Okay confession time. The music of Rick Springfield is not foreign to me. His incredibly popular hit "Jessie's Girl" was #1 on the Billboard 100 charts when I was 16 years old. I have two sisters who are slightly younger than me and they had the typical "Tiger Beat" magazine-style crush on the guy back then. They would play his records non-stop but they got over him. Which is exactly the opposite of the people (or rabid fans) presented in this documentary.
My confession of being quite familiar with Rick Springfield must also include that even as my sisters swooned over him I heard something within his music that I liked. That something is that Springfield can write an awesome pop tune. And while "Jessie's Girl" remains one of the finest Rock/Pop (or "Power Pop") songs to come out of the '80s he wrote a lot of incredible catchy guitar driven music. There's something about crunchy power chords and stick-in-your-head choruses that I've loved since I could afford an album collection. In fact I think I own seven or eight of his albums from both the early '80s to his latest from 2012.
Still there's some scary behavior displayed by the hard-core fans seen in this "Rock"-umentary. There's no doubt that the music means something to them as they all give reasons some rather touching about their obsession.
I mentioned my appreciation for his music as a way to set up my bewilderment about theirs. Everyone has had the experience of a song "bringing you back" or stirring up that feeling of nostalgia from within. These "Rick-sters" though they take it to the next level. It's not unlike self-proclaimed super fans of other artists whether they be musicians or movie stars. It's a dependency that's hard to understand but it's not exclusive to Rick Springfield. Think "Star Wars" or Jimmy Buffett or Justin Bieber. It's all the same regardless of age or gender.
Another thing Springfield touches on his struggles with depression drugs infidelity and other troubles that have plagued him. Here's a news flash...it's not unique. If these are attempts made to legitimize him through experiencing these struggles it rings a little hollow. All the legitimacy in the world is on display when the documentary covers his performance at a heavy metal festival in Sweeden. Talk about a square peg in a round hole. But surprise! It appears that those metal-heads liked what he was doing.
Look I'm not beating up on him. It's just that most people have and will never reach the levels of success that Springfield has and it would have been decent to focus more on that and leave a little of the tear-jerking stuff on the cutting room floor.
Review by whitsbrainVIP 5BlockedParent2022-01-15T16:16:14Z
Okay confession time. The music of Rick Springfield is not foreign to me. His incredibly popular hit "Jessie's Girl" was #1 on the Billboard 100 charts when I was 16 years old. I have two sisters who are slightly younger than me and they had the typical "Tiger Beat" magazine-style crush on the guy back then. They would play his records non-stop but they got over him. Which is exactly the opposite of the people (or rabid fans) presented in this documentary.
My confession of being quite familiar with Rick Springfield must also include that even as my sisters swooned over him I heard something within his music that I liked. That something is that Springfield can write an awesome pop tune. And while "Jessie's Girl" remains one of the finest Rock/Pop (or "Power Pop") songs to come out of the '80s he wrote a lot of incredible catchy guitar driven music. There's something about crunchy power chords and stick-in-your-head choruses that I've loved since I could afford an album collection. In fact I think I own seven or eight of his albums from both the early '80s to his latest from 2012.
Still there's some scary behavior displayed by the hard-core fans seen in this "Rock"-umentary. There's no doubt that the music means something to them as they all give reasons some rather touching about their obsession.
I mentioned my appreciation for his music as a way to set up my bewilderment about theirs. Everyone has had the experience of a song "bringing you back" or stirring up that feeling of nostalgia from within. These "Rick-sters" though they take it to the next level. It's not unlike self-proclaimed super fans of other artists whether they be musicians or movie stars. It's a dependency that's hard to understand but it's not exclusive to Rick Springfield. Think "Star Wars" or Jimmy Buffett or Justin Bieber. It's all the same regardless of age or gender.
Another thing Springfield touches on his struggles with depression drugs infidelity and other troubles that have plagued him. Here's a news flash...it's not unique. If these are attempts made to legitimize him through experiencing these struggles it rings a little hollow. All the legitimacy in the world is on display when the documentary covers his performance at a heavy metal festival in Sweeden. Talk about a square peg in a round hole. But surprise! It appears that those metal-heads liked what he was doing.
Look I'm not beating up on him. It's just that most people have and will never reach the levels of success that Springfield has and it would have been decent to focus more on that and leave a little of the tear-jerking stuff on the cutting room floor.