Professional Development Essay

Tom Le Bon
13590
AD1009

Word Count: 3,447

For my professional development essay, I have chosen to look at two highly

influential producers from popular music, who influenced and pushed

development in not only popular music as a whole, but also each others work

over the course of their careers, and subsequently producing albums which are

still revered for their production values today. To do this, I will be focusing on

one of each of their most highly valued works, analyzing it to ascertain trends in

their production style and process. The first producer that I will be looking at is

American producer Brian Wilson, focusing on his seminal work, the Beach Boys

record ‘Pet Sounds’. I will then in turn be looking at British producer George

Martin, looking at his work on the Beatles album ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely

Hearts Club Band’. The reason for my choosing of these albums is that they are

widely regarded as among the (if not the) most influential albums of popular

music 3, and were the culmination of a rivalry between Martin and Wilson that

revolutionized the concept of studio records. Once I have analysed each of these

producers methodologies, I will then draw comparison from the two, looking to

ascertain the strengths and weaknesses of these producer’s methods and styles.

After the comparison has been conducted, I will then apply them to my own

production ethic, in the hope to learn and expand my skillset as a producer from

this analysis.

Brian Douglas Wilson was born on June 20 th, 1961. He grew up in Hawthorne,

California, to father Murry Wilson, a musician and barbershop singer, along with

his two younger brothers Dennis and Carl. Brian Wilson showed development in

music from a very early age, showing an aptitude for repeating the melodies to

songs before he even reached one year old 1. At a young age, Wilson was
diagnosed with a rapidly worsening deafness affecting his right ear, purportedly

caused by his fathers physical abuse, to which he was prone 2. However, his father

also taught Wilson many of the skills that he later utilized in the studio and in his

writing. He was given accordion lessons by his father, and was taken to choral

practice every week, where he learned and developed his signature penchant for

vocal harmony. In high school, his skills as a musician developed. He taught

himself piano after school, deconstructing and analyzing songs by his favorite

artists to help himself in creating material for himself. It was during this period

when he made first contact with music technology, receiving a tape recorder for

his 16th birthday. This gave him an opportunity to start recording himself writing

and playing music, and soon he had written his first few songs, one of which was

called ‘Surfer Girl’. This would go on to become the Beach Boy’s first hit, with

Brian Wilson heading up the team. More hit singles followed after this, and with

newly found stardom the Beach Boys grew with each release of a single.

However, Brian Wilson did not like the performing aspect of his work, and soon

he instead retreated into the studio whilst the other members of the group left to

tour without him. It was in this time that Wilson really started to sharpen his

toolset as a producer, working with artists like Jan & Dean, The Honeys and The

Survivors, as well as starting to write and produce what many consider to be his

magnum opus, Pet Sounds, conceptualized after Wilson had heard the Beatles

record ‘Rubber Soul’, produced by George Martin. Wilson worte and recorded

‘Pet Sounds’, but upon returning from their tour his fellow Beach Boys were

skeptical of Wilson’s music, as were their record label Capitol Records, and

initially Pet Sounds was met with modest commercial success. It has now gone

on to become one of the most widely influential records in popular music, second
only (according to Rolling Stone magazine) to Sergeant Peppers Lonely Heart’s

Club Band 3. Upon hearing Sergeant Peppers, Just one year after Pet Sounds had

been completed, Wilson, combined with his fragile mental state, began to retreat

from his music, leaving his brother Carl to take up the production and writing

duties.

Wilson’s production styles and sensibilities are ones that he had learned

throughout his life, bringing his experience with his fathers barbershop music,

his influence from Rock & Roll artists such as Chuck Berry, classical composition,

and many others. Wilson’s work as a producer tends to extend heavily into the

pre-production phase of the project, almost invariably rewriting artists parts and

arranging a song to better suit his ‘style’. This can be seen on the album that he

co-wrote with Jan & Dean ‘Surf City’. As well as rearranging the parts of a pop

song, Wilson also utilizes key changes & modulates often from one part of a track

to another, often combining the move upward or downward in pitch with a

corresponding change in tempo. This serves the purpose of elegantly

emphasizing the feel of the different sections of a song, without having to

sacrifice tact by barraging the listener with a wall of harmonic content. From a

technological standpoint, Wilson tends to use big, bright reverbs, often coupled

with delays, creating a sonic image that is ethereal and dreamlike, seeming to

exist more inside the listeners mind than in an imaginable space. Obviously due

to his impaired hearing in one ear, it is worth noting that all of Wilson’s work

was produced in mono, smearing a sense of clarity of each instrument and

instead presenting the listener with a single sonic entity.

