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List Price: $19.99 | | Label: Payback Productions
Salesrank: 37550
Released: November 26, 2008 |
| Our Price: $19.99 |
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MPAA Rating: Unrated
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A documentary on the struggles of the black rock musician and the stigma they face in the black community and the music industry.
This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
Electric Purgatory Reviews:
Bitter and wrong 
2009-10-28 - Electric Purgatory is an interesting movie and it raises a lot of good questions. At the end I was left with an impression of how bitter and unhappy many of the featured artists seem. They are shown to blame everyone but themselves for not becoming successful, or for not maintaining their success.
The #1 target of their scorn is the record execs, whom they imply are racist. They blame the record labels for not promoting them enough or correctly. I dont think that the record labels are putting out much quality today but I dont think it has anything to do with racism. I dont think that they can afford to be racist considering the trouble the record industry is in. They have no ideals, they will promote anything that they think will sell.
The record company's job is marketing. One of the most important aspects in marketing is branding. But how exactly does a record label create a brand for bands such as Fishbone that don't neatly fit into a single category? According to their guitarist, their versatility is their brand. That's all well and good to say but how exactly do you market Fishbone with a finite marketing budget? Do you put ads in Rollingstone? Do you advertise to a primarily black audience when you know that Hip Hop is their primary interest and that they have traditionally shown no interest in rock?
I'm a lifelong hard rock music fan and was somewhat aware of Fishbone before eventually seeing them play on the Lollapalooza tour. I did not like them at all. The marketing execs are not to blame for that. No amount of advertizing would change my opinion. It just wasn't my style of music. Fishbone's music is so unlike anything else that it is not a very accessible style. It is just not going to appeal to a massive segment of the audience. Am I racist because I dont like Fishbone? The members of the band can blame whomever they want for their lack of success but in the end they have only themselves to blame. If they want to be true to their heart, they cant beyotch about not finding success. Throughout history many artists were not recognized until after their deaths and this goes for everyone from Van Gogh to Robert Johnson.
24-7 Spyz was also featured in the movie. I bought their debut album when it came out around 1990. It was decent but it did not have the same level of musicianship or pop hhok style songwriting that Living Colour had and I personally didn't care for it. When talking about his bands audience, Jimi Hazel said that in the beginning it was 90%+ white kids. Then he admitted that when the audience eventually became 50/50 some of the black audience was racist and resented the white fans coming to the shows, but as an artist he appreciated the white fans since they were all the band had when they started out.
Vernon Reid of Living Colour was pretty outspoken in his blaming the record company for not properly marketing his band. To me this made no sense. Right out of the box Living Colour's debut album became a hit. And it was a hit for a reason. Vernon Reid, Muzz Skillings, and Will Calhoun are all terrific musicians who put together an album with a lot of pop style hooks in their songs. They performed on SNL and opened for the Rolling Stones. Their second album won a Grammy. I'd say that the record company did a decent job marketing and promoting them wouldn't you?
Their 3rd album was much heavier and also less successful. It also was released in 1993. In 1993 most hard rock bands record sales took a dive because the buying public was scooping up Nirvana style grunge albums as fast as they could. Living Colour was the exact opposite of Nirvana. The frail looking Kurt Cobain wore a drab sweater onstage not a neon colored wetsuit. They were elite level musicians and Nirvana's music was nowhere near that level. Living Colour's fall from popularity had as much to do with the times as it did anything else. And at the same time their amazing bassist left the band.
There were some other more obscure (at least to me) black musicians and journalists interviewed. They were not shy and just came out and blamed white racism for black rocks lack of acceptance. They rambled on and on about white people not wanting black rock bands to be in a position of wealth and power like the Rolling Stones or AC/DC. This is a silly position to take considering that Barak Obama was elected to the most powerful office on earth by these same racist white folks.
They also kept making the point that people had forgotten that black people invented Rock and Roll. I have no idea if that statement is true among the black community but it does not apply to the white audience. That may have been the case in the 60's but not today or anytime in recent history.
For several decades, white audiences are just about the only people supporting rock and roll, black rock and roll, or blues. If it wasn't for this adoring and loyal white audience old blues artists like BB King, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker would not have gained the status they have and their contributions to music may have fallen into obscurity. This white audience is very aware of the history of Rock and Roll and its black pioneers. On the other hand, what percentage of black youth are listening and buying these "black" forms of music? How many black teens are familiar with Little Richard, Ike Turner, Chuck Berry and other black pioneers?
On the positive side, I think this is starting to change somewhat. I have hope that games like Guitar Hero may re-introduce the guitar and real musicianship to kids of all ethnicities.
So while this documentary was interesting, I disagreed with just about every point it tried to make.
most incisive and insightful commentary on american pop culture 
2008-12-17 - I happened across "Electric Purgatory" during a film festival in Houston. The title alone created intrigue for me. I saw it. Walking out of the theatre, I was literally amazed at the scope of the film and its unflinching sociopolitical critique on the sometimes mindless musical proclivities of the American public and corrosive corporate America's stranglehold on possibly America's greatest gift to the world aside from democracy and jazz: rock music. What makes the film all the more endearing is that the critique and criticism does not come from the filmmaker, but rather - the litany of iconic music artists and literary critics. No one likes a director taking to the pulpit and preaching to the audience. Director, Raymond Gayle lets the artists tell the story. And in telling the story, the artists tell us of their pain.
The artists take shots at rap music and how the black audience(wrapped in its faux black nationalism) has left their rock music, a genre created by blacks. The criticisms are not measured, but they are dead-on correct. It also opened my eyes to rock artists that I have never heard of like 24-7 Spyz and some black heavy metal acts. All these groups are bona-fide talents. They are not black caricatures posing as artists. They are the real deal. I was impressed by the film and its scope. I mean, this film was so exhaustive in its coverage - I truly believe it could be taught in a college course or at least viewed by a college audience. One of my favorite quotes from the movie, "I feel like this was the decade of being black and we were not invited!" The remark is in reference to the popularity of rap music from the mid '90's to 2005. Great quote.
I think other people would be moved by the information provided in this film about the music industry and the struggles of being a black rock musician in a white dominated genre that was created by black people. If that isn't a mind-wreck for any struggling artists, I don't know what's out there. Solid job. I had no idea it was on Amazon. I bought it, dude. Anyone who loves music and views themselves and a music fan and music scholar, should rent this or buy it. But either way, you have to see it.
