Music documentary, more than just movie to music fans

“In a champagne supernova in the sky”

On Friday evening last week, a singing voice came out from a theater in Yeouido, Seoul. It was the voice of group singing of some 102 audience. You may think this would be a concert scene of a famous singer but it was not. This was the venue where the preview of “Supersonic,” a documentary movie of a world-famous English rock band Oasis was held. The distributing company of the movie prepared the venue for Oasis fans where they can sing all together. Tickets for the preview were put up for the public auction and sold out in just nine minutes.

Ruling the music world in the 1990s, Oasis has sold more than 70 million records with its seven regular albums. The movie “Supersonic” (to be released on Nov. 24) tells the story of Oasis from when it was first formed to when it shook Britain merely in three years since its first single album was released. Merely the news of an archive documentary that depicts family affairs of Liam and Noel Gallagher, why the band had to be disbanded due to discord between the brothers and secret stories of the troublemaker band have shook the heart of its fans. “I really looked forward to this preview as I could watch the monumental events of Oasis such as its first debut, TV interviews and more,” one of Oasis fans at the scene said.

An increasing number of music documentary movies have recently been released. For those who are not music lovers, these movies may not sound interesting. Avid fans of music, however, are enthusiastic about the movie as they can watch the behind stories and shows of their favorite musicians at a glance.

“The Beatles: Eight Days a Week,” documentary movie on the group's hidden story of four years from 1963 to 1966, was released last month. The charm of the movie is in a 30-minute long post-credits scene, which showed Beatles’ live performance at Shea Stadium in New York City on Aug. 15, 1965. Not a few fans were amazed to watch the movie as they felt as if they were at the actual scene back in 1965.

In August this year, “Miles Ahead” that describes the life of jazz musician Miles Davis attracted some 11,200 moviegoers in Korea. The movie tells the story of five years when Miles Davis disappeared out of his entire 30 years of music career. At the end of the movie showed an impressive piece of music where other great jazz musicians such as Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter who used to work with Davis and other musicians including Esperanza Spalding and Gary Clark Jr. played together. Although the movie was not a big hit in the market, viewers gave rave reviews by saying, “The music sound is worth every penny for the ticket” and “Even after the movie, his music still rings in my ears.”

Not a few analysts see that the golden days of music documentaries will continue for the time being thanks in large part to steady demand. “As music documentary means more than just a movie to music fans, its production and distribution is likely to continue,” distributing company of “Supersonic” said.

Sun-Hee Jang sun10@donga.com