Across the Mamma Mia
I was thinking the other day, other than The Beatles and ABBA, which bands/singers deserve to have parts of their discography translated to film. Don’t know why exactly, but the first that comes to mind would have to be The Who. I can just picture them being able to create a rock opera of some sort.
I don’t like to say I have a favourite singer per se, but since Sia ranks pretty high up on my list, I’ll use her music. I can’t see her music being used in a comedy at all. It’s not a bad thing though, her melodies and lyrics could create a fantastic drama.
I could see the Sia musical starting out with “Beautiful Calm Driving” with a lonely girl sulking yet singing at her passenger side window. Cut to her singing “Sunday” in a rainbow cocaine forest (she’s tripping out) because she copes with her recent breakup with the love of her life with drugs. FLASHBACK SCENE: The lighthearted “Buttons” is sung simultaneously to encapsulate adolescence by her and her best friend, and the male main and his best friend (think: “Summer Nights” in Grease).
“Sweet Potato” is now sung by the girl and her nascent lover with each singing their own parts (the song is pretty much a ballad with, lyrically, two different speakers). The girl/guy (not sure which one will be the way-too-focused university character in the movie) will sing “Academia” to also foreshadow troubles ahead. Finally, “Moon” will be played to end the relationship and flashback sequence. “I Go To Sleep” brings us back to the main character in present time to show her internal struggle with her state. She goes to sleep, saddened.
The girl hums a bit of “Lullaby” (I don’t think it could fit into the movie as a standalone song) and is then quickly force out of it by her best friend into the chorus of: “The Girl You Lost To Cocaine” or “Little Black Sandals”. This can be sung by any of the leads to show they’re moving on. Eventually the two lovers meet up again and duet on “Soon We’ll Be Found”. Awww.
“Electric Bird” and “Day Too Soon”, possibly for supporting characters development, “Breathe Me” (maybe), “The Church Of What’s Happening Now”, and, “Where I Belong” all have to be included somehow. “Where I Belong” should be sung by a supporting character(s) to end the the movie while also somehow showing all the characters are okay (montage/picture-book-thing like in the “Breathe Me” music video possibly?) and to give the character(s) their ‘own’ song. The End.
That was surprisingly a lot of fun creating and now I’m very tempted to go about doing this. Other musicians’ music I can see being turned into a musical include Bob Dylan (that’d be very easy to do), The Verve, Tim McGraw (…somehow), Feist, which, if you’ve seen any of her music videos, you know would be so cool to see in movie format, R.E.M., Evanescence, and Bob Marley (now that would be interesting to see).
I’m sure you can do any band or singer, really. It’s a given the lyrics and sound of certain songs would have to be slightly changed but it’s usually nothing to worry about. They generally end up being fun sights to watch… ahem, over and over again.