20 Feet From Stardom Analysis

Documentary filmmaking: 20 Feet from Stardom “There’s are power to what it is that we do. No one ‘till right now has publicly acknowledged it, but people love to see the background singers.” This quote from Janice Pendarvis -sung background for Sting. David Bowie, Blonde, Lavrie Anderson, and Donovan- explains the unspoken narrative of background singers. Morgan Neville’s 20 Feet from Stardom, created in 2013, shines a light on the talented background singers who sung background for famous singers and groups like David Bowie, The Supremes, The Rolling Stones, and Ray Charles. Their stories are enriched with controversy and passion. In the music industry, people who sung background on popular hits were not given the recognition their talents

Neville did a fantastic job at letting the voices tell the story. He invited over 50 different background singers to either narrate or tell their personal stories. The main storytellers were Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, and Judith Hill. Darlene Love saw her talent as a gift from God that she intended to utilize. Darlene and her friend, Fanita James, were the first black background singers to work in the studios. Love reminisced about the industry’s safe style that kept background singers in a box. Darlene mentions that the only background singers you saw at the time were white females who stuck to the script. The industry wanted a safe style that didn’t get too vocal or excited. Record companies followed the polished and safe style for many

The best way to have that sound was to hire black female background vocalists. The artists who came from England gave the background singers the freedom of expression. They wanted to keep an organic and authentic style in order to have the best sound. The Rolling Stones hired Merry Clayton to sing background and she loved the experiences. The rock n roll world went against the usual cookie-cutter sound and the background singers fit in perfectly. Rock wanted passion and excitement. In a way, rock saved the lives of the background singer. Before Merry sang for The Rolling Stones, she actually was a Raylette for Ray Charles performances. Ray Charles made songs that insinuated sexual acts, but used a church sound and format. She was apart of the church choir as a child and her voice perfectly matched with Ray Charles and his Raelettes. She lacked a lot of confidence and it showed on stage. She told the viewers a story about an embarrassing event that happened on stage with Ray Charles. She forgot her note and Ray Charles repeatedly pushed the key that she should have sung in. She felt embarrassed, but she never made that mistake again. Years later, Merry was asked to sing background to a song called “Sweet Home Alabama” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. This was during a rough time for black people in America and in Alabama. Alabama was known for their disrespectful hate crimes