Almost Too Famous

This past week's lecture, readings and film, had an obvious theme of females associating with the listening and appreciating aspect of phonographs/music and males listening, but also collecting. While there were many examples of films and texts that tried to break or broke female stereotypes, it didn't seem like there were as many for male stereotypes. Looking back at some films people have brought up in the past on the blog, I'm resurrecting "Almost Famous." Based on Cameron Crowe's life, there is definitely a theme in the film of music appreciation as opposed to fetishism and collection. Penny Lane and her "band-aids" distinguish themselves from the groupies, because they're really there for the music (or so they claim) their affairs with the rockstars are "completely separate." More importantly though, we see the male music fans in the film as Lester Bangs and William Miller. While they do have their own record collections, it at least seems like their collections contain albums that they love to listen to, not just albums that they love to own. Does their appreciation "feminize" them or does it just attempt to break the gender stereotype? Maybe this case is completely different considering Lester and William are both music journalists, so maybe they listen to the music in a different way than the typical male. Think about though, the first time William really listens to rock music. His sister has just left home and all he has left to remember her is her music collection. It seems like it would be a form of connection, but instead it turns out to be more of a form of education. William sees the note she left "Listen to Tommy with a candle burning and you'll see your entire future," and he follows these directions trying to learn from his sister how he should listen to music and appreciate it. It turns out though, that he learns this on his own through his analysis of music and through his writing. He cares more about putting his appreciation down in words than in seeing it collecting dust on a shelf. Lester on the other hand is a snobby rock critic that, as a mentor to William, helps him recognize his inner music nerd. When he goes on a radio show, he criticizes the DJ's choice in music and puts on what he thinks people should be listening to. Both characters seem to break the gender stereotype because for each of them it's a way for them to embrace their inner "losers" as Lester says. It's an emotional connection to the music that both of them have, not a physical or analytical connection. Their collections are merely just collections of music they continually listen to, not collections of dust.