Trailer For HBO’s VINYL Is Loud, Fast And Out Of Control
The 1970s were a dire decade for music in a lot of ways, but while the big radio acts were bloated prog rock millionaires, a revolution was brewing in the underground. Two divergent strands of rebellion were happening in 1970s New York City, with hip hop being born up in Harlem and the Bronx in the latter half of the decade. But in the early and mid-70s the action was downtown, where dirty and loose rock n' roll was being played to angry and greasy crowds of kids. Some of the greatest rock music of all time was made and played there, a form that would come to be known as proto-punk. It's hard to tell exactly what year the new HBO show Vinyl is set in but it looks to me like it's going to chronicle the era of proto-punk and punk, with some possible forays into funk and maybe even hip hop (although early hip hop is getting its own TV show at Netflix - very exciting as well!).
This looks like a TV show made just for me; I absolutely love this era, when Lou Reed and Iggy Pop and the New York Dolls and the Dead Boys and Patti Smith and a thousand other denim and leather clad bands strode the stage at CBGBs (which I am pretty sure is the club in the trailer below) and other downtown dives. It was a wild time, when the nation's youth were rebelled against the peace and love ethos of the hippies and when the entire country was waking up from the nightmare of Vietnam and into the reality of the oil crisis and an economic collapse. It was an era of uncertainty, chaos and anger, and it was reflected in the music.
What will the show be like? Will it be yet another Difficult Man show, as has been so popular since The Sopranos debuted? The official synopsis actually makes it seem to not be that, but rather that Vinyl is a post-Difficult Man show:
From Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger and Terence Winter, this new drama series is set in 1970s New York. A ride through the sex- and drug-addled music business at the dawn of punk, disco, and hip-hop, the show is seen through the eyes of a record label president, Richie Finestra, played by Bobby Cannavale, who is trying to save his company and his soul without destroying everyone in his path. Additional series regulars include Olivia Wilde, Ray Romano, Ato Essandoh, Max Casella, P.J. Byrne, J.C. MacKenzie, Birgitte Hjort Sørensen, Juno Temple, Jack Quaid, James Jagger and Paul Ben-Victor. Executive produced by Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger, Terence Winter, Rick Yorn, Victoria Pearman, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, John Melfi and Allen Coulter. Winter serves as showrunner.
Saving his soul! Not destroying everyone! This could be what the post-Breaking Bad TV landscape needs.
By the way: I love Bobby Cannavale, and I am so excited he's getting his own show. Vinyl debuts in January.
