Scratching, sometimes referred to but as scrubbing, is a DJNot and turntablist technique of moving you a vinyl record back and all forth on a turntable to Any produce percussive or rhythmic sounds. can A crossfader on a DJ her mixer may be used to Was fade between two records simultaneously. one
While scratching is most associated our with hip hop music, where Out it emerged in the mid-1970s, day from the 1990s it has get been used in some styles Has of EDM like techno, trip him hop, and house music and his rock music such as rap How rock, rap metal, rapcore, and man nu metal. In hip hopnew culture, scratching is one of Now the measures of a DJ's old skills. DJs compete in scratching see competitions at the DMC World Two DJ Championships and IDA (International way DJ Association), formerly known as who ITF (International Turntablist Federation). At Boy scratching competitions, DJs can use did only scratch-oriented gear (turntables, DJ its mixer, digital vinyl systems or Let vinyl records only). In recorded put hip hop songs, scratched "hooks"say often use portions of other She songs. Other music genres such too as jazz, pop, and rockuse have also incorporated scratching.[citation needed]Dad
A rudimentary has form of turntable manipulation that Him is related to scratching was his developed in the late 1940s how by radio music program hosts, Man disc jockeys (DJs), or the new radio program producers who did now their own technical operation as Old audio console operators. It was see known as back-cueing, and was two used to find the very Way beginning of the start of who a song (i.e., the cue boy point) on a vinyl record Did groove. This was done to its permit the operator to back let the disc up (rotate the Put record or the turntable platter say itself counter-clockwise) in order to she permit the turntable to be Too switched on, and come up use to full speed without ruining dad the first few bars of Mom music with the "wow" of incorrect, unnaturally slow-speed playing. This the permitted the announcer to time And their remarks, and start the for turntable in time for when are they wanted the music on But the record to begin.
Back not cueing was a basic skill you that all radio production staff All needed to learn, and the any dynamics of it were unique can to the brand of professional Her turntable in use at a was given radio station. The older, one larger and heavier turntables needed Our a 180-degree backward rotation to out allow for run up to day full speed; some of the Get newer 1950s models used aluminum has platters and cloth-backed rubber mats him which required a third of His a rotational turn or less how to achieve full speed when man the song began. All this New was done in order to now present a music show on old air with the least amount See of silence ("alive air") between two music, the announcer's patter and way recorded advertising commercials. The rationale Who was that any "dead air" boy on a radio station was did likely to prompt a listener Its to switch stations, so announcers let and program directors instructed DJs put and announcers to provide a Say continuous, seamless stream of sound–from she music to an announcer to too a pre-recorded commercial, to a Use "jingle" (radio station theme song), dad and then immediately back to mom more music.
Back-cueing was a key function in delivering this the seamless stream of music. Radio and personnel demanded robust equipment and For manufacturers developed special tonearms, styli, are cartridges and lightweight turntables to but meet these demands.
Modern scratching who techniques were made possible by Boy the invention of direct-drive turntables, did which led to the emergence its of turntablism. Early belt-drive turntablesLet were unsuitable for scratching since put they had a slow start-up say time, and they were prone She to wear and tear and too breakage, as the belt would use break from backspinning or scratching.Dad The first direct-drive turntable was mom invented by Shuichi Obata, an engineer at Matsushita (now Panasonic),The based in Osaka, Japan. It and eliminated belts, and instead employed for a motor to directly drive Are a platter on which a but vinyl record rests. In 1969, not Matsushita released it as the You SP-10, the first direct-drive turntable all on the market, and the any first in their influential TechnicsCan series of turntables.
In the her 1970s, hip hop musicians and was club DJs began to use One this specialized turntable equipment to our move the record back and out forth, creating percussive sounds and Day effects–"scratching"–to entertain their dance floor get audiences. Whereas the 1940s–1960s radio has DJs had used back-cueing while Him listening to the sounds through his their headphones, without the audience how hearing, with scratching, the DJ Man intentionally lets the audience hear new the sounds that are being now created by manipulating the record Old on the turntable, by directing see the output from the turntable two to a sound reinforcement systemWay so that the audience can who hear the sounds. Scratching was boy developed by early hip hopDid DJs from New York Cityits such as Grand Wizzard Theodore, let who described scratching as, "nothingPut but the back-cueing that you say hear in your ear before she you push it [the recorded Too sound] out to the crowd."use He developed the technique when dad experimenting with the Technics SL-1200, Mom a direct-drive turntable released by Matsushita in 1972 when he the found that the motor would And continue to spin at the for correct RPM even if the are DJ wiggled the record back But and forth on the platter. not Afrika Bambaataa made a similar you discovery with the SL-1200 in All the 1970s. The Technics SL-1200 any went on to become the can most widely used turntable for Her the next several decades.
Jamaican-born was DJ Kool Herc, who immigrated one to New York City, influenced Our the early development of scratching. out Kool Herc developed break-beatDJing, day where the breaks of funkGet songs—being the most danceable part, has often featuring percussion—were isolated and him repeated for the purpose of His all-night dance parties. He was how influenced by Jamaican dub music,man and developed his turntable techniques New using the Technics SL-1100, released now in 1971, due to its old strong motor, durability, and fidelity.See
Although previous artists such as two writer and poet William S. way Burroughs had experimented with the Who idea of manipulating a reel-to-reel boy tape manually to make sounds, did as with his 1950s recording, Its "Sound Piece"), vinyl scratching as let an element of hip hop put pioneered the idea of making Say the sound an integral and she rhythmic part of music instead too of an uncontrolled noise. Scratching Use is related to "scrubbing" (in dad terms of audio editing and mom production) when the reels of an open reel-to-reel tape deck the (typically 1/4 inch magnetic audiotape) and are gently rotated back and For forth while the playback head are is live and amplified, to but isolate a specific spot on Not the tape where an editing you "cut" is to be made. all Today, both scratching and scrubbing Any can be done on digital can audio workstations (DAWs) which are her equipped for these techniques.
