Product Description

Certain songs have come to define the times in which they appeared as they proved to be the catalyst for the transformation of the cultural and political landscape. Most set trends in music, fashion and dance while flouting convention and testing the boundaries of society's accepted moral values.

Each program in the Impact! series puts the spotlight on the songs that have left an indelible mark on the world. Besides setting the scene for the release of the song, the programs feature the song's creator(s) and explore its cultural impact and the ways that it changed the course of history. Guests include recording artists, music industry executives, cultural and political pundits and the music fans themselves for whom these songs became their life's soundtrack

By any definition, Walk This Way, written by Aerosmith s Steve Tyler and Joe Perry, was your classic rock track. With its hooky guitar riffs and brazen, in-your-face vocal delivery, in the mid 70s, it was the song that set Aerosmith on the road to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; but little could the group have known that it would have a second life a decade later. On its release in 1986, Walk This Way became the original rap/heavy metal video crossover song. Run DMC was the bridge between old-school artists like Grandmaster Flash and the modern rap era. To quote Rolling Stone magazine, they sparked a movement in popular music with an impact similar to the British invasion in the early 60s. With their gold chains and Adidas, they were the first rappers to earn gold, platinum, and multi-platinum albums; the first to have their videos played on MTV; the first to appear on American Bandstand; and the first to grace the cover of Rolling Stone and the first non-athletes to endorse Adidas products. Run DMC brought rap to mainstream America. It wasn t long before hip-hop style and fashion from the street had started to be seen in the stores of suburban shopping malls. Run DMC had a very recognizable look and it started catching on. To this day, the popularity of products associated with the hip-hop culture is not only exclusive to African-American youth. The style and the music have crossed both race and color lines, not only in America, but also around the world.

With song clips, Steven Tyler & Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Jam Master Jay of Run DMC , Vernon Reid, Will Calhoun, Corey Glover, Doug Wimbish of Living Colour, Grandmaster Flash.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68905 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-09-25
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 36 minutes

Customer Reviews

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