Soundbreaking

Looks at how the record producer realizes an artist's vision and captures it for posterity. Explores the styles of some of the biggest producers in the business including Sam Phillips, George Martin, Phil Spector, Dr. Dre, and Rick Rubin.

Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Don Was, Dave Harries
Director(s): Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre, James Manera

Explores how the recording studio itself became an instrument. From the advent of magnetic tape, charts the evolution of multi-track recording and reveals how artists with ingenuity and imagination transformed the sound of popular music.

Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Chuck Granata, Tom Scholtz
Director(s): James Manera, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre

The vocal track is one of the most fundamental parts of a song but it can be the most challenging to capture, both technically and to get the emotional quality of the music. This explores the art and science of recording the human voice.

Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Don Was, Robin Gibb
Director(s): James Manera, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre

Tells the story of how electricity has been harnessed and channeled to create new and never-before-heard sounds, tracing both the chain reaction unleashed by the invention of the electric guitar and the evolution of synthesized music.

Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Roger Daltrey, Roger Waters
Director(s): James Manera, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre

If vocals are the heart of a song, the rhythm track, the beat, is its body; the element that hits a primal part of us and makes us move. This show looks at rhythm in music, breaks the beat down and examines the endless experimentation.

Stars: Dermot Mulroney, The-Dream, Christopher Stewart
Director(s): James Manera, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre

This show looks at how the technique of sampling, using bits of recorded sound or borrowing fragments from existing records, created a new genre of music and sparked a musical revolution.

Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Jimmy Jam, Michael Simpson
Director(s): James Manera, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre

Chronicles how the music industry was overhauled when MTV forged an inextricable link between recorded music and music videos. Tracks the music video from MTV to the Internet and illuminates the music video's role in popular music today.

Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Tom Freston, Mark J. Goodman
Director(s): James Manera, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre

Vinyl record, cassette tape, CD, and MP3; each generation has had its own type of music media. The format used for listening determines how and where we listen, as well as the manner in which we collect, store, and share the music we love.

Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Afrika Bambaataa, Chuck Granata
Director(s): James Manera, Maro Chermayeff, Jeff Dupre