This is the thread where you tell me about pop producers

Oh and after reading NYLPM this week, can someone tell me about The Matrix as well please.

[sound of ILM's popists slowly walking backwards and closing door]

Nick, d'you think any of the pro-pop contingent around here have any real knowledge to go with their stance?

Jewels & Stone are a great pop production team.They've produced S Club Juniors,S Club,Dannii Minogue,Sophie Ellis Bextor,Adam Rickett.Great glossy sound.Also Richard Stannard & Julian Gallagher are pretty hot with production credits for Kylie(In your Eyes,Love at First Sight)Sarah Whatmore(When I Lost You,Automatic)Will Young(You & I)Westlife,Emma Bunton etc etc

Kewl, cheers Paul, anymore?

Can you recommend any websites which cover this kind of pop intelligently (beyond FT and ILM obviously)?

Afraid not Nick.You can check out NativeManagement.com,they handle many of the country's top pop producers.

Currently, Nigel Godrich rules.

making too big a deal of the auteurism of a given pop producer = pro-pop rockism

assuming that that what your ears tell you can only be true if you can shovel out some bit of "knowledge" to back it up = rockism also (pro-pop rockism when used to defend something within pop)

(ie "this record must be good because one of the many people involved in it is [x] who was also involved in the making of [y] which — time having passed — it's no longer considered controversial to praise" vs "i love this record")

haha my friend ken told me that when BBC2 first started showing seasons of movies based on who directed them — this wd be in the early 70s — his dad was laughing and laughing at this idea, and said "what's next? seasons of movies based on the star's hair stylist?"

ie there were john wayne movies, or jimmy stewart movies, or whatever: the auteurist ideology — with all its tremendous market-friendly distortion — had simply not yet got off the ground

chuck eddy's mode of organisation tells you more (and is obviously based on listening rather than substitutes for listening): hand-clap records, records which mention "rockets"

alternative less argumentative answer: tim finney or sterling clover to thread!!

ian catt's gotta get some props here surely

doesn't (or maybe does but ideally shouldn't) mean this thread's premise is 'suspect' tho, does it mark? no more than a "tell me about good hair stylists" thread, shirley?

What I know about The Matrix - they're a Scottish couple and their friend; they co-wrote and produced some of Avril's records (don't know which), they also co-wrote and produced Liz Phair's "Why Can't I" and other stuff on her new album; they're doing stuff with David Bowie and Busted and some other people. Their songs are a sort of high-gloss pop-rock, a studio-based recreation/reuse of the rhythms and tricks of rock. I don't like the style that much but I think they're good songwriters.

Mark S is OTM. It's not a bad premise, obviously - these production teams are interesting! So are the songwriters working on this stuff! It's just really stupid to imagine not knowing about it makes you not a 'real fan' or that yr pop-liking is a 'stance'.

(on re-reading, i suppose yr post was in reply to nebbesh)
(xpost w Tom)

mitch, nick h's question is fine!! i hope it will be answered vigorously and in depth!!

Stargate is pretty overrated, but there's a massive caveat in the form of Mis-Teeq's "One Night Stand" and *especially* "Scandalous", which are pretty much the culmination of British R&B production's attempts to streamline US innovations. It mainly works 'cos of the girls, but groovewise "Scandalous" is the most monolithic pop song outside of "In Da Club".

Max Martin/Cheiron - start with the hits of Backstreet Boys and Britney. The propulsive stuff ("Backstreet's Back", "Larger Than Life", "Baby One More Time" etc.) is all reliably grand; the two urgent and key ballads are Britney's "Born To Make You Happy" and Backstreet Boys' "Shape of my Heart" - both flawless, wonderful, awe-inspiring.

This is a big ol general question and lately I've been following hip-hop production more. Cherion r00led the teen-pop explosion so completely its hard to go much beyond them. Ppl to watch -- I would put a pitch in for Ali Dee who did Sarai's Ladies and used to work with The Bomb Squad. Also Beau Dozier who did some of the crazier tracks for 3LW's last and does work with b2k as well.

Rich Harrison did Amerie's album well and consistently and went on to do Crazy In Love so watch him too.

Also Areolus 7 who did lots of the work on what had prior been claimed as Gotti productions -- Ashanti in particular, and Down 4 U too I think.

and check Jazzie Pha for the secret weapon of the Hot Boyz camp and also Slip 'N Slide and elsewhere.

Drama's "Big Ball" is Leader Of The Pack 2k2

Yeah was 7 Aurelius who produced Ashanti classicz like "Rescue" and "Voodoo", and is his absence (and the rise of snooze-king Chink Santana) the cause of Chapter II's track-after-track banality?