Review: Sound City -- Part I

Well, I'm back from my midterm hiatus (a.k.a. grading) with part one of three in my review of Dave Grohl's new documentary Sound City, (a project he recently called "the most significant thing I've ever done"), starting with a recent Q & A that Grohl did with Rolling Stone's Katie Van Syckle. For her part, Van Syckle does a nice job of drawing Grohl out, getting him to talk about the things that make a project like Sound City so important, and though she tries to get Grohl to bite a couple of times on the idea that this documentary is actually about Nirvana (calling it Grohl's memoir), the focus remains mostly on the creativity of place (a concept I have always been especially interested in as a writer). Grohl is generous with his responses, and his most interesting insights come when he's talking about risk taking and how it is becoming something of a lost art. I couldn't help but perk up because I see this as an issue that writers are also facing right now.

For many writers, the bell curve seems to dictate that the more successful they become, the fewer risks they are able to take. This is certainly not true of every writer, but in plenty of cases, writers seem more constrained than liberated by their success. My best guess is that this has a lot to do with expectations--publishers, readers, even the author's expectations for his/her own work. From what I've heard from writer friends with books, the industry is also becoming less willing to take a risk. (The line "it's great, but not marketable" is practically a slogan anymore.) This is, perhaps, one thing that the music industry and the big publishing houses have in common.

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What do you think, Dear Reader? Are we facing a dearth of risk taking in art?


To read more of Dave Grohl's thoughts about risk taking, craft, inspiration, imperfection, and the legendary Sound City Studios, check out the full interview. And don't forget to check back next week for part II of this feature review, when I take a closer look at the documentary Sound City itself.