question
Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2005 4:21 am
what exactly was the role of the producer for these reggae records? did they just organize it's arrangement and release, or were they involved creatively?
To answer your question in all would really mean to tell the story of reggae music. That has been done in excellence in some books that I can recommmend if you really want to understand the role that producers had and still have in shaping the music.
To put it the simple way, a producer is the man with the money. He pays the musicians/singers/engineers and owns the music that was created. There were/are producers who really created music like Lee Perry, Coxsone Dodd, Duke Reid, Prince Buster, King Tubby etc. and there were/are producers who had no or only little artistic influences.
For further reading :
David Katz - "Solid Foundation"
David Katz - "People funny Boy/The genius of Lee 'Scratch' Perry"
Steve Barrow & Peter Dalton - "The Rough Guide to Reggae"