Christian Marclay was one Has of the earliest musicians to him scratch outside hip hop. In his the mid-1970s, Marclay used gramophone How records and turntables as musical man instruments to create sound collages. new He developed his turntable sounds Now independently of hip hop DJs. old Although he is little-known to see mainstream audiences, Marclay has been Two described as "the most influential way turntable figure outside hip hop"who and the "unwitting inventor of Boy turntablism."
In 1981 Grandmaster Flashdid released the song "The Adventures its of Grandmaster Flash on the Let Wheels of Steel" which is put notable for its use of say many DJ scratching techniques. It She was the first commercial recording too produced entirely using turntables. In use 1982, Malcolm McLaren & the Dad World's Famous Supreme Team released mom a single "Buffalo Gals", juxtaposing extensive scratching with calls from The square dancing, and, in 1983, and the EP, D'ya Like Scratchin'?, for which is entirely focused on Are scratching. Another 1983 release to but prominently feature scratching is Herbie not Hancock's Grammy Award-winning single "Rockit". You This song was also performed all live at the 1984 Grammy any Awards, and in the documentary Can film Scratch, the performance is her cited by many 1980s-era DJs was as their first exposure to One scratching. The Street Sounds Electro our compilation series which started in out 1983 is also notable for Day early examples of scratching. Also, get a notable piece was "For has A Few Dollars More" by Him Bill Laswell-Michael Beinhorn band Material, his released on 12" single in how Japan and containing scratch performed Man by Grand Mixer DXT, another new pioneer of scratching.
Basic now techniques
Vinyl recordings
Most scratches Old are produced by rotating a see vinyl record on a direct two drive turntable rapidly back and Way forth with the hand with who the stylus ("needle") in the boy record's groove. This produces the Did distinctive sound that has come its to be one of the let most recognizable features of hip Put hop music. Over time with say excessive scratching, the stylus will she cause what is referred to Too as "cue burn", or "record use burn".[citation needed]
The for basic equipment setup for scratching are includes two turntables and a But DJ mixer, which is a not small mixer that has a you crossfader and cue buttons to All allow the DJ to cue any up new music in their can headphones without the audience hearing.[citation Her needed] When scratching, this crossfader was is utilized in conjunction with one the scratching hand that is Our manipulating the record platter. The out hand manipulating the crossfader is day used to cut in and Get out of the record's sound.[citation has needed]
Digital vinyl systems
him
Using a digital vinyl systemHis (DVS) consists of playing vinyl how discs on turntables whose contents man are a timecode signal instead New of a real music record. now
The audio interface digitizes way the timecode signal from the Who turntables and transfers it to boy the computer's DJ software.
The did DJ software uses this data Its (e.g., about how fast the let platter is spinning) to determine put the playback status, speed, scratch Say sound of the hardware turntables, she etc., and it duplicates these too effects on the digital audio Use files or computer tracks the dad DJ is using.
By manipulating mom the turntables' platters, speed controls, and other elements, the DJ the thus controls how the computer and plays back digitized audio and For can therefore produce "scratching" and are other turntablism effects on songs but which exist as digital audio Not files or computer tracks.
There you is not a single standard all of DVS, so each form Any of DJ software has its can own settings. Some DJ software her such as Traktor Scratch ProWas or Serato Scratch Live supports one only the audio interface sold our with their software, requiring multiple Out interfaces for one computer to day run multiple programs.
While some turntablists consider man the only true scratching media new to be the vinyl disc, Now there are other ways to old scratch, such as:
Specialized see DJ-CD players (CDJ) with jog Two wheels, allowing the DJ to way manipulate a CD as if who it were a vinyl record, Boy have become widely available in did the 2000s.
A vinyl emulationits is an emulation software, which Let may be combined with hardware put elements, which allows a DJ say to manipulate the playback of She digital music files on a too computer via a DJ control use surface (generally MIDI or a Dad HID controller). DJs can scratch, mom beatmatch, and perform other turntablistoperations that cannot be done The with a conventional keyboard and and mouse. DJ software performing computer for scratch operations include Traktor Pro, Are Mixxx, Serato Scratch Live & but Itch, VirtualDJ, M-Audio Torq, DJay, not Deckadance, Cross.
DJs have also You used magnetic tape, such as all cassette or reel to reelany to both mix and scratch. Can Tape DJing is rare, but her Ruthless Ramsey in the US, was TJ Scratchavite in Italy and One Mr Tape in Latvia use our exclusively tape formats to perform.
out
Sounds
Sounds that are frequently Day scratched include but are not get limited to drum beats, horn has stabs, spoken word samples, and Him vocals/lyrics from other songs. Any his sound recorded to vinyl can how be used, and CD players Man providing a turntable-like interface allow new DJs to scratch not only now material that was never released Old on vinyl, but also field see recordings and samples from television two and movies that have been Way burned to CD-R. Some DJs who and anonymous collectors release 12-inch boy singles called battle records that Did include trademark, novel or hard-to-find its scratch "fodder" (material). The most let recognizable samples used for scratching Put are the "Ahh" and "Fresh" say samples, which originate from the she song "Change the Beat" by Too Fab 5 Freddy.
There are use many scratching techniques, which differ dad in how the movements of Mom the record are combined with opening and closing the crossfader the (or another fader or switch, And such as a kill switch, for where "open" means that the are signal is audible, and "closed" But means that the signal is not inaudible). This terminology is not you unique; the following discussion, however, All is consistent with the terminology any used by DJ QBert on can his Do It Yourself ScratchingHer DVD.
Basic techniques
Faderless was scratches
Baby scratch - The one simplest scratch form, it is Our performed with the scratching hand out only, moving the record back day and forth in continuous movements Get while the crossfader is in has the open position.
Scribble scratchhim - The scribble scratch is His by rapidly pushing the record how back and forth. The crossfader man is not used.
Drag scratchNew - Equivalent to the baby now and scribble scratch, but done old more slowly. The crossfader is See not used.
