Artists are also produced to different degrees. Some artists only bring their voice to the studio. The producer does the rest, such as deciding what the instrumention should be and finding the right session musicians and how to get the best sound for the record, which involves reverb levels and everything else affecting sound.
New up and coming artists don't always have much studio experience. You can't just put them in the studio and expect them to make a good record because they don't know how to. The producer will be someone experienced who will help the artist make a good record or, perhaps sometimes more cynically, turn that artist into something that can make money. The bigger an artist is the more produced they tend to be, but it's often also the case that the more experienced artists tend to take more creative control over their music as they gain influence and have the know hows.
As an example of an artist who was (initially) very produced, here's Kate Bush from her debut :
Kate provided the voice, but everything else was basically decided by producer Andy Powell. A little later in her career, Kate wanted to bring in her band mates (from the KT Bush band) to play the songs and wanted a more rock feel to her music, but Powell disagreed and so session musicians were used instead. Kate hated it and as soon as she was able, she started producing her own music herself.
I still think Andy did a great job producing her, though!
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