[grooveless touque]

Well, the artists know what they want when they go to him. They hit this mid-life crisis and desperately need a shake up, and they go to him. I don't know if you're a Dave Matthews fan, but he's a classic example - he was writing songs he didn't really like (which ended up being the absolutely brilliant Lillywhite Sessions bootleg), so he went out to California and ditched the 8-minute orchestral rockers in favour of a bunch of 3-minute pop songs all co-written by Ballard.

He didn't work with Britney...but he was the guy behind early Alanis Morrissette, if that tells you anything. He's like the Shock And Awe Campaign of pop music. A purely evil moneymaking genius!