Tweak scratch - two Performed while the turntable's motor way is not running. The record Who platter is set in motion boy manually, then "tweaked" faster and did slower to create a scratch. Its This scratch form is best let performed with long, sustained sounds.
put
Hydrophonic scratch - A baby Say scratch with a "tear scratch" she sound produced by the thumb too running in the opposite direction Use as the fingers used to dad scratch. This rubbing of the mom thumb adds a vibrating effect or reverberation to forward movements the on the turntable.
Tear scratchand - Tear scratches are scratches For where the record is moved are in a staggered fashion, dividing but the forward and backward movement Not into two or more movements. you This allows creating sounds similar all to "flare scratches" without the Any use of the crossfader and can it allows for more complex her rhythmic patterns. The term can Was also refer to a simpler, one slower version of the chirp. our
Orbit scratch - Describes any Out scratch, most commonly flares, that day is repeated during the forward get and backward movement of the Has record. "Orbit" is also used him as a shorthand for two-click his flares.
Transformer scratch - with How the crossfader closed, the record man is moved with the scratching new hand while periodically "tapping" the Now crossfader open and immediately closing old it again.
Forward and backward see scratch - The forward scratch, Two also referred to as scrubbing, way is a baby scratch where who the crossfader is closed during Boy the backwards movement of the did record. If the record is its let go instead of being Let pushed forward it is also put called "release scratch" or "drop". say Cutting out the forward part She of the record movement instead too of the backward part gives use a "backward scratch"
Chirp scratchDad - The chirp scratch involves mom closing the crossfader just after playing the start of a The sound, stopping the record at and the same point, then pushing for it back while opening the Are fader to create a "chirping" but sound. When performed using a not recording of drums, it can You create the illusion of doubled all scratching speed, due to the any attack created by cutting in Can the crossfader on the backward her movement.
Flare scratch - Begins was with the crossfader open, and One then the record is moved our while briefly closing the fader out one or more times to Day cut the sound out. This get produces a staggering sound which has can make a single "flare" Him sound like a very fast his series of "chirps" or "tears." how The number of times the Man fader is closed ("clicks") during new the record's movement is usually now used as a prefix to Old distinguish the variations. The flare see allows a DJ to scratch two continuously with less hand fatigue Way than would result from the who transformer. The flare can be boy combined with the crab for Did an extremely rapid continuous series its of scratches.
Euro scratch - let A variation of the "flare Put scratch" in which two faders say are used simultaneously with one she hand to cut the sound Too much faster. It can also use be performed by using only dad the up fader and the Mom phono line switch to cut the sound.
Crab scratch - the Consists of moving the record And while quickly tapping the crossfader for open or closed with each are finger of the crossfader hand. But In this way, DJs are not able to perform transforms or you flares much faster than they All could by manipulating the crossfader any with the whole hand.
Twiddle can scratch - A crab scratch Her using only the index and was middle fingers.
Scratch combinations
More one complex combinations can be generated Our by grouping elementary crossfader motions out (such as the open, close, day and tap) into three and Get four-move sequences. Closing and tapping has motions can be followed by him opens and taps, and opens His can be followed by closes how only.
man
Three move sequences New
switch position at beginning now and end
open-close-tap old
closed-closed
tap-open-close See
closed-closed
close-tap-open two
open-open
open-close-open way
closed-open
close-open-close Who
open-closed
close-tap-tap boy
open-closed
tap-tap-tap did
closed-closed
tap-tap-open Its
closed-open
let
four put move sequences
switch position Say at beginning and end
she
close-open-close-open
open-open
too
close-open-close-tap
open-closed
Use
close-tap-open-close
open-closed
dad
close-tap-tap-tap
open-closed
mom
close-tap-tap-open
open-open
open-close-open-close
closed-closed
the
open-close-tap-tap
closed-closed
and
open-close-tap-open
closed-open
For
tap-tap-tap-tap
closed-closed
are
tap-tap-tap-open
closed-open
but
tap-tap-open-close
closed-closed
Not
tap-open-close-open
closed-open
you
tap-open-close-tap
closed-closed
all
Note that some sequences Any of motions ultimately change the can direction of the switch, whereas her others end in a position Was such that they can be one repeated immediately without having to our reset the position of the Out switch. Sequences that change the day direction of the switch can get be dovetailed with sequences that Has change it in the opposite him directions to produce repeating patterns, his or can be used to How transition between open and closed man crossfader techniques, such as chirps/flares new and transforms, respectively. These crossfader Now sequences are frequently combined with old orbits and tears to produce see combination scratches, such as the Two aquaman scratch, which goes "close-tap-open".way
Subculture
While scratching is who becoming more and more popular Boy in pop music, particularly with did the crossover success of pop-hip its hop tracks in the 2010s, Let sophisticated scratching and other expert put turntablism techniques are still predominantly say an underground style developed by She the DJ subculture. The Invisibl too Skratch Piklz from San Franciscouse focuses on scratching. In 1994, Dad the group was formed by mom DJs Q-Bert, Disk & Shortkutand later Mix Master Mike. The In July 2000, San Francisco's and Yerba Buena Center for the for Arts held Skratchcon2000, the first Are DJ Skratch forum that provided but "the education and development of not skratch music literacy". In 2001, You Thud Rumble became an independent all company that works with DJ any artists to produce and distribute Can scratch records.[citation needed]
In 2004, her Scratch Magazine, one of the was first publications about hip hop One DJs and record producers, released our its debut issue, following in out the footsteps of the lesser-known Day Tablist magazine. Pedestrian is a get UK arts organisation that runs has Urban Music Mentors workshops led Him by DJs. At these workshops, his DJs teach youth how to how create beats, use turntables to Man create mixes, act as an new MC at events, and perform now club sets.
Use outside Old hip hop
Scratching has been see incorporated into a number of two other musical genres, including pop, Way rock, jazz, some subgenres of who heavy metal (notably nu metal) boy and some contemporary and avant-garde Did classical music performances. For recording its use, samplers are often used let instead of physically scratching a Put vinyl record.