Wilson’s real ‘signature sound’ comes from his use of dense, complex harmonies,

a trait which was garnered by his fathers music as a Barbershop musician, as

well as the group the Four Freshmen, a primary influence of Wilson growing up.

One great example of these vocal harmonies can be found in the round near the

end of ‘Sloop John B’ on the ‘Pet Sounds’ album, creating layered harmonies and

countermelodies to keep pace without having to rely on backing

instrumentation, as well as to emphasise melodic or lyrical content that he

wanted expressed to the listener as a priority. However, these dense harmonies

are not solely limited to the vocal parts of a song, with Wilson using a large group

of session musicians (known in the case of Pet Sounds as the ‘Wrecking Crew) in

almost all of his work to create movement and interest with polyrhythms and

dense, thick harmonies, enabling him to build and retract from the music without

having to use volume as an answer. As well as using the more conventional

instrumentation of a classically trained chamber group & the produced bands

instrumentation, Wilson also has a trend in his production of including more

unconventional instrumentation into the music, placing more everyday objects in

the context of a musical piece to give it a distinctive, memorable, and more

personal feel.

George Martin was born on January the 1 st, 1926, in Highbury, London. George

did not come from a musical background, but when the family acquired a piano

in 1932, George’s interest in music was sparked. Predominantly self-taught,

Martin progressed on the piano, slowly opening his mind and ears to the

possibilities of music. This is what Martin said upon his first experience with an

orchestra:
"I remember well the very first time I heard a symphony orchestra. I was just in

my teens when Sir Adrian Boult brought the BBC Symphony Orchestra to my

school for a public concert.  It was absolutely magical. Hearing such glorious

sounds I found it difficult to connect them with ninety men and women blowing

into brass and wooden instruments or scraping away at strings with horsehair

bows. I could not believe my ears.” 4

After a stint in the Air Force during the second world war, Martin used his

veterans grant to study at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where he

studied in piano and oboe. After this, Martin worked briefly in the BBC’s classical

department, where he first learned the skills necessary to use the recording

studio to track, edit and mix music, before moving to assist the director of

Parlophone Records, a subsidiary of EMI records, and eventually filling the spot

of director himself. It was at this point that Martin was introduced to Beatles

manager Brian Epstein, who informed Martin of his yet unbroken band. Martin

signed the band, despite think of their music as ‘Rather unpromising’ 5. As the

Beatles career developed, Martin began to take more of an interest in the

creative aspects project, making integral decisions upon what would become the

Beatles greatest hits. It was Martin who convinced Paul McCartney to accompany

the vocals for ‘Yesterday’ with a string quartet, writing the arrangement of this

himself. He continued to produce the Beatles up until ‘Abbey Road’ (a role which

earned him the unofficial title of the ‘fifth Beatle’), also managing his increasing

demand as an independent producer (Having left EMI to found Associated

Independent Recording), working with other artists including Gerry & the
Pacemakers & Cilla Black. After the Beatles disbanded, Martin continued to work

with both Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, the latter continuing to bring Martin

ever more time in the UK and US charts. However, ‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely

Heart’s Club’ is widely considered to be the Beatles pinnacle as recording artists,

and subsequently of Martin’s own career also. Ironically, this album, which

affected Wilson so very dramatically when hearing it, was originally conceived

by McCartney after hearing ‘Pet Sounds’ for the first time, spurring McCartney to

create an album to challenge ‘Pet Sounds’ in terms of scope and recording

innovation.

Like Wilson, George Martin’s approach to the production process stems

primarily from his musical and professional upbringing. His training as a

classical pianist and oboe player gave Martin a keen sense of both arrangement

and conducting, as well as a deep understanding of the compositional makeup of

classical music. These skills are shown in Martin’s use of lush, orchestral

backings to his productions, turning rough ideas of pop tracks into beautiful and

stirring pieces of music. One great example of this is on the opening track of

Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, where Martin uses a call and

response between the Beatles and his orchestral arrangement to bring

complexity and interest to a piece of music that simply could not have stood

without the orchestral backing.

