Watch the Sound

Documentary · Apple TV+

The series is about the technology that changed how music gets made — Auto-Tune, drum machines, synthesizers, distortion. The animated sequences are memories from the people who used them: Charli XCX, Dave Grohl, Questlove and many others.

The style started as rough boards cut with Photoshop’s lasso tool — a selection tool, not a drawing one. They were meant to be replaced. They never were.

The good stuff in music usually comes from someone using something the wrong way. We found that out by accident.

6 part series · 10 min of animation · 2023

Poster for Watch the Sound: Mark Ronson leans over a mixing desk beside a list of guest names — Apple TV+.

"So much of this great stuff actually came about by accident."

— Mark Ronson, host · MusicTech

Meant to be replaced

Boards

Young Dave Grohl reaches across a yellow car door to grab the handle — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Dave's mom drives as Dave reaches over to turn on the car radio — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Dave's hand turns the dial on the car radio — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Dave drums along to the radio as his mom drives in sunglasses — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Seen through the windshield, Dave drums in the air beside his mom at the wheel — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
The car approaches the dark mouth of a tunnel — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
The road curves into the blue darkness of the tunnel — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Tunnel lights streak past in deep blue — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Dave keeps drumming in the dark as the radio cuts out — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
A small light glows at the far end of the tunnel — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
The car bursts toward the bright tunnel exit — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Back in the daylight, Dave throws his arms up in triumph — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.

A sure thing

Concept

A crowd of punks with mohawks and neon hair dances between two towering blue speakers in a packed club — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
A young Mark Ronson, smiling, sits at a table with a drink and a cassette as dancers move behind him — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Seen from behind, young Mark Ronson listens as streaks of rainbow-colored music race through his head and reshape his thinking — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
In a loose black-ink sketch with flashes of red and blue, David Byrne of Talking Heads sings into the microphone in front of the drummer — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.

Irreplaceable

Final Frames

A butterfly shatters into jagged streaks of color, a picture of distortion as the Beastie Boys used it — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Late at night, silhouetted guests mingle at a party at the Ronsons' house — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
A dark car sits on a bright, sunlit road — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
A pink car's headlights glow on a deep blue night road — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
A portrait of Questlove, in his glasses and signature afro — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
A young Mark Ronson's fingers play a synth as he remakes the song "Wishing Well" — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
The back of young Mark Ronson's head, rimmed in orange light against purple — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
A drumstick strikes a cymbal in a burst of light — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
The sounds for Roger Linn's drum machine are recorded in a closet on a real drum kit — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Young Mark Ronson stands in front of the speakers at his parents' party, falling into sync with the beat — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Questlove waits outside a club as the building pulses with the beat — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
A galactic explosion of sound bursts in white and blue for Charli XCX's sequence — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Young Dave Grohl drums along in the car — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Questlove plays the drums — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Another explosion of sound bursts in yellow and pink — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.
Young Mark Ronson plays the drums in his childhood bedroom — Watch the Sound, Apple TV+.

The wrong way

Full Sequence

Credits

Created by
Mark Ronson · Morgan Neville

Host
Mark Ronson

Episode Director
Jason Zeldes

Animation Director
Jason Carpenter

Production Designer
Jason Carpenter

Concept Design
David Navas · Jason Carpenter

Boards
David Navas · Jason Carpenter

Animation Team
Jason Carpenter · David Navas · Hanah McNally · Flora Caulton · Martha Halliday

Production
Tremolo Productions

Distribution
Apple TV+


Rotten Tomatoes
100%

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