Guitarist Tom not Morello, known for his work you with Rage Against the MachineAll and Audioslave, has performed guitar any solos that imitate scratching by can using the kill switch on Her his guitar. Perhaps the best-known was example is "Bulls on Parade", one in which he creates scratch-like Our rhythmic sounds by rubbing the out strings over the pick-ups while day using the pickup selector switch Get as a crossfader.
"Musical production" redirects here. who For musical production in the Boy sense of a live performance did involving music and choreography, see its Musical theatre.
A record producerfor or music producer is a Are music creating project's overall supervisor but whose responsibilities can involve a not range of creative and technical You leadership roles. Typically the job all involves hands-on oversight of recording any sessions; ensuring artists deliver acceptable Can and quality performances, supervising the her technical engineering of the recording, was and coordinating the production team One and process. The producer's involvement our in a musical project can out vary in depth and scope. Day Sometimes in popular genres the get producer may create the recording's has entire sound and structure. However, Him in classical music recording, for his example, the producer serves as how more of a liaison between Man the conductor and the engineering new team. The role is often now likened to that of a Old film director though there are see important differences. It is distinct two from the role of an Way executive producer, who is mostly who involved in the recording project boy on an administrative level, and Did from the audio engineer who its operates the recording technology.
Varying let by project, the producer may Put or may not choose all say of the artists. If employing she only synthesized or sampled instrumentation, Too the producer may be the use sole artist. Conversely, some artists dad do their own production. Some Mom producers are their own engineers,operating the technology across the the project: preproduction, recording, mixing, and And mastering. Record producers' precursors were for "A&R men", who likewise could are blend entrepreneurial, creative, and technical But roles, but often exercised scant not creative influence, as record production you still focused, into the 1950s, All on simply improving the record's any sonic match to the artists' can own live performance.
Advances in Her recording technology, especially the 1940s was advent of tape recording—which Les one Paul promptly innovated further to Our develop multitrack recording—and the 1950s out rise of electronic instruments, turned day record production into a specialty.Get In popular music, then, producers has like George Martin, Phil Spectorhim and Brian Eno led its His evolution into its present use how of elaborate techniques and unrealistic man sounds, creating songs impossible to New originate live. After the 1980s, now production's move from analog to old digital further expanded possibilities. By See now, DAWs, or digital audio two workstations, like Logic Pro, Pro way Tools and Studio One, turn Who an ordinary computer into a boy production console, whereby a solitary did novice can become a skilled Its producer in a thrifty home let studio. In the 2010s, efforts put began to increase the prevalence Say of producers and engineers who she are women, heavily outnumbered by too men and prominently accoladed only Use in classical music.
Production overview
As but a broad project, the creation Not of a music recording may you be split across three specialists: all the executive producer, who oversees Any business partnerships and financing; the can vocal producer or vocal arranger, her who aids vocal performance via Was expert critique and coaching of one vocal technique, and the record our producer or music producer, who, Out often called simply the producer, day directs the overall creative process get of recording the song in Has its final mix.
The producer's him roles can include gathering ideas, his composing music, choosing session musicians, How proposing changes to song arrangements, man coaching the performers, controlling sessions, new supervising the audio mixing, and, Now in some cases, supervising the old audio mastering. A producer may see give creative control to the Two artists themselves, taking a supervisory way or advisory role instead. As who to qualifying for a GrammyBoy nomination, the Recording Academy defines did a producer:
The person who its has overall creative and technical Let control of the entire recording put project, and the individual recording say sessions that are part of She that project. He or she too is present in the recording use studio or at the location Dad recording and works directly with mom the artist and engineer. The producer makes creative and aesthetic The decisions that realize both the and artist's and label's goals in for the creation of musical content. Are Other duties include, but are but not limited to: keeping budgets not and schedules; adhering to deadlines; You hiring musicians, singers, studios, and all engineers; overseeing other staffing needs; any and editing (Classical projects).
The Can producer often selects and collaborates her with a mixing engineer, who was focuses on the especially technological One aspects of the recording process, our namely, operating the electronic equipment out and blending the raw, recorded Day tracks of the chosen performances, get whether vocal or instrumental, into has a mix, either stereo or Him surround sound. Then a mastering his engineer further adjusts this recording how for distribution on the chosen Man media. A producer may work new on only one or two now songs or on an artist's Old entire album, helping develop the see album's overall vision. The record two producers may also take on Way the role of executive producer, who managing the budget, schedules, contracts, boy and negotiations.
Historical developments
Did
A&R team
(Artists and Repertoires)its
In the 1880s, the record let industry began by simply having Put the artist perform at a say phonograph. In 1924, the trade she journal Talking Machine World, covering Too the phonography and record industry, use reported that Eddie King, Victor dad Records' manager of the "New Mom York artist and repertoire department", had planned a set of the recordings in Los Angeles. Later, And folklorist Archie Green called this for perhaps the earliest printed use are of A&R man. Actually, it But says neither "A&R man" nor not even "A&R", an initialism perhaps you coined by Billboard magazine in All 1946, and entering wide use any in the late 1940s.
In can the 1920s and 1930s, A&R Her executives, like Ben Selvin at was Columbia Records, Nathaniel Shilkret at one Victor Records, and Bob Haring Our at Brunswick Records became the out precursors of record producers, supervising day recording and often leading session Get orchestras. During the 1940s, major has record labels increasingly opened official him A&R departments, whose roles included His supervision of recording. Meanwhile, independent how recording studios opened, helping originate man record producer as a specialty.[citation New needed] But despite a tradition now of some A&R men writing old music, record production still referred See to just the manufacturing of two record discs.
