The Producer
as Composer, Shaping he Sounds of Popular
Music
by Virgil Moorefield
The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2005
143 pp. Trade, £14.95
ISBN: 0-262-13457-8.
Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen
Hogeschool Gent
Belgium
stefaan.vanryssen@hogent.be
Producers shaping the sound of popular
music are not a new phenomenon. Indeed,
since the rise of technologies enabling
to record and playback any type of music,
technicians and producers have had a very
important role in the process. But only
gradually have they come to the forefront.
Till the Sixties of last century they
often didnt even get credited on
LP sleeves. But step-by-step, their visibility
has increased, and the names of some have
becomein some instancessynonyms
for a certain sound, a way of recording
and mixing, a particular concept of presenting
music to the audiences, and even a subgenre.
George Martin and Phil Spector were not
the first ones, but they certainly stand
out in most peoples memories as
the pioneers of the producers trade
as we know it today: wizards of the mixing
console who sometimes transformed a simple
unplugged composition into a pseudo-symphonic
experience. Later on, Tony Visconti and
Brian Eno integrated electronic instruments
in pop music, leading the way for electropop,
disco and the more recent hip hop, house
and techno or dance genres. Today, some
artists/producers have done with singers
and musicians altogether and are using
samples and synthesisers to create their
products. The stage has become in some
ways obsolete, and the studio is the real
instrument for music that is to be enjoyed
at raves and in clubs, instead of being
listened to from the stands of the pop
concert hall.
Virgil Moorefield is an associate professor
of new media and composition at the University
of Michigan at Ann Arbor and has been
working as an assistant to some of the
great producers of the Seventies and Eighties.
His book is a more or less chronological
narrative of the coming of age of sound
producing as an art in it self. As such,
that is not a very new story. Many authors
have been writing about the history of
producingand we have reviewed
some of them in these columns. What is
special and enlightening in this unassuming
book is the thorough musicological analysis
he presents of some of the most successful
songs in pop music. Ever listened to Good
Vibrations by the Beach Boys? It
is almost impossible you havent
because it has been a classic ever since
its release in the Sixties: One simply
cant avoid some of these damned
parasites. But anyway, for any music lover
who is even only just a little bit interested
in understanding why some music seems
to be simply better than the rest, the
question is: How did they do it? Well,
"they" didnt, but he did.
Brian Wilson turned this song into his
own pocket symphony". And Moorefield
describes this symphony in such a way
that you cant resist plucking it
from the Internet somewhere and listening
to it with new ears. This is just one
example from this well-balanced and well-informed
book. Dont expect a deep ethnological
analysis or a discussion in the vein of
media criticism or culture studies. Rather,
this is an historical account, written
with a lot of love and insight. You will
even come to love the Nine Inch Nails
song, "Mr. Self Destruct," produced
by Trent Reznor. Try it.