The Stories about Music Films: 30. A Star Is Born (2018)

Basic Info

Title: A Star Is Born

Genre: Drama

Country: United States

Language: English

Running time: 136 minutes

Release date: August 31, 2018 (Venice), October 5, 2018 (United States)

Staff

Director: Bradley Cooper

Producer: Bill Gerber, Jon Peters, Bradley Cooper, Todd Phillips, Lynette Howell Taylor

Written by: Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters

Cinematography: Matthew Libatique

Edited by: Jay Cassidy

Cast

Lady Gaga as Ally Maine

Bradley Cooper as Jackson "Jack" Maine

Andrew Dice Clay as Lorenzo

Rafi Gavron as Rez Gavron

Anthony Ramos as Ramon

Dave Chappelle as George "Noodles" Stone

Sam Elliott as Bobby Maine

Greg Grunberg as Phil

Summary

“A Star Is Born” is a 2018 American romantic musical drama film directed by Bradley Cooper in his directorial debut. Starring Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Dave Chappelle, Andrew Dice Clay, and Sam Elliott, the film tells the story of an alcoholic musician (Cooper) who finds and falls in love with a young female singer (Gaga). This film is the fourth filmed version of 1937 film, after the 1954 musical and the 1976 musical.

A Star Is Born (1937)

A Star Is Born (1954)

A Star Is Born (1976)

In 2011, plans to create a remake of the 1937 and 1954 versions of “A Star Is Born,” directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Beyoncé, began, but the film was in development hell for several years with searching for casts, including Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lopez, Will Smith, and Tom Cruise. Then, in March 2016, Bradley Cooper signed on to star and direct, and Lady Gaga joined the cast of the film in August 2016. The main filming began at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2017.

The film, which premiered at the 75th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2018, was theatrically released in the United States by Warner Bros on October 5, 2018. The film was nominated for eight categories at the 91st Academy Awards, and Lady Gaga won Best Original Song for "Shallow".

Movie Review

“This was a good movie but not a great movie”

“The Lady Is a Star”

“A Star Is Born”

“Awesome debut for Cooper's direction and Gaga's acting in a long-featured film”

“A love story mixed with pain, addiction, fame, and tragedy”

Interesting stories about the film

1. Bradley Cooper said Lady Gaga convinced him that everyone in the film should sing live. This caused Cooper to get more extensive vocal training.

2. Like his character Jackson, Bradley Cooper suffered both alcoholism and drug addiction. He spoke publicly about how sobriety saved his life and career.

3. Some scenes from the film were shot at the 2017 Coachella Festival, where Lady Gaga was the first female headliner in 10 years. Festival participants paid ten dollars to see the scenes being filmed, but recording devices were banned to prevent video leakage.

4. For the role of Jackson Maine, Bradley Cooper learned to play the guitar from Lukas Nelson, son of Willie Nelson.

5. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on August 31, 2018, and Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper received a standing ovation for eight minutes after the screening.

Thank you.

Movie Trailer

Amazon Author Page

Lecture Program List

YouTube

Korean Blog

Naver TV

Naver Post

61. History of Pop Music: 6. 2000s, ACJ Music Academy

How are you?

Following the last week, I am going to start my 61st lecture.

The lecture topic for this week is “Pop Music in 2000s”. It is a summary of the contents of “61st ACJ Music Academy, History of Pop Music: 6. 2000s”, which was introduced on September 10, 2016.

Unlike the previous period, the 2000s was a period when many musical styles were not created or didn’t appear except for some genres such as Emo. Teen Pop continued its popularity in this period as singers such as Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera dominated the music charts at the beginning of this period. The music genre that was absolutely popular for most of this period was Hip hop, but Rock music was still popular, especially alternative rock, post grunge, nu metal, pop punk and emo. Country music was still a popular music genre at this period.

Hip hop was most popular pop music genre in the early 2000s. Eminem, the most famous of the few successful white rappers of this period, enjoyed tremendous popularity and commercial success. According to the Billboard charts, the two albums released by Eminem were included in the five best-selling albums in the 2000s. After the release of the album “Relapse,” Eminem was recorded as the best-selling rapper of all time and became a leader in album sales at this period across all musical genres.

Eminem

In case of Rock, in 2002, Avril Lavigne became the most famous artist, who entered a new musical genre called Pop punk to the mainstream in the pop music field, with her hits such as "Complicated" and "Sk8er Boi".

Avril Lavigne

In the early 2000s, people started to focus their interest in Rap Metal and Rap Rock, a style similar to the genre called Nu Metal, which appeared as a new wave in the Metal field. Nu Metal's popularity began in the late 1990s, and the genre began to be introduced by early music of the bands such as Korn, Deftones, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot and Coal Chamber.

With the success of Korn's third studio album, “Follow The Leader,” Nu Metal entered the mainstream. Rap Rock gained popularity with artists such as System of a Down, Evanescence, Stained, Papa Roach and Disturbed.

Korn

Evanescence

Emo entered the mainstream in the early 2000s when Jimmy Eat World's album “Bleed American” recorded platinum sales. The new Emo gained more popularity among adolescents than before, while the use of the term “Emo” expanded beyond the field of music, being linked to other cultures such as fashion and hairstyles. Artists who were popular in the Emo genre at this period were Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Panic! At The Disco.

Jimmy Eat World

Paramore

During this period, the girl groups continued popularity along with The Pussycat Dolls and Destiny's Child. Pop rock artist Pink released her debut album "Can't Take Me Home" in 2000, and at this period, she sold over 70 million single albums including "Get the Party Started", "Stupid Girls”, and "So What". 

The Pussycat Dolls

Pink

Lady Gaga appeared at this period and revived the popularity of Electronic music that had not been a popular genre since 2000. Her debut album, “The Fame (2008),” ranked no.1 in Canada, Austria, Germany, the UK and Ireland, and no.1 on the Billboard Top Electronic Albums chart. The songs "Just Dance" and "Poker Face" included in this album became worldwide hits and ranked no.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Lady Gaga

Country music continued its popularity during this period as well, and one of the most successful new artists during this period was Carrie Underwood. In 2005, Underwood became the first American idol Winner among singers whose main genre is country rather than Pop, Rap, or Rhythm and Blues.

Carrie Underwood

You can also review this lecture from following media.

Related Music

Amazon Author Page

Lecture Program List

YouTube

Blog (Korean)

Naver TV

Naver Post

Next week, I will start another topic entitled “The History of Rock”, which will last 12 weeks.

Thank you.