Martin also drew from his history at Parlophone a knowledge of all kinds of

musical styles, including classical composition, dancehall, rock, lounge, indian

rag and waltz styles. This is particularly prevalent in Sergeant Pepper, where we
can see all of these in play in one way or another. The track ‘Within You Without

You’ makes use of instrumentations and structures found far more often in

eastern and world music, but is integrated with the Beatles style to great effect.

‘When I’m Sixty Four’ features a lounge style arrangement more commonly

associated with television themes than with popular music, but Martin fuses the

elements of the style with those of the Beatles to create a piece of music that it

simply could not have been without the backing of Martin’s woodwind led

arrangement. Martin’s use of these styles of music are not limited to

instrumentation and structure however, as many of the elegant turnarounds and

modulations in the chordal structure of pieces such as ‘Fixing a Hole’ and ‘She’s

Leaving Home’ are progressions that would be far more akin to a piece of Ravel

or Gershwin than found in a pop song. Martin has a particular fondness for

including keyboard parts in his productions, obviously a trait taken from his

training as a pianist, a fine example of which can be found in both ‘Lucy in the Sky

with Diamonds’ and ‘Fixing a Hole’.

From a technological standpoint as well as a musical one, Martin has a very

distinctive sound as a producer. Martin makes heavy use of extreme and unusual

panning in his music, hard panning drums and vocals to the left or right, and

swapping these placements over regularly between verses in a call and response

fashion. This technique isn’t limited to individual instruments either, but to

entire groups of instrumentation, as is the case in the opening track of Sergeant

Pepper, where the panning focus shifts between the Beatles and the Orchestra

not only in arrangement but in stereo image. Martin makes good use of

modulation effects, with a particular fondness for using chorus or flange on lead
and backing vocals, such as on ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite’, Where

McCartney’s vocal is both doubled and chorused, giving a thick, shifting melody.

This is compounded by the large reverbs used heavily on the album, adding to

the surreal and ethereal nature of the album’s loose concept of spirituality and

mortality.

It is impossible when considering one of these producers careers to not account

or look at the other, competing with each other alongside their artists to create

an album that truly mastered the use of the studio as not only a tool, but an

instrument in it’s own right. There are many similarities that can be drawn

between not only these producer’s early careers, but also to their production

technique, their standpoint on the role of a producer in the process of making a

record, and their process of creating music. Both producers place a particular

interest in what would be considered the pre-production phase of the production

of a record, contributing not only to the song’s recorded sound, but working with

the artists to rewrite and rearrange tracks, adding their respective sense of

harmonic progression to create beautiful turns and modulations in tracks. Both

use their respective experience in more classical and musically technical

composition to put a distinctive twist on their productions, adding elements of

composition found more commonly in the music of tin pan alley to the popular

Rock & Roll of the 1960’s to give it an elegance and intelligence that lifts it from

the rest of the music of the era. It is worth noting that both producers shared a

love of the work of composers like Gershwin, and this can be clearly and

distinctly heard in their arrangements, such as ‘Pet Sounds’ track Don’t Talk’, and

the famous Beatles track ‘Yesterday’.

Both producers were also influenced by other music producers. One of these is

Phil Spector, famous for his ‘Wall of Sound’ Technique, a technique where a large,

heavily reverbed sound source backs a track, with multiple instruments playing

in unison to create a thick, full sound. Martin pays homage to this technique in

‘Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, where we have a huge orchestral

swell on the interludes between the sections of ‘A Day in the Life’. Wilson also

uses heavy doubling of lines in a similar fashion to Spector, an example of this

being on ‘Wouldn’t it be Nice’, prevalent in the horns section of the track.

However, there are also some distinct differences in the styles of these producers

that distinguish one from another, each having their own strengths and

weaknesses. While both producers come from a musical standpoint, it is Martin

who makes more use of the studio as an instrument, adding effects where Wilson

would normally lean on the arrangement of the piece for interest. For example,

Martin’s use of chorus throughout ‘Sergeant Pepper’ creates a haunting and

ethereal feel to the vocal lines that feature it, such as the aforementioned vocal in

‘Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite’. Whilst Wilson’s vocal also features this kind of

atmosphere when required, it is found in the delivery of the performance, such

as the legato and slight portamento with which the melody of ‘Don’t Talk’ is

delivered. Whilst this may be considered a more elegant solution than Martins

from an artistic standpoint, it is far more convenient to have the knowledge of

the tools to be able to create this feel as a producer, rather than to have to school

every artist that does not have an innate sense of delivery to get that effect.

