6 - Music, Sound, Noise

Written by Cory Rubinovitch, David Rizk and Ramez Ghobrial

Music, Sound, Noise

When Sound Takes the Front Seat

Sound is something, as humans, that we cannot take for granted. It affects our lives in many different ways, positively or negatively. Documentary film or even movies in general are art forms in which sound plays a very important role in both the technical aspect, which is what sound does for a scene like setting the mood or how it carries time, and also the entertainment factor, which is dialogue, sound effects and music. In the two films, Sound City (Dave Grohl, 2013, USA, 106 min.) and Searching for Sugarman (Malik Benjelloul, 2012, 1h 26min.) instead of sound being just a technical factor, we see sound take the front seat in the plot.

Sound in Relation to Sound City

In documentary film, sound plays a major role in not only the entertainment and enjoyment process, but it also aids in storytelling. Both film and music are art forms that unfold over time, meaning both elements together can tell meaningful stories. The main difference with sound, however, is that sound must exist in time. There can never be still sound, but images are able to be paused in time. In film, sound can illustrate the tone or the mood of the room since sound comes from every direction. This is because the sound of a film embodies and engages the viewer into the scene and could create an illusion that they are there also. Furthermore, sound aids as a way to tell the viewer that time is passing by.

There are three types of sound in documentary film: speech, music and noise. All these things except speech are recorded separately from the image. In some cases, speech is also recorded separately. When recording sound, there are some qualities that need to be paid attention to. Amplitude, which is the loudness of the sound, frequency, which is the pitch of the sound (high or low) and resolution which is the richness or timbre of the sound.

The film Sound City (Dave Grohl, 2013, USA, 106 min.) includes many of these theories through the elaborate and nostalgic interviews within the film. Sound City is a famous recording studio in Los Angeles California, known for producing many great albums that were highly successful. The studio was most known, however, for its drum sound which excelled because of the combination between the Neve console and the room it was set up in. The room for recording drums is not usually the kind of room that drums should sound good in, but the sound achieved by the drums in this room was just by luck. The studio used old fashioned tape to record song tracks, but slowly fell out of date once the ‘digital’ era came about. Sound City is not a very nice and clean place, but something about that place allowed people to create masterpiece albums and songs.

See recordings by year:

http://soundcitystudios.net/recordings-by-year

The film uses interviews of many band members/artists who have played in Sound City and former Sound City employees to capture the essence of what Sound City was. It also used actual live recordings and background music. They used background music to back up the images in many occasions such as when they would talk about a certain band or album, that band's song would be playing. The film used this also to set the tone or mood of the scenes according to what they were talking about. Sometimes, the music would also carry over into other scenes, most notable in times like when Dave Grohl was playing the drums for Smells Like Teen Spirit in the studio, then it carried over to the actual recording of the song. The film also indirectly spoke about the timbre of a sound when they were talking about the drums. The richness of the sound the drums makes in that studio is what made the studio so famous in the first place.

Searching for Sugar Man

Searching for Sugar Man is an eighty-six minute documentary film directed by Malik Bendjelloul. It was released the 26th of july 2012 in the United Kingdom.

The whole idea of the movie is about two fans of Sixto Rodriguez who are trying to find the truth about the rumours of Rodriguez’s death. He is an American singer and songwriter who writes about stuff he sees in his neighborhood and people he meet in the streets. At the beginning of the movie, Mike Theodore and Denis Coffey, co-producers of Rodriguez’s first album, were describing how Rodriguez was living in Detroit which at that time was a place where real poverty existed. Rodriguez was describing in his songs what he saw in the streets and in his neighborhood which was very interesting to his producers. Rodriguez at that time wasn't famous in America. However his records were very famous in South Africa in the mid 70s. In South Africa, everyone thought that Sixto killed himself on the stage during a concert because it didn’t go as it was planned. But when the music journalist Craig Bartholomew-Strydom started to search about the reality of Rodriguez’s story, in August 1997, he found that he was still alive and he was living in Detroit. The weird thing about Sixto’s life as a musician is that he was famous without even realizing it. At the end, Sixto Rodriguez visited South Africa to see his real fans that were always listening to him and to perform for his loyal fans.

