New Wave of Rock Biopics Brings Excitement to Music Fans, Moviegoers

“Blinded By The Light” (set to release in August) puts the true story of Sarfraz Manzoor and his unlikely discovery of Bruce Springsteen’s music on film — another feature contributing to Hollywood’s “biopic boom”.

Variety

“Blinded By The Light” (set to release in August) puts the true story of Sarfraz Manzoor and his unlikely discovery of Bruce Springsteen’s music on film — another feature contributing to Hollywood’s “biopic boom”.

Joey Goodsir, Optimistic Editor

Regardless of the degree to which you believe the idea that “rock is dead”, it is not nearly as easy to debate the fact that the genre has experienced a considerable down period.

While the instrumentation and format of rock music has slowly faded out of the mainstream, which leads to a musical quality debate for another time, the bigger conversation is the genuine lively spirit of the genre — an aspect that modern music has begun to lose in favor of hit-making and increasingly similar sound, making mainstream music considerably bland and far less concerned about feel than it once was.

Although misrepresentation is a primary front of criticism for the movie industry’s next biggest thing in rock/music biopics, the aspects of “feel” discussed above are most certainly there to intrigue audiences over everything else — and that is certainly what is most important.

Juniors and Seniors at LFHS just recently experienced this year’s Prom, and perhaps one of the most memorable moments of dancing itself that night was Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now”, which was very well received.

Undoubtedly the recent release of a major biopic on the band made a significant contribution to not only the upperclass body’s recognition of the 1979 hit, but the large percentage of those on the dance floor belting out every word.

In the end, it wasn’t the details that stuck in the heads of a quite clearly targeted young audience of the film, but the feel that the music and the moments gave them.

IMDb
Yesterday (Universal Studios 2019) explores the fantasy behind a world in which only one man remembers the greatest band of all time.

While Queen was widely successful sales and publicity wise, they carried a specific legacy of their one-of-a-kind ability to catapult heavy experimentation in music to the mainstream. They were a group of misfits that thought outside of the box — with those thoughts working more times than any other band that has dared to do so as frequently. They were never just simply “the greatest band of all time.”

They may have been the lasting memory at one of the largest concert events of all time, but it is worth noting that this was a complete surprise for most viewers — the band quite clearly stole the show.

This is all a very specific legacy — and the film covering their career broadened and grew this legacy considerably.

With several songs holding higher chart spots currently than they did when released (including “Don’t Stop Me Now”, which peaked at #86 in the U.S. in 1979, only to reach #7 in 2018), as well as the band’s greatest hits anthology securing its sales spot with the likes of modern rock chart veterans Pink Floyd (“Dark Side of The Moon” holds records for length of time on the charts), Eagles, The Beatles, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and many more — it wouldn’t be surprising to see younger fans consider Queen as one of the greatest rock bands of all time with ease.

Like the impact of the music itself and then Wayne’s World a decade or so later (the film gave a second wave of success to the band in the 90s after the use of Bohemian Rhapsody in a now-immortalized scene), Bohemian Rhapsody brought a larger awareness forward for Queen, and a brand new generation of die hard fans — perhaps more devout than ever.

It is unquestionable that future biopics covering and drawing attention to other artists will do the same. It doesn’t even seem debatable that the music featured in these biopics of the future could be put back into mainstream success once again — maybe even be well-received at next year’s Prom.

The bigger thing here however, that really proves the worthiness of these movies is the growing success of their stories’ efforts to romanticize a forgotten musical reality to a younger audience, and perhaps inspire a future rebirth of the genuine spirit and “feel” that once sadly exited the mainstream along with the genre.