Ray Directed By Lee Marshall And Isabel Kongsguaard

Biopic is a term used as a definition of a person’s real life event that has been recreated either into a film, movie and/or documentary, in order to tell the truth and history about what that particular celebrity was really like. A music biopic, however, must declare its truthfulness throughout a particular film in order for it to be authentic and as a source of pleasure to the audience/viewer. The 2004 film “Ray” directed by Taylor Hackford is an example of a music biopic in which Lee Marshall and Isabel Kongsguaard had stated in the above quote. Ray is a particular film that was a “major [in] American productions and was one of the most successful music biopics to date.” (Marshall and Kongsguaard, 349) Thus, this particular music biopic

This is due to the fact that “it is the industry that restricts the creativity of the artist or is responsible for forcing the newly popular star to go out on the road and play more shows.” (Marshall and Kongsguaard, 351) For example, in the film Ray the company Atlantic Records show him a very nurturing and supporting environment, however, throughout the movie when he signs to the major ABC label, “he encounters resistance to his idea of recording a country-style album.”351 When this happens the other musicians in his band, such as Margie the backup singer and one of his lovers had thought that Ray is becoming to mainstream and rather soft as he is not doing his own type of music. This is shown within the scene when he had signed with ABC that then began to be recording him with an orchestra rather than his own team that he had been working with. The ABC label tried to change his style of music from R&B, to country and then to pop. In doing this it does not show the music industry in a good light and shows the ideologies of pop stardom. Therefore, “biopics [tend to the audience/viewer] less about the individual stars and more about the nature of popular music stardom more generally. [In other words, the] popular music biopics reproduce the central ideologies of pop stardom.” (Marshall and Kongsguaard,