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For the Foo Fighters’ 20th anniversary, the band decided they wanted to create an album that combined the skills and talents of multiple artists to create music. Not only would this new album use different musicians to create a complex album, but it would be recorded in different cities throughout America. It was then that the Foo Fighters decided that this would be a pretty radical thing to watch on T.V.
This television show, Sonic Highways, featured on HBO premiered on October 17th and has gotten great reviews. The show and album consists of 8 different cities; one song recorded in each city. The songs were recorded in Austin, Nashville, Los Angeles, Seattle, New Orleans, Washington D.C., New York, and our very own Chicago. All of these cities are known for their own musical history and have brought forth many amazing musicians. Each song contained different musical stars making this album a “love letter to the history of American music,” as Grohl says.
I think that this album is not only an extremely inspirational piece of music, but also a huge movement towards the idea of live music being important as well as originality. Much of what plays on mainstream radio today consists of auto-tuned artists constantly repeating two lines of lyric to no end. There have even been instances where a new artist will combine their music with an old song. Where is the originality? This has become noticed by the Foo Fighters. One of my favorite quotes by the Dave Grohl brings forth this same concept of not just originality, but having passion in the music you create:
I think that Sonic Highways has a lot to offer and will help musicians out in the world understand that they do have a chance if they work hard and bring the passion back into their music. This show is not only a “love letter to the history of American music,” but it is a love letter to music as a whole because it addresses a problem that many people refuse to see; the originality and passion of live music is fading away. We will get it back and Sonic Highways is a huge step to this realization.
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