Glyn Johns Producer Podcast

I chose to discuss producer/engineer Glyn Johns because he has played a major role in the realm of rock music and has worked with many bands/artists that I listen to. As a student studying Recording Arts, Glyn Johns is a major inspiration and influence towards working in the music industry and is someone that I look up to. Out of all the producers that I wanted to pick for this assignment, he was one of the producers that I knew the least about and I wanted to find out more interesting facts about his work. I believe that Glyn Johns has not received near as much production credit then he has actually been credited for and I wanted to discuss how he has established many of the bands/artists styles that he has worked with and how he has contributed towards their overall success. Overall, I enjoyed researching Glyn Johns and discovered a lot of interesting facts about him and the work that he has done throughout his career. Enjoy!

REFERENCES

Howard, D. N. (2004). Sonic Alchemy. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard Corporation.

Glyn Johns. Retrieved May 7, 2011 from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyn_Johns

Glyn Johns. Retrieved May 7, 2011 from Artist Direct: http://www.artistdirect.com/artist/bio/glyn-johns/436251

Glyn Johns. Retrieved May 7, 2011 from Record Producer: http://www.recordproducer.com/?a=143

Jimmy Miller/Rolling Stones Podcast

Peer Comment Post

I agree that Steve Albini has played a major role in the music industry and maintains a connection with how popular music sounds and is recorded today. He is a very influential producer and has worked on many albums. I like how you gave a background about Steve Albini for those who might not be too familiar with him and his work. I was not aware that he was in the band Big Black. I also like how you discussed Steve’s work and accomplishments with Nirvana. He had a very significant impact on the band and you described his relationship and involvement with the band well. Overall, this was an excellent post and it was very interesting to read.

Independent Research Entry - Jimmy Miller & The Rolling Stones

Jimmy Miller is a music/record producer who has produced and worked on hundreds of successful albums. He has worked with many bands around the 1960’s to early 1990’s including Traffic, The Spencer Davis Group, Motorhead, and The Rolling Stones. Jimmy Miller’s work with The Rolling Stones had a very significant impact on the bands career and success. Miller contributed to the albums Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup, and many other Rolling Stones songs such as “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Brown Sugar”. Before the recording of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, The Rolling Stones were struggling to get their albums to achieve high commercial success. They were in trouble and needed producer Jimmy Miller to produce their music. With the help of Miller and engineer Glyn Johns, the Rolling Stones would soon launch their career to the next level with the release of “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. It was a huge success and went to the top of the charts in the United Kingdom.

The success of Jimmy Miller’s work is made up of many characteristics. One of the main characteristics of his success in the music industry includes the highly skilled and professional engineers that Miller knew. He worked with legendary engineers Eddie Kramer and Glyn Johns who are both very respected and well known in the music industry. The engineering talent of Eddie Kramer and Glyn Johns allowed Miller to focus on the overall big picture while they focused on the technical aspects. Another characteristic that led to Jimmy Miller’s success is the passion and dedication he devoted to his work. Miller was positive, encouraging, and creative when it came to producing music. He was very passionate and detailed with his work and wasn’t afraid to try new things in the studio. All of these characteristics as well as many more helped The Rolling Stones create great albums and allowed Jimmy Miller to produce great music.

Jimmy Miller leaves a strong impression on me as a listener and industry professional. I am a big fan of The Rolling Stones, but I was not that aware to how much Miller contributed to the bands work. He was one of the main reasons for the success of The Rolling Stones and shows how a producer can take a band that was struggling to sell their records, and put their albums at the top. Jimmy Miller is well recognized for producing great albums and influences myself to one day be a music producer.

Comment Entry

I enjoyed reading your post about Kraftwerk. I like how you discussed each album the band recorded and released between 1974 and 1981. I completely agree with you that the band possessed a distinctive sound that greatly set them apart from other bands. I also like how you introduced the new instruments Kraftwerk utilized starting with the album Autobahn. I think that it is amazing how many artists and bands Kraftwerk has influenced since their release of Autobahn. I really enjoyed your input on how the band transitioned from Radio-Activity to Trans-Europe Express and how they began to write more pop electronic songs compared to experimental electronic music. This was an interesting post to read and was well put together.

