Before the Music Dies (2006)

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 ... See full summary »

Director:

Andrew Shapter

Writers:

Andrew Shapter, Joel Rasmussen

Stars:

Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Les Paul

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bonnie Raitt	...	Herself - Musician
Elvis Costello	...	Himself - Musician
Les Paul	...	Himself - Musician
Erykah Badu	...	Herself - Musician
Branford Marsalis	...	Himself - Musician
Blaze	...	Themselves - Austin, TX
Edna Gunderson	...	Herself - Senior Music Critic, USA Today
Alan Light	...	Himself - Writer, Rolling Stone
Toure	...	Himself - Pop Culture Correspondent, CNN (as Touré)
Nancy Giles	...	Herself - CBS Sunday Morning, Former New York DJ
Kacy Crowley	...	Herself - Musician
Bob Schneider	...	Himself - Musician
Steve Poltz	...	Himself - Musician
Taylor Hannah	...	Herself
Eric Clapton	...	Himself - Musician

Storyline

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."

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Genres:

Documentary | Music

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 March 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

B4md

Filming Locations:

Tennessee, USA

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Herself - Musician: There are three kinds of artists. The first kind are the ones who hurt to do what they do. It hurts to write, there's pain involved, there's experience in there, there's blood. The second kind of artist imitates the ones in pain. The third kind of artist just do what somebody tell them to do, learn the step, wear this wig, shake your ass, watch yourself. The first kind of artist are the ones who are more popular than the amount of money they receive. The second kind of artist is usually the ...

User Reviews

Inspiring to rethink how our communities should support music...

For debut filmmakers, apart from the content of the actual doc, this is an incredible piece of professional cinema. The film does not mimic a style from the great documentarians of our time such as Ken Burns and Michael Moore, but rather gives a documenting style in and of its own right.

While the film does focus on the dark side of the music industry, and doesn't need to go far to win over an audience to the premise that most of our current radio does suck, the film primarily inspires one to see that there's still a lot of good music out there to be found and had.

The scope of covering the current changes in the music industry is so vast, that these guys did a good job of keeping the audience engaged by telling us where music has been been, where we are now, and where we might be going.

To those of us that are interested and concerned about how the changes in commerce, technology, and art will affect the motion picture industry, this film gives us a good precursor of what we may be going through.