Rick Rubin(sketch)

I'll expose myself here as a music geek. I'm a big fan of certain music producers. While alot of people like to play name that tune with the radio, I like name that producer. It's not as hard as it sounds after you get to know someone's sound. Think about 80's era AC/DC, Def Leppard, and Bryan Adams. It was all John "Mutt" Lange, who's married to Shania Twain (who has a similar sound.If there's a musician you like who seems inconsistent from album to album, it's probably because they're surfing producers. Sometimes this is good, sometimes not.

Now my favorite guy is Rick Rubin, whose Zelig like presence in music has more of a zen feel. That is, once you know he's produced a band, you say "yeah, yeah, I hear it now", but it doesn't hit you over the head like alot of guys whose fingerprints almost obscure the artists voice. Rubin cofounded Def Jam, worked with the metal band Slayer on their most memorable album, and plucked Johnny Cash from the waste bin, shined him up and let us hear what a treasure we nearly lost. Listen to Cash's American Recordings from the 90's to hear what I'm talking about. He tried the same thing with Neil Diamond with excellent results.

I've included just a few of the more popular artists Rubin has worked with here:The Dixie Chicks, Jay Z, Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Beastie Boys. I would usually try my best not to have this many people in a piece, because I think it waters down the impact of an image, but I'll try to make this work.