Parents' Guide to The Defiant Ones

This insightful documentary offers an in-depth look at the individual and team successes and failures of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. It highlights how their personal life experiences motivated them to pursue their passion for music. It details how Iovine went from being a working-class kid from Brooklyn to an audio engineer and producer for artists like John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, and Patti Smith, and how this eventually led to the creation of the successful (but now defunct) label Interscope Records. Meanwhile, it reveals how Dr. Dre worked his way up from being a young DJ in Compton to putting the Los Angeles hip-hop scene on the map by using a friend's drug money to start Ruthless Records and co-found the highly influential gangsta hip-hop group, N.W.A.

These starkly contrasting anecdotes are interesting, and they underscore how Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine's talent, love for music, and work ethic brought them together and made them compatible. But the most memorable parts of this series are the discussions about how their partnership continues to transform the music industry. Particularly notable is the story of how Beats Electronics transformed the headphone market, and how its expansion ultimately led to the creation of Apple Music. Overall, The Defiant Ones tells a well-produced and compelling story about two people who are different in many ways, but who defiantly rose to the top of the industry and have chosen to change the music business and impact popular culture together.