20 Feet from Stardom

[StevePulaski]

20 Feet from Stardom (2013)
Directed by: Morgan Neville

If you want to sing out, sing out.

Rating: ★★★

20 Feet from Stardom is the latest installment in the long-line of documentaries centered on music and musicians, with other recent pictures such as Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey, Marley, Searching for Sugar Man, and Sound City making sizable noise as well. The recent influx could likely be justified by the dissatisfaction of contemporary music, which is just as monotonous as it is blunt in its attitude. Not to mention, such time capsules of music history are necessary.

20 Feet from Stardom takes us back to a simpler, purer time when "music was music," so the saying goes. Before the prevalence of autotune and digital mixing entered the music scene, the reliance on improving or emphasizing ones voice was done by backup singers. The documentary at hand makes an effort at humanizing several key people in the history of backup singers, predominately a selective group of black women who found themselves scattered all across the musical grid in the sixties, seventies, and eighties.

One of the main focuses of the documentary is The Blossoms, a versatile group of women who assisted everybody from Buck Owens to James Brown in their prime. Because of the diversity of the women involved, they became notorious in the realm of backing groups simply because they would back for anyone they could. Not only do we get information on The Blossoms, but we are given various accounts from other backup singers, some still working, some seeking their rise to prominence and moving forward on their march twenty feet in front of them, and certain musicians weighing in on just how important the singers are to their own personal success.

Sheryl Crow makes a comment well worth considering, stating the backup singers are incredibly bold and willing because of the fact they're giving up their own personal voice by the greater good of the big celebrity singing. As a backup singer, you must accept that few eyes will be on you, despite you claiming a decent portion of the stage, but rather your presence and voice be in the shadow of a bigger performer. The only time you're likely to get notice is if you screw up. To be aware of that and still accept the job takes impeccable courage. Forget the band members - the people who don't get credit are the backup singers.

Another particular figure the film details greatly is Luther Vandross, a black singer-songwriter who tried to make the backup singers a larger part of his show. He helped them receive broader attention and made them a bigger part of his act. Many of the film's subjects, such as Charlotte Crossley, who achieved great success as a singer, recall Vandross as incredibly spirited and one who possessed an astonishing ability to arouse. "He'd be sweatin' like a pig, but singing like an angel in a three piece suit," Crossley recalls.

It's surprising that backup singers are finally getting their due now. 20 Feet from Stardom feels like it should've been made years or even decades back when backup singers held about as much mainstream prominence as they ever did. The film, on the other hand, is efficient at handling the singers' inception, initial reception, their impact and legacy, and their current status. Other focuses include singers like Merry Clayton and Lisa Fischer trying to breakout into the mainstream music industry, and the backup singers who worked with Michael Jackson on his "This Is It" tour, which would've commenced had Jackson not died in the summer of 2009.

Director Morgan Neville does a smart thing by not only focusing on the impact backup singers have on the music industry but what the current state of music has morphed into. Since technology has been advancing at an unforeseeable rate, so has the quality of music, with a large devotion to digitizing, mixing, and computerized editing and modifications. One producer states in absolute disgust how the rise of technology in the industry has also lead to a decrease in quality and drive to produce good music. He states how computerized-editing has lead some producers to encourage mediocre recording so that things like tune and pitch can simply be modified later in post-production.

If nothing else, 20 Feet from Stardom deserves to be seen for its music and its fiery personality stemming from a charismatic group of performers. The film does become a bit repetitive, and occasionally mirrors the basic approach VH1's Behind the Music documentary series often takes. But that doesn't mean its subjects are any less notable or its inclusion of beautifully-performed music any less sublime. Not to mention, the film continues to make my tone-deaf, musically-inept self jealous.

Directed by: Morgan Neville.