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Over the weekend our local Drive In had a double feature that my wife wanted to see so off we went.
The movies were "Were' the Millers" and "The Heat" then last night we watched "Identity Theif'. Yeah I know poor me being forced to watch these but my wife wanted to see them and they were not that bad.
I did notice a disturbing trend in all 3 movies. Now I consider these to be average comedies aimed at a generally white audience with a median age of 42. I am sure the producers, director and everyone else involved in bringing these gems to market knew who their target audience was so why put in obnoxious rap music? In many clips the movie is moving along and suddenly rap was blasted at us for no apparent reason. Music should be appropriate and used to convey emotion or strive to make us feel something. One good example in "Were' the Millers" is when the main character goes into the strip club and Motley Crue is playing. It conveyed a message. Who doesn't think of strippers when they hear the Crue?
So to the movie score editors do we really need to be blasted with a unkown rap song or at least unkown to anyone over the age of 22 while we watch Mellisa McCarthy walk across the street?
Just who is trying to shove the hip hop generation in our faces? probably the same people sho told Miley it would be cool if she got creative with that foam finger.
Last edited by Cape Cod Todd; 08-27-2013 at 08:03 AM..
Reason: to add a point
Over the weekend our local Drive In had a double feature that my wife wanted to see so off we went.
The movies were "Were' the Millers" and "The Heat" then last night we watched "Identity Theif'. Yeah I know poor me being forced to watch these but my wife wanted to see them and they were not that bad.
I did notice a disturbing trend in all 3 movies. Now I consider these to be average comedies aimed at a generally white audience with a median age of 42. I am sure the producers, director and everyone else involved in bringing these gems to market knew who their target audience was so why put in obnoxious rap music? In many clips the movie is moving along and suddenly rap was blasted at us for no apparent reason. Music should be appropriate and used to convey emotion or strive to make us feel something. One good example in "Were' the Millers" is when the main character goes into the strip club and Motley Crue is playing. It conveyed a message. Who doesn't think of strippers when they hear the Crue?
So to the movie score editors do we really need to be blasted with a unkown rap song or at least unkown to anyone over the age of 22 while we watch Mellisa McCarthy walk across the street? Just who is trying to shove the hip hop generation in our faces? probably the same people sho told Miley it would be cool if she got creative with that foam finger.
The "hip-hop" generation started about 30 plus years ago. Were you recently delivered from your mother's womb?
I'm not a fan of rap, but I admit I like the gangstagrass rap in the FX show Justified's theme song. Bluesy, bluegrass with rap on top. I liked it so much, I looked them up on Google.
Over the weekend our local Drive In had a double feature that my wife wanted to see so off we went.
The movies were "Were' the Millers" and "The Heat" then last night we watched "Identity Theif'. Yeah I know poor me being forced to watch these but my wife wanted to see them and they were not that bad.
I did notice a disturbing trend in all 3 movies. Now I consider these to be average comedies aimed at a generally white audience with a median age of 42. I am sure the producers, director and everyone else involved in bringing these gems to market knew who their target audience was so why put in obnoxious rap music? In many clips the movie is moving along and suddenly rap was blasted at us for no apparent reason. Music should be appropriate and used to convey emotion or strive to make us feel something. One good example in "Were' the Millers" is when the main character goes into the strip club and Motley Crue is playing. It conveyed a message. Who doesn't think of strippers when they hear the Crue?
So to the movie score editors do we really need to be blasted with a unkown rap song or at least unkown to anyone over the age of 22 while we watch Mellisa McCarthy walk across the street?
Just who is trying to shove the hip hop generation in our faces? probably the same people sho told Miley it would be cool if she got creative with that foam finger.
They are probably being pressured by the media companies to give it credibility as a real music style.
The "hip-hop" generation started about 30 plus years ago. Were you recently delivered from your mother's womb?
Very true. LOL
Quote:
Originally Posted by SPHokie
This was a big problem in The Great Gatsby remake too.
Its a period movie set in the 1920's and they're blasting Jay-Z music? Who thought that was a good idea?
Quote:
Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe
I'm not a fan of rap, but I admit I like the gangstagrass rap in the FX show Justified's theme song. Bluesy, bluegrass with rap on top. I liked it so much, I looked them up on Google.
Agree with SPHokie, about the "Great Gatsby" in that, the music was very much misplaced, seemed like a very bad idea in my eyes as well, but, I imagine, they wanted to draw in a younger audience, who cares about drawing in the older viewers these days, that's what Indie films are for. According to the OP, I'm not the target audience, so I probably don't count either, but I don't mind some of the pop-rap music in bits and pieces but it was off putting in several places in "The Heat" in some places the inappropriateness of it was hilarious. Now "The Millers" that seems more aimed toward a more juvenile audience, not 40+, but that's just me.
The "hip-hop" generation started about 30 plus years ago. Were you recently delivered from your mother's womb?
Why do people feel the need to write this kind of useless comment? It is happening more and more on this and other forums. Why be negative?
