Genre Analysis - The Music Biz

The Music Biz

This documentary was a mixed documentary – it combined voiceovers, archive footage and interviews, as evidence to support the exposition of the documentary, which led to the success of Meat Loaf’s comeback to the charts.

Themes within ‘The Music Biz’ included money, expectations from record companies, marketing campaigns, selling an artists, the importance of Christmas number one singles and the resurrection of a career. The documentary revolved around the popular rock artist, Meat Loaf, who was making a comeback after suffering from alcoholism and bankruptcy. These themes all relate through the ‘music biz’, which is why the title is appropriate. These problems are often true with many artists, but the themes have been dramatized for the purpose of the documentary, and therefore the themes are prolonged.

The narrative structure within ‘The Music Biz’ is average; the beginning starts with the exposition and promise of a Meat Loaf comeback, and therefore entices the audience; older generations know of his work from years ago, and the younger audience know him from recent success. In the beginning of the documentary, we are introduced to the press surrounding Meat Loaf’s career resurrection, which leads the audience to think that the whole documentary will be related to media attention etc. During the middle of the documentary, the conflict is what Meat Loaf says and his actual history; he says ‘he hasn’t been anywhere’, but the public and press know of his past troubles, as it was well documented at the time. Contributing to this, other conflict within the documentary was money problems when remarketing the brand of ‘Meat Loaf’. The mass marketing campaign and huge video shoot meant that money was constantly being pumped into the career revamp, which was a problem for the record producers and the record company, Virgin. The end of the documentary brought a renewed equilibrium to the story. The aim was to prove that the huge marketing of Meat Loaf was successful which was proven true from huge record sales, leading to a huge 8 weeks at number one.

Cinematography within The Music Biz was similar to other documentaries which I have studied; during interviews a static camera was used, and there were focused medium close ups within interviews. Within action actually concerning the star, Meat Loaf, there was many zooms and close ups signifying his importance and giving the audience a closer look at the star. Another important part of camerawork was during the video shoot on location in Los Angeles; there were many panning shot between Meat Loaf and Michael Bay, the director of the documentary. This, combined with two shots showed the symbiotic relationship between the two and also the power struggle over the video. Panning shots were widely used within the documentary; they were used within the boardroom at Virgin HQ and in the press conference with Meat Loaf; this allows the audience to see everyone’s faces, and therefore enables them to feel more like they are part of the action. Unconventional techniques were also used within this documentary; at one point when focusing on Meat Loaf, the camera nods an answer to the star, which makes the camera seem like part of the audience; leading an ironic opinion. This can also be construed as self reflective on Meat Loaf also – he is the main point of the documentary and leads it.

Mise-en-scene within The Music Biz was rich in variety and was always kept relevant to the theme. In the background of experts in interviews, green screens were used, which were over layed with pictures of Meat Loaf and articles related to him. Within other areas of the documentary, we were introduced to Meat Loaf’s world by seeing him on location at a video shoot in LA. We also saw many red carpet premieres and award ceremonies, which reinforced the importance of marketing and brought the question; which is more important – fame or music? Reinforcing this further, we saw Meat Loaf at marketing interviews, for example at Radio 1 with Pat Sharp, on the popular teenage TV show O-Zone and even on popular breakfast TV show Good Morning Britain. This showed the audience how important Meat Loaf is; he is seen everywhere that is anywhere, and he is the star of the moment. Adding a more professional feel to the documentary, we saw record executives at Virgin records headquarters, which showed us that although Meat Loaf is the star, there are many people of importance surrounding his fame, people who can ‘make him, or break him.

In the Music Biz, sound was mainly naturalistic and was led from the interviews, which explained the whole story for the viewer. Any parts that were missed out were filled in through voiceover from ‘the voice of God’. There was no music bed and hardly any sound effects, which made the documentary increasingly simplistic. Notably, one sound effect that was used was a heartbeat when interviewees were talking about money; a very important theme within the whole documentary. Soundtracks featuring Meat Loaf were used during cutaways, and during the video shoot in L.A.

In terms of editing, cutaways were constantly used as a way to enhance the hype surrounding Meat Loaf; there were parts of the music video featured, newspaper cuttings, Meat Loaf on location, records within music stores such as HMV and even in betting shops when talking about the importance of the Christmas number one single. These cutaways made the documentary seem more current, and showed the audience the hype surrounding Meat Loaf, echoing the world that they were currently living in. Transitions were used between pictures and interviews, and dissolves were the main port of call; dissolves relate each scene directly to each other and make the documentary flow more smoothly. Other notable editing includes shot reverse shot when Meat Loaf and Michael Bay were in discussion during the video shoot; similar to panning shots, this shows the audience the symbiotic relationship between the two, and also the conflict and power struggle they face when making the video.

Archive material was widely used within the documentary; there was past footage of award ceremonies, popular culture shows such as Top of the Pops and even archive footage of music videos competing for the Christmas number one, including a variety of styles, including Meat Loaf, Mr Blobby and Take That. All of the archive material enhanced the excitement around Meat Loaf’s comeback and increased his fame persona through showing the audience his past, and making them seem ‘out of the loop’ if they are unaware of him. This is clever, as it makes those who do not know about Meat Loaf want to carry on watching so they can learn more about popular culture which is passing them by, and also attracts avid fans of Meat Loaf as they can watch behind the scenes footage and learn more about their favourite celebrity.

Graphics were used to breaking point within the documentary, and were used to make the documentary more ‘current’ and ‘cool’. The beginning of The Music Biz is evidence of this, when interviewees are super imposed on a fake magazine cover, which not only makes them seem faux-famous, but also makes the documentary more exciting and shows themes related to the media orientation of the documentary. Other graphics include the captions which showed interviewees’ names – these graphics looked more official than those in past documentaries which I have studied and were more fancy – they showed the company the expert interviewee worked for and their job titles, in order to show their relationship to the fame of the star of the documentary, Meat Loaf.