At the beginning of the film, the filmmaker, Malik Bendjelloul, interviewed the producers of Sixto Rodriguez’s albums. In fact, these interviews helped a lot to state the beginning of Rodriguez’s life as a musician. They showed us how Sixto was living in poverty. Then the filmmaker interviewed some people from South Africa to show us how this musician was really famous in this country. Malik interviewed the music journalist who did the researches about the truth of the rumours that he heard about the death of Rodriguez. This journalist was the one who found out that Sixto Rodriguez was still alive and helped spread it in South Africa since the people there thought that he was dead. The filmmaker told the story of Rodriguez through his interviews with these people which covered his state as a musician in America and in South Africa.      

The music of this documentary film was an important aspect for the comprehension of the movie. During the interviews there was always a music playing in the background which really helps in the understanding of what the interviewer is telling. Every time an interviewer mention a song’s name, this song is playing in the background. For example, one of the interviewers, Willem Moller, started to talk about “I Wonder” song and this song was directly playing in the background. Also, sometimes the filmmaker used some music to back up the images such as when the images of the revolution was presented in the movie the lyrics of the song that was playing in the background was describing the image which was : “public gets irate but forgets the vote date”. Also, when the music journalist was telling the rumour about the suicide of Rodriguez, there was a sad music that was playing in the back that made me reflect more about this event. In fact, during the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, people took a certain music “This Is Not A Song, It’s An Outburst: Or, The Establishment Blues” released by Rodriguez to represent their demands and to represent their revolution.: 

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/rodriguez/thisisnotasongitsanoutburstortheestablishmentblues.html

The Power of Music

The films Sound City and Searching for Sugar Man are excellent films that are able to teach us many things about the wonders of music. Although in our lives music may just be for entertainment, in these films, music is very influential in many lives and are a part of the daily routine. Music is also able to bond people together as a family. This can easily be seen in Sound City as all the producers and crew are bonded together by music and the enjoyment of entertaining the listeners by producing many songs. The love for music was also able to transform sound city from a very poor environment to a very nice place in which producers were able to feel at home. In Searching for Sugar Man, we can observe that every part of the world has a different taste for music. Just like Sixto Rodriguez’s music was popular in South Africa because it was used during the anti-apartheid movement, it wasn’t noticed in the United-states of America. In other words, there’s no good or bad music, just different ways of listening to it.

Sound City and Searching for Sugar Man were also able to demonstrate the importance of music in our world. In truth, music is a universal language that we all understand. It is a very powerful tool that is able to connect people from all around the world. By appealing to our emotions, it has the ability to transform issues into things we can all relate to like love, friendship, fear or loss. More importantly, it has the power to open our minds to new ideas.

Music is a key element to our happiness and joy. Either by playing a certain instrument or by listening to our favorite song, people in our society seem to be in a better mood when music is around. We often fall in love with a specific artist which quickly becomes our idol. We are usually ready to spend our whole bank account to watch our idol perform live. For example, In Searching for Sugar Man Stephen Segerman and Craig Bartholomew were huge fans of Sixto Rodriguez and have made it their objective to find out what truly happened to him. Instruments are also a very entertaining hobby. As a drum player, relating to all the drum comments mentioned in Sound City made the documentary more enjoyable and interesting while transmitting the intended message to the audience.

Many popular artists have influenced our community and society by the songs they have produced in their career. Michael Jackson is a perfect example of a character that has changed my way of enjoying music. It all started when I heard his famous song “Thriller” which quickly became one of his most popular songs to date.

“Thriller” by Michael Jackson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA

His songs not only attracted me to become one of his biggest fans, it has completely changed my love towards music for the better. His influence on us could be observed by the sadness his death has caused our society.

The ideas of The filmmakers were communicated to the viewers in a very fluid and interesting way. They showed the importance of every member in the band/job and especially the importance of the directors and producers in films. They were also successful at showing the little details such as the instruments used and the atmosphere of the recordings. The interviews were really important to inform the viewers of all the history and importance of the documentary. The progression of the stories were done in a way that is easy to understand and fluid.

Overall, the filmmakers were successful at entertaining while informing the viewers about the story.

Sound In Film

To conclude, music is an important factor in the comprehension of a documentary film. It can be seen as a combination between technical and entertainment aspects. As we saw in both films, Sound City and Searching for Sugar Man, sound played a huge factor in not only the normal aspects of documentary, but it was plot of the story. We see how sound plays a role in setting the mood and also how it carries the viewer through time. All in all, sound really does provide great advantage when partnered with images, to create the amazing art that is film.