If you’re a woman in the music industry, it’s been well documented for decades just how hard this can be. From volatile relationships with managers, to sexism and to how they are framed by the media; being a female musician is never just about the music.
In recent years there has been an explosion of documentaries centred on the world’s most famous women, shown from their point of view. Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and, most recently, Shania Twain have all released films that let audiences peak into their lives, usually during pivotal moments of their career. All of these films have been incredibly popular, not just among the stars’ fanbase, but with wider audiences, too. Documentaries such as these make audiences feel like they are part of pop culture history and gaining a new perspective on something they lived through. For the women who have been performing for decades, they have a particular appeal to millennials and older Gen-Zs who might have remembered the events at the time but not the specifics. For example, the recent Janet Jackson documentary shed a new light on her and Justin Timberlake’s Super Bowl performance; an event that caused huge harm to her career yet Timberlake’s popularity only rocketed. Making us everyday folk feel part of something so impactful in terms of pop culture, not only hits us with a sense of nostalgia, but also invites us to critique these moments through a new lens. When you’re put in that position, it’s easier to relate to the subject matter and what really happened at the time. These documentaries have also given the women a voice that was perhaps previously stifled. The #MeToo movement and projects such as Everyday Sexism have opened up conversations across industries on the misogyny that women have experienced. This has long been rife in the music industry and a central theme that threads these documentaries together. Shania Twain’s success was accredited to her husband, Jennifer Lopez’s relationships have been repeatedly dissected and, of course, all these women have been branded as divas at some point. Admittedly, these types of films can be viewed as a PR but they are still giving a woman’s take on events that may have previously been at the behest of the media. It’s a biased viewpoint but at least it’s hers and audiences can unpick the facts for themselves. After all, don’t we all want to be in charge of our own stories?
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