~Saturday~ We had some time to kill before dinner, and Bob said he was going into his collection of movies to pick out something short for us to watch. He returned with a VHS copy of the film, Girl Groups.
I’d not heard of this movie, but it seemed like a good juxtaposition to The Wrecking Crew, which we recently watched. We’ll probably watch Twenty Feet from Stardom next, to complete a trio in this genre, although Bob’s already seen that one.
The synopsis
A girl group is a popular music act featuring several young female singers who generally harmonise together.
Girl groups emerged in the late 1950s as groups of young singers teamed up with behind-the-scenes songwriters and music producers to create hit singles, often featuring glossy production values and backing by top studio musicians. Some acts had certain members taking the lead vocalist position with the other members as supporting vocalists. In later eras the girl group template would be applied to disco, contemporary R&B, and country-based formats as well as pop.
A distinction is made here with all-female bands, in which members also play instruments, though this terminology is not universally followed.
Spice Girls and TLC are considered the best-selling girl groups of all time. Both of their sales records have surpassed any other girl group in the world and their albums (Spice Girls’ Spice and TLC’s CrazySexyCool) are the best-selling albums of all time by a girl group.
~ (extract Wikipedia 2013)
The trailer
My thoughts and observations
- I enjoyed this movie a lot.
- I’m sure my enjoyment was boosted by Bob’s commentary—filling in background details, and “the dirt,” which he’d picked up reading two of Mary Wilson’s books about her life with, and the rise and fall of, The Supremes.
- Although it was a relatively short (60 minutes) movie, I could have done with hearing fewer full songs, and more clips of songs instead. With that said, it could be because Bob had intimated that he would choose a very short film (i.e., I was expecting 15 or 20 minutes), and it was the only thing between me and dinner.
- Themes touched on in this movie included:
- Fame and fortune
- Being in the right place at the right time
- Celebrity eccentricity
- The role of women in music and Motown
- Favoritism, nepotism, and jealousy
- Attribution of artists in the earlier recording years, which was a similar theme in The Wrecking Crew
- The rise and fall of music genres, especially toward the end of the movie, which was very similar to feelings expressed at the end of The wrecking Crew
- I gave 1.5 thumbs up to this movie.
Have you seen this movie? If you haven’t, it appears that the entire movie is available to watch online. If you have seen it, what did you think of it?
Full-length movie
Disclaimer: I haven’t watched this copy of the film, and I can’t vouch for its status as a legal copy of it, so it may or may not still be here at the time of your viewing this blog entry.