Search - Impact! Songs that Changed the World - Walk This Way / Run DMC, Aerosmith, Vernon Reid, Will Calhoun, Corey Glover, Grandmaster Flash on DVD

Not too long.. not too short.. and priced right.

Steven I. Ramm | Phila, PA USA | 09/12/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is one of a series of 12 reasonably priced ($9.99 list) DVDs released in the US by SRO (Part of Kultur International) under the umbrella "Impact: Songs That Changed The World". Each runs about 24 minutes as it was co-produced by Canadain TV and broadcast on the cable CMT network in the US in 2002 and 2003.

I could cell from the quality of the editing - even before I saw the end credits - that this was produced by Gregory Hall. Hall - who also makes music documentaries under his own Hallmark Productions banner - has been cranking these out for about 20 years years now. I first saw his Country Music bios. They've always been well edited and usually contain great interview "sound bites". The four volumes in this series that I;ve watched so far are no exception. Some of the interviews were recent at the time of the show's production while some go back to the 80s and 90s and have appeared in other Hall productions. (You can tell by the locations where they were taped.)

Most of the Impact series DVDs cover more than the single records that are the topics. They also cover the impact that artist - at that point in time - had on our culture from style of dress to style of music.

Unlike most of the others in the series, the volume on "Walk This Way", the 1986 collaboration between the Hip-hop group Run-DMC and the heavy metal band Arrowsmith, has little participation by those involved in the record. The Director of the video - which is the #2 most played music video of all time - is here. But we get 5-6 words from the two guys from Arrowsmith. Jam Master Jat from Run-DMC was murdered in 2002 so obviously wasn't available for an interview but no archival interview clips of Jay or new ones by his two partners are included. Instead we get the members of Living Colour. There's a large section on market the hip-hop culture to young kids, black and white. And Grandmaster Flash gets lots of time to talk.

Like the others in this series the DVD does a really nice job of presenting a sociological study of how one single pop record can affect a whole culture, without belaboring the point. These DVDS will leave a legacy to the next generation and can be very useful in, not only music history classes but in the study of late 20th century "pop culture"

Steve Ramm
"Anything Phonographic"
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