Prince, Biggie, Lou Reed, Radiohead, and More: Berklee Online Graduate Instructors Are Kind of a Big Deal

Berklee Online has released a series of animated videos to celebrate the unique opportunity that students who participate in our master’s offerings will have to learn directly from some of the top minds in the music industry.

Students can access Berklee Online’s Master of Music in Music Production program and Master of Arts in Music Business program by applying to the graduate degree program, or by enrolling in a graduate certificate program, or by enrolling in an individual graduate course. No application is required for the latter two options! You’ll be able to learn from the esteemed course authors featured in the videos below:

Sean Slade—who authored Culminating Experience in Music Production 1 and Culminating Experience in Music Production 2—gained worldwide recognition as a producer when he and partner Paul Q. Kolderie produced Radiohead’s first hit, “Creep,” and later the band’s debut album, Pablo Honey. Producing such a smash opened many doors for Slade and Kolderie, and the Fort Apache studios they founded, and soon legends like Warren Zevon and Lou Reed came calling. As you’ll see in the video above, the recording session with Reed turned explosive, literally!

E. Michael Harrington—who authored Music Business Law—has worked as a consultant and expert witness in hundreds of music copyright matters including cases involving Lady Gaga, T-Pain, T.I.,  Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur, and Mariah Carey.  In this video, Dr. Harrington tells the tale of bringing the Civil Rights-era anthem, “We Shall Overcome” into the public domain. He pointed to the song’s origin from a time before Beethoven (who had as much to do with “We Shall Overcome” as Pete Seeger!) and helped convince the court that music publishers Ludlow Music and the Richmond Organization had no valid claim to owning the copyright of the song.

Prince Charles Alexander—who authored Commercial Vocal Production—worked as a sound engineer for Bad Boy Records from 1992-2004. In his video, he says his prior career as a funk musician made him hold a grudge against hip-hop: “Rap took our jobs away,” he says. But he made the leap to work for Bad Boy Records, where his focus as an engineer was on making sure the vocal sounds were the right quality for the recording, so he didn’t always listen to what was actually being said into the mic. Then one day he recorded Christopher Wallace AKA Notorious B.I.G. AKA Biggie Smalls AKA Big Poppa. It was then that he began to understand that rap wasn’t something to hold a grudge against, but something to celebrate.

Susan Rogers—who authored Psychoacoustics in Music Production—worked as Prince’s staff engineer from 1983-1987. She says, “I think I did 15 years worth of work in that time period because of the number of hours.” In her video, Rogers details what those hours were filled with: recording, writing, putting on impromptu shows, and doing it all over again after only about three hours of sleep.