Features |
Columns |
Blogs |
News |
Music |
Film |
TV |
DVDs |
Books |
Comics |
Multimedia |
Events |
Front
about contributors submissions book series advertising contests Media Center PopMatters Picks
about contributors submissions book series advertising contests Media Center PopMatters Picks
|
|
Standing in the Shadows of DreamgirlsNegritude 2.0[29 January 2007] by Mark ReynoldsEntrepreneurs of color owe an enormous debt to Berry Gordy, whose path from hit-chasing songwriter to world-renown business mogul is, as much as if not more than those beautiful ladies on the movie screen, the stuff of dreams.
Negritude 2.0
Retelling the History of Black Music: Everything You Know about the Blues Is WrongMark Reynolds03.Jul.08 For the most part, blacks were not involved in the heroic work of rescuing the black acoustic blues legacy from the passage of time. 
Retelling the History of Black Music: Adventures in Retro-ismMark Reynolds07.Mar.08 Rightly or wrongly, black audiences have always tended to chase musical innovation, not musical reverence. 
Ask an AfricanMark Reynolds11.Jan.08 Africa will play an increasingly pivotal role in world affairs this year, and not just because a guy whose dad was Kenyan is running for President of the United States.
|
Rabble Without a Cause: Let’s Spice-up the 2008 Election, Iron Chef-Style
By Bill Reagan [22.Jul.08] Pop Goes Philosophy: George W. and J. Peterman, Philosophically Speaking
By George Reisch and Norah Martin [16.Jul.08] Negritude 2.0: Retelling the History of Black Music: Everything You Know about the Blues Is Wrong
By Mark Reynolds [3.Jul.08] Variations on a Theme: The Sounds of Now: Tristan Murail and Sounding Stasis
By Chadwick Jenkins [2.Jul.08] |
MORE COLUMNS
“seemingly the whole world howled, or at least scratched its collective head, over the Academy Awards non-nomination for best picture”.
I know the above comment isn’t the main point of this article but I would like to say that a very good reason why “Dreamgirls” wasn’t nominated for “Best Picture” is because, save a few individual scenes, it just wasn’t THAT good of a movie.
The movie is less a tribute to Motown than a parody of it—witness how blatantly album covers by The Supremes are copied, how the Jackson Five is ridiculously imitated, how the Jimmy Early character adopts Marvin Gaye-like accoutrements (the knit cap, the track suit, the velvet suit) without any of the same soul. Notice how none of the characters seem to age save for the requisite hairstyle changes..."Dreamgirls" lacks any original thoughts or ideas.
The danger of “Dreamgirls” is that it pillages the Motown legacy and reduces it to a group of characters who do little more than dress up like the icons who made Motown a vital force in popular music forty years ago…
Comment by annonymous — January 29, 2007 @ 9:42 am