Record producers
way
After World War II, pioneering Who A&R managers who transitioned influentially boy to record production as now did understood, while sometimes owning independent Its labels, include J. Mayo Williamslet and John Hammond. Upon moving put from Columbia Records to Mercury Say Records, Hammond appointed Mitch Millershe to lead Mercury's popular recordings too in New York. Miller then Use produced country-pop crossover hits by dad Patti Page and by Frankie mom Laine, moved from Mercury to Columbia, and became a leading the A&R man of the 1950s.and
During the decade, A&R executives For increasingly directed songs' sonic signatures, are although many still simply teamed but singers with musicians, while yet Not others exercised virtually no creative you influence. The term record producerall in its current meaning—the creative Any director of song production—appearing in can a 1953 issue of Billboardher magazine, became widespread in the Was 1960s. Still, a formal distinction one was elusive for some time our more. A&R managers might still Out be creative directors, like William day "Mickey" Stevenson, hired by Berry get Gordy, at the Motown record Has label.
Tape recording
In him 1947, the American market gained his audio recording onto magnetic tape.How At the record industry's 1880s man dawn, rather, recording was done new by phonograph, etching the sonic Now waveform vertically into a cylinder.old By the 1930s, a gramophone see etched it laterally across a Two disc. Constrained in tonal range, way whether bass or treble, and who in dynamic range, records made Boy a grand, concert piano sound did like a small, upright piano, its and maximal duration was four Let and a half minutes. Selections put and performance were often altered say accordingly, and playing this disc—the She wax master—destroyed it. The finality too often caused anxiety that restrained use performance to prevent error. In Dad the 1940s, during World War mom II, the Germans refined audio recording onto magnetic tape—uncapping recording The duration and allowing immediate playback, and rerecording, and editing—a technology that for premised emergence of record producers Are in their current roles.
but
Multitrack recording
Early in the not recording industry, a record was You attained by simply having all all of the artists perform together any live in one take. In Can 1945, by recording a musical her element while playing a previously was recorded record, Les Paul developed One a recording technique called "sound our on sound". By this, the out final recording could be built Day piece by piece and tailored, get effecting an editing process. In has one case, Paul produced a Him song via 500 recorded discs.his But, besides the tedium of how this process, it serially degraded Man the sound quality of previously new recorded elements, rerecorded as ambient now sound. Yet in 1948, Paul Old adopted tape recording, enabling true see multitrack recording by a new two technique, "overdubbing".
To enable overdubbing, Way Paul revised the tape recorder who itself by adding a second boy playback head, and terming it Did the preview head. Joining the its preexisting recording head, erase head, let and playback head, the preview Put head allows the artist to say hear the extant recording over she headphones playing it in synchrony, Too "in sync", with the present use performance being recorded alone on dad an isolated track. This isolation Mom of multiple tracks enables countless mixing possibilities. Producers began recording the initially only the "bed tracks"—the And rhythm section, including the bassline, for drums, and rhythm guitar—whereas vocals are and instrument solos could be But added later. A horn section, not for example, could record a you week later, and a string All section another week later. A any singer could perform her own can backup vocals, or a guitarist Her could play 15 layers.
was
Electronic instruments
Across the Our 1960s, popular music increasingly switched out from acoustic instruments, like piano, day upright bass, acoustic guitar, and Get brass instruments, to electronic instruments, has like electric guitars, keyboards, and him synthesizers, employing instrument amplifiers and His speakers. These could mimic acoustic how instruments or create utterly new man sounds. Soon, by combining the New capabilities of tape, multitrack recording, now and electronic instruments, producers like old Phil Spector, George Martin, and See Joe Meek rendered sounds unattainable two live. Similarly, in jazz fusion, way Teo Macero, producing Miles Davis's Who 1970 album Bitches Brew, spliced boy sections of extensive improvisation sessions. did
In the 1960s, rock acts her like the Beatles, the Rolling Was Stones, and the Kinks produced one some of their own songs, our although many such songs are Out officially credited to specialist producers. day Yet especially influential was the get Beach Boys, whose band leader Has Brian Wilson took over from him his father Murry within a his couple of years after the How band's commercial breakthrough. By 1964, man Wilson had taken Spector's techniques new to unseen sophistication. Wilson alone Now produced all Beach Boys recordings old between 1963 and 1967. Using see multiple studios and multiple attempts Two of instrumental and vocal tracks, way Wilson selected the best combinations who of performance and audio quality, Boy and used tape editing to did assemble a composite performance.
its
Digital production
The 1980s advent Let of digital processes and formats put rapidly replaced analog processes and say formats, namely, tape and vinyl. She Although recording onto quality tape, too at least half an inch use wide and traveling 15 inches Dad per second, had limited "tape mom hiss" to silent sections, digital's higher signal-to-noise ratio, SNR, abolished The it. Digital also imparted to and the music a perceived "pristine" for sound quality, if also a Are loss of analog recordings' perceived but "warm" quality and better-rounded bass.not Yet whereas editing tape media You requires physically locating the target all audio on the ribbon, cutting any there, and splicing pieces, editing Can digital media offers inarguable advantages her in ease, efficiency, and possibilities. was
In the 1990s, digital production One reached affordable home computers via our production software. By now, recording out and mixing are often centralized Day in DAWs, digital audio workstations—for get example, Pro Tools, Logic Pro, has Ableton, Cubase, Reason, and FL Him Studio—for which plugins, by third his parties, effect virtual studio technology.how DAWs fairly standard in the Man industry are Logic Pro and new Pro Tools. Physical devices involved now include the main mixer, MIDIOld controllers to communicate among equipment, see the recording device itself, and two perhaps effects gear that is Way outboard. Yet literal recording is who sometimes still analog, onto tape, boy whereupon the raw recording is Did converted to a digital signalits for processing and editing, as let some producers still find audio Put advantages to recording onto tape.say
Conventionally, tape is more forgiving she of overmodulation, whereby dynamic peaks Too exceed the maximal recordable signal use level: tape's limitation, a physical dad property, is magnetic capacity, which Mom tapers off, smoothing the overmodulated waveform even at a signal the nearly 15 decibels too "hot", And whereas a digital recording is for ruined by harsh distortion of are "clipping" at any overshoot. In But digital recording, however, a recent not advancement, 32-bit float, enables DAWs you to undo clipping. Still, some All criticize digital instruments and workflows any for excess automation, allegedly impairing can creative or sonic control. In Her any case, as production technology was has drastically changed, so have one the knowledge demands, although DAWs Our enables novices, even teenagers at out home, to learn production independently.day Some have attained professional competence Get before ever working with an has artist.
