They Wrote the Classics--and Here’s How

It’s not exactly a revelation that pop music albums deserve and can bear the kind of analysis and exploration that is regularly afforded films and novels. As far back as Dylan’s mid-’60s outburst and the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper,” the album form was deemed suitable for scholarly discussion.

But at a time when the pop world seems increasingly fragmented and unfocused, it doesn’t hurt to have the point reiterated--along with the reminder that, under the right conditions, with the right blend of luck, chemistry, talent, vision and ambition, a record can become an enduring work that transcends the transitory nature of pop culture.

That’s the dual value of “Classic Albums” a five-part series airing this week on VH1. Tonight’s entry, on Stevie Wonder’s 1976 hit “Songs in the Key of Life,” typifies the shows’ format and attitude: interviews with artists, business associates, some critics and chroniclers, and some people influenced by the work--in this case Coolio, the rapper who reinvented the album’s “Pastime Paradise” as the hit “Gangsta’s Paradise.”

The special touch in this episode is, in lieu of any footage of the recording sessions, a 1996 reunion of the original musicians, whose camaraderie and brand new sessions on the old songs bring the show a spirit and vitality.

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The narratives in all the shows cover both the macro and the micro--from the larger social and career contexts that produced the works to the pure nuts and bolts--artists and engineers sitting at a mixing board and isolating individual elements of the songs. Tonight we hear the Hare Krishna bells and chants that Wonder used to give “Pastime Paradise” a universality. On Thursday we see members of the Band diagram the rhythmic quirks that gave their music its distinctive heartbeat.

These sessions, along with discussions of the songwriting process, form the real heart of the series, which began with Paul Simon’s “Graceland” on Monday and also includes the Grateful Dead’s “American Beauty” on Wednesday and Jimi Hendrix’s “Electric Ladyland” on Friday. (Repeats of all the shows will air over the weekend.)

What makes these five albums classics? All were commercial successes, more or less (“American Beauty” peaked at No. 30, but has gone on to sell a million), but their real distinction is that they made a difference to the whole course of pop music, establishing new directions that would be embraced and elaborated on by others.

These days, musicians either seem to be addressing small constituencies without aspiring to broad impact, or cynically catering to a mass audience without any artistic integrity. Sometimes it seems unlikely that any classics can emerge from this murk, but pop does have a way of finding its feet at the most discouraging times. In a few years, maybe we’ll all be ready for the track-by-track breakdown on Beck’s “Odelay.”

* “Classic Albums” can be seen at 8 p.m. tonight through Friday on VH1, with repeats scheduled at various times Saturday and Sunday.