The Commitments by Roddy Doyle - Literature review Example

The Commitments In The Commitments their main goal is to be successful by bringing soul music to the lower class of Dublin with its marketing technique of using Dublin words to reach the audience. The commitments, a novel written by Roddy Doyle who is an Irish writer is a story about a group of unemployed youth who come together to form a soul band in the Northern side of Dublin in Ireland. The original members of the group were Derek and Foster who came together and formed the band but soon discovered that they did not have enough expertise in the music industry to be successful in their art. They decided to recruit an old mutual friend from school to be their director. This friend, Jimmy Rabitte, made several changes to the group including the removal of a member of the group and the change of the name of the group. The director also made them change the genre of their music from synthpop to Dublin soul in what he dubbed the Dublin soul revolution. Rabitte recruits more members to the group after advertising the openings in the local newspapers. He ended up with a group of people who were mismatched and looked like they had no musical talent in them but he never gave up on them as he trained them on how to play the instruments available and each member was able to pick the one they could play best. Within a short period of time, the band was performing in several shows across the town building their reputation as they went. Jimmy set the main goal for the band to bringing soul music to Dublin. This was arrived at after jimmy had previously set the target of the entire Ireland but soon realized that the other parts of the country had numerous genres of music and that the new soul music would not develop to its full potential as it would in Dublin where there was no real music like soul. This was because the Dublin was full of working class people who had nothing for entertainment. That is why the bringing of soul to Ireland was restricted to the city of Dublin. The band later face problems that threatened to break it apart when some of the leading members disagreed over the female backup singers. Joey in particular was getting the most attention from one Imelda who ended up being the reason behind the breakup of the band as the members got into a fight after Joey was spotted kissing Imelda when their director, jimmy Rabitte was busy negotiating a contract with an independent label so that they could record their very first single. The band used the language and slangs of Dublin in their songs so that they would be able to capture the attention of the residents of Dublin. Their target was the lower class members of the society of Dublin who were less educated and used the local slangs to communicate. The use of the Dublin language in the music restricted their music to the city of Dublin but they had no complaints whatsoever since their music was appreciated in the city and their marketing technique had worked. They had successfully conquered the city of Dublin with their soul music that had never heard in the city before. The fact that they got numerous concerts across the city showed that their music was embraced by the low class society members of the city of Dublin. These were the speakers of the Dublin words that could not be easily understood by people who are not members of this society. Alan parker adapted the novel and produced a movie with the same name in an early work. The story has clichés that make it is to identify as an Irish story but the main point in the story is that it shows how rapidly the working class in urban areas is changing along with the society that is constantly changing. since soul music is dominated by blacks across the world, the story sets up the people at Dublin as marginalized like the blacks were at that moment in time with jimmy saying that in Europe, the Irish were the blacks and in Ireland the Dubliners are the blacks while in Dublin, the north side members of Dublin are the blacks of the city because of their love for soul music. Before the financial boom that was enjoyed by Ireland in the ‘90s, the country was in a dire economic state that made it be compared to the oppressed African states. In the story, jimmy even calls Ireland a third world country because of the high rate of unemployment that was common in the country. The soul music passes the feeling that the people who were less fortunate in the economic improvement that was witnessed in the country in the early ‘90s. It is understandable that members of the band were the last to enjoy the improvement in the economy because they were artists in a financial situation that was dire. The commitments was a much needed way of showing how the society in Dublin was living in pathetic conditions even though the film showed it in a more romantic way than required as it did not portray the real mess on the ground. The band breaks down in chaos at the end of the novel, proving that singing and dancing is not the best solution to everything as it would have been thought of in the Beverly Hills of Hollywood. The commitments may have a use in the Irish cinemas when needed to show the reality in the Irish city of Dublin back in the days when the country was still in a total financial mess. The novel may have numerous relations to the Irish people but it does have even more external influences that come from other countries in Europe and even in the Americas. This shows that the Irish might have been proud of their origin but they also pride themselves in being part of the greater Europe especially when the question of Irish identity is brought up. The importance of the Irish identity was much lesser after the financial boom as the focus shifted to the European community where every member of the Irish community wanted to belong. This is best shown with the infatuation that Jimmy had with the legends of soul with the interest his dad had on Elvis being a talking point, Dean preferred the nipple of Kim Barsinger and in the film, two characters are shown wearing jackets that belong to the German army which could go a long way to show that Ireland had a solidarity with Germany. The Berlin wall had fallen just two years before the movie was shot meaning the other nations from west Europe could have had a strong bond with Ireland aiding the further growth of the country economically and creating stability in terms of peace. This work is a perfect example that should be followed by the works that might be created in the future as well as setting the minimum standards for quality reality in the Irish urban centers. The use of Dublin words was meant to reach the lower class people of Dublin so that they could have some source of entertainment that would not see them spend too much money in the process. This was very affordable and marched the desire of the people in the community as well as being a huge success in passing across the message. Works cited Doyle, Roddy. The commitments. New York, N.Y.: Vintage Books, 19891987. Print. Read More