20 Feet from Stardom
I have another case do, so you're getting a post on not that!
Watched 20 Feet from Stardom last night. It is fantastic. It gives a history of pop music over the last 60 years, highlighting the exploitation of black female voices. I mean, that's not the only thread going on, but one of the singers said, of British rock and rollers, "They wanted to sound black. So they had us." It also points out the disconnect between talent and success, talking about the failed solo careers of many of the singers. But they also talk about a woman, my new idol, Lisa Fischer, who put out a solo album--and won a Grammy for it--but didn't really want to do that. She really enjoys singing backup, so that's what she does. She doesn't want to be out front. Several people talked about the power of voices in harmony, and how some singers just prefer that to singing solo. That's certainly something that resonates with me (and my small talent). I get a lot more out of being part of the group than I do out of being out front.
What I found most interesting was to realize that the backup singers on like 90% of everything you've ever listened to are the same dozen or so people. It is a small world, session backup singers, and as each artist strives to capture the sound of other artists, they use the same backup groups. Makes me wish they were more frequently credited so that I could more easily track their careers. I mean, I'd like just to have a playlist of all the things I already own with these singers on them.
It was also heartening to see that, when I plugged 20 Feet from Stardom into amazon, looking for the soundtrack, it brought up all of the failed solo albums of the featured singers as things I might like. I bet this doc has actually done a fair bit of sales for them. I hope they get some of the residuals.
In conclusion, a great documentary that looked at a lot of different issues, not just failed ambition, and features amazing music. It's streaming on netflix--check it out.
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Watched 20 Feet from Stardom last night. It is fantastic. It gives a history of pop music over the last 60 years, highlighting the exploitation of black female voices. I mean, that's not the only thread going on, but one of the singers said, of British rock and rollers, "They wanted to sound black. So they had us." It also points out the disconnect between talent and success, talking about the failed solo careers of many of the singers. But they also talk about a woman, my new idol, Lisa Fischer, who put out a solo album--and won a Grammy for it--but didn't really want to do that. She really enjoys singing backup, so that's what she does. She doesn't want to be out front. Several people talked about the power of voices in harmony, and how some singers just prefer that to singing solo. That's certainly something that resonates with me (and my small talent). I get a lot more out of being part of the group than I do out of being out front.
What I found most interesting was to realize that the backup singers on like 90% of everything you've ever listened to are the same dozen or so people. It is a small world, session backup singers, and as each artist strives to capture the sound of other artists, they use the same backup groups. Makes me wish they were more frequently credited so that I could more easily track their careers. I mean, I'd like just to have a playlist of all the things I already own with these singers on them.
It was also heartening to see that, when I plugged 20 Feet from Stardom into amazon, looking for the soundtrack, it brought up all of the failed solo albums of the featured singers as things I might like. I bet this doc has actually done a fair bit of sales for them. I hope they get some of the residuals.
In conclusion, a great documentary that looked at a lot of different issues, not just failed ambition, and features amazing music. It's streaming on netflix--check it out.
The Dreamwidth copy of this post has
comments. Comment there or here.