There is also a very stark and key difference in the mixing process of the
producers, in that whilst Martin uses hard panning to create interesting

placements and movements of instruments, Wilson has no stereo imaging

whatsoever, mixing in mono due primarily to his deafness in one ear. Whilst

some producers would consider mono somewhat restrictive, Martin takes it to

the other extreme. It could be argued that his use of hard panning is at times far

too extreme, leading to situations where the image of drums, bass and rhythm

guitar to hard left and vocals, keyboards and lead guitar to hard right (as found

on ‘Fixing a Hole’), where instead of having instrumental clarity, you are left with

what essentially is two separate mono mixes of half the instrumentation of a

track, which is both harsh and brash on the ears.

There are also differences to be found between the roles that the producers put

in the hands of the arrangements of their tracks. Where Martin tends to use his

orchestration to counterpoint the bands own instruments, such as on ‘Sergeant

Pepper’s’ title track, Wilson incorporates the two together, often leading to a

more integrated sense of instrumentation on the tracks, examples of which are

prevalent in most of the ‘Pet Sounds’ tracks, particularly ‘I Know There’s an

Answer’ or ‘Wouldn’t it be Nice’. but Martin’s ‘versus’ style of incorporating the

orchestration is not without merit, often giving the piece added dramatization

and distinction.

It is these distinctions, as well as the correlations between these great producers,

that give them their individual strengths, which I intend to implement into my

own process of production in future. The notion of being involved heavily in the

pre-production element of recording music is one that I have always been fond
of, but simultaneously wary, due to not wanting to infringe upon the creativity of

the artist, keeping my creative ideas for my own projects. However, having

looked at the way in which both of these producers work with their artists to

better their music, it seems that in order to truly become a great producer, you

need to be able to become a part of the creative output, and not just ease the

creative process of the artist. However, it is not enough to just become a part of

the creative output. After analyzing both of these producers, it appears that each

of them has their own audio ‘signature’, a technique that marks the work as

theirs and separates their work from everybody else. In previous production

work that I have undertaken, I have shyed away from any production elements

that seem too extreme or too experimental, worrying that I will be judged by my

artists if I make a decision that they do not like. However, in undertaking this

essay, I have come to the conclusion that, in order to really leave a positive

impression on both the artists and their work, I have to experiment, to try to

bring my vision into the music, even if it is not necessarily a vision shared by the

artist, as if they have not heard it, they cannot know if they like it or not.

Most importantly, though, undertaking this project has showed me that in order

to do both of the above, I have to utilize my musical upbringing, and to integrate

the skills that I have learned into my productions. I have been extremely

privileged with regards to my musical development over my life, and have

acquired a breadth of skills and knowledge from both popular music and

classical music. I have played in orchestras for years, and know how they work. I

have arranged string quartets and chamber groups on multiple occasions, and

have a good knowledge of classical arrangement. I have also learned a multitude

of different instruments, used in a variety of genres and roles within the

instrumentation of a piece. Before this study I have never bought the majority of

those to a production role, as I have been concerned that if I am producing a rock

band that I should only use the skills that I have acquired as a rock musician and

producer. However, in order to really flourish as a producer, it seems from my

studies that finding a sound and having a creative input in the production is in

fact incidental in the natural process of using the skills and knowledge you as an

individual have acquired over your life, be them musical, social, technological,

economic, or any other form of expertise.

Bibliography

1) Gaines, S (1986). Heroes and Villains: the true story of the Beach Boys. New
York: New American Library.

2) Gaines, S (1986). Heroes and Villains: the true story of the Beach Boys. New
York: New American Library.

3) 2010, The Most Influencial 500 Albums of All Time [online], Rolling Stone,
Available from: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/6862/35223/35225
[Accessed: 8.9.2010]

4) Martin, G 2006, Radio 3 Orchestral Quotations [online], BBC, Available from:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/listenup/messages.shtml [Accessed: 8.9.2010]

5) Martin, G; Hornsby, J (1994). All You Need Is Ears. New York: St. Martin's Press

Unreferenced Reading

Ames Carlin, P 2006, Catch a wave: the rise, fall & redemption of the Beach Boys
Brian Wilson, Holtzbrinick, New York.

Howard, D.N. 2004, Sonic alchemy: visionary music producers and their maverick
recordings, Hal Leonard, New York

Julien, O 2008, Sgt. Pepper and the Beatles: it was forty years ago today, Ashgate
Publishing ltd., Hampshire.