Expressiveness in popular music performance and production: a reasoned review of interviews with leading engineers, producers and performers

Defining expressiveness in musical performance is a complex task. In the case of popular music, one must also take into account contemporary production practices, which see a strong interaction between musicians, producers, and engineers. Research in the field of popular music has not investigated in depth the issue of expressiveness from the perspective of those who work professionally in music production, often favoring the analysis of the parameters that can be associated with expressiveness from the perspective of listener perception. In this contribution, through a series of interviews with high-profile practitioners in the field, positions related to expressive musical performance in popular music were gathered and brought into dialogue. The interviewees work in the contemporary music production scene as producers, engineers and/or musicians, and they present well-diversified backgrounds and reference genres of music. A critical and reasoned overview of the different sensibilities and interpretations collected on the subject is offered.