“Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting-Edge of Recorded Music” is an eight-part television series on the art and evolution of music recording currently airing on PBS. The long-form documentary traces the ongoing sonic revolution, and explores the nexus of technology and human artistry that has created the soundtrack of our ever-evolving lives.

Featuring more than 150 original interviews with some of the most celebrated recording artists, producers, and music industry pioneers of all time, “Soundbreaking” charts a century’s worth of innovation and experimentation, and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the birth of brand new sounds. From the Beatles’ groundbreaking use of multi-track technology, to the synthesized stylings of Stevie Wonder; from disco-era drum machines to the modern art of sampling; the series highlights the dynamic tension between the artificial and the natural – between the man-made and the god-given – and explores the way in which that tension has continuously redefined not only what we listen to and how we listen to it, but our very sense of what music is and can be.

In the end, “Soundbreaking” re-introduces us to the songs we know and love, but in a whole new way, and illuminates the sonic alchemy by which the music we listen to becomes a fundamental part of who we are.

PBS has made all 8 (hour-long) episodes available online for FREE; watch them all in sequence below: