I mentioned once before that I have a little problem with theater works. On a related note, I have an issue with contemporary musicals. Historically, I believe that musical theater is an outgrowth of opera and that influenced the arrangement and performance of the songs. Starting in 1967, with Hair, comes the rock influence. Broadway does rock ‘n’ roll… kinda lame. A little bit. But, you know, it is a small band in the pit, not a proper rock band, and so you excuse some of that. A Broadway tune is not a rock song; they have different purposes.
But when they make the movie version, some of those limitations are removed. You can do the scoring differently and record the singer differently. So why is it that Dreamgirls starts with a scene in a theater with a couple of songs that sound like R&B as conducted by Bill Conti on Oscar night?
I hate sounding nitpicky (i.e. geeky), but I watched the movie (never saw it on stage) with the thought in mind that this was supposedly based on the story of Flo Ballard (and Diana Ross and Berry Gordy). The first scene of the movie seems to take place in the late Fifties, but the first song has a wah-wah guitar. The wah-wah pedal may have existed at the time, but it wasn’t used in R&B until the late Sixties. What the hell is it doing here?
Some of the songs do evoke that pop and R&B of the Sixties, but other numbers do not. When someone’s doing a song in character, it doesn’t matter, but when they’re supposed to be doing a period song, why not get it right?
You may have heard about the story that NPR did last week on Dreamgirls, focusing on how accurate a portrayal of Motown it is and whether Flo Ballard got shafted. In particular, Smokey Robinson got quite angry, saying that for Berry Gordy “to be maligned and made out like this villainous character [Curtis Taylor, Jr., played by Jamie Foxx] is very, very, very offensive to me.”
My other beef is that the movie shows Taylor shutting down his artists, not letting them do socially conscious songs in the mid Seventies. This is kind of idiotic, because Motown and other labels were absolutely doing that kind of material in the early Seventies: Edwin Starr had a hit with “War” in 1969, the Temptations won a Grammy for their ’69 song “Cloud Nine” (about drug abuse), Marvin Gaye forced Gordy to release “What’s Going On” in ’71 (also a hit), and so on.
There’s much to like in the film, and it does have some interesting things to say about the development of African American musical expression, but I wish they had gotten more details right.
Tags: Dreamgirls, musical theater
4 Responses
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The Pop View Says:
Complaints from others about the music of Dreamgirls…
From Max Henderson on The Smoking Section:
Despite its polish, the soundtrack of Dreamgirls left me wanting, and hollow. It was the music. I am not talking about the voice of Jennifer Hudson who beautifully renders a cathartic purging of expression and anguish in her rendering of “I Am Telling You,” or the proven strengths in Beyonce. It had nothing to do with the voices of others. The problem is in the music. Motown has some of the greatest arrangements and sounds in modern American music. So does their bulwark-competitors James Brown and Aretha Franklin. In Dreamgirls, we barely get any of that. What we get in its absence is something shiny and alien in terms of “Motown” sound. I was not expecting the producers to be able to redo its sound measure to measure, but I hoped to hear more Jennifer Hudson-moments, more accurate and successful wrestling and re-telling of Motown history, and most importantly more soul.
Christopher Orr at The New Republic (sub req.):
First, Dreamgirls is a film about professional singers, so it actually features two distinct forms of singing, narratively speaking: singing that is meant to be singing (i.e., when the characters are giving a concert onstage or recording in the studio), and singing that is a stand-in for talking. But the film never really reconciles the two forms or explains why sometimes the onscreen singing is singing and sometimes it’s talking. It doesn’t help that it’s a good 20 minutes or more into the movie before we even realize that there will be singing-as-talking.
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Dan Dorman Says:
I don’t get it? Are we supposed to like this movie based on principle? It looks like a turd sandwich to me, and I love musical films (Sweet Charity is one of my favorite films of all-time — not to mention Cabin in the Sky). Jennifer Hudson will win an Oscar (and probably Eddie Murphy too) and that will be that.
Ya know, Chicago was a big steaming pile of dogshit and these films always get the Supporting Actress nod — even though this year it should probably go to Rinko Kikuchi for Babel.
I just don’t care about the Oscars anymore, or mainstream Hollywood filmmaking for that matter. Unfortunately we now have these so-called “little” films competing right out front with the big ones. I saw Little Miss Sunshine. It should have been called: “Little Miss Shit Sandwich.” It sucked. I’m sorry but it wasn’t a good film. And to be quite honest, there wasn’t anything “little” about the film at all — it still cost 8 million dollars to make. So it didn’t cost 180 million, it is still NOT an indie movie. Half Nelson is an indie movie — and Ryan Gosling is brilliant in it. Why is it okay for most “small independent” movies to suck ass as long as they’re “quirky”?
Will Smith and Leonardo DiCaprio are probably the two least deserving for Best Actor this year and it would not surprise me if they rob O’Toole yet again. Give him the freaking Oscar for sentimental purposes. Jesus Christ! Forest Whitaker (who should have won for Bird) will always have performances like The Last King of Scotland in him. Come on Hollywood — DO THE RIGHT THING!!!
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Larry D Says:
Old news, I know; but DREAMGIRLS is quite loosely based on the Surpremes/Motown saga. Loosely. It is futile to pick the play/script apart looking for historical inaccuracies, because this isn’t a history. Flo Ballard was never THE lead singer of the Supremes — initially, all three girls sang some leads. Effie White is not Flo Ballard. Curtis Taylor Jr is not Berry Gordy. And for the record, Gordy’s choosing Diane Ross to front the group over Flo Ballard was not quite the triumph of skin-deep beauty over great talent that many people assume it was: listen to “Buttered Popcorn” (the only Supremes single ever released with Flo on lead vocal) — Flo Ballard was a good enough singer, but great she wasn’t. And, unlike Ross, Ballard’s voice wasn’t particularly distinctive. She was a typical 1960s R&B shouter, right off the rack. Like her or not, Diana Ross is one of the most distinctive vocalists in the history of American pop music: like Sinatra, Billie Holiday, Armstrong, Ella, you know that voice after the first note. DREAMGIRLS isn’t history, and never purports to be. Hate it if you hate it, but don’t hate it because it’s “inaccurate”. It’s fiction, people. Fiction.
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Robin Says:
Maxine Ballard writes the True Story of Florence Ballard!
Florence “Blondie” Ballard, Diane “Diana” Ross and Mary Wilson met and became childhood friends during the 1950′s. Under the watchful eye and skilled tutelage of Milton Jenkins, the friends later became the trio The Primettes, ultimately transformed into the greatest female singing group of all time – The Supremes. In 1967, Florence Ballard left the group, and though much has been written about her life after the Supremes, the true facts of her story have never surfaced – until now. Maxine “Precious” Ballard Jenkins – the sister of Florence Ballard – has written the true account of Florence Ballard’s life, including her reasons behind leaving the group, the relationship she shared with childhood friends, Mary and Diane, and the dramatic turn her life took in later years. The book also helps to dispel many of the rumors surrounding Florence Ballard’s death. Your view of Florence Ballard and her life will be dramatically reversed after reading this book!
Buy the book now or on the website – http://www.maxineballard.com.