5000 word dissertation

 How useful are music documentaries in exploring the impacts of fame?

I began my project with the title of 'what are the negative impacts of fame? 'and my intention was to do secondary research around the lives of celebrities and how fame changed them but as i was researching I realized it would be more useful to talk about both sides of fame, the negatives and the positives. Then I found a useful way to research the lives of celebrities was through watching documentaries about them. I then realized the best way for me to record my research was by using primary research and making my own notes about each documentary that I watched as well as including critical reviews about each one from viewers. perspectives. I then realized that most of the documentaries that i was watching revolved around the music industry so it would be better to focus on the music industry. I then began to notice the different ways that each documentary presented the celebrities and adapted my project to be 'How useful are music documentaries in exploring the impacts of fame?' because then I saw how there are different ways of presenting celebrities and hidden reasons behind their portrayal and therefore some documentaries are more useful than others.

When watching documentaries it was important to consider certain ways that celebrities try to make themselves look good as some documentaries are used to show real experiences whilst others are just used to boost a persons popularity ,this can depend on how popular they are already and what stage they are in their career.Ive found out that there may be more than one reason to have a docuemntary made,whether you chose to have it made or whether someone wanted to make it about you.Not only is there not always only 1 reason , but sometimes it may be for an unexpected reason.I have also found out that many celebrities play a very large part in the making of their documentary,this may be because in this day and age everyone is cautious that saying one wrong thing or making one wrong move will completely change their repuatation.Overall,I have found out that the documentaries may not always actually just be useful for telling us about the celebrity but also tell the audience why they even want to make one and what they really want from fame and how they use their fame-for themselves,for good or for selfishness.This links to my ultimate question of hhow useful documentaries are in exploring the impacts of fame because I have found out that to some people they may not be useful but if they are portrayed in the right way they can give a genuine insight into how people are affected by fame but I have also found out that they can sometimes do the opposite and only be made in order to create sympathy or for a celebrity to show their achievemnets.

I focused on certain celebrities to be able to compare how different documentaries are portrayed.One of my main examples was Lady Gaga.Her documentary may be slightly biased because the director was Chris Moukarbel who is linked to her manager which means that her portrayal obviously wouldnt make her look negative towards fans.However this could be opposed because the director said he had a lot of freedom when making the documentary. This documentary gave me an insight into her real experiences in my opinion which shows that music documentaries are helpful in showing the reality of fame because it dives into her personal experiences,some of which may be too personal says The New Yorker which says it made them feel uncomfortable. However this does link to my question of their usefulness as if even a critic who critiques many documentaries feels uncomfortable about how open Lady Gaga is in her documentary it proves it gains insight. I noticed similarities between many of the documentaries as I noticed that most were centred around mental health.One example of this in specific is the Robbie Williams documentary.

Unlike 'Five foot Two' which was about Lady Gaga , Robbie Williams documentary was made as parts.It digs deep into old clips of his career and he is very honest when speaking about Take That.In my opinion this documenatry is effective in exploring the impacts of fame as it is clear that he is actually being honest as he says the opposite of what his fans wouldve preferred him to say.The documentary is also filmed in his own bedroom which shows he is not glamourising his life hes honestly showing what its like to be him without wanting either sympathy or jealousy from the public.Some critics question whether we learn anything new from this documentary which could be a valid question as obviously Robbie Williams has already been in the limelight so its hard to think we can dig any deeper ,however I do still think this documntary was a way of him piecing everything together and being able to show us as the public what its really like to have a large amount of fame at a young age and then have it drop and rise throughout the rest of someones life.He also expresses how sometimes the fame actually made him forget his real purpose of singing,it was to entertain.This documentary includes him reflecting as of now because at the time he wont have wanted to disappoint fans in expressing his real feelings about the band but now he is comfortable enough.This also is useful to showing the impacts of fame as celebrities as as a viewer it makes me question the difference between now and in the past and it shows at certain times in a musicians career they may need to put on a facade to contnue gaining and maintaining their fame.It then shows how once celebrities get to a certain age they dont care as much ,this may be because theyve realised its not all it seems.

A documentary that I found similar to Robbie Williams docuementary was simply complicated by Demi Lovato.This was made in a similar way as unlike most celebrity documentarys it was also made in episodes rather than as a full film.This may have been to emphasise different chapter of her life.Obviously unlike Robbbie Williams Demi is still quite young and may hope this is only the beginning of her career.This means that her documentary ,whilst it may be to help her settle her life like Robbie it also may have other intentions suc as trying to gain sympathy to maintain a good public image as well as grow her career.This can also be seen in the fact that it came out at the same time as her sixth album and she was the executive producer giving her power over her portrayal.This therefore raises the question of how reliable music documentaries are. Critics also said that her focus is to be popular rather than enjoy making music and that it veers back and fourth over what she wants to reveal.The documentary also shows her charity work but critics also saw this as a ploy to get more support for herself.However fans said they loved her openess about her past.However this will have been exactly what she anted fans to think so that they could think that shes been fully honest and that shes even maybe relateable to them to therefore have a reliable fan base rather than actually being truthful about everything .This shows that music documentaries arent effective in showing the impacts of fame but at the same time it proves they are as the way this documenatry was amde shows how negative fame can be for a celebrity as even though she might not know it fame is pushing Demi to want more and more of it to the point where she exaggerates and actually shows herself differently just in order to gain more fans.

Another documentary made in a similar way is Seasons by Justin Bieber .This documentary series was very long which shows he wanted to show a lot.It is true that Bieber has had a lot of mental health issues and has had a hard time being in the spotlight since he was young.This documentary was therefore useful in xploring the negative impacts of fame on a child superstar .It effectively explains how he now uses music as a way to express himself after all these years of such big fame through the new ways of being able to follow peoples lives through social media.He speaks about how overwheming it was for him which teaches us that even though his fans may think he has an amazing life it makes it clear that fame is not for evrybody,especially not younger people.He then speaks about how his wife has chnaged his life and how he much prefers to just do what he loves at his own pace.This makes me think that his documentary genuinely does show his struggles however because he is a young star still with a large fan base I still think its likely that everything he did in the documenatry was for a reason , not just to show his autobiography.

A documentary with a commpletely different approach was Wham! I found this documentary different to the others as it clearly wasnt for extra spotlight as Andrew Ridgely doesnt have a career in singing anymore,it definitely seemed like a way to remember his career as well as showing the life of George Michael who died before the making the documentary.