The Producer as Composer: Shaping the Sounds of Popular Music

"In the 1960s, rock and pop music recording questioned the convention that recordings should recreate the illusion of a concert hall setting. The Wall of Sound that Phil Spector built behind various artists and the intricate electicism of George Martin's recordings of the Beatles did not resemble live performances--in the Albert Hall or elsewhere--but instead created a new sonic world. The role of the record producer, writes [the author in this book] ... was evolving from that of organizer to auteur. Moorefield, a musician and producer himself, traces this evolution with detailed discussions of works by producers and producer-musicians including Spector and Martin, Brian Eno, Bill Laswell, Trent Reznor, Quincy Jones, and the Chemical Brothers. Underlying the transformation, Moorefield writes, is technological development: new techniques--tape editing, overdubbing, compression--and, in the last ten years, inexpensive digital recording equipment that allows artists to become their own producers ... [This book] tries to unravel the mystery of good pop: why does it sound the way it does?"--Publisher description.