The Neptunes: Innovative Production and the Marching Band Influence

Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo were high school friends originating from Virginia Beach.
Both individuals were highly educated, talented musicians who played in and arranged music for their school’s marching band.
A significant interest for them was the football halftime shows; while the marching band typically played traditional music, Williams and Hugo began incorporating hip hop songs into the arrangements.
Their technical proficiency allowed them to write out the full musical arrangements for the band.
Chad Hugo specifically held the role of the band's conductor.
Together, they formed their own R&B group.

Their R&B group gained the attention of Teddy Riley, a prominent figure who invented the "new jack swing" sound.
Riley had relocated to Virginia Beach and established a studio there.
Although the group itself did not achieve major success, Williams and Hugo were hired by Riley after high school to work at his studio as music arrangers.
Their primary job involved taking R&B music and writing it out professionally so that studio musicians could play it immediately upon arrival.
Williams and Hugo were identified as innovative arrangers who excelled at creating "cool sounding music."
Riley eventually provided them the opportunity to produce music, starting with acts such as Rex-n-Effect and Blackstreet.
Because of their competence, Riley eventually granted them the freedom to select their own projects, which led to them producing hip hop tracks in his studio.

This production period occurred in the mid-to-late $1990\text{s}$ , a time when the practice of sampling was becoming legally problematic.
Record companies were reacting to major legal debacles, specifically the Biz Markie album case involving the song "Alone Again."
In that instance, the record company was forced to destroy all physical copies of the album due to copyright issues.
A new, "emboldened" anti-sampling legal industry emerged, making it unsafe for record companies to rely on samples.
Labels no longer felt they could trust producers' assurances that all samples had been legally cleared.
While some sample-heavy records were still made, such as those by the Beastie Boys, these artists were exceptionally meticulous about the clearing process because they had faced their own lawsuits.
Apart from a few "proven sellers," mainstream record companies were largely unwilling to risk being sued.

There was a distinct de-emphasis on sampling in mainstream hip hop, replaced by a focus on hiring producers who worked with live musicians.
This shift was intended to reduce the possibility of legal complications for the labels.
Dr. Dre was a notable producer using live musicians during this period, but he frequently utilized "interpolations," where musicians replayed familiar melodies from existing songs.
From the labels' perspective, interpolations were still considered "kind of unsafe."
Labels prioritized music that offered no risk of litigation, which coincided with a popular new mix of hip hop and R&B coming out of Atlanta.
Williams and Hugo, as innovative arrangers who loved hip hop, were perfectly positioned for this market.

Williams and Hugo named their production duo The Neptunes.
Their most significant contribution to music was how they organized their productions.
Drawing from the popularity of football halftime shows in the South, they began to arrange hip hop music using the same organizational principles as a marching band.
Prior to the mid- $1990\text{s}$ , hip hop was traditionally organized around the concept of the drum kit, utilizing James Brown samples, breakbeats from records, or synth drums imitating a standard kit.
Even the innovator Marley Marl, who created "impossible drum kits," still adhered to the standard movements of a drum kit.
Marl's kits were "impossible" because of the unfamiliar sonic qualities—such as one drum sounding like it was recorded in a "big room," another in a "little room," and another being "tiny"—but the rhythm remained a variation of the standard "boom boom chick, a boom boom chick chick, a boom boom."

The Neptunes shifted focus away from the drum kit toward the sound of halftime marching bands.
In a marching band, the beat is divided among different players: one person on a single large bass drum, another on a snare, and another on a cymbal.
These components are treated as distinct elements with "separated spaces" between them.
Because marching band music is designed for the outdoors, it requires significant space within the beat to prevent the sound from becoming "cluttered."
The Neptunes separated the concept of the "beat" from the "drums"; they discarded constants like the ride cymbal or hi-hat.
Their beats were constructed of discrete units— $element\, a$ , $element\, b$ , and $element\, c$ —with large gaps of space in between.

In the song "Grindin'" by Clipse, the marching band influence is highly evident, featuring a great big bass drum and immense space in the beat.
In a later production for Snoop Dogg, the "obvious marching band signifiers" like the big bass drum are removed, yet the production retains the same sparse organizational structure and use of space.
A recurring quirk in Pharrell Williams' productions is the inclusion of "body sounds," specifically clapping.
The speaker notes that they have yet to hear a production by Pharrell that does not include some form of body-generated sound.
The ultimate takeaway for students is to compare the use of space in these beats to the way halftime marching band music is heard and organized.