Thaddeus Gustav Dixon (born January 14, 1984), also known as The Music Man, is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

, and music director. He co-produced and co-wrote

Meghan Trainor Meghan Elizabeth Trainor (born December 22, 1993) is an American singer-songwriter and television personality. She rose to prominence after signing with Epic Records in 2014 and releasing her debut single "All About That Bass", which reached ...

's 2015 single "

Better When I'm Dancin' "Better When I'm Dancin'" is a song recorded by American singer-songwriter Meghan Trainor for the soundtrack to the film '' The Peanuts Movie'', based on the popular comic strip of the same name created by cartoonist Charles M. Schulz. Trainor ...

," which she performed for ''

The Peanuts Movie ''The Peanuts Movie'' (known in some countries as ''Snoopy and Charlie Brown: A Peanuts Movie'') is a 2015 American animated comedy film based on Charles M. Schulz's comic strip ''Peanuts'', produced by 20th Century Fox Animation and Blue Sky ...

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

. The song received

platinum Platinum is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a density, dense, malleable, ductility, ductile, highly unreactive, precious metal, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name origina ...

certification by the

Recording Industry Association of America The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

(RIAA). Dixon has also worked as a music director and drummer for

Bryson Tiller Bryson Djuan Tiller (born January 2, 1993) is an American singer, rapper, and songwriter. He began his career in 2011 with his debut mixtape, ''Killer Instinct Vol. 1''. He gained mainstream recognition following the release of his 2015 single ...

Khalid Khalid (variants include Khaled and Kalid; Arabic: خالد) is a popular Arabic male given name meaning "eternal, everlasting, immortal". It also appears as a surname.

and other artists. He's been featured on series including ''

Making the Band ''Making the Band'' is an ABC/MTV reality television series that exists in separate iterations, each focusing on a specific music act. It spawned musical acts O-Town, Da Band, Danity Kane, Day26, and Donnie Klang. Except for the first itera ...

'' and ''

Late Night with Seth Meyers ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'' is an American late-night news and political satire variety talk show hosted by Seth Meyers on NBC. The show premiered on February 24, 2014, and is produced by Broadway Video and Universal Television. Airing w ...

''.

Early life and education

Dixon was born in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, the only child of Gus and Denise Dixon. He began playing

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

at 4 years old, practicing the instrument as he attended church. He went to Detroit High School for Fine & Performing Arts and played at local concerts for gospel artists including

Kirk Franklin Kirk Dewayne Franklin (born January 26, 1970) is an American Gospel music, gospel musician. One of the List of best-selling gospel music artists, best-selling gospel music artists, his accolades include 20 Grammy Awards. ''Variety (magazine), Var ...

. After graduating high school, Dixon moved to East Lansing, Michigan to attend

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

(MSU) on a jazz studies scholarship. He performed at professional concerts while pursuing his degree, and graduated in 2006 with a

Bachelor of Music A Bachelor of Music (BMus; sometimes conferred as Bachelor of Musical Arts) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. The degree may be awarded for performance, music ed ...

Career

Dixon began his professional career as a touring drummer with The Spinners. Thereafter, he performed with artists including

Ne-Yo Shaffer Chimere Smith (born October 18, 1979), known professionally as Ne-Yo ( ), is an American singer and songwriter. Regarded as a leading figure of Contemporary R&B#2000s, 2000s R&B music, he is the recipient of numerous accolades, includi ...

Sean Kingston Kisean Paul Anderson (born February 3, 1990), known professionally as Sean Kingston, is an American former singer and rapper. Born in Miami, Florida, and raised in Jamaica, he signed with J. R. Rotem's record label Beluga Heights Records ...

Mulgrew Miller Mulgrew Miller (August 13, 1955 – May 29, 2013) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. As a child he played in churches and was influenced on piano by Ramsey Lewis and then Oscar Peterson. Aspects of their styles remained in his ...

Roy Hargrove Roy Anthony Hargrove (October 16, 1969 – November 2, 2018) was an American jazz musician and composer whose principal instruments were the trumpet and flugelhorn. He achieved critical acclaim after winning two Grammy Awards for differing styles ...

and Steve Nelson. He later appeared on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

's " Making His Band", a reality TV show where musicians competed for positions in

Sean Combs Sean John Combs (born November 4, 1969), better known by his stage name Diddy, and formerly Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, is an American rapper, record producer, and record executive. Born in Harlem and raised in Mount Vernon, New York, Mount Ve ...

' touring band. He was a drum finalist, however another musician was ultimately selected. Dixon then worked with acts including

Deitrick Haddon Deitrick Vaughn Haddon (born May 17, 1973) is an American gospel singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, record producer, and pastor. He is best known for performing progressive gospel and contemporary styles of music. He was one of the cast membe ...

Bone Thugs-n-Harmony Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (formerly known as B.O.N.E. Enterpri$e and also referred to as simply Bone Thugs or Bone) is an American hip hop group formed in 1991 in Cleveland, Ohio. Consisting of rappers Bizzy Bone, Wish Bone, Layzie Bone, Krayzie ...

