Wednesday, July 04, 2007
"Woah...Rock & Roll": The role of popular music in Back To The Future
The following post started out as a simple 'Rock Encyclopedia' type entry for fictional Doo-Wop band, Back To The Future's 'Marvin Berry & The Starlighters'. It developed into a much broader look at the role pop-music plays in the movie, and how the differences between 50s and 80s pop music are used to reflect wider social changes.
.1. Marvin Berry & The Starlighters (Back To The Future 1 & 2)
A locally popular RnB combo who played juke joints & high school dances around the Hill Valley area of California during the mid to late 50s, and who earnt themselves a minor footnote in the rock history books by virtue of bandleader Marvin Berry being the cousin of rock and roll godfather Chuck Berry.
The Starlighters are a great example of the accurately drawn genre band, they are an archetype, representing every small-time, but locally successful, RnB / Doo-Wop group of the era, of which there were 100s. They are: The Mid 50s Californian Doo-Wop Band. Crucially, the rendering of The Starlighters is not just accurate in a broad sense - the attention to detail and joyful use of genre cliches are a treat for anybody with an affection for the music or the period, which is of course a trait common to the entire movie.
(Biff's gang dump Marty McFly in the trunk of The Starlighters car. The band emerge from the vehicle enveloped in huge clouds of marijuana smoke)
Starlighter: 'the hell you doin' to my car?
3-D: Hey beat it, spook, this don't concern you.
Marvin Berry: Who are you callin' spook, pecker-wood?
Skinhead: Hey, hey listen guys. Look, I don't wanna mess with no reefer addicts, okay?
Dig the hip 50s slang. Brilliant stuff.
Music plays a huge part in the BTTF Trilogy, and the evolution of pop music culture from the 50s to Marty's Mtv 80s is a central theme. The very first words Marty McFly says are: "Woah...Rock & Roll," having being blown backwards by the power of the worlds biggest electric guitar amplifier. The Starlighters are but one of three different bands we encounter during the trilogy. Marty, of course, dreams of being a rock star, and has his own band, The Pinheads (another awesome name). The Pinheads are kicked out of a Battle Of The Bands audition ("I'm afraid you're just too damn loud") by a judge played by... Huey Lewis, of Huey Lewis and The News, whose song "The Power Of Love" The Pinheads have just performed. Playfull postmodernism certainly, but it also speaks to how deeply embedded music is in the fabric of BTTF. The trick is repeated in BTTF III, where impressively bearded boogie rock band ZZ Top play an impressively bearded hillbilly band jamming an 1885 version of their song 'Double Back'.
On top of which, the most enduring and popularly remembered scene is Marty McFly pullin' all sortsa wild Hendrix/Chuck Berry/AC/DC electric rock god moves at a mid 50s high-school dance and freaking everybody out . The differences between 1950s Hill Valley & 1980s Hill Valley are explored through specific characters & images that are directly reflected in both eras, and when the differences are presented to us we are encouraged to think about not only how Hill Valley has changed, but how US pop culture as a whole has changed over that tumultuous period. Music is one example, but politics (in the form of Mayor Goldie Wilson - "I like the sound of that"), cinema & politics (Ronald Reagan's ascent from movie star to President) fashion (much is made of Marty's Nikes), science fiction itself (Marty's Darth Vader inspired performance as a spaceman, George's pulp comic books), how you order a coke, cars, amongst other themes are compared & contrasted. If this were a straight period drama set in th 50s, then period authenticity would be expected simply for historical accuracy & visual interest, but this is a time-traveling movie, they show you both eras, and that allows BTTF to directly comment on the differences between the two decades. It is a meditation on change.
BTTF is one way in which 80s Action Cinema adressed, re-evaluated, and re-imagined Classical Hollywood. The trilogy is littered with references to the history of cinema; Clint Eastwood, Taxi Driver, Jaws, Star Wars, Leone movies, among others, are all quoted. This sort of commentary on cinema is quite common to The 80s Action Cinema, but BTTF's heavy focus on popular music is something quite special, and is a huge factor in the popularity of the trilogy. The same is true of the Waynes World & Bill and Ted movies, both 'rock' movies in subject matter & sprit. Fans of BTTF tend to be Waynes World fans. Pop music fans like BTTF, because it is film just as in love with rock 'n' roll as they are.
(Fake Rock Band Encyclopedia entries for The Electric Mayhem [Muppets], Wyld Stallyns [Bill & Ted], Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes [Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope] and Jessica Rabbit [Who Framed Roger Rabbit] will follow shortly, and feel free to suggest any other great fictional bands from TV & Cinema, the more esoteric the better, so no 'Spinal Tap'. "No Spinal Tap? Denied!")
