Abstract
Producers in pop and dance music genres have a significantly different role to music producers in other music genres such as rock (Frith in Frith & Zagorski-Thomas: 2012). A prominent difference is that pop music producers are often part of a production team that involves direct collaboration and participation with songwriters, programmers, musicians, artists, record company A&R executives and managers. Pop music songwriting and production teams are therefore more frequently part of a larger creative collective (Hennion: 1990) in creating a musical product. This historical study introduces the record producer as ‘team leader’ and the creative production workflow at P&E Music Studios located within the Strongroom Studio complex in London during the 1990s. It investigates the ways in which the production team worked within the creative system of pop-music making and presents the pop music ‘Service Model’, which illustrates the various stages of the commercial pop songwriting and production process at P&E during the 1990s.
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