Worth seeing reportage, but a few things caught my eye:
The story told has gaps, especially when it comes to the most important details:
Farian supposedly finished the song and then he argues with Rob Pilatus and tells them they won't sing. Why?
There's something missing.
I still remember when the scandal broke and the media reported how embarrassing the two of them sang: I thought the media criticism was exaggerated because of the similarity in their voices.
Today I know, it was the blame game of the media machine, that make money off young people wanting to become stars and are willing to do everything for it.
Thankfully, you can hear it clearly again in this documentary: The similarity in timbre is absolutely there.
Both in singing and in rapping.
Frank Farian is a perfectionist.
If you pay close attention, the gaps in the story and the similarity of the voice make it plausible that he probably tried the vocals with both of them:
Why should he have played the instrumental for both of them and not tried the vocals?
It seems much more plausible to me that vocal recordings were of course attempted - why not? It was his studio, everything was there, no extra costs.
But the level he expected as a perfectionist was not there.
If you listen to the songs today, you'll see that they are incredibly well produced. EVERYTHING just fits.
That's what bothers me about the report: Black and white.
Now instead of the two Vanillis, Farian is essentially made into the bogeyman.
Another question I ask myself: Who paid for the drug withdrawal?
And why is Rob close to Frank's lover?
Most people are only interested in films and music as consumers.
But the makers of music and films not only know the reality of show business, but also what makes the masses of consumers tick. They want idols and identify with them. And we get that.
All you have to do is listen to what the boomer generation says about the Beatles or Stones... As if Flower Power, Peace, Love & Rock'n Roll were ever authentic and Tavistock and Laurel Canyon never existed. As if youth culture, in the age of mass media, just emerged like that...
The moral of the story shouldn't be that Frank Farian is the villain who got away scot-free - the moral should be that the pursuit of fame destroys people.
Farian supposedly finished the song and then he argues with Rob Pilatus and tells them they won't sing. Why?
There's something missing.
I still remember when the scandal broke and the media reported how embarrassing the two of them sang: I thought the media criticism was exaggerated because of the similarity in their voices.
Today I know, it was the blame game of the media machine, that make money off young people wanting to become stars and are willing to do everything for it.
Thankfully, you can hear it clearly again in this documentary: The similarity in timbre is absolutely there.
Both in singing and in rapping.
Frank Farian is a perfectionist.
If you pay close attention, the gaps in the story and the similarity of the voice make it plausible that he probably tried the vocals with both of them:
Why should he have played the instrumental for both of them and not tried the vocals?
It seems much more plausible to me that vocal recordings were of course attempted - why not? It was his studio, everything was there, no extra costs.
But the level he expected as a perfectionist was not there.
If you listen to the songs today, you'll see that they are incredibly well produced. EVERYTHING just fits.
That's what bothers me about the report: Black and white.
Now instead of the two Vanillis, Farian is essentially made into the bogeyman.
Another question I ask myself: Who paid for the drug withdrawal?
And why is Rob close to Frank's lover?
Most people are only interested in films and music as consumers.
But the makers of music and films not only know the reality of show business, but also what makes the masses of consumers tick. They want idols and identify with them. And we get that.
All you have to do is listen to what the boomer generation says about the Beatles or Stones... As if Flower Power, Peace, Love & Rock'n Roll were ever authentic and Tavistock and Laurel Canyon never existed. As if youth culture, in the age of mass media, just emerged like that...
The moral of the story shouldn't be that Frank Farian is the villain who got away scot-free - the moral should be that the pursuit of fame destroys people.