Michigan's Culture: "Dreamgirls" Movie

Name Subject Professor Date Ford, is one of the famous car brands and it has been first created and produced in the home of Henry Ford in Detroit Michigan in 1896 (“Michigan”, n.d). Aside from being the home of the American Automobile Industry, some of the US most scenic destination can be seen in Michigan (“Michigan”, n.d). It is also known as a Great Lake State for it borders four of the five great lakes which gives the state the second longest freshwater coastline in the Country after Alaska (“Michigan’, n. d.). The state that now have 9.9 million people had its largest City, Detroit, as the fourth largest US city in 1940 (“Michigan”, n.d). How we dress, how we speak, how we interact with people and the things we used in the interaction is part of our culture. This is because culture is usually defined as a way of life (“Culture”, n. d). Michigan’s culture is very rich and deep for it has arts, music, and ethnic culture (“Arts and Culture”, n. d.). Michigan’s culture in music is particularly rich. It was the birthplace of Mowtown, a record company, and had produced a long list of famous bands and singers such as, The Supremes, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Eminem and so on (“Motown, The Sound that changed America”, n. d.). One great film representation of this culture and its development is the award-winning movie Dreamgirls which is loosely based on the story of the famous trio of women singers, The Supremes (Beckman, 2007). This was released in theatres on December 26, 2006 and was directed by Bill Condon (“Dreamgirls 2006”, n. d.). It had an all-star cast of Beyonce Knowles, Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose, Jamie Fox and Eddie Murphy (“Dreamgirls 2006”, n. d.). It is a successful film which had been nominated and received a lot of Awards including, Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild Awards, AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, AFI Awards, African American Film Critic Association, Alliance of Women Film Journalist and a lot more (“Dreamgirls, Awards”, n. d.). The development of the African Music Industry can be seen in this movie for it was set in the 1960s and 1970s were Blacks still do not have the same opportunities as the Whites in this industry and Black clubs and White clubs still existed. It is significantly part of our culture and history thus it is entertaining as well as educational to watch. The Dreamgirls movie portrayed African American Music, a little of Detroit history and the African American culture as a whole. As discussed above, the movie is about a group of three Black women and their life in the music industry. It opened in an amateur R& B Talent show in 1962 at the Detroit Theatre where the Black women, Effie, Deena and Lorrell participated in as a group with the name “The Dreamettes” but did not win. They met a car salesman, Curtis Taylor Jr. Curtis who had known that Jimmy “Thunderbird” Early of Chitlin Circuit, an R&B Singer is in need of new backup singers. With a little manipulation, he became the new manager of The Dreamettes and had arranged them to be backup singers for Jimmy which extended to an on the road musical tour. Curtis then started Rainbow Records as his own record label from his car dealership and appointed, C. C, Effie’s brother as his head songwriter. Yet, the first record they made failed when a cover version was released by a white pop group. Thus, Curtis together with C.C and Wayne their producer, made “Jimmy Early and The Dreamettes” mainstream popstars through a payola. Effie and Curtis had a relationship off stage as well as Lorrell and Jimmy despite Jimmy having a wife. Marty had a fight with Curtis about Jimmy’s career which made Marty quit. Curtis also secured a spot for Jimmy and the Dreamettes in an all-white Miami Beach Supper Club but when Jimmy performed indecently in front of the audience, Curtis let him tour alone but kept the Dreamettes behind to star in his place. He also made the slimmer Deena, the lead singer instead of Effie as the latter’s curvy figure might not attract the white audience and change their name to “The Dreams”. They became a top-selling mainstream pop star group but around 1965, Effie was not feeling well and acted out especially since Curtis affection had already been transferred to Deena thus Curtis dropped her off the group replacing her with her secretary Michelle despite her great objection. The Dreamettes, with the help of C.C and the management of Curtis continued to soar while unknown to them Effie had a child and was living through Welfare. When Effie finally wanted to fixed her life, she turned to Marty, Jimmy’s old manager for help and was able to perform in a local club. By then, Rainbow record, Deena Jones, which was already Curtis’ wife and The Dreams Superstars are now based on Angeles and was already successfully famous in the pop business. This made Curtis venture into producing a film about Cleopatra to be played by Deena yet she has other movie role in mind. On the 10th year Anniversary of Rainbow records, Jimmy performed on stage but ended it badly prompting Curtis to fire him and Lorrell to break up with him. He died on a heroin overdose the next day. On the other hand, C.C also had quit the company because he did not like how Curtis change his music and eventually reconciled with Effie. He then wrote Effie a song for her first record solo a...