Sir George Martin, the producer remembered as "the fifth Beatle" for his pivotal work shaping the Fab Four's recorded sound, died March 8. But for the past five years, he and his son, Giles, worked with documentary filmmakers Jeff Dupre and Maro Chermayeff on a PBS series, Soundbreaking: Stories From the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music. The first eight episodes air on PBS in November, but Dupre and Chermayeff debuted the first two at South by Southwest Film on Monday night. The first episode focuses on the musicians and producers, notably George Martin, Phil Spector, Rick Rubin, and Dr. Dre, while the second looks more at how the recording studio and new technologies changed recorded music from a snapshot to a painting.
The result is a fascinating peek at how music is put together, told without a narrator by some of the most iconic figures in rock, pop, and hip hop. The directors said they interviewed more than 200 people, and had to leave a lot of footage on the cutting-room floor. But the series isn't just for studio rats and music geeks — it aims to change how you look at and listen to recorded music by pulling back the curtain on some songs you know and love.
"Soundbreaking afforded me the opportunity to tell the story of the creative process of so many of the artists I have worked with throughout my life," Martin said in a statement. And the cooperation of Martin and the remaining Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, was pivotal in getting the all-star group of musicians and producers on board, Dupre and Chermayeff said Monday night. If you aren't at SXSW, you won't be able to watch Soundbreaking until November, but you can watch some of the footage in this tribute to Martin the Soundbreaking team put together after his death.
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Martin changed how music is made. Thanks to Soundbreaking and PBS, he still gets to help explain how he and other musical legends broke rules and conventions to build masterpieces. If the first two episodes are any indication, it will be worth the wait.
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