.1. Marvin Berry & The Starlighters (Back To The Future 1 & 2)
A locally popular RnB combo who played juke joints & high school dances around the Hill Valley area of California during the mid to late 50s, and who earnt themselves a minor footnote in the rock history books by virtue of bandleader Marvin Berry being the cousin of rock and roll godfather Chuck Berry.
The Starlighters are a great example of the accurately drawn genre band, they are an archetype, representing every small-time, but locally successful, RnB / Doo-Wop group of the era, of which there were 100s. They are: The Mid 50s Californian Doo-Wop Band. Crucially, the rendering of The Starlighters is not just accurate in a broad sense - the attention to detail and joyful use of genre cliches are a treat for anybody with an affection for the music or the period, which is of course a trait common to the entire movie.
(Biff's gang dump Marty McFly in the trunk of The Starlighters car. The band emerge from the vehicle enveloped in huge clouds of marijuana smoke)
Starlighter: 'the hell you doin' to my car?
3-D: Hey beat it, spook, this don't concern you.
Marvin Berry: Who are you callin' spook, pecker-wood?
Skinhead: Hey, hey listen guys. Look, I don't wanna mess with no reefer addicts, okay?
Dig the hip 50s slang. Brilliant stuff.
Music plays a huge part in the BTTF Trilogy, and the evolution of pop music culture from the 50s to Marty's Mtv 80s is a central theme. The very first words Marty McFly says are: "Woah...Rock & Roll," having being blown backwards by the power of the worlds biggest electric guitar amplifier. The Starlighters are but one of three different bands we encounter during the trilogy. Marty, of course, dreams of being a rock star, and has his own band, The Pinheads (another awesome name). The Pinheads are kicked out of a Battle Of The Bands audition ("I'm afraid you're just too damn loud") by a judge played by... Huey Lewis, of Huey Lewis and The News, whose song "The Power Of Love" The Pinheads have just performed. Playfull postmodernism certainly, but it also speaks to how deeply embedded music is in the fabric of BTTF. The trick is repeated in BTTF III, where impressively bearded boogie rock band ZZ Top play an impressively bearded hillbilly band jamming an 1885 version of their song 'Double Back'.
On top of which, the most enduring and popularly remembered scene is Marty McFly pullin' all sortsa wild Hendrix/Chuck Berry/AC/DC electric rock god moves at a mid 50s high-school dance and freaking everybody out . The differences between 1950s Hill Valley & 1980s Hill Valley are explored through specific characters & images that are directly reflected in both eras, and when the differences are presented to us we are encouraged to think about not only how Hill Valley has changed, but how US pop culture as a whole has changed over that tumultuous period. Music is one example, but politics (in the form of Mayor Goldie Wilson - "I like the sound of that"), cinema & politics (Ronald Reagan's ascent from movie star to President) fashion (much is made of Marty's Nikes), science fiction itself (Marty's Darth Vader inspired performance as a spaceman, George's pulp comic books), how you order a coke, cars, amongst other themes are compared & contrasted. If this were a straight period drama set in th 50s, then period authenticity would be expected simply for historical accuracy & visual interest, but this is a time-traveling movie, they show you both eras, and that allows BTTF to directly comment on the differences between the two decades. It is a meditation on change.
BTTF is one way in which 80s Action Cinema adressed, re-evaluated, and re-imagined Classical Hollywood. The trilogy is littered with references to the history of cinema; Clint Eastwood, Taxi Driver, Jaws, Star Wars, Leone movies, among others, are all quoted. This sort of commentary on cinema is quite common to The 80s Action Cinema, but BTTF's heavy focus on popular music is something quite special, and is a huge factor in the popularity of the trilogy. The same is true of the Waynes World & Bill and Ted movies, both 'rock' movies in subject matter & sprit. Fans of BTTF tend to be Waynes World fans. Pop music fans like BTTF, because it is film just as in love with rock 'n' roll as they are.
(Fake Rock Band Encyclopedia entries for The Electric Mayhem [Muppets], Wyld Stallyns [Bill & Ted], Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes [Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope] and Jessica Rabbit [Who Framed Roger Rabbit] will follow shortly, and feel free to suggest any other great fictional bands from TV & Cinema, the more esoteric the better, so no 'Spinal Tap'. "No Spinal Tap? Denied!")
Labels: Cult Cinema
¶ 3:01 PM
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