Pop's Greatest Producer
 

look, there's even a poll. cool.

I don't mean to nit-pick your poll options but Timbaland or Dr. Dre should be replaced by Rick Rubin. While Dre and T have both produced their respective good records, Rick Rubin was behind the scenes of: Run DMC, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, LL Cool J, Slayer, Danzig, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Johnny Cash etc... There's no telling how many albums he ''executively produced'' as well.

easy.

Phil Spector.

he has awesome hair AND he kills people IRL.

crazy phil...he pulled a gun on the ramones

Producers are never great: they're efficient or competent at best.

[quote=Shifty Prophet]I don't mean to nit-pick your poll options but Timbaland or Dr. Dre should be replaced by Rick Rubin. quote]

yeah i'd go with the Rube' here as well.

STEP BACK, HE MIGHT BLOW.

TOO MUCH AWESOME IN ONE WHITE DUDE.

I voted for Steve 'Albini' Albini.

Yeah, I agree that Rubin should be on there, but in terms of impact on pop music I think someone like Dre is at least comparable. His production on The Chronic pretty much defined whole swathes of Rap/RnB music in the 90s. Not forgetting his production on Straight Outta Compton which had a massive influence on the whole gangsta Rap thing.

It's definitely arguable, but while I did vote for Spector overall, I'd say Dre was maybe the most influential of the last twenty years. But yeah, it's a very good shout for Rubin.

the fact that Dr. Dre is on a "pop's greatest" list makes me want to cry. cry and then projectile vomit all over my screen.

Non-threatening Black Males With Attitude.


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please hold my hair...

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HUHAWWWWWWAAGHGHUUUUUGGGGGGLLGLGL.....

nigga-phobe

who? me?

As much as I respect you, Herr G (indeed, every morning, I prepare myself for the day by listening to your "The Heidegger of Crunk" spoken word CD), but Herr Albino deserves to have his bottom spanked for that Stooges CD he engineered. Hello, Bass????

I understand your rage. It was a joke based on the fact that I don't really like Albini. I mean, have you heard that Melt Banana album? Imagine if the Stooges album had decent songs that Albini raped with terror. That bad. As it was, Albini's favour to that Stooges album was to mask its pishness in bad production, thus saving the legend.

Who else voted for George Martin besides me?

And it was very close, I almost picked Brian Wilson.

i was really close to voting george martin, but i hopped the spector train... almost solely because of the ronettes.

^^^CAUGHT SLIPPIN'.

SPECTOR IS STILL BRINGIN' THAT SHIT REAL, DAWG.

i dont care what people say, i voted timbaland.

if i want pop music that makes me wanna dance around and galavant at a club, i would love to do it to his music. and for music thats not as accessible, he did do a great job on the latest bjork and MIA albums

This is so true it's bordering on being a law.

I voted Quincy Jones. He produced the best selling album of all time and yes, it is a fucking good album.

I'm just grateful Brendan O'Brian failed to make the list.

what?? he only produced one track on each of those and both of them were the weak weak weak, highly suspicious, most likely label appeasing tracks.

There are producers who are more influencial, or more impressive from a perspective of craft, but in terms of thinking "ooh, this album is produced by X, I should check it out", my favourite will always be John Cale. The man did treportedly did most of the arrangements for the first two VU records, and produced the debut records by the Stooges, Patti Smith and the Modern Lovers, in addition to doing pretty much all the production, arranging and instrumentation on a lot of Nico's best stuff, and some fantastic solo stuff. Can't beat that.

Someone who did quite a lot of "pop" stuff in the 70's and 80's is Gus Dudgeon, who worked with the likes of Queen and Dame Elton of John. And I'd also include Mickie Most, who turned the Human League from an arty synth ensemble to a bona fide pop group. And let's not forget Messrs Chinn and Chapman, who worked with not just the "Jesus wept!" likes of Mud and The Sweet (bovver boots glam ahoy!), but also with Blondie.

bollocks

i said spector, but perry is my fave outa them. i just listened to super ape in the car, its definitely not pop music man, a little too abstract. maybve sometimes, like the congos. but hes hardly someone on the level of fame as spector or someone.

Yeah, it'd be difficult to put someone like Perry alongside say Spector as a pop producer. i just didn't know what else to refer to them all as collectively. If I'd simply put music, then there's a whole raft of jazz and classical producers that would've probably warranted a mention. I think all of the ones mentioned have worked in 'popular music' at some point at least, so i suppose it was the only realistic option. I know what you mean though.

Guy Stevens.