'I Am Trying To Break Your Heart', An Important Music Documentary, Fairly Unrevealed and some what Forgotten

The Story about Wilco’s fourth album ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ (2002) has a well known history behind it. The Chicago, Illinois band faced tough times after their recording of the album in 2001 and was rejected to release it at their label, Warner Brothers because of the fact that it wasn’t good enough. The follow up to their successes ‘Silverteeth’ and ‘Being There’ was suppose to help the band reach the next step in establishing in the music industry.

In Sam Jones documentary we get to follow Wilco and lead singer Jeff Tweedy in the creating of ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ and their refusal by Warner Brothers. The documentary show how songs leaks out to the internet leading to larger popularity and a pick up buy the label ‘Nonesuch Records’. The album lead to a huge popularity and two years of touring. The grounds of the documentary that is rather unknown in circles that haven’t really picked up on Wilco.


What makes ‘I Am Trying To Break Your Heart’ a music documentary of important content is the fact that we see how the music industry works and what artists struggle for, especially in alternative genres. It shows the power of independence in the music industry but also how the corruption and deception lies beneath what we get ahold of. In a music industry of the 21st century we see fewer and fewer artists of capacity to stay in the industry longer than they are gone.


What the documentary of this kind shows is the power of a company, deciding what we should here and it exploits the industry as a business powerhouse that is untouchable in a psychological sense. The beauty of the story in content is that it gives hope for a future where the audience and fans turn this failure into a masterpiece that it really is. ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’ is to many considered one of Wilco’s weaker albums and in a sense I can understand that.

On the other hand is the album a personal favorite and beyond my opinion we should all be aware of that as long as money is involved we have larger power than we think to effect the music we are exploited to on radio and on television. If young people gather towards music with purpose we might reach the content of what used to be considered as a kind of super power. That is what is the music our parents have brought on to us.