Last night I watched two music
“documentaries,” one heavily promoted and highly anticipated (Beyoncé: Life Is
But a Dream) and the other which I came across by accident while channel
surfing (The History of the Eagles).
First off, even though these two
films are called “documentaries,” let’s call them what they really are:
90-minute (in the case of Beyoncé) and 3-hour (in the case of the Eagles)
advertisements for the artists in question. In her documentary, Beyoncé says “I
always battle with how much to reveal about myself.” Really? Is that why you
filmed the most intimate details of your personal life and broadcast them on
HBO for 315 million people? But that’s another story…
Beyoncé would seem to have it all:
looks, voice, costumes, choreography, computerized graphics, lighting—the whole
nine yards. But what’s missing are the actual songs. With a few notable exceptions (“Halo,” “Love on
Top,” “Single Ladies”), you’d have to go back to Destiny’s Child
(“Bootylicious,” “Survivor,” “Independent Woman”) to find a song that even has
a recognizable melody. Beyoncé is capable of doing quite remarkable acrobatics
with her voice, but that’s the point. Her voice becomes the star of the song
rather than the song itself. Much like Mariah Carey, who perhaps is responsible
for starting this disturbing trend, listening to a Beyoncé “song” is often like
listening to a singer practice vocal scales before a performance.
How many times have you come away
from a Beyoncé performance humming the tune rather than marveling at her vocal
pyrotechnics? I haven’t. The closest I’ve come would be “Crazy in Love,” and
what I’m actually humming is the horn riff from The Chi-Lites’ “Are You My
Woman (Tell Me So).” (Now that group had
some memorable songs!)
The Eagles, on the other hand, are
almost the polar opposite of Beyoncé: four or five average-looking men
(depending on the lineup), no costumes, no choreography, no graphics, minimal lighting. But the songs are
instantly recognizable.
And, in contrast to the vocal grandstanding
of a Beyoncé or a Mariah, you have four or five voices carefully blended to
sound like one (not to mention some virtuoso guitar playing).
The other thing I would point out,
of course, is that the Eagles’ best songs (“Hotel California” and “Life in the
Fast Lane” come to mind) are lyrically light years ahead of any Beyoncé song I
can think of, but I’m concerned primarily with the music here (and Beyoncé is
primarily a vocalist, not a songwriter).
Eagles songs are still being
performed, played, and listened to 40 years after they were first written. Can
you imagine saying that about a Beyoncé song?
