Almost Famous Dramedy

Dramedy is a subgenre of comedy that has a dramatic tone, yet has important elements of a comedy. In Dramedies, the amount of drama and comedy are almost equally balanced. This balance provides comedic relief for the audience, while still addressing serious issues. An example of a movie in this category is Almost Famous by Cameron Crowe. Almost Famous is about 15 year old aspiring rock journalist who is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone Magazine about an up-and-coming rock band, Stillwater, while accompanying them on tour. To be consider a dramedy, the movie has to be looked at by the genre's defining criteria; simple plot, comedic relief, and realism. In order of the word itself, a dramedy starts with its dramatic plot and features serious issues surrounding its problem. The movie has to have a consistent storyline or conflict driving the movie towards its finale. Almost Famous does this by focusing on the conflict of lead William Miller and his struggle to make friends in the rock industry while building a credible reputation in the rock journalism world and
All of these serious topics and storylines have to be broken up with comedic relief. Without it, a film would feel like a nonstop parade of sadness and reality. We watch movies to escape reality. Because Almost Famous is a dramedy it has to be able to balance the serious and the funny; and the movie does just that. When Cameron Crowe wrote the storyline of the almost plane crash, he knew how to get it to play into his plot but also play into the comedy of his movie. When the plane hits the edge of an electrical storm, turbulence follows and the greatest rock n roll reference comes in. Russell Hammond starts singing “Peggy Sue” by Buddy Holly who infamously died in a plane crash dubbed “the day the music died”. The only bad thing about this scene is that if the viewer doesn't know about Buddy Holly, the humor is