Mark Ronson: DJ, Producer, and the Sound of a Generation
Mark Ronson is an interesting artist to study because he’s never really been just one thing.
He’s a DJ, producer, songwriter, musician and arranger, and his biggest records often sound like a conversation between different eras of music.
He might take a 1960s soul idea, add a bit of funk, bring in hip-hop production techniques and somehow turn it into a massive modern pop record.
For guitarists, there’s a lot to learn from that because Ronson’s records aren’t really about playing more.
They’re about choosing the right things, putting them in the right place, and understanding where the music came from.
Growing Up Around Music
Ronson grew up in a musical household. His stepfather is guitarist Mick Jones of Foreigner, and Mark became proficient enough on drums, piano and guitar to understand how music worked from several different perspectives.
That broad musical understanding eventually led him towards DJing and production.
In 2003, he released his debut album, Here Comes the Fuzz, a hip-hop record featuring a huge collection of guest artists.
It didn’t sell particularly well, but commercially, that turned out not to matter nearly as much as the experience of making it. Ronson had found his world.
Instead of trying to become the next traditional singer-songwriter, he became someone who could stand slightly outside the music and see how all the pieces fitted together. That turned out to be a very useful skill.
Back to Black
Ronson soon began working with artists including Lily Allen on Alright, Still and Christina Aguilera on Back to Basics. Then came Amy Winehouse.
Together with Winehouse and producer Salaam Remi, Ronson played a major role in creating Back to Black in 2006.
In my opinion, it’s one of, if not THE the best albums released by a U.K. artist this side of the millennium, and Ronson’s contribution was imperative.
The interesting thing is how old and new the album feels at the same time. You can hear Motown, girl groups, Soul and 1960s pop in the DNA, but the songs and production don’t sound like museum pieces. They’re modern records built from older ideas.
That ability to look backwards without simply copying the past would become one of Ronson’s trademarks.
Valerie
The Zutons originally wrote and released Valerie in 2006, but Ronson reworked it with Amy Winehouse on vocals and gave it a completely different character.
Instead of presenting it as an indie-rock song, he pushed it towards the retro Soul sound that had become so closely associated with Back to Black. It worked. Really well.
Ronson released the track under his own name in 2007, featuring Winehouse, and neither of them could have predicted just how ubiquitous it would become.
Some songs simply become part of the furniture of popular music. For U.K. function bands, Valerie is one of those songs.
It sits comfortably alongside Crazy in Love, Sex on Fire, Mr. Brightside and Crazy as one of those tracks that seems to turn up everywhere.
And that’s an important distinction. A song can be a big hit without becoming a working-band standard. Valerie managed to do both.
For a guitarist, it’s also a great example of arrangement. The Zutons’ original and Ronson’s version are recognisably the same song, but the production, groove and instrumentation completely change how it feels. That’s worth studying.
Red — The Hit That Never Was
In 2009, Ronson produced Australian singer Daniel Merriweather’s album Love & War. The second single was Red.
It entered the U.K. chart at No. 5 and initially looked like it might become enormous. I certainly thought it would. Unfortunately, it never quite reached the heights I expected.
I also felt Ronson had perhaps gone a little too far with the production on the album. There are times when it feels as though the kitchen sink has been thrown at the song.
But underneath all that production is a fantastic tune. So in 2011, I recorded my own version of Red for Spytunes. I slowed it down considerably and stripped all of the production away.
It was a useful experiment because it demonstrated something I often talk about with songs: sometimes the best arrangement is the one that lets the song breathe.
Rather amusingly, my version didn’t achieve the success I’d predicted either.
Uptown Funk
Released in 2014, with Bruno Mars on vocals, Uptown Funk was the record that took Mark Ronson to another level.
It became a worldwide phenomenon and one of the best-selling digital singles ever.
Underneath all the production tricks, there’s something very simple happening musically. The tune is built around a groove and a relatively small collection of ideas that keep coming back. This is where studying the chords becomes interesting.
The II–V Groove
The II–V progression is one of those chord movements that can keep a song moving without giving the listener the satisfying resolution of landing on chord I.
You can hear similar ideas across Funk, Soul, Disco and Pop.
