Favorite music-related movies?

Spinal Tap is brilliant. Another good music-related movie that comes to mind is High Fidelity, with John Cusack. It's based on a Nick Hornby novel (which I haven't read).
 
Still Crazy (1998)

Fictional British 70's rock band Strange Fruit decides to make a comeback at the end of the 90's, but the road back to the top proves to be a bumpy one. Starring Bill Nighy as singer Ray Simms, Timothy Spall as drummer Beano and Billy Connolly as their roadier Hughie among others, the film is one where they got the story right, the acting right, the vibe right, and to round things off the soundtrack is phenomenal (Mick Jones of Foreigner is one of the people who were involved in the project). Bill Nighy provides the singing himself (there really is no end to that man's brilliance), and makes a captivating and totally believable as a rock star who's well past his prime. At the end, you wish Strange Fruit was a real band - but you are unfortunately stuck with listening to the soundtrack and rewatching the film. Again, and again.

The best film ever made about a rock band.
 
Cornfed Hick said:
Spinal Tap is brilliant.
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I don't know... The pure idiocy of that film hurt my head. I can in some way appreciate what it has contributed to popular culture - "these go to 11" is brilliant - but to sit there and watch sketch after sketch for what felt like 3 hours? Naaah. :)
 
I thought Anvil was okay. It got kinda dull after awhile and started to feel like a major sob story. They never really gave any good reason to care about the band either, it's not like they're the only band who failed to hit the big time and honestly I didn't find their music very good.
 
Mosh said:
I thought Anvil was okay. It got kinda dull after awhile and started to feel like a major sob story. They never really gave any good reason to care about the band either, it's not like they're the only band who failed to hit the big time and honestly I didn't find their music very good.
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Yeah but don't you think it had people rooting for them to make it big after that? It made people care because of the struggles they went through along the way.
 
Not a movie, but I thought this book was really good

Hitless Wonder: A Life In Minor League Rock And Roll

Story of a band that had a massive local following in Ohio and got a record deal, but never made it big .. but kept trying. Really interesting

Everyone knows the price of fame. Hitless Wonder measures the price of obscurity. What happens when you chase a dream into middle age and, in doing so, risk losing the people you love? This book recounts the two-week tour that forces Joe Oestreich—singer, songwriter, and bassist of the band Watershed—to decide if he and his longtime bandmates still have a future together. In the mid-'90s, Watershed's large Midwest following led to a six-figure deal with Epic Records. But the band never had a hit, and the label dropped them. Seventeen years later, long after their more famous peers have called it quits, Watershed keeps climbing into the Econoline and touring mop bucket bars. But Joe can't help but wonder: Are he and his bandmates—approaching forty with wives and kids and mortgages—admirable or pathetic? Successes or failures? The tour tests the bonds of Joe's friendships and the strength of his marriage, as he's torn between the lure of the road and the call to finally settle down. An accomplished journalist and creative writing instructor, Oestreich tells his story with humor, heart, and unflinching honesty. Readers—from Baby Boomers to Gen X-ers—will be deeply moved by his voice, while appreciating his quixotic struggle to live out a dream
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That movie with Joan Jett and Micheal J. Fox I thought was really good too. I haven't seen that in a really long time. I can't think of the name of the movie though.
 
Jayman said:
Yeah but don't you think it had people rooting for them to make it big after that? It made people care because of the struggles they went through along the way.
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Well they could've thrown pretty much any band in there and people would care. The movie was well done in that it made you feel sorry for them, but that really had nothing to do with the band themselves. Plus that buzz only lasted for a couple albums, now they're back to where they were before the movie.
 
I agree with Mosh. Anvil (the movie) was depressing and the band was awful.

As music documentaries go, the Rush movie, Beyond the Lighted Stage, is much much better. The band members are much more thoughtful and articulate, their stories more compelling (and more tragic), and their friendship more deep and genuine. Plus, the music.

A movie like Anvil only reinforces how perfect Spinal Tap was. Spinal Tap predicted and foreshadowed the fate of bands like Anvil. Though it was a parody and a farce, it worked so well because it was so true. I can't count the number of metal/hard rock artist interviews I've seen or read in which they talked about "Spinal Tap moments" in their careers -- at least a dozen, including Bruce, RJD, Halford, Ozzy and Iommi, just to name a few.

So many brilliant, subtle moments in Spinal Tap, e.g.: "Well, it is and it isn't, I mean, she should be made to smell it." "Well, not over and over again."
 
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Cornfed Hick said:
Plus, the music.
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This is what sets the Anvil movie apart. At the end of the day, the music should stand on its own. Especially if you're trying to give this band recognition. Clearly the music didn't hold up.

And I have to credit Beyond the Lighted Stage for making me a hardcore Rush fan. When I saw the film I had heard a few albums from them and had rough knowledge of their history. Immediately after seeing it I had to hear Hemispheres and all those other pre-Moving Pictures albums. I had heard 2112 but I was definitely not prepared for the albums from this era. It also sparked interest for me in their other eras, and I appreciated the music better knowing the history behind it all.
This might be my favorite Rock Doc.
 
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