I noticed in 3 current movies that snippets of rap music were being blasted at the audience for no apparent reason other than to promote... rap? Or maybe the "artist" if you can call them that.
I thought it would be a topic for debate; Have you noticed it in other movies? and How do you feel about it?
Obviously MiamiRob who probably wasn't even alive to witness the birth of hip hop didn't like the idea and didn't care to comment with something intelligent.
At least many other posters agree with me. If I'm watching a "Boyz in the hood" type of movie I expect to hear some rap but if I'm watching "The Great Gatsby" then no.
Hollywood are you listening?
The 2013Great Gatsby movie is a Baz Luhrmann production. He has a very particular cinematic style, and this movie was never going to be a standard period piece in the style of Merchant Ivory.
If you are familiar with Luhrmann's work (e.g., Moulin Rouge! and Romeo + Juliet), you know that one of his signature stylistic devices is the use of surreal anachronisms.
For example, in Romeo + Juliet, the characters are reciting Shakespeare, but speak with a modern day lilt, dress in modern clothes, and live in a modern (even post modern) world juxtaposed against a modern musical background that included everything from The Cardigans to The Butthole Surfers to Radiohead.
In Moluin Rouge!, the characters are living in 1899 Paris, yet the story is being told through songs from the likes of Sting, David Bowie, U2, Nirvana, and of course, the Lil Kim/Christina Aguilera/Pink/Mya collaboration that was "Lady Marmalade".
Luhrmann likes to evoke a period in a loose, more abstract way, rather than rendering a scientifically accurate and technically precise, historical portrayal. Sophia Coppola employed the same musical anachronicity in 2006 with Marie Antoinette. She used new wave and post punk music to complement her vision of Marie Antoinette and her coterie as a bunch of young, flighty, immature teenagers who were thrust into an adult world and expected to act like 50 year-olds at the age of 15.
For the record, I'm a big fan of traditional period pieces in the old Merchant Ivory style. I love movies like A Room with a View and Howards End. They are beautiful pieces of art, and I love watching them and being transported back in time. I would have loved to have seen a Great Gatsbymovie done in a more traditional way, maybe with someone like Ang Lee directing, or Martin Scorcese, or even a PBS/Masterpiece Theater production in the vein of Downton Abbey. HOWEVER, I can still appreciate Baz Luhrmann's aesthetic and his take on The Great Gatsby. It's merely different, not necessarily bad.
His choice to feature rap music and Jay-Z in the musical score was a deliberate, artistic move to complement his particular interpretation of the story and the message. The point was not merely to push rap in your face or appeal to younger audiences. Look at the whole thing with a more critical, analytical eye.
This was the world of The Great Gatsby:
It's the Roaring 20s. The Golden 20s. It's pre stock market crash pre Great Depression. Life was good. People were living it up, embracing extravagance and rebelling against traditional norms. It was cool to be reckless and excessive. Prohibition was in effect, but people were willing to break the law and drink bath tub gin in speakeasies, hobnobbing with gangsters and other morally questionable members of society. They liked lavish, shiny things. Art deco was the bling back then. Flappers were scandalous and sexy with their bobbed hair and short skirts (the equivalent of getting a tattoo and wearing booty shorts today). The Charleston was as outrageous a dance at the time, as twerking is now.
The way some of you wring your hands over and frown on rap is the way most people wrung their hands and frowned on jazz during that time as a morally questionable and not to be respected form of rebellious music. Gasp! Negro music! People are doing The Charleston! People are listening to this immoral music and *GASP!* drinking liquor! And champagne! In speakeasies! While wearing short skirts (You could see her ankles! Even her shins! Her SHINS!)!
Then you have Jay Gatsby who is a man of mystery...dapper and debonair...the smoothest mofo you can ever hope to meet. But when you break it down, he is a shady character who is friendly with gangsters ('GANGSTAS' today, with a '-A' instead of an '-ER'), who became filthy rich from bootlegging liquor, among other illegal activities (kind of similar to how rappers like Jay-Z and Notorious B.I.G. used to make a lot of money dealing crack). On top of that, Jay Gatsby is having an affair with a married woman (who herself is married to a man who is having an affair with another married woman). The story continues with more reckless behavior, including a crime of passion. Jay Gatsby is Jay-G.
I get it that the rap music in the movie is jarring if you are expecting Merchant Ivory. But like I said, Baz Luhrmann is not Merchant Ivory.
There are many analogous elements between the rap world (or, at least, the image it portrays) and the world of Jay Gatsby on West Egg in the 1920s. The flamboyance, the bravado, the swagger, the lushness. When you think of it in those terms, the inclusion of rap in The Great Gatsby doesn't seem so far off base. At least, not in a Baz Luhrmann flick. At the very least, it's actually pretty interesting and thought provoking if you choose to delve into the deeper subtext. If you don't choose to at least consider the subtext, and want instead to completely throw out Baz Luhrmann's treatment of the story based solely on your crankypants hatred of rap music and the "hip hop generation", well, that's your choice.
Sincerely,
A Lifelong Fan of Rap Music
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