Dawn Richard Dawn Angeliqué Richard (born August 5, 1983) is an American singer from New Orleans, Louisiana. She began her career auditioning for MTV's '' Making the Band 3'' in 2004, during which she formed the girl group Danity Kane. The group signed wi ...

and Timothy Bloom. He also performed with his own jazz ensemble, The Thaddeus Dixon Quartet. He then relocated to Berkeley to work as an instructor in the music department at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

for two years. Dixon later became the music director for recording artist

Cody Simpson Cody Robert Simpson (born 11 January 1997) is an Australian singer, actor, and a former competitive swimmer. Since his debut as a recording artist, he has released four solo studio albums: ''Paradise'' (2012), ''Surfers Paradise'' (2013), '' ...

. He then managed music direction for

, Khalid and

Brent Faiyaz Christopher Brent Wood (born September 19, 1995), known professionally as Brent Faiyaz, is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, and record producer. Faiyaz rose to prominence following his guest performance alongside Shy Glizzy on GoldLink's ...

. He also produced music for

Talib Kweli Talib Kweli Greene (; born October 3, 1975) is an American rapper. He first earned recognition through his collaboration with fellow Brooklyn rapper Mos Def (now known as Yasiin Bey) in 1997, when they formed the group Black Star. Kweli's music ...

Raekwon Corey Woods (born January 12, 1970), better known by his stage name Raekwon ( ), is an American rapper. He rose to prominence as a founding member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, which achieved mainstream success following the release of the ...

, Timothy Bloom,

Deborah Cox Deborah Cox (born July 13, 1974) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, actress, and record producer. Born and raised in Toronto, she began performing on television commercials at age 12, and entered various talent shows in her teenage years before ...

Teedra Moses Teedra Shenita Moses (born December 17, 1976) is an American contemporary R&B, R&B and soul music, soul singer-songwriter. Early life Moses was born and raised in New Orleans. She later moved to Los Angeles with her mother and three siblings ...

and

Rick Ross William Leonard Roberts II (born January 28, 1976), known professionally as Rick Ross, is an American rapper. An influential figure in modern Hip-hop, hip hop music, Rick Ross has become known for his "Wiktionary:booming, booming" vocal perfor ...

among others. In October 2018, he released his debut single, "Letter To My X's" featuring KR.

Production credits

2011

- ''Church on the Moon'' * (Drums) 21:03 - ''Evolved...from Boys to Men'' * (Drums) ''Disney Jazz, Vol. 1: Everybody Wants to Be a Cat'' * (Drums) Robert McCarther - ''Stranger in Town'' * (Drums) Rick Roe - ''Minor Shuffle'' * (Drums)

2013

- ''

Gravitas () was one of the ancient Roman virtues that denoted "seriousness". It is also translated variously as weight, dignity, and importance and connotes restraint and moral rigor. It also conveys a sense of responsibility and commitment to the task ...

'' * "Violations" feat.

(Producer)

2014

Timothy Bloom - ''Timothy Bloom'' *"Your Future" (Composer, Drums, Producer, Programming)

- ''California Vibes'' * "Can’t Be Luv" (Producer) Abrina – ''My Playground (EP)'' * "Blowin" feat.

Jeremih Jeremy Phillip Felton (born July 17, 1987), known professionally as Jeremih ( ), is an American Contemporary R&B, R&B singer. He embarked on a musical career after meeting record producer Mick Schultz in 2008, and signed a recording contract wi ...

(Producer)

2015

'' The Peanuts Movie Original Soundtrack'' *"

" (Backwards Vocals, Producer, Text)

- ''Work of Art'' *"More Than I Knew" (Producer)

- '' Cognac & Conversation'' * "All I Ever Wanted" feat.

(Composer, Engineer, Producer) * "Cognac & Conversation" feat.

(Composer, Engineer, Producer)

Coco Jones Courtney Michaela Ann "Coco" Jones (born January 4, 1998) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Born in Columbia, South Carolina and raised in Lebanon, Tennessee, Jones began auditioning as a child to pursue a career in entertainment. Sh ...

* "Let Em Know" (Producer)

2016

Thaddeus Dixon feat. Timothy Bloom and

* "All About You" (Producer)

Taeyeon Kim Tae-yeon (; born March 9, 1989), known mononymously as Taeyeon, is a South Korean singer. She debuted as a member of girl group Girls' Generation in August 2007, which went on to become one of the best-selling artists in South Korea and one ...

– ''Rain'' * "Secret" (Composer, Arrangement) MÄDA * "Lights Off" (Producer) * "Without U Baby" (Producer)

2017

MÄDA - ''Our Love (EP)'' * "I Still Love You" feat.

Dreezy Seandrea Sledge (born March 28, 1994), better known by her stage name Dreezy, is an American rapper, singer, and songwriter. She signed with Interscope Records in 2014 where she released the studio albums '' No Hard Feelings'' (2016) and '' Big ...

(Producer)

2018

Thaddeus Dixon feat. KR * "Letter To My X's" (Primary Artist, Composer, Engineer, Producer)

2020

T.I. feat. Benny The Butcher & Jadakiss * "Make Amends" (Producer)

References

External links

Thaddeus Dixon Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Thaddeus Living people Record producers from Michigan Songwriters from Michigan American audio engineers Musicians from Detroit Jazz musicians from Michigan African-American jazz musicians American music educators Michigan State University alumni 1984 births Educators from Michigan African-American songwriters 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people