Sound City: A Brilliant Moving Look into the Evolution of Music in America

Acclaimed musician (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) turned director David Grohl (“Dave Grohl”) has crafted one of the more impressive narratives on the music industry.  Focused on the history of Sound City, the legendary LA recording studio, Grohl manages to document not only the studio’s impressive, almost surreal evolution, but also the changes in music that might either mark progress or death for the way we understand it today.

Premise: The story of the rise and fall of the iconic Sound City Studio in LA. Result: A powerful look into the tumultuous music industry that sheds light into its future and that of its stars.

Sound City is ultimately a sobering account of the eventual demise of a musical institution that rose through luck, instinct, and the organic nature of life.  It was a place where people felt at home, joined forces, worked to produce the best music and often this deeply collaborative experience yielded incredible success.

Grohl does a great job of capturing the nature of this serendipity through his interviews, recalling random introductions that spawned reinvented rockstars or noting the accidental acoustics in one of the studios that created an original, sough-after sound that has yet to be duplicated.

Grohl artfully crafts and follows a coherent narrative despite so many different stories to tell.  The stories of Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Nirvana, Rick Springfield – to name only a few of the many famous, groundbreaking artists that graced the halls of Sound City- are all effortlessly interwoven into a stunning tapestry of musical legend.  It is the sheer variety of talent Grohl uses as well as the intriguing content they provide that makes this film really work, providing a thrill to musical fans and neophytes alike.

The interviews reveal not only the nature of artists themselves, painful secrets or tearful exchanges, but the very soul of Sound City.  The pacing and delivery is remarkable in its ability to transform an exciting concept and history into a mesmerizing narrative with clear, powerful, and insightful arguments.

Ultimately, Grohl, via the inevitable demise of Sound City, constructs a critique of the music industry, where trends and the rise of technology have served to make music development and delivery far too accessible to individuals who do not require actual talent or ability.

While this criticism is certainly not new, there are fresh eyes given to audiences on this topic as they observe genuine artists using Sound City as a clear referent for something in music that simply is no longer.  It is a powerful criticism that will hit observers and make them wonder about the future of something as integral to society as music.

On the other hand, the story does tend to be exclusionary in a frankly unappealing way: Grohl, certainly as the film begins to wrap up, moves subtly away from using other artists to tell their tales about music, and instead sits upon his ivory throne and laments music’s current accessibility. Grohl discusses the preservation of beauty in music but from upon high, not working within accessibility because other, mainstream contributions are essentially pedestrian in nature.

To be fair, Grohl does a good job of establishing not only what good comes of his perspective shared by countless other artists, but also what is lost inherently within the current mainstream approach (i.e. Sound City).  Nevertheless, there is a certain tone change that might sour observers who were already firmly on the bandwagon due to his excellent introduction.

In the end, Sound City is a smart, well-paced, deeply intriguing documentary for anyone with interests in music and music history.  The parade of stars and their interesting anecdotes capture complete attention and provide deep insight into the fascinating world of Music.  Through Grohl’s eyes we have seen behind the curtain and want more.

Rating: 8 – An expensive red wine and juicy steak