ADAM RUINS ROCK 'N' ROLL

Written by

Kelsey Amentt

Nora May and Jermaine Johnson 3 Arts Entertainment [email protected] 310-888-3200 INT. RECORD STORE - DAY CARL, 20s, black and inquisitive, and ESTEBAN, 20s, Hispanic and naive, search through rows of records. Each album has the face of a white front man or white group. Exasperated, Esteban and Carl go to the cashier. ESTEBAN Hey, man. Why do you only have white rock albums? The cashier turns around to REVEAL it’s ADAM. CARL Don’t you have any black rockers? ADAM Not really. Actually, Rock ‘n’ Roll is kinda racist. Or at least as much as America is. CARL What do you mean? ADAM (to camera) Well, it all began in the age when black session musicians losing jobs to white artists. Adam crosses in front of them and opens the back door to the record shop leading us into a...

INT. RECORDING STUDIO/RADIO ROOM - CONTINUOUS Sitting together, DUKE ELLINGTON, DIZZY GILLESPIE, and THELONIOUS MONK are jamming and recording as Adam looks on. ADAM (to camera) Trying to claim their own musical space, innovators like and the Dominoes started mixing gospel harmonies with R&B rhythms. DUKE That bass line is sick, Dizzy. THELONIOUS Who’s sick dizzy? DIZZY Billie Holiday from all that dope? 2.

ALAN FREED enters and takes the recording from the trio. At a corner desk, he puts the record on as an ON AIR sign lights. ADAM (to camera) This new style was heralded by white disc jockeys like Alan Freed who played this “race music” on his late-night show, “ Rock ‘n’ Roll Party”, coining the term. A flock of white teens enter, dancing. A RECORD PRODUCER passes through. He grabs three white teens, shoos our black trio out of the room, and records them playing instead. ADAM (CONT’D) (to camera) To capitalize on this, major recording companies began producing R&B based tunes with white artists, but no one wanted to listen to uptight white boys trying to swing. The Producer crosses to Alan and hands him their record. Alan throws it away. The Producer takes an album cover and blocks the face of a black artist with his thumb. He has an idea! ADAM (CONT’D) (to camera) So Sam Davis of Sun Records decided to market someone with “crossover potential”; a white musician with a deep voice and black gestures. That man was . ELVIS strolls in and gyrates. The teens and DJ faint. ADAM (CONT’D) Elvis and his hips opened the flood gates for white artists to “lift” from black music without blame.

INT. RECORD STORE - DAY Adam walks back into the record store to find Esteban and Carl. They walk through the store and pass by historical tableaus: BOB DYLAN stealing sheet music. ADAM (to camera) Dylan’s “Blowing in the Wind” is a rearrangement of a traditional anti- slavery song. 3.

They pass by PETE SEEGER who grips onto a rain stick. ADAM (CONT’D) (to camera) Pete Seeger’s “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” was a Zulu folk song from the 1930s. (to Carl and Esteban) If they gave black musicians credit, these songs could be considered homages. But instead white artists would rather just pay off the song owner than help their black peers. Like John Lennon did after being sued for copying Berry’s “You Can’t Catch Me” for “Come Together”. CARL But isn’t all music copied? ESTEBAN Yeah, like high school homework. ADAM Musicians inspire each other all the time! But look at cover songs. They cross and stop in front of a large shifting Billboard Chart. “I Shot the Sheriff” with Clapton’s name is on top. ADAM (CONT’D) “I Shot the Sheriff” was #1 for 14 weeks when Clapton covered it. Marley never even made the charts. By covering the song, Clapton took away any air time Marley might’ve had with it. Clapton’s name is replaced with Marley’s and drops off. CARL But why would white artists blatantly rip off black musicians? Didn’t they know they were hurting these people’s careers? ESTEBAN Or their feelings? ADAM Some musicians like Pat Boone denied it, others like the Rolling Stones were more honest but did nothing to change the status quo. 4.

MICK JAGGER struts out next to them. ADAM (CONT’D) (to camera) In an article written for Melody Maker in 1964, Mick Jagger said... MICK It’s the system that’s sometimes wrong. Girl fans, particularly, would rather have a copy by a British group than the original American version — mainly, I suppose, because they like the British blokes’ faces. Adam, Carl and Esteban go through a beaded entryway into...

INT. BIG EXECUTIVE OFFICE - CONTINUOUS Producer, BLACK ARTIST and a WHITE ARTIST stand at a desk. ADAM (to camera) Recording companies knew that and took advantage. They’d offer black musicians a flat fee for the song, and being unfamiliar with copyright laws, the artist would sign, collect, but get no royalties or future money off of its success. The Producer hands Black Artist some change and then hands the White Artist a stack of cash. ADAM (CONT’D) Even Alan Freed, the “father of Rock ‘n’ Roll” was caught up in this scandal. Certain producers gave him songwriting co-credits that entitled him to royalties in the hopes that he’d heavily promote those tunes on his own program. CARL Profiting off of artists who never saw a dime is shady, but things have changed now, right? ADAM Sort of. The issue with rock and roll is that it’s based in nostalgia. (MORE) 5. ADAM (CONT'D) Because of that, it’s left to the historians as to who gets written in and left out. JANN WENNER strolls in looking smug as the others exit. ADAM (CONT’D) (to camera) Look at Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine. His goal was... JANN To offer a savvy readership with what editors saw as material covering changes in rock & roll and the changes related to rock & roll. Graphic of magazine covers lining the walls appears. ADAM (to camera) But only about 13% of Rolling Stone covers feature someone who’s black. So out of 1,302 issues only 164 have a black person on the front. Close-up of covers of KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR and MUHAMMAD ALI. ADAM (CONT’D) (to camera) And some of the time they’re not even musicians. The black icons on the 1978 covers were Kareem Abdul- Jabbar and Muhammad Ali. The two icons shrug at each other. ADAM (CONT’D) (to camera) Not only that, but the portraits of black artists differed greatly from their white counterparts. Shift to covers of CHUCK BERRY, JIMI HENDRIX and TINA TURNER. ADAM (CONT’D) (to camera) Black artists were usually shot in action, defined by their physicality and sometimes the photos were blurry. JIMI Making us look like wild animals. 6.

ADAM (to camera) While white artists were shot more like portraits, having them look pensive and introspective. Shift to ERIC CLAPTON, GEORGE HARRISON, AND BOB DYLAN. BOB I think this pose exudes my genius. ESTEBAN So why don’t people appreciate black rockers now? After the fact. ADAM Because those who are able to rise above the system get remembered. Adam, Carl, and Esteban go back through the beaded entryway into...

INT. HALLWAY OF FAMOUS ROCKERS - CONTINUOUS A hallway lined with awards for white musicians. ADAM (to camera) The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame should be more representative of those who’ve contributed to the genre, but instead only 35.9% of the Performers inducted are black. Adam gestures to a golden record, “A Bunch of White Guys”. ADAM (CONT’D) Rock and Roll is considered to be part of our country’s foundation, and it is, but it’s also just as systemically racist as America itself. CARL I’ll just get an EDM album instead. The lights start strobing as Carl and Esteban take out a baggie of ecstasy. Adam snags the bag from them. Lights stop. ADAM Actually... END OF SCENE