Electronic Music Innovations Entry

Overall, Kraftwerk has had a tremendous impact on electronic music with their use of music technology innovations. Kraftwerk had many self-made instruments and electronic devices that were custom built that defined the electronic and robotic style of the band. The main members/composers of Kraftwerk were Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider. They created an electronic drum kit that had sensor pads and was played with metal sticks to trigger the electronic sounds. The use of electronic drum kits, as well as other electronic devices, created very new and unique sounds that would interest many artists to create similar sounds that Kraftwerk produced.

The musical style and image from composers Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider can be heard through various genres of music. The use of synthesizers and electronic sounds from Ralf and Florian have influenced several artists to create similar styles of music. For example, Gary Numan mimics the style/image of Kraftwerk in his song Cars. David Bowie tributes Kraftwerk and member Florian Schneider on his album Heroes and artists such as Chris Martin from Coldplay have requested permission to use certain melodies created by Kraftwerk in their music. One innovation that defines the musical style of composers Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider is their use of the vocoder. This effected the band’s vocals and added to the list of why Kraftwerk greatly impacted electronic music. Another innovation that Kraftwerk composers Ralf and Florian used was a music sequencer. This was used on their album Trans-Europe Express for more control over the rhythmic electronic sounds produced.

The creativity and distinctive sounds from the Kraftwerk composers holds a strong impression on me as a listener and industry professional. They brought a whole new style of music to the world and showed how computer/electronic sounds can produce very powerful music. Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider have inspired many musicians, including myself, to utilize synth and electronic sounds into music. 

Electronic Music Entry

Kraftwerk is a band from Germany that played and tremendously popularized electronic music. The primary leaders and songwriters of Kraftwerk consisted of Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider. Other members that joined/contributed to the band include Karl Bartos, Wolfgang Flur, and a few others that rehearsed and acted as studio musicians. Kraftwerk was very experimental with the electronic music they produced that included electronic instrumentation, very catchy melodies, classical styles of harmony, simplistic lyrics, repetitive rhythms, synthesizers, and the use of vocoders for vocals. The image of Kraftwerk was very robotic. The band members wore suits or matching shirt and ties for their album pictures and when they performed live shows.

The albums put out by Kraftwerk between 1974 and 1981 were extremely revolutionary and influential for electronic music and contained conceptual themes. These albums consisted of Autobahn, Radio-Activity, Trans-Europe Express, The Man-Machine, and Computer World. Road travel was the conceptual theme for the album Autobahn, and was inspired by American pop group The Beach Boys. Kraftwerk involved nuclear energy and the radio as their theme for the album Radio-Activity and used European connectivity/train travel as the theme for Trans-Europe Express. The rhythm and beat of the Trans-Europe Express track was created to emulate the sound of a train.

Overall, Kraftwerk has had a huge impact on electronic music and has influenced many artists/bands over the years. One characteristic of Kraftwerk that earned them the position of the biggest influence of electronic music was their overall performance, use of instrumentation, and album/lyrical themes. The band utilized themes for most of their albums about everyday life, technology, and travel that was present during the time they released each album. Their instrumentation was very electronic based and they used electronic drums and synthesizers for songs and performances. A lot of their albums were released in different versions for other languages then German. Another characteristic that put Kraftwerk at the top of electronic music is how much influence the band has had on other artists/bands and various genres of music. From David Bowie to Afrika Bambaataa, there are many similarities of the musical style of Kraftwerk that are found in other artist’s music.

As a listener and industry professional, Kraftwerk is a very influential band. Their style of music is very catchy and represents their own style of music. I am very impressed with the albums and themes that are portrayed by Kraftwerk. I like how there experiments with music led to massive success and how inspiring they were for other artists. I am a fan of Kraftwerk and personally like the albums Autobahn, Trans-Europe Express, and Computer World.