With the debut of HBO Max in Italy also comes one of the most interesting productions dedicated to music in recent years: “Music Box”, the anthology series of original HBO documentaries created by journalist and producer Bill Simmons. The platform makes available the first six episodes of the collection, each entrusted to a different director and dedicated to an artist, an event or a phenomenon that has left a mark in the history of contemporary music.
Far from the celebratory approach typical of many musical biopics, “Music Box” uses music as a starting point to narrate social, cultural and industrial transformations. It is the approach that Simmons, founder of The Ringer network after his long experience at ESPN, has developed over the years: analyzing pop culture through stories that intertwine music, customs and society.
The first available episodes range across different genres and eras.
“Woodstock '99: Peace, Love and Rage” reconstructs the festival that was supposed to celebrate the legacy of the historic gathering of 1969 and which instead turned into one of the symbols of the failure of American pop culture in the late 1990s, amidst violence, fires and serious organizational problems.
“DMX: Don't Try to Understand” follows the last years of the rapper's life after his release from prison, recounting the difficult balance between success, addictions and personal conflicts that accompanied him until his death in 2021.
“Jagged” it is instead dedicated to Alanis Morissette and “Jagged Little Pill”, the album that changed the landscape of mainstream rock in 1995, also exploring the weight of sudden fame and the consequences of worldwide success.
With “Juice WRLD: Into the Abyss” the series enters the world of emo rap through backstage images, creative sessions and unreleased footage that retrace the short career of the artist, who died in 2019 at just 21 years old.
“Listening to Kenny G” addresses one of the most singular cases of American popular music, analyzing the figure of the saxophonist capable of selling millions of records while remaining one of the most contested artists by jazz critics, transforming his success into a true cultural phenomenon.
“Mr. Saturday Night” closes this first selection: a documentary dedicated to Robert Stigwood, the Bee Gees manager and producer who contributed decisively to the explosion of disco music and the construction of the myth of “Saturday Night Fever”.
The arrival of “Music Box” also represents the beginning of a catalog destined to expand: in the coming months HBO Max should in fact add new documentaries in the series, including those dedicated to Jeff Buckley, Jason Isbell and Counting Crows.
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
