I wish the music sounded more...

Love Motown. I grew up on Motown. I **HATE** the music in this movie (I hate this movie, for that matter)!! I wanted to put a gun to my head and pull the trigger during this movie -- TWICE. Absolutely excruciating.

If I want to see a show about the Supremes (or some fictional 'Supreme-like' group), then I want to hear "The Supremes." Not what some 27 year old playwright who grew up in the 90s thinks "sounds" sort of like the Supremes!

To your post .. I couldn't agree more! "Mediocre" is actually a compliment!

The music was a not written in the 90s nor was it supposed to sound like Motown, it was supposed to sound like the 60s. The movie was adapted from a Broadway musical, written by a very talented composer.

I am in my 50s, I grew up during this time. I agree completely that the music doesn't sound like it came from the 60s. All of it sounds more like late 70s disco and R&B. Funny thing, the movie music tries to fix this, because the original stage arrangements from 1981 sound like pure 70s disco.

When someone writes music for a musical set in a different time, they have a choice of making the music contemporary or from the earlier period. I think in 1980, Henry Krieger decided to write music from 1980 so that it would sound fresh to the theater audiences.

Examples:

Hairspray (contemporary music)

Little Shop of Horrors (period music)



Years later, for a story about the music industry of the 60s and early 70s, the music sounds wrong to people who are familiar with the music.

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I thought the music was incredibly lame and boring... all sounded alike! I also love Motown classics but this movie filler was just blah.

The music is made for a musical, so it would never sound like Motown songs. The movie is based off the broadway show Dreamgirls. If you've every seen a musical on Broadway, you would understand why the music doesn't sound like what you would hear on the radio. The music was brilliant by the way.

When this score was first written in 1978/79, there was a concerted effort to make it NOT sound so much like Motown, for fear of lawsuits from Berry Gordy or Diana Ross. What came out instead was a hodgepodge of non-Motown 60s music (the score draws from Chuck Berry, James Brown, Etta James, and Wilson Pickett, though obviously there is still some strong Supremes influence in there). Most of the arrangements, however, have a strong 70s R&B/disco sound: "Steppin' to the Bad Side", for example, has _the_ definitive 70s disco shuffling high hat and sounds more like Chic ("Le Freak") than anything else.

The renditions of the songs in this film version sound more like Motown/60s music than the original versions ever did - the theme now has a Motown stomp, "Steppin'" goes gospel instead of disco, "Jimmy's Rap" sounds more like James Brown than Kurtis Blow, and "One Night Only" (Effie's version) draws directly from the glossy mid-70s R&B ballad style you might hear in a slow Temptations (Dennis Edwards version), Donna Summer or early Teena Marie record.

Still, even the film versions are hampered by the fact that they have to sound appealing to the MTV crowd that likes and buys a certain style of (heavily synthesized and pitch corrected) contemporary R&B rather than soul music. If you're no fan of "regular" Beyoncé or other pop-R&B music, this movie will be a tough sit-through.

Lol,I'm not too ashamed to say this but I saw this movie for the first time on ABC & I actually feel the same was you do. Even though the movie was decent I found myslef wanting to put ear plugs on because the music is unbearable. I'm a fan of old school music ,exspecially motown,you know motown had those great catchy melodies,hard hitting bass,but the music in the film sounded like music from a middle school urban play,not my cup of tea,but hey who am I to talk I'm not berry gory or some musical guru.