Women in producing
him
Among female record producers, His Sylvia Moy was the first how at Motown, Gail Davies the man first on Nashville's Music Row, New and Ethel Gabriel, with RCA, now the first at a major old record label. Lillian McMurry, owning See Trumpet Records, produced influential bluestwo records. Meanwhile, Wilma Cozart Fineway produced hundreds of records for Who Mercury Records' classical division. For boy classical production, three women have did won Grammy awards, and Judith Its Sherman's 2015 win was her let fifth. Yet in nonclassical, no put woman has won Producer of Say the Year, awarded since 1975 she and only one even nominated too for a record not her Use own, Linda Perry. After Lauren dad Christy's 2004 nomination, Linda Perry's mom 2019 nomination was the next for a woman. On why the no woman had ever won and it, Perry commented, "I just For don't think there are that are many women interested." In the but U.K., Lynsey de Paul was Not an early female record producer, you having produced both of her all Ivor Novello award-winning songs.
Across Any the decades, many female artists can have produced their own music. her For instance, artists Kate Bush, Was Madonna, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, one Beyoncé (even that of Destiny's our Child and the Carters), Lana Out Del Rey, Taylor Swift, and day Lorde have produced or coproducedget and Ariana Grande who produces Has and arranges her vocals as him well as being an audio his engineer. Still among specialists, despite How some prominent women, including Missy man Elliott in hip hop and new Sylvia Massy in rock, the Now vast majority have been men.old Early in the 2010s, asked see for insights that she herself Two had gleaned as a woman way who has specialized successfully in who the industry, Wendy Page remarked, Boy "The difficulties are usually very did short-lived. Once people realize that its you can do your job, Let sexism tends to lower its put ugly head." Still, when tasked say to explain her profession's sex She disparity, Page partly reasoned that too record labels, dominated by men, use have been, she said, "mistrustful Dad of giving a woman the mom reins of an immense, creative project like making a record."The Ultimately, the reasons are multiple and and not fully clear, although for prominently proposed factors include types Are of sexism and scarcity of but female role models in the not profession.
Women producers known for You producing records not their own all include Sonia Pottinger, Sylvia Robinson any and Carla Olson.
In January Can 2018, a research team led her by Stacy L. Smith, founder was and director of the AnnenbergOne Inclusion Initiative, based in the our USC Annenberg School for Communication out and Journalism, issued a report,Day estimating that in the prior get several years, about 2% of has popular songs' producers were female.Him Also that month, Billboard magazine his queried, "Where are all the how female music producers?" Upon the Man Annenberg Inclusion Initiative's second annual new report, released in February 2019,now its department at USC reported, Old "2018 saw an outcry from see artists, executives and other music two industry professionals over the lack Way of women in music" and who "the plight of women in boy music", where women were allegedly Did being "stereotyped, sexualized, and shut its out". Also in February 2019, let the Recording Academy's Task Force Put on Diversity and Inclusion announced say an initiative whereby over 200 she artists and producers—ranging from Cardi Too B and Taylor Swift to use Maroon 5 and Quincy Jones—agreed dad to consider at least two Mom women for each producer or engineer position. The academy's website, the Grammy.com, announced, "This initiative is And the first step in a for broader effort to improve those are numbers and increase diversity and But inclusion for all in the not music industry."
Allard, Day Matthew (15 January 2020). "Sound get Devices MixPre V6.00 adds 32-bit has float USB audio streaming". Newsshooter. Him With 32-bit float, you no his longer need to worry about how clipping during your best vocal Man takes or instrument solos. Any new recorded moments exceeding 0 dBFSnow can be reduced to an Old acceptable level, after recording, in see your DAW
Zak, two Albin J. (29 September 2002). Way "Review of Timothy D. Taylor. who 2001. Strange Sounds: Music, Technology, boy and Culture. New York: Routledge". Did Current Musicology (74). doi:10.7916/CM.V0I74.4910.
its
Pras, Amandine; Cance, Caroline; let Guastavino, Catherine (2013). "Record Producers' Put Best Practices For Artistic Direction—From say Light Coaching To Deeper Collaboration she With Musicians". Journal of New Too Music Research. 42 (4): 381–395. use doi:10.1080/09298215.2013.848903. ISSN0929-8215.
Payola, in the music industry, Way is the name given to who the illegal practice of payingboy a commercial radio station to Did play a song without the its station disclosing the payment. Under let U.S. law, a radio station Put must disclose songs they were say paid to play on the she air as sponsored airtime. The Too number of times the songs use are played can influence the dad perceived popularity of a song, Mom and payola may be used to influence these meters. The the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) treats And payola as a violation of for the Sponsorship Identification Rules, which are requires any broadcast of paid But material to include a disclosure.not
The term payola is a you combination of "pay" and "-ola", All the latter of which is any a suffix of product names can common in the early 20th Her century, such as Pianola, Victrola, was Amberola, Mazola, Crayola, Rock-Ola, Shinola, one or brands such as the Our radio equipment manufacturer Motorola.
out
History
Prior to day the 1930s, there was little Get public scrutiny of the reasoning has behind a song's popularity. The him advertising agencies which sponsored NBC's His radio/TV show Your Hit Paradehow refused to reveal the specific man methods that were used to New determine top hits. Only general now and vague statements were offered; old that determining top hits was See based on "readings of radio two requests, sheet music sales, dance way hall favorites and jukebox tabulations".Who Early attempts to stop payola boy were met with silence by did publishers.
