - the schools were widespread and accessible to children of all talent levels," Moser writes, while simultaneously increasing "the odds that Swedes would discover their talents."

Decades later, Sweden's the country that writes the pop that America (and Asia, by route of South Korea) listens to.

Take it from the man who became Max Martin.

"I would not be standing in this place today if it weren't for the public music school," Martin said in an interview.

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