Music producer - who is it really? Music producer.

The owner of the Clan Soprano studio, co-author and sound producer of the songs of the Vintage group, Mitya Fomina and Valeria, told Media Station about who a “music producer” is and what he really does. We quote selected.

About stereotypes

... a producer in Russia spontaneously began to be considered one who, through his efforts of various kinds, from investing money to organizing concerts or distributing cassettes, will provide the artist with popularity. And everything would have continued like this, if integration with the world show business and the availability of information on the Internet did not let us all understand that “there” everything is somehow different. Producers are people like Timbaland and Pharrel Williams. Diplo and Skrillex win a Grammy as producers of Justin Bieber's Where Are Ü Now. And these guys do not at all correspond to the philistine image of the producer as "guys with a belly who listens to girls, lounging on the couch."

ABOUT real role music producer

A producer is a person who is responsible for what product the public will eventually hear. A producer can do everything himself, that is, completely write a song, make an arrangement, record vocals, mix a track, create a concept for a video sequence. Can delegate a part of these functions. But still, the decision on what should happen in the final is made solely by the producer. And in dance music it happens that a successful track is made without an artist at all. And in this case the title person of such a track is the producer himself. As an example, such very successful tracks can be cited: Martin Garrix - Animals - almost an instrumental track or Chainsmokers - Don't Let Me Down, where the voice of the vocalist sounds, but, in fact, is not fundamental, and the singer was simply invited by the producers to implement them ideas.

About the tasks of the producer

Just something to sing is not enough. It is necessary to create the concept of an artist, to extract from him the very cool, honest, strong that he has, to invent and qualitatively embody an interesting sound, to look for bright ways to realize the final musical product. And that's all - the task of the producer.

About who they confuse the "producer" with

…the one who invests money is called an investor. The one who directs the administrative process is called Executive Director or manager. Concert director organizes concerts; the tour manager is directly on tour with the artist.

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Who are music producers? Here is what Wikipedia tells us: Music producer- person responsible for style development musical project, creating a public image of the project, as well as for organizing, financing, and monitoring the implementation of relevant work.

A music producer can work both with the project as a whole and on its individual albums, songs, videos, and/or concert performances.

Initially, the music producer is in charge of the process of recording music, determining the style of the repertoire, selecting poems, music, and arrangements. But besides this, he can select scripts - for clips or concert performances. Also, a music producer can determine the general line of conduct of the project, develop the image and develop the created public image.

The music producer is obliged to supervise the process of writing and recording songs, less often - filming clips, even less often - organizing concert performances project.

The music producer selects technical staff for the project - assistants, editors, screenwriters, cameramen, directors, sound engineers, sound engineers, sound producers.

As a rule, large recording studios have their own music producers, but often musicians themselves invite outside producers of interest to them, and in some cases they carry out musical production of their project on their own.

The work of a music producer can be compared to the work of an art director. However, unlike artistic director, the duties of a music producer include not only directing creative part work of the project, but also the organization and control of the logistics of these works.

Bold I highlighted in my opinion especially egregious facts. Tell me, if the producer does all this, then what does the musician, composer do?

That's just who a producer is. performing any project.
In other words, speaking in simple Russian, the music is now made by merchants.

What is music and why is it needed?

Music (adjective from Greek - muse) - art, a means of embodiment artistic images for which are sound and silence, organized in a special way in time.

Music content

Like other forms of art, music does not have a pronounced material value, since its intangible results are manifested primarily in the spiritual life of a person and society. Influencing the inner world of people, art is able to create or change moral and spiritual values, having a certain content. Unlike many other art forms, musical content is difficult to formalize and describe, as it requires a non-conceptual nature of thinking. The impact of music is carried out on a wide front, affecting not only emotions and feelings, the psyche and bodily motor skills, but also affecting the ability to intuition, play, contemplation, and fantasy. Hence the frequent consideration of the content of music as a sacred art form. The contradiction between the apparent ability of music to influence a person and the inability to clearly express the content that influenced, led to significant diversity in the answer to the question of what exactly music “tells” a person, what message it contains. Art historians, thinkers and composers gave the following answers:
music is a direct imprint of the person himself, his thoughts, emotions, intellect, his subconscious;
music is a depiction of the extrahuman: God, the essence of being, surrounding reality, the category of positive.