Think of I Wish, Le Freak, Good Times, Lady Marmalade, Thriller and Superstition.
These songs all demonstrate how a relatively simple harmonic idea can create enormous energy when the rhythm section is right.
And if you’re learning Uptown Funk on guitar, that’s the important bit. Don’t just learn the chords. Listen to how the guitar fits into the groove.
The rests matter. The little rhythmic accents matter. The relationship between the guitar, bass and drums matters. That’s where the Funk is.
Borrowing Is Part of the Tradition
One of the things I find particularly interesting about Ronson and Bruno Mars is how openly their music draws on earlier records.
You can hear the influence of Le Freak in Uptown Funk, for example.
And this isn’t unusual in funk, soul or hip-hop. Musicians have always borrowed grooves, chord movements, rhythms, melodies and arrangements from the records they love. That’s how musical traditions develop.
Listen to Amy Winehouse’s Tears Dry on Their Own alongside Ain’t No Mountain High Enough and you’ll hear an extremely strong connection.
Bruno Mars has done the same thing elsewhere. Treasure, for example, clearly draws on the sound of earlier Disco and Soul records. And that’s not something guitarists should be afraid of. Quite the opposite.
If you want to write better music, study the records you love. Work out the chords. Work out the rhythm. Figure out why the bass line works. Notice what the guitar doesn’t play.
Then use those ideas as ingredients in something of your own. I’ve said this many times before: amateurs wait for inspiration, while pros go to work.
If you want to work, learning the tunes is part of the job.
A Star Is Born
Ronson’s songwriting career continued to develop beyond his own records. In 2018, another version of A Star Is Born arrived, this time starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper. Ronson co-wrote Shallow with Gaga, Andrew Wyatt and Anthony Rossomando.
The song became one of the defining records from the film and another example of Ronson’s ability to work outside a single genre.
From Hip-Hop to Amy Winehouse’s Soul revival, from Daniel Merriweather to Bruno Mars and Lady Gaga, the common thread isn’t a particular sound. It’s production and songwriting built around strong musical ideas.
The Producer as Musician
This is perhaps what makes Mark Ronson particularly interesting from a guitar player’s perspective. A producer doesn’t necessarily need to be the person playing every instrument. They need to understand what every instrument is supposed to contribute.
Ronson’s background as a multi-instrumentalist and DJ gives him that wider perspective. He can think about the rhythm, the bass, the guitar, the vocal, the sample and the overall arrangement at the same time.
And that’s a useful way for any musician to think. When you’re playing guitar in a band, don’t just ask:
“What are the chords?”
Ask:
“What does this song actually need from me?”
Sometimes the answer is a funky rhythm part. Sometimes it’s a single repeated riff. Sometimes it’s nothing at all for four bars.
The best producers understand this. The best working guitarists do too.
Building Your Repertoire
Mark Ronson’s catalogue is particularly useful if you’re building a modern working-band repertoire because his records connect so many different musical worlds.
Valerie gives you Soul and Pop. Uptown Funk gives you Funk. Red is a reminder that a great song can get buried under too much production — and that stripping it back can reveal something better. And Back to Black demonstrates how powerfully older musical ideas can be brought into a contemporary setting.
That’s the real lesson from Mark Ronson. You don’t need to reinvent music from scratch. Study the records that came before you. Understand why they worked. Borrow the good ideas. Then find your own way of putting them together.
That’s how you build a repertoire — and, eventually, your own sound.
Mark Ronson Tunes | Related Pages
Red | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Red by Daniel Merriweather using chords, lyrics, a chord chart, chord analysis, and Spytunes video guitar lessons.
| Asus2 | Asus2 | E Eadd9 | E |
And I’m alright, standing in the streetlights here…
Start learning with the full lesson series: Red – Guitar Lessons with TAB.
Uptown Funk | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, a chord chart, TAB, and backing tracks.
| Dm7 | G7 G9 |
Doh. Doh doh doh, doh doh doh, doh…
Valerie | Chords + TAB
You can learn how to play Valerie by Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse using chords, lyrics, chord analysis, TAB, and backing tracks.
| Eb5 | Eb5 | F5 | F5 |
Well sometimes I go out by myself and I look across the water…
Mark Ronson on the web
