It’s All Happening: Almost Famous Turns 20

Writer-director Cameron Crowe’s film Almost Famous (2000) celebrates its 20th anniversary this year: twenty years of 1970s nostalgia, of the celebration of rock ‘n’ roll, of the power of music and its ability to shape our entire lives. The film follows fifteen year-old William Miller, a social outcast eager to break into the music journalism world. Hired by Rolling Stone magazine, he joins fictional rock band Stillwater on tour and is instantly ushered into the fast-paced, high-strung inner workings of rock ‘n’ roll. From his firsthand accounts of being backstage, to his experimentation with drugs and partying, to even a near-death experience, we journey through William’s coming-of-age story, complete with the both the ups and downs of the so-called “rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle.” 

So what makes Almost Famous worth celebrating? For one, it’s all based on Cameron Crowe’s true life story. Through a pseudo-mentor relationship with Lester Bangs - notorious rock critic and editor of Creem magazine - Crowe was encouraged to break out of his stifled upbringing and embrace his love of music. He began to submit his music and concert reviews to magazines such as Crawdaddy, Music World, and The Los Angeles Times, and, after graduating high school at the age of fifteen, he took a trip to Los Angeles where he met Ben Fong-Torres, editor of Rolling Stone. Crowe was soon hired as a profile writer, interviewing legends such as Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Eric Clapton, and more, and joining bands including Led Zeppelin, the Eagles, and Lynyrd Skynyrd on tour. Such experiences formed the basis for the plot of the semi-autobiographical Almost Famous. 

In honor of the twentieth anniversary of Crowe’s film, journalist James Andrew Miller dedicated a five-part series on his podcast “Origins” to telling the story of the film. Episode Two is dedicated to Cameron Crowe’s life: his backstory and intentions with writing and directing the film. When asked about what finally motivated him to write the screenplay after years of consideration, Crowe tells Miller, “I asked myself… If I could tell a story about discovering music, the way music can change your life and your family… and not necessarily be all about sex and drugs and all the easily stereotyped aspects of rock, if [I] could tell a love story about music…”. Thus, Crowe reincarnated himself on-screen through the character of William Miller and personified his almost-unbelievable on-the-road experiences onto the big screen-and I think it is safe to say that he accomplished his visions for his work.

In celebrating the film for all that it’s worth, what I love most about Almost Famous is the genuine love of music that seeps through the film. William Miller is unashamedly a fan first, critic second, his face almost frozen in a star-struck daze for the entirety of the film; Penny Lane is the human embodiment of the love of music, her entire reason for leading the lifestyle she leads being her love of the band. One of the most iconic lines of the film is spoken by the character Sapphire, one of Penny Lane’s fellow “band-aids”: “They don’t even know what it is to be a fan. Y’know? To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts.” And as cliche as it sounds, there is always that small piece of us that feels the exact same way. We all have that one band or artist that we insist on attending every tour to see, or that one song that we can just never bring ourselves to skip. And while this may be abnormal to others, Almost Famous celebrates it and even encourages it. Through William’s quest to interview each band member on tour, and viewing his conversations with the numerous “band-aids” alongside him, we come to realize that music is ultimately the center of all of their lives, and it’s a type of camaraderie that just exudes that feel-good feeling. 

Almost Famous transcends time. Whether it be the film’s setting of 1970s America, the new millennium in which the film was released, or our modern-day, the film’s twentieth year, it maintains its relevance in its spirited, genuine message: music really is everything. Everyone who watches Almost Famous can find a piece of themselves within it; tied together with the music, the film is a nostalgic, bittersweet journey that never gets old, even twenty years later.