Between these poles, there are intermediate opinions that try to connect them together, for example, that “music is a reflection of reality in the emotions and ideas of a person”, and a group of statements is also distinguished separately, reducing music only to sounds (“music is everything that sounds ").

Trying to give the most comprehensive formulation, Doctor of Art History Kazantseva L.P. gives the following definition of musical content:
“Musical content is the spiritual side of music embodied in sound, generated by the composer with the help of the objectified constants that have developed in it (genres, pitch systems, composition techniques, forms, etc.), updated by the performing musician and formed in the listener’s perception.”

At the same time, the system of artistic representations that arise under the influence of music and develop into musical content is placed as the basis for understanding. Being a complex product of the activity of the human psyche, these representations have as their subject side the intertwining and interpenetrating concepts of a person, the world around him and the music itself. The task of music is to generate these representations, to organize them among themselves with the help of musical means and methods. The basic tool here is intonation, which allows you to control ideas, building them in the right sequence and concentration. skillful use musical material allows you to create generalizations from views varying degrees- from musical images to musical and artistic themes and ideas. At the same time, an important feature of music is the continuous reorganization of the system of ideas generated by it, which, in addition to the richness of images, also gives dynamic enthusiasm, the ability to capture the listener with it.

Created by the composer musical composition is the embodiment of part of it inner world. Reflecting, the author rethinks the material at his disposal, creating new images. The richness of the material used by the composer is enormous, and in some cases it can even put pressure on the creator, preventing him from creating freely. However, the author cannot exist in a vacuum, one way or another, he is initially the bearer of musical cultural traditions and exists in the field of developed musical forms, styles, pitch systems, genres, techniques, symbols musical instruments, semantic roles of keys and other things. If the experience of predecessors is not used, then there is a possibility that the musical content of the work will remain incomprehensible to the listener, who actually exists in exactly the same cultural atmosphere. Thus, the well-known material helps the communication of the work with the listener and can serve as a “means of delivery” of the content needed by the author, his artistic ideas up to a person.

What do we get as a result?

Music is now made by music producers, performers and musicians, just puppets in their hands. What kind of culture of spirituality can we talk about in this music if it was made by just a huckster?

We are what we listen to and it's absolutely terrible. Someone may object to me, saying that not everything in our music is the fruit of the activities of producers, and this will be fair, but I want to note that those musicians who do not have this notorious producer are in an extremely deplorable position, and it is the merchants who flourish. Take, for example, the most famous Psy and Justin Bieber today - one hundred percent production projects. It's the same on our stage, here are the most successful Russian-speaking performers of 2012. 1. Ivan Dorn 2. Nyusha 3. Dima Bilan.

Alexander Sakharov (Clan Soprano Studio) Producer, composer, lyricist, sound engineer, producer and author of over 100 tracks, 5 of which were #1 on the Russian radio chart.

The classic said that we all come from childhood. Many agree that from there, from childhood, all the features, troubles and in many respects the character of the individual. That's Russian show business comes from the 90s and is still experiencing its children's complexes. And this is reflected not only on the participants themselves, but also on the public.

In view ordinary person the situation is as follows: there is an artist, he has a producer who comes with the artist to some abstract studio, there they record some song that seems to come from nowhere right away, then they shoot a clip and show it on TV. And that's it - the star is ready.

So it was in the 90s, and then partly. Then there was a lot of creativity and energy of the new time, the music industry began to develop rapidly, and somewhere even brazenly, giving rise to many new heroes. Appeared " Tender May”, then“ Hands Up ”, the old stars more or less successfully adapted to the new laws, rap culture began to develop, and in addition, former rebel rockers, for example, Viktor Tsoi and the Kino group, got on the rails of show business ( yes, yes, their latest albums were released and promoted according to all the canons of the pop music industry).

