As the electronic music genre began
with, and heavily influenced by huge names such as Kraftwerk, Portishead, RZA, etc., it seems as if people have
seemingly forgotten about the forefather who stood behind the scenes for the
most part. As his roots are logically pop music and rock music, Phil Spector
has come into contact with, managed, evolved, and shaped the forefront of not
just his area of profession, but electronic music also. When you think of the Wall of Sound, a picture is painted in
your head and you began to visualize a sound of music that cannot be compared
too nor beaten by any measures. This is where Phil comes in.
Giving
birth to The Wall of Sound, Phil
Spector began recording at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, California, where
many other great bands began to follow the trend of his music production and
song writing style in the late 1960’s -1970’s. Phil has always been the type to
think outside the box in relations to expressing his form of art and the way he
thought music should be heard. Phil created The
Wall of Sound by constant layering of horns and electric/acoustic guitars,
heavily compressing them while recording them through an echo chamber. While
working with groups such as The Ronettes,
The Beatles, The Beach Boys, just to
name a few, Spector took all of their careers to the top of the charts almost
effortlessly. “Spector himself is quoted as believing his production of Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep, Mountain High" to be the
summit of his Wall of Sound productions” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wall_of_Sound).
Phil Spector would change the music industry infinitely with this technique of
multi-track recording.
As a young Phil Spector, he began
to derive his talents from another heavyweight in the early pop era , Brian
Wilson, as he sometimes sat in on some of Wilsons studio sessions while closely
studying his techniques and embedding them into his own. At that time Wilson
was the face of the Beach Boys and was also one of, if not, the top producer at
that moment which kind of pushed Spector into becoming his “main competition as
a studio artist, going so far as to name the acclaimed Pet Sounds
album using Spector's initials”( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Spector#Influence).
Eventually as time passed and Spector progressed into this mad scientist in the
lab over the years, he found himself picking up and finishing the album for the
Beach Boys that Wilson did not finish, due to circumstances/differences with
the band.
As a
proactive music listener of ALL genres, Phil Spector has made one of the
massive impacts on not only me as a recording engineer and the way I record,
but also the modern mainstream recording techniques and engineers, as you can
hear them still being used till this day. Phil Spector’s print in the
entertainment industry shall never be jaded.