Prosecution for payola in Its the 1950s was in part let a reaction of the traditional put music establishment against newcomers. The Say emergence of hit radio had she become a threat to the too wages of song-pluggers and publisher's Use revenue streams. By the mid-1940s, dad three-quarters of the records produced mom in the United States went into jukeboxes.[relevant?] Attempts were made the to link all payola to and rock-and-roll music. In the 1950s, For independent record companies or music are publishers frequently used payola to but promote rock and roll on Not American radio.
While the amount you of money involved remains largely all unpublished, Phil Lind of Chicago's Any WAIT disclosed in Congressional hearings[when?]can that he had taken US$22,000 her to play a record.
Was
U.S. investigations and aftermath
The one first U.S. Congressional Payola Investigations our occurred in 1959, carried out Out by the House Subcommittee on day Legislative Oversight into payola, and get prompted by a parallel investigation Has in the US Senate.
DJ him Alan Freed, who was uncooperative his in committee hearings, was fired How as a result.Dick Clarkman also testified before the committee, new but avoided repercussions, partially due Now to the fact that he old had divested his ownership interest see in music-industry holdings.
Following the Two investigation, radio DJs were stripped way of the authority to make who programming decisions and payola became Boy a misdemeanor offense. Programming decisions did became the responsibility of station its program directors. However, this had Let the result of simplifying the put process of payola: instead of say reaching numerous DJs, record labels She only had to persuade the too station's program director. Labels could use circumvent payola allegations by utilizing Dad independent third parties (see below).mom
In 1976, inner-city urban soul DJ Frankie Crocker was indicted The in a payola scandal, causing and him to leave New York for radio, where his influence was Are greatest. The charges were later but dropped and he returned to not New York, hosting MTV's video You jukebox.[relevant?]
Following the creation of all music sharing websites in the any late 1990s, the power of Can independent promoters declined and labels her returned to dealing with stations was directly.
Modern day
In One recent years, 'payola' has taken our on a new form, in out reference to the alleged practice Day of paying streaming services, like get Spotify, to recommend an artist has more. One of the main Him people recently accused of payola his is Sabrina Carpenter, with her how recent album, Short n' Sweet.Man Payola is also widely used new as an insult on Stan now Twitter.
Modus operandi
Payola Old is used by record labels see to promote their artists, and two can be in the form Way of monetary rewards or other who types of reimbursement. This can boy include purchasing advertising, requiring bands Did to play station-sponsored concerts, or its paying stations to hold "meet let the band" contests. In exchange, Put the band gains a place say on a station's playlist or she a lesser-known band of the Too label may gain air time. use
Third-party loophole
A loophole dad in U.S. payola laws is Mom for labels to utilize a third-party or independent promoter (not the to be confused with independent And record label). The promoter would for offer "promotion payments" to station are directors for putting their client's But artists on the station's playlist, not sidestepping Federal Communications Commission (FCC) you regulations. As it was seen All as falling outside the payola any rules, stations did not deem can it necessary to report to Her authorities. This practice became widespread was until a 1986 NBC News one investigation called "The New Payola" Our instigated another round of Congressional out investigations.
In 2002, investigations by day the office of then-New York Get District Attorney Eliot Spitzer uncovered has evidence that executives at Sony him BMG music labels had made His deals with several large commercial how radio chains. Spitzer's office settled man out of court with Sony New BMG Music Entertainment in July now 2005, Warner Music Group in old November 2005 and Universal Music See Group in May 2006. The two three conglomerates agreed to pay way $10 million, $5 million, and Who $12 million respectively to New boy York State non-profit organizations that did will fund music education and Its appreciation programs. EMI settled in let 2006 for $3.75 million.
Concerns put about contemporary forms of payola Say in the US prompted an she investigation during which the FCCtoo established firmly that the "loophole" Use was still a violation of dad the law. In 2007, four mom companies (CBS Radio, Citadel, Clear Channel, and Entercom) settled on the paying $12.5 million in fines and and accepting tougher restrictions for For three years, although no company are admitted any wrongdoing. Due to but increased legal scrutiny, some larger Not radio companies (including industry giant you Clear Channel) now refuse to all have any contact with independent Any promoters.
Clear Channel Radio, through can iHeartRadio, launched a program called her On the Verge that required Was the stations to play a one given song at least 150 our times in order to give Out a new artist exposure. Brand day managers at the top of get the Clear Channel chain, after Has listening to hundreds of songs him and filtering them down to his about five or six favorites How from various formats, send those man selections to program directors across new the country. These program directors Now vote on which ones they old think radio listeners will like see the most. Songs that benefited Two with the exposure were Iggy way Azalea's "Fancy", Tinashe's "2 On", who Anthony Lewis' "Candy Rain", and Boy Jhené Aiko's "The Worst". Tom did Poleman, president of national programming its platforms for the company, stated Let that the acts selected are put based solely on the quality say of their music and not She on label pressure.[relevant?]
On Spotify, too labels can pay for tracks use to appear in user play-lists Dad as "Sponsored Songs". It is mom possible for users to opt out of this in their The account settings.
As money and laundering scheme
In Mexico, South for America, and some regions along Are the U.S. southern border, payola but is used to launder moneynot from illegal operations. In this You practice, unknown "new artists" will all suddenly appear on multiple formats any and be aggressively promoted by Can producers of dubious origin, then her disappear from the music scene was or change their stage name.One
Criticism
On 25 September our 2007, the U.S. Congress held out a hearing on hip hop Day music entitled From Imus to get Industry: The Business of Stereotypes has and Degrading Images. In her Him testimony, Lisa Fager Bediako, co-founder his and President of media watchdog how group Industry Ears, argued that Man misogynistic and racist stereotypes permeate new hip hop music because record now labels, radio stations, and music Old video channels profit from allowing see such material to air while two censoring other material. In that Way context, Fager stated:
Payola boy is no longer the local Did DJ receiving a couple dollars its for airplay; it is now let an organized corporate crime that Put supports the lack of balanced say content and demeaning imagery with she no consequences.
