Changes in Music Production compared to the 20th century.

With the changes in music consumption greatly different to the 20th century. There is no doubt at all that there had to be changes to music production. Following, I have copied small areas of sites explaining this change, then below I've explained each of these changes in my own words. I copied the paragraphs because they contain the vocabulary necessary for the exam, but explained them in my own words so I can get a better grip of it. 

Music Production change from the 20th Century to present day.

"In the first part of the 20th century the record producer's role was similar to the role of a film producer in that the record producer organized and supervised recording sessions, paidtechnicians, musicians and arrangers, and sometimes chose material for the artist.In the first part of the 20th century the record producer's role was similar to the role of a film producer in that the record producer organized and supervised recording sessions, paidtechnicians, musicians and arrangers, and sometimes chose material for the artist."

In the early 20th century, music producers were responsible for everything to do with music, except that actual singing of the song. They organized and supervised everything that was taking place while the music was being produced. I feel a good comparison is drawn between the music producer and the film producer. A film producer today is known for the many tasks they carry out that oversee the success of a film, in the early 20th century, music producers too had this role

"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."

Before the 1950's, there was a lot of people involved in the different stages associated with music production. This meant a lot of time and effort had to be spent on finding the correct people for the correct jobs, some of the neccessary staff included:

• Managers - People to find the artist, convince them to create a song/album and then signing that artist up.
• Songwriters - people to write a new and original song.
• Agents- these people were those responsible for the marketing process, they were the ones who sold these songs to people, who then in turn created these songs into big sellers.
• Artists - to actually record the song.
• Engineers - to carry out the task of creating a new record, maintaining that record and ensuring that technical problems had been sorted before recording could even begin.

We could present this hierarchy of people necessary for the correct production of music could be shown in a diagram such as the waterfall model:

"Another change that occurred for the role of producers occurred progressively over the 1950s and 1960s. The development of multitrack recording and new technology such as electric guitars, amplifiers, and better microphones led to a fundamental change in the way recordings were made. The goal of recording no longer was simply accurately capturing and documenting live performance. Instead producers could manipulate sounds to an unprecedented degree, in practical terms, almost impossible to realise in live performance."

I think this paragraph explains in simple tierms that with the growth of new technologys throughout the 50's and 60's, things such as autotuning became more accessible, so therefore less time had to spent and therefore money in re-recording over and over again, an artist could simply perform once, and then that performance could be manipulated in order to sound perfect, and the difference was almost impossible for the ordinary person to see.

"With the turn of the 21st Century along with the focus on digital audio workstation (DAW) technology, a record producer's role is expected to include many skills. Most producers have roles insongwriting, music composition, sound engineering and audio mastering."

As seen in the diagram above, previously, in the 20th century, many people were required to carry out each individual task. As the 21st century arrived, it was more required of producers to have all of the skills neccessary to complete each of these tasks. Therefore reducing the number of people required from what could range from as little as 10 to as much as over 50 or 60 people. This meant a lot of money could be spent on other tasks such as the actual marketing of music. 

** Digital audio workstation(DAW) - is an electronic system designed for recording, editing and playing back digital audio. There are different types of DAW, the 2 main are:

• Integrated DAW - This is a mixing console, control surface, audio converter and data storage all on one device. An example includes a hard disk recorder.
• Software DAW - This is the more popular form today. Integrated DAW was more popular at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st, when technology was still a relatively new concept.  This can be run on almost any computer, popular software DAW include FL Studio 10.

"With the increase in demand for music videos on-line such as on YouTube, the traditional tasks of a record producer for independent artists are beginning to include such visual and filmmakingaspects as well. Independent producers such as Korean Producer PSY who produced the world famous Viral Video Gangnam Style, Los Angeles Record Producer Clarence Jey who was instrumental in the song Friday by Rebecca Black, as well as Australian Producer Gotye who produced the chart topping hit song Somebody That I Used to Know, performed a broader role in coordinating the music to match the appropriate visual content along with a Viral Marketing campaign."

In this paragraph, with various examples given, this examples now, more than ever, many producers/singers/songwriters, are opting to take on all three role due to this new viral age we are living in. The people who are singing the song are actually now getting involved with the production of the music. This has become a big deal recently, because people can now just upload their own video to youtube, with themselves singing, and virtually they have become all three of these roles. This could suggest that from the previous need for one producer to be able to adopt all aspects of production, there is actually only one person required in the actual  creationg,singing,marketing of one track.

Gotye(seen above) is the perfect example of this in action. Whether you like his music or not is different thing all together, but he created his video, his song and his music. He is by himself, a producer, a distributor, an artist and a manager all rolled into one. And it isn't an extravagent claim to say that the video for Somebody that I used to know was certainly eye-catching, suggesting that this new form of production is actually having a greater effect on the music consumers of today.