A ‘Service’ Model of Creativity in Commercial Pop Music at P&E Studios in the 1990s

Producers in pop and dance music genres have a significantly different role tomusic producers in other music genres such as rock (Frith in Frith & Zagorski-Thomas: 2012). A prominent difference is that pop music producers areoften part of a production team that involves direct collaboration and participationwith songwriters, programmers, musicians, artists, record companyA&R executives and managers. Pop music songwriting and production teamsare therefore more frequently part of a larger creative collective (Hennion:1990) in creating a musical product. This historical study introduces the recordproducer as ‘team leader’ and the creative production workflow at P&EMusic Studios located within the Strongroom Studio complex in London duringthe 1990s. It investigates the ways in which the production team workedwithin the creative system of pop-music making and presents the pop music‘Service Model’, which illustrates the various stages of the commercial popsongwriting and production process at P&E during the 1990s