As a result, we entered the 21st century with a completely new show business, bright in ideas, but very artisanal and timid in terms of the professionalism of the participants. Everything was done on the knee, but this suited the audience, since no one could imagine that it could be somehow different. Yes, and after the cumbersome and clumsy Soviet stage people were ready to accept music of any quality, as long as it was different.

Therefore, a producer in Russia spontaneously began to be considered one who, through his efforts of various kinds, from investing money to organizing concerts or distributing cassettes, will provide the artist with popularity. And everything would have continued like this, if integration with the world show business and the availability of information on the Internet did not let us all understand that “there” everything is somehow different. Producers are people like Timbaland and Pharrel Williams. Diplo and Skrillex win a Grammy as producers of Justin Bieber's Where Are Ü Now. And these guys do not at all correspond to the philistine image of the producer as "guys with a belly who listens to girls, lounging on the couch."

Therefore, let's figure out who is called what and most importantly - who is responsible for what. A producer is a person who is responsible for what product the public will eventually hear. A producer can do everything himself, that is, completely write a song, make an arrangement, record vocals, mix a track, create a concept for a video sequence. Can delegate a part of these functions. But still, the decision on what should happen in the final is made solely by the producer. And in dance music, it happens that a successful track is made without an artist at all. And in this case, the title person of such a track is the producer himself. As an example, such very successful tracks can be cited: Martin Garrix - Animals - almost an instrumental track or Chainsmokers - Don "t Let Me Down, where the voice of the vocalist sounds, but, in fact, is not fundamental, and the singer is simply invited by the producers to implement them ideas.

Fortunately, in Russia, the understanding of the significance and role of the producer is gradually coming, because a randomly bought song from Internet mailing lists such as “Songs for Sale. Part 3 "does not bring the desired result to the artist. Just something to sing is not enough. It is necessary to create the concept of an artist, to extract from him the very cool, honest, strong that he has, to invent and qualitatively embody an interesting sound, to look for bright ways to realize the final musical product. And that's all - the task of the producer. And the one who invests money is called an investor. The person who directs the administrative process is called the executive director or manager. Concert director organizes concerts; the tour manager is directly on tour with the artist.

But this process is slow, and for the time being at our awards they continue to distribute “plates” to singers. And at this time on grammy award is awarded not so much to the performer as to the producer, just open the list of winners on Wikipedia, and you will see this information:

Record of the Year: "Uptown Funk" - Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars. Produced by Jeff Basker, Bruno Mars & Mark Ronson. Recording - Josh Blair, Serban Ghenea, Wayne Gordon, John Hanes, Inaam Haq, Boo Mitchell, Charles Moniz & Mark Ronson, mastering engineer - Tom Coyne.

Here you can see who created this track and made the decision. Note that Bruno Mars is both a co-author and a co-producer here, because a new generation of singers is sure to take part in creating music, they have a feeling that they want to tell people through music. And those singers who continue to believe that it doesn’t matter what to sing and how, and who will do it, as long as there are a lot of rotations on the radio, are now increasingly being “overboard”. And the public has become more literate, has begun to understand how and who creates music, and its quality requirements are growing strongly.

Therefore, a real leap in the development of show business in Russia is possible only if all participants understand these principles, everyone does their own thing, develop professionally, understand sound recording, the studio process, be relevant and follow all the innovations in the global music industry. . Only then, after some time, Russian music in no way will it lag behind the world.

July 29, Igor Krutoy was born, who became the personification of the concept of "music producer" in Russia. The word "producer" in our country, as a rule, was understood as "sponsor-manager". Yuri Aizenshpis or Bari Alibasov are monsters and professionals in their field, but those who can not only find money and the right artists, but also compose the right songs for them, are such a few. All of them are in the ELLE review.

