Soundbreaking

S01E01 The Art of Recording

November 14, 2016 9.0 53 min

Soundbreaking begins where a recording does––at the intersection of inspiration and execution. There stands the enigmatic figure of the record producer, the person charged with the critical task of both realizing an artist’s vision and...

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S01E02 Painting with Sound

November 15, 2016 53 min

"Painting with Sound" chronicles a watershed event in the history of music: the moment when the recording studio itself effectively became an instrument and gave rise to sounds that could never be reproduced live. Beginning...

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S01E03 The Human Instrument

November 16, 2016 53 min

Celebrating the most powerful of all instruments--the human voice--the third episode of Soundbreaking surveys the range of ingredients that go into a perfect vocal track. At once the most fundamental component of a song and...

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S01E04 Going Electric

November 17, 2016 53 min

The fourth episode in our series tells the story of the most elemental force in recording--electricity--and the musical revolution it sparked. Highlighting the way in which electricity has been harnessed and channeled to create new...

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S01E05 Four on the Floor

November 18, 2016 53 min

If the vocal track is the heart of a song, the rhythm track--the beat--is its body. It is the sonic element that taps into the most primal part of us and makes us want to...

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S01E06 The World Is Yours

November 21, 2016 53 min

The sixth episode of Soundbreaking looks at a musical revolution that was not only inspired by recording but born from its history: the art of sampling--a kind of musical equivalent of Adam's rib. Beginning with...

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S01E07 Sound & Vision

November 22, 2016 53 min

The penultimate episode in our series proceeds from the once-preposterous notion that music is a visual art form. Chronicling the era in which MTV forged an indelible and inextricable link between recorded music and the...

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S01E08 I Am My Music

November 23, 2016 53 min

Shifts the focus away from the creation of music to the experience of listening to it, and to the formats that have shaped and ultimately defined that experience. From vinyl, cassette tape, CD, and MP3,...

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