5. Simple, Perfect Objectives
Grohl openly admits his film is more than a celebration of the past. It is a conscious call to arms, best explained on the surface by Grohl's own simply-expressed agenda: I want to inspire people to get into a room with friends, play music, and suck. But even more than that, Sound City is about appreciation of "real" music, or the artisanal creation of music as an experience - of putting yourself and your environment into the sound, and expressing something, rather than over-manipulating and mass-producing in the interest of easy returns. Grohl confirms as much: What we set out to do was not only tell the history of the studio but explain what Sound City represented to us, which is celebrating the human element of music." The documentary is not only the lamentation of a lost landmark, it is for the loss of an important part of making "real" music, which is not surprising considering the process behind Foo Fighter's exceptional "Wasted Light" album. And if that sort of musical quality is what results from a return to that sort of recording, then more power to the movement for real music, I say.