Commitments

<p>This book examines <i>The Commitments</i> (Parker 1991) for the first time as a film rather than an adaptation of Roddy Doyle’s bestselling novel and as a significant cultural event in 1990s Ireland.</p><p>A major hit in Ireland and around the world the film depicts the short-lived attempts of an ensemble of young working-class Dubliners to achieve success as a soul covers band playing the hits of Aretha Franklin Otis Redding and others on a mission to ‘bring soul back to Dublin’. Drawing upon interviews with key figures involved in the film and its music including Roddy Doyle Angeline Ball and Bronagh Gallagher as well as archival research of director Alan Parker’s papers the book explores questions of authenticity associated with youth music class and culture and assesses the film’s legacy for the Irish film industry Irish music scenes and Irish youth. It also examines the film’s status as a truly transnational production.</p><p>This concise yet interdisciplinary case study will be of interest to students and researchers in popular music cultural studies and sociology as well as film and media studies.</p>