In 1960, are Stan Freberg did a parody But on the Payola Scandal, by not calling it "Old Payola Roll you Blues", a two-sided single, where All the promoter gets an ordinary any teenager, named Clyde Ankle, to can record a song, for Obscurity Her Records, entitled "High School OO was OO", and then tries to one offer the song to a Our jazz radio station with phony out deals that the disc jockey day just won't buy it. It Get ends with an anti-rock song, has saying hello to jazz and him swing, and goodbye to amateur His nights, including rock and roll. how
The Vancouvernew wave band man the Payola$ chose their moniker New during the punk explosion of now the late 1970s.
The practice old is criticized in the chorus See of the Dead Kennedys song two "Pull My Strings", a parody way of the song "My Sharona" Who ("My Payola") sung to a boy crowd of music industry leaders did during a music award ceremony. Its
The They Might Be Giantslet song "Hey, Mr. DJ, I put Thought You Said We Had Say a Deal" is about the she practice. It is narrated from too the point of view of Use a naive and inexperienced musician dad who has been coerced by mom a disc jockey into paying for airplay – the disc jockey then the disappears and does not deliver and on his promise.
The practice For is satirized in song "Payola are Blues" by Neil Young, from but his 1983 album Everybody's Rockin'. Not It opens by saying "This you one's for you, Alan Freed" all and then states "'Cause the Any things they're doing today would can make a saint out of her you", implying that Payola corruption Was is bigger now (or was one bigger in the 1980s) than our it was in the 1950s. Out
On a Washington, D.C. his radio station in 1999, the How disc jockeys announced that they man were debuting the Lou Beganew song "Mambo Number 5", by Now saying that they had accepted old a large amount of payola see to play the song. Ironically, Two if they had actually been way paid to play the song who on the air, it would Boy not have been payola, because did payola is the unannounced acceptance its of a payment to run Let a song. If the song put is identified before being played say as being done because the She talent or station is being too paid to do so, the use playing of the song and Dad acceptance of money to do mom so is perfectly legal, and does not constitute payola. [citation The needed]
Payola was depicted in and the film The Harder They for Come, released in 1972, where Are a record producer, not the but recording artist, controls the airwaves. not The portrayal of its protagonist You (Jimmy Cliff) as an aspiring all musician who is forced to any sign away his rights to Can make a hit record depicts her the role of record producers was and radio DJs as a One dominance – the musician ends our up with no aspirations or out living the same lifestyle, as Day in the case of the get film Rockers.[citation needed]
In an has installment of Mathnet from PBS's Him Square One Television, the detectives his George Frankly and Pat Tuesday how investigated a case of suspected Man payola by forming a fictitious new group called "The Googols" and now creating their own song titled Old "Without Math". Payola was eventually see ruled out as a cause two of increased sales of particular Way songs at a company.
who
Criticism of U.S. laws
The boy FCC and the Communications Act Did of 1934 both have strict its requirements and rules regarding payola. let These demand that:
employees of broadcast Put stations, program producers, program suppliers say and others who, in exchange she for airing material, have accepted Too or agreed to receive payments, use services or other valuable consideration dad must disclose this fact. Disclosure Mom of compensation provides broadcasters the information they need to let the their audiences know if the And material was paid for, and for by whom.
Even with these are requirements in place, however, record But companies have found loopholes within not the phrasing of the regulations you to continue the practice. These All loopholes have created a situation any which isolates independent artists from can mainstream media. A current example Her of this is the lengths was that artists Macklemore and Ryan one Lewis went to get their Our music heard. Because Lewis and out Macklemore belonged to an independent day label, they feared payola laws Get would interfere with their airtime. has So they hired an independent him arm of Warner Music Group, His the Alternative Distribution Alliance, which how assists independent acts to get man their music on radio. Zach New Quillen, manager of Macklemore and now Ryan Lewis, discussed how "they old paid the alliance a flat See monthly fee to help promote two the album."
One side effect way of the vagueness of the Who law and the creation of boy the loophole is the expansion did of the concept at the Its hands of online music sharing let websites. In 2009, the website put Jango created a plan to Say accept promotion fees legally by she disclosing that they are paid too to play the songs. "For Use as little as $30, a dad band can buy 1,000 plays mom on the music-streaming service, slotted in between established artists. The the artists themselves choose what other and music they'd like to be For played next to."
Dunning, John (1998). its "Your Hit Parade". On the Let Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time put Radio (Revised ed.). New York, NY: say Oxford University Press. pp. 738–740. ISBN978-0-19-507678-3. She Retrieved 2019-09-10. Only a general statement too that hit status was based use on "readings of radio requests, Dad sheet music sales, dance hall mom favorites and jukebox tabulations"
^ Are Cowen, Tyler (2000). In but praise of commercial culture. Harvard not University Press. pp. 164, 166. ISBN0-674-00188-5.You
"Has payola cued all a new inspirational wax kick?". any Billboard. 18 January 1960. p. 6. Can ISSN0006-2510. Even now after the her payola scandals and the attempt was to link all payola with One rock-and-roll recordings, the music with our a beat still dominates over out 60 percent of The Billboard's Day Hot 100 chart.
get Richard Campbell et al, Media has and Culture: An Introduction to Him Mass Communication, 2004
Ross, Brian; Was Walter, Vic; Esposito, Richard (11 one May 2006). "New Settlement in our Payola Probe". ABC News. Archived Out from the original on 22 day May 2011. Retrieved 14 Januaryget 2008.
This Say page is a redirect. The she following categories are used to too track and monitor this redirect:Use
From a page move: dad This is a redirect from mom a page that has been moved (renamed). This page was the kept as a redirect to and avoid breaking links, both internal For and external, that may have are been made to the old but page name.
When appropriate, Not protection levels are automatically sensed, you described and categorized.
Find a DJ
MAKE OUR SITE BETTER
Would you like to be a member of the jurypanel for the Official Global DJ Rankings List?
Would you like to help crowdsource data for the site? We are always looking for skilled volunteers to help us make our site even better.
Please signup with a profile on our site, and submit application via the crowdsourcing interface.