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 consider contemporary production practices, which see a strong interaction between musicians, producers, and engineers. Research in the pop field has not thoroughly investigated the issue of expressiveness from the perspective of those who work professionally in music production, often favouring the analysis of the parameters associated with expressiveness from the perspective of listener perception. In this contribution, views on expressive musical performance in popular music were gathered and brought into dialogue through original interviews with high-profile practitioners in the field. The interviewees work in contemporary music production 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 offere...