The Musician and the Recording Studio: Satirical Perspectives in Film and Television

Abstract

This article explores the relationship between musicians and recording studios in a range of satirical screen works. For two decades, there has been a debate about the necessity of professional recording studios amid increasingly sophisticated home recording technology. Against this backdrop, I examine scenarios featuring fictional, real, and adapted musician figures whose activities in the studios reveal « the musician’s status in society and/or the microcosm in which he or she evolves », among other issues identified in the call for papers.
Included are portrayals of popular musical genres whose milieus are ripe for satirical readings. Docudrama 24 Hour Party People (2002) spans fifteen years of Manchester’s alternative music scene, and its studio scenes parallel the excesses and deathly aesthetics of the period. Documentary Some Kind of Monster (2004) is an observational portrait of a rock band (Metallica) whose studio time is dominated by the psyches of wealthy musicians requiring a therapist to mediate their battle of wills. Finally, pseudo-documentary I’m Still Here (2010), mockumentary People Just Do Nothing (2014-2018), and serialized comedy Atlanta (2016-present) upend the mystique of rappers’ public personas by laying bare the delusion and illusion involved in pursuing commercial success in hip-hop and rap genres.