Biographies I: Music

Musical biopics represent a particular trend of the biographical movies-one that has been
both incredibly popular and successful since the early 2000s. From Ray (Taylor Hackford
2004) and I'm not There (Todd Haynes 2007) to Rocketman (Dexter Fletcher 2019) and Elvis (Baz
Luhrman 2022), approximately one musical biopic hits the screen – if not the box-office –
every year. The musical biopic does not deviate from the classical generic formula: based on
a narrative that retraces the [portion of the] life of a person, it characteristically blends and
blurs fact and fiction to flesh out the persona of its protagonists. While this definition of the
genre causes concern among biography scholars who call for a code of ethics specific to
biographical writing that includes "thorough study, documentation, careful interpreta-tion,
and cautious speculation. Especially significant is the dictum of truth, the essence
of scholarly knowledge" (Jerome G. Manis, Biography, Vol. 17. No. 4, Fall 1994, 386), the
success of biopics more often than not resides in their ability to convey a behind-the-scene
look into the private life of their characters – giving in to the voyeuristic instinct that defines
the power of stardom (Richard Dyer, Stars, 1998).
While drawing on the seductive nature of iconic stars through reenacting significant
moments of their public performances, the musical biopic highlights how music can be used
to convey narrative information by adding another filmic layer. This presentation aims to
analyze the encounter between two popular art forms – the biopic and its music through the
genre's ability to hybridize image and sound. Not only is music expected to be visually
performed by onscreen singers or groups, thus allowing the viewers to see what they can
hear, but it also serves a narrative role by propelling the narrative forward. As intermedial
spectacles that intermingle the visual and the audio, musical biopics complexify how a life
narrative can be shaped on screen: not only do they capture the mood of an entire era
through the composition of a musical score, but the music which is replayed and brought to
the viewer's ear supports the way the life story of a singer or a group of musicians is
reconstructed. Musical biopics amplify the appeal of popular singers and bands by relating
their successful pieces to visual moments of communion with an audience that can share the
physical and emotional trance of concerts. Musical biopics develop a haptic relationship to
the filmed stars by showing that a voice or a tune emanates from a performing body. This
presentation will consider a diversity of biopics to examine how gender, nationality (US,
British, French) and time period impact the biographical frame in musical biopics. 

Jazz singer Keely Smith was best known for her performances in Las Vegas with Louis Prima in the 1950s but continued to record and perform into her late seventies. This presentation will examine media coverage of her career, her life and the communities she engaged with to round out a portrait of a talented musician and reflect on ways the entertainment media capitalized on her success. 

Over the last 20 years, many of the world's most popular female musical artists have published their autobiographies. Do most of these music mavens tell the same story? What makes their stories unique? This paper will analyze a sample of autobiographies from some of the most successful female singers in popular, rock, country, and soul music. Of the content categories that will be discussed include: their formative years, troubled adolescence, raw talent, struggles to make it in the music business, relationship issues, financial issues, and addictions.