‘The Beach Boys’ catches the Boomer wave of golden-oldie music documentaries

Analysis by Brian Lowry, CNN

(CNN) — Streaming has yielded bounties in numerous areas, but nowhere more than in the field of music documentaries catering to Baby Boomers. Those projects have also been enriched not just by nostalgia for great acts but by weaving their soundtracks into the evolution of the culture through tumultuous times in the 1960s and ‘70s.

Add two more projects to that tally this week: “The Beach Boys,” an ode to the band that gave the world the surf sound and whose members, among other things, crossed paths with the Manson family; and “Stax: Soulsville USA,” HBO’s multi-part look at the Memphis music label that championed such artists as Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes.

These productions have caught a different kind of wave, following “The Beatles: Get Back” and Peter Jackson’s more recent restoration of the Fab Four’s “Let It Be” on Disney+; “Paul Simon: In Restless Dreams” (MGM+); Netflix’s “The Greatest Night in Pop,” about the recording of “We Are the World” in 1985; “Thank You, Good Night – The Bon Jovi Story” (Hulu), and many more, among them an upcoming Cyndi Lauper documentary, “Let the Canary Sing,” on Paramount+.

Despite advertisers’ historic emphasis on reaching younger viewers, streaming services also rely on subscriptions, and Baby Boomers’ money is as green as everybody else’s. Beyond appealing to that demo, the documentaries create the opportunity to introduce these acts and their music to newer generations, while providing fresh insights for those weaned on them.

“The Beach Boys,” in particular, feels like a logical companion to Disney+’s material on the Beatles, given the extent to which the two bands competed and fed off of each other’s triumphs. As USC professor and cultural historian Josh Kun notes, the relationship between the bands was as much a collaboration as a rivalry, with Beach Boys songwriter/producer/troubled genius Brian Wilson drawing inspiration from John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s creative output, and McCartney heralding Wilson’s towering accomplishment, “Pet Sounds,” as near perfection.

Fueled by interviews with the surviving members, directors Frank Marshall (whose work in this space included “The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”) and Thom Zimny (a frequent Bruce Springsteen collaborator, including “Letter to You”) also enlist other musical luminaries to weigh in on the Beach Boys’ influence and significance.

Janelle Monáe, for example, recalls crying when she first heard “God Only Knows,” while Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham discusses the tension between Wilson’s creative ambitions and the commercial imperatives of a record label that didn’t understand them.

Wilson hated touring, retreating to the studio after experiencing what amounted to a breakdown on the road. After that, the Beach Boys essentially became two bands, one performing live and the other writing and fine-tuning songs back home.

The Beach Boys’ carefree image also proved out of tune with the Vietnam War. It was during those years when rifts formed and Dennis Wilson befriended Charles Manson, with band member Mike Love recalling that one encounter with the cult leader was enough for him.

Discussing the band’s internal dynamics, Love explains, “I complemented Brian’s melancholy with my upbeat-ness.” “The Beach Boys,” too, offers melancholy and nostalgia, and more than anything heightens appreciation for all those lingering vibrations, good and otherwise.

As for “Stax,” which premiered earlier this week on HBO, that story also conveys a combination of the sweet and sour, with the joy of the label’s music offset by memories of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and the shocking death of Redding in a 1967 plane crash, just before his “(Sittin’ On) the Dock of the Bay” became a million-selling hit.

Founded in 1957, Stax had to grapple with segregation and racism while building its profile, which, in one of the more enlightening sections, included an elaborate Oscar campaign for Hayes’ theme from the movie “Shaft,” as he became the first Black songwriter to win.

Like Brian Wilson and Love, “The Beach Boys” and “Stax” complement each other, along with past documentaries that have covered similar territory, such as “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road.”

Thanks to streaming, the road back to the music of the ‘60s and ‘70s is well traveled, but productions like these make those trips well worth taking.

“The Beach Boys” premieres May 24 on Disney+.

“Stax: Soulsville USA” is playing on HBO and Max, which, like CNN, are units of Warner Bros. Discovery.

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