Before the Music Dies

[unkl brws]

With the Grammy's coming up I thought I'd revisit a documentary I saw several years ago that looks at the music industry and how manufactured some of today's "talented" stars are. The film came out in 2006 and it shows how someone with the right "look" can be made to be popular.
From the IMDb website -

With outstanding performances and revealing interviews Before the Music Dies takes a critical look at the homogenization of popular music with commentary by some of the industry's biggest talents like Eric Clapton, Dave Matthews, Elvis Costello, Erykah Badu, Branford Marsalis, Bonnie Raitt and more. Using historic footage the film looks at the evolution of American music and the artists who created it and pulls back the curtain (in a very creative way) to expose the sad truth behind today's "artificial" music stars. "The reality is that superficiality is in," says Marsalis. "And depth and quality is kind of out." Inspired by the death of his brother, director Andrew Shapter and his crew traveled thousands of miles, visiting dozens of cities, speaking with hundreds of fans, journalists, record executives and musicians while searching for "real" American music. What they found were mega-talents without a major label, including one artist Eric Clapton believes is "the real thing."

The director of the film is Andrew Shapter. He unfortunately died in 2019 and this film and samples of his other work is available at his website: HOME | andrewshapter