A man who fully justifies his surname passed, as they wrote in the Soviet press, thorny path to glory. A graduate of the Nikolaev Conservatory, Krutoy worked in various philharmonic societies until he settled in Moscow, where he began to make acquaintances in the pop environment and took up composing songs. The breakthrough happened in 1987 with a song written for Alexander Serov: the powerful number "Madonna" then thundered from every iron. Then Krutoy made a very right move, converting success not only into writing new songs, but also into business. In the late 80s, Igor Yakovlevich became the artistic director of the ARS company, and ten years later he completely headed it. What is ARS? These are assets in the form of radio stations, a TV channel, the organization of large-scale concert shows etc.

Surprisingly, all this time Krutoy continued to write songs, and Russian artists continued to carry them out with great success. The list of those who worked with Igor Yakovlevich is so huge that it makes no sense to bring it up: point your finger at any category A performer and, be sure, you will not lose.

The career of the creator of "Lube" and "Ivanushki" began, as it should be for a gifted professional who wanted to engage in pop music in the Soviet Union, with work at the VIA. With the advent of perestroika, Matvienko dived into the nascent show business, getting a job as an editor at the legendary Record Studio, the first of its kind music conglomerate full cycle, where they composed songs, and promoted artists, and arranged a super show.

It was there that Matvienko invented and launched Lube, bringing his old friend Nikolai Rastorguev there. Long before the current fashion for patriotism, the Lyube group took this topic into service, making a phenomenal career and turning into a truly folk group.

In the mid-90s, Matvienko launched his second main project into orbit - “ Ivanushki International". Being in fact a boy band, Ivanushki is still functioning, despite the fact that two of its three members are well over forty.

In addition to Lyube and Ivanushki, Igor Igorevich worked extremely well as a producer of one of the seasons of the Star Factory TV show: two of the teams that Matvienko put together as a result of the show - Roots and Factory - were a huge success.

The most poetic and deepest of the pop composers was not particularly sprayed, dealing mainly with two artists - his brother Valery and the group VIA Gra. Gradually, the list expanded - Rotaru, Pugacheva, Orbakaite, Valeria, Ani Lorak, Vera Brezhneva, Polina Gagarina, Leps and who else. As a result, today the main "clients" of Konstantin are Valery Meladze, all the same beauties from VIA Gra and a graduate of this pop sex trio, she is also the wife of the composer. And Konstantin also works surprisingly accurately with artists, as the viewers of Star Factory 7 could see in 2009.

A rocker by nature, a westerner by force of circumstances, the smiling Drobysh appeared in the field of view of the public at the beginning of the 2000s, and seemed to be there. Songs for Kristina Orbakaite, Abraham Russo, of course, Valeria, and then a whole platoon of graduates of the next Star Factory, from Stas Piekha to Zara, went in jambs. As befits a respectful and far-sighted composer, Drobysh acquired his own production center named after himself, worked with young artists, and then catapulted into the chair of the general producer of the National Music Corporation. Victor has no energy: now he takes care of the Eurovision participants, is engaged in television projects, and defends copyrights.

Fadeev appeared on the pop horizon in the late 80s, striking the audience of the Jurmala festival with his completely “branded” performance. Then he worked in Moscow, arranging songs for mainstream pop artists like Larisa Dolina. And then the singer Svetlana Geiman appeared in Fadeev's life, whom Maxim turned into Linda. Under the sign of Linda, for many, the nineties, in fact, passed. And the pop sound and the general pop landscape of the 2000s were seriously determined by the artists of the second Star Factory, which was produced by Fadeev. Yulia Savicheva, Polina Gagarina, Irakli, Pierre Narcisse - them, albeit one-day ones, but hits sounded everywhere then. The second main project of Maxim in those years was the singer Glukoza, who impressed both the "simple" public and snobs. Another creation of Fadeev, the Silver trio, also reconciled and still reconciles the people and aesthetes, issuing killer hits, the deliberate vulgarity of which is set off by irony and (without this, Fadeev can’t do it) fantastically sticky melodies.