eventually took over as producers of their own work, although this was often not credited. For example, many recordings by acts such as The Rolling Stones, The Small Faces, Donovan, The Kinks and The Who are officially credited to their various producers at the time: Andrew Loog Oldham. Mickie Most or Shel Talmy; but a number of these performers have since asserted that many of their recordings in this period were, in practical terms, either self-produced (e.g. The Rolling Stones' Decca recordings) or were collaborations between the group and their recording engineer (e.g. The Small Faces' Immediate recordings, which were made with Olympic Studios engineer Glyn Johns).
Similarly, although The Beatles' productions were credited to George Martin throughout their recording career, many sources now attest that Lennon and McCartney in particular had an increasing influence on the production process as the group's career progressed, and especially after the band retired from touring in 1966. In fact, in an extreme example of this, Martin
actually went on a two-week vacation as The Beatles were recording their self-titled 1968 album known as "The White Album"; production of several completed tracks on the album were credited to The Beatles on internal paperwork at Abbey Road Studios, although the released LP gave sole production credit to Martin.
The Beach Boys are probably the best example of the trend of artists becoming producers - within two years of the band's commercial breakthrough, group leader Brian Wilson had taken over from his father Murry, and he was sole producer of all their recordings between 1963 and 1967. Alongside The Beatles and Martin, Wilson also pioneereed many production innovations - by 1964 he had developed Spector's techniques to a new level of sophistication, using multiple studios and multiple "takes" of instrumental and vocal
components to capture the best possible combinations of sound and performance, and then using tape editing extensively to assemble a perfect composite performance from these elements.
With the turn of the 21st Century along with the focus on digital audio workstation (DAW) technology, a record producer's role is expected to include many skills. Most producers have roles in songwriting, music composition, sound engineering and audio mastering. The increase in demand for a one-stop-shop multi-instrumentalist type producer led to the modern Record Producer having to take on more of a broader role. Some examples of modern pop music producers include Max Martin, RedOne and Dr. Luke, who have collectively Produced Billboard chart topping artists such as Lady Gaga, Usher, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift and Katy Perry. Rick Rubin is one of the most important cross-genre producers, with production credits almost too numerous to list - Aerosmith, Metallica, LL Cool J, The Beastie Boys, Public Enemy, and dozens of others. Hip-hop producers such as Dr. Dre, Timbaland, DJ Premier, J Dilla, and Kanye West often branch out into serious vocal work and become rappers as well.
With the increase in demand for music videos on-line such as on YouTube, the traditional tasks of a record producer for independent artists are beginning to include such visual and filmmaking aspects as well. Independent producers such as Korean Producer PSY who produced the world famous Viral Video Gangnam Style, Los Angeles Record Producer Clarence Jey who was instrumental in the song Friday by Rebecca Black, as well as Australian Producer Gotye who produced the chart topping hit song Somebody That I Used to Know, performed a broader role in coordinating the music to match the appropriate visual content along with a Viral Marketing campaign.