Alright friends, let’s begin this by saying that I am currently watching the limited series adaptation of Daisy Jones & the Six. If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know that I listened to the audiobook early last year and was quite impressed with the voice acting, but felt otherwise about the story. I’m feeling a bit more nuanced this time around, though the actors are growing on me.
What is Rock Fiction?
Here’s a little bit of a history lesson for those who are much younger than I am. Sometime in the mid 90s to early 2000s there was a number of films and books that were coming out either directly based on a band in existence, about a made-up band, or about something like a record store. It’s worth keeping in mind that for the entirety of the 80s, what dominated the airwaves was this mix of disco, synth-based pop and heavy metal. If you were listening to something outside of these genres, it was called “alternative music” and this was largely a huge array of different types of guitar-based and synth-based sounds.
In the 90s with the advent and aftermath of grunge, different types of previously-underground sounds started making their way up to the mainstream. In particular, types of punk rock, grunge, trip hop and alternative rock developed into a more cohesive sound. This is what is now most often referred to as ‘alternative rock/alternative music’.
While this was happening, Hollywood hopped onto the bandwagon and started putting out movies where this generation of music lovers, called Gen X, got to see themselves and those bands they loved in various iterations. They usually incorporated music by known bands, cover songs and sometimes even original music. Often times these films were fun, featured a romance and clearly identified an era (usually, the 90s, but sometimes the 70s or 80s too).
Daisy Jones & the Six
I’m going to step away from my history lesson for a moment to talk about this show, and then I’m going to give a list of films that did this kind of story much, much better (and are consequently some of my favourite films ever made).
From what I’ve seen so far, there’s a little bit lacking on how these characters are portrayed that came across quite well in the audiobook. The level of “grunge” and “sleaze” feels reduced. I think anyone who grew up during any kind of rock era knows that there was absolutely no polish to anything people did. In this case, you’re writing about rock music people in the 70s with major drug and alcohol problems, and as much as we’re given these scenes of Daisy and the band’s benders, there’s something about the actors and writing that isn’t translating the level of chaos and disregard, as well as how this would look. I appreciate that they tried to match the beauty standards of the time to some degree, though still falling short in some ways as the actors are too good looking (also, what the heck, Billy Dunn looks like Andrew Eldritch in a few scenes with his shades on). I think also, that while the character does have this mix of innocence, frailty and a wild streak, Riley Keough seems like she’s missing the way Daisy comes through in intensity, and Jennifer Beals did a far better job, in my opinion.
Listen, I didn’t love all aspects of the Daisy Jones story for my own personal reasons. I understand that it was heavily inspired by the early Fleetwood Mac’s recording of Rumours, but that didn’t make it feel any more solid to me. This adaptation is, rather, a strange kind of blend of contemporary influences (too much folk and country, if you ask me) and some watered down version of the 70s. Did we have that in earlier generations? You know, we probably did. Somehow it feels like the further we get away from that decade, the more lost we are about what it looked, sounded and felt like, though.
Films Depicting a Rock Band and/or The Seventies and/or a Record Store That Were Genuinely Good
- Velvet Goldmine
- Almost Famous
- High Fidelity
- Hedwig & the Angry Inch
- Control
- Sid & Nancy
- Singles
- Dazed & Confused
- Empire Records
There are a couple other ones that are more experimental in who they’re depicting. I haven’t rewatched most of these in a long time. However, I did do a rewatch of Empire Records, Dazed & Confused and Almost Famous a few years ago and they are still great, some even better than I remember.
The one thing I will add though, about the Daisy Jones limited series and why I’m still glad it got made, is that a lot of these older movies are about white men. A couple are about LGBT white men. The women in these movies are love interests, groupies, or shown as sexual conquests. And sure, that’s what it might have been like in real life too, but there was an entire movement of women-fronted rock and punk bands in the 90s and none of them got a narrative film made about them, let alone a fictional version half inspired by them.
I think it’s cool that Taylor Jenkins Reid wrote this book, that it got made into a limited series, and I honestly hope it spurs a re-emergence of this genre! I will also add that while I wish it was better, it’s still pretty fun, and maybe I’m just speaking from nostalgia when I say that these other films were made more truthfully. After all, I was a 90s teen, not a 70s teen. But those years had a lot more in common than even the 90s does to now (which is a bit scary to realize).
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