Evolution Of The Role Of The Producer

Prior to the 1950s, the various stages of the recording and marketing process had been carried out by different professionals within the industry -- A&R managers found potential new artists and signed them to their labels; professional songwriters created new material; publishing agents sold these songs to the A&R people; staff engineers carried out the task of making the recordings in company-owned studios.

Freed from this traditional system by the advent of independent commercial studios, the new generation of entrepreneurial producers -- many of whom were former record company employees themselves -- were able to create and occupy a new stratum in the industry, taking on a more direct and complex role in the musical process. This development in music was mirrored in the TV industry by the concurrent development of videotape recording and the consequent emergence of independent TV production companies like Desilu, established by '50s TV superstars Lucille Ball and her then husband Desi Arnaz.

These producers now typically carried out most or all of these various tasks themselves, including selecting and arranging songs, overseeing sessions (and often engineering the recordings) and even writing the material. Independent music production companies rapidly gained a significant foothold in popular music and soon became the main intermediary between artist and record label, signing new artists to production contracts, producing the recordings and then licensing the finished product to record labels for pressing, promotion and sale. (This was a novel innovation in the popular music field, although a broadly similar system had long been in place in many countries for the production of content for broadcast radio.) The classic example of this transition is renowned British producer George Martin, who worked as a staff producer and A&R manager at EMI for many years, before branching out on his own and becoming a highly successful independent producer.

As a result of these changes, record producers began to exert a strong influence, not only on individual careers, but on the course of popular music. Other notable past and present independent producers include Don Kirshner (The Monkees), Mickie Most (The Animals, Herman's Hermits, Donovan), Tony Visconti (David Bowie, T. Rex), Rick Rubin (Metallica, Beastie Boys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Linkin Park), Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck, Travis), RZA (Wu-Tang Clan, Method Man, Ghostface, Raekwon), Dr. Dre (N.W.A, Eazy-E, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, 50 Cent, The Game), Norman Whitfield (The Temptations), and Timbaland (Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Jay-Z, Aaliyah, Missy Elliott).

Realising the potential for creating recordings that could match their musical vision, many successful recording artists have become producers in their own right. Examples are Trent Reznor, Steven Wilson, Nile Rodgers, Devin Townsend, Ken Andrews, Jeff Lynne, Brian Wilson and Brian Eno.

Some producers also became de facto recording artists, often creating records with anonymous studio musicians and releasing them under a pseudonym. Examples of this phenomenon include the records by fictional groups The Archies and Josie & The Pussycats, produced by Don Kirshner and Danny Jansen respectively, who were contracted by TV production companies to produce these records to promote the animated children's TV series of the same name. Similarly, Jeff Barry and Andy Kim recorded as The Archies.