The Studio

Chapter 2 discusses the role of the producer, the concept of instrumentality, and how the recording studio has come to be conceptualized as an instrument since the mid-twentieth century. As exemplified by the practices of producers in the 1950s (Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller) and the 1960s (Phil Spector, the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson, and Motown’s Berry Gordy), early iterations of the studio as musical instrument entailed a collaborative process of working with musicians and studio personnel. In the early 1970s playing the studio as musical instrument took on a new meaning in the hands of Jamaican dub producers like King Tubby, who forewent working with musicians in the studio and instead reimagined and remixed prerecorded tracks by playing the equipment of the studio. This approach was furthered by hip-hop producers in New York, notably the Bomb Squad, who incorporated the sampler into their studio-playing practices. Finally, a glimpse into the practices of Max Martin demonstrates that in contemporary music production DAWs are the de facto instrument.