The Best And Most Bingeable Music Documentaries
From the hilarious to the downright heartbreaking.
Musicians live their lives almost entirely in the spotlight.
We’re witness to their every triumph, every misstep, every off-note they hit. We watch as their careers crumble from inconvenient Snapchat stories, and keep watching as they slowly rebuild their reputation.
We see a lot — but we don’t see everything. And most of the time, what we don’t see is the most important. The best music documentaries point the spotlight away from the stage and into the private lives of our favourite artists — illuminating parts of their narrative we would never see, but are crucially important to who they are as artists.
At their worst, they’re cynical myth-making exercises — but at their best, music docos can completely alter our perception of artists, and give them a humanity that’s often absent under the glare of the spotlight. We’ve rounded up some of the best music documentaries ever made — sink your teeth into them immediately.
— Content Warning: This post discusses mental health, suicide, drug abuse, addiction, and eating disorders. —
Shut Up And Sing
In 2003, while on stage at London’s Shepherds Bush theatre, Dixie Chicks singer Natalie Maines took a break between songs to address the audience. “Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all,” she said calmly. “We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the President of the United States is from Texas.”
What happened next is music history: the Texan group was blacklisted by America’s conservative country music scene, they were boycotted, fans crushed their CDs with tractors, they received death threats, sponsors fled from their tour. Their career, at least in America, seemed to be over.
Shut Up And Sing chronicles the lives of Maines, Martie Maguire, and Emily Robison right from that moment at Shepherds Bush, through to the making of the triumphant comeback record Taking The Long Way. Emotionally charged, powerful, and warm — it’ll knock you off your feet.
Searching For Sugarman
The story of Rodriguez is one of the great mysteries of the contemporary pop scene — a talented musician releases a string of the most beautiful records in America, and then promptly disappears.
Of course, most people will know how this story ends. Rodriguez is now a semi-regular performer on the festival circuit, and he was in Australia as recently as a few years ago.
But the joy is not so much about unravelling his departure from public life — one so abrupt, in fact, that some assumed that he had died. It’s about properly unpacking the demented death-drive that leads some people to be musicians. Rodriguez was a man who couldn’t but help but make art, even when the culture around him never quite afforded him the respect that he deserved.
His disappearance and his return are interesting, sure, but more than that, they are testaments to the wild thing inside of us that just can’t let a dream go. Watch it to remember why we make — and why we listen to — music.
Amy
The gold standard of music documentaries, Asif Kapadia’s Amy is a heartbreaking examination of one of music’s greatest tragedies. Featuring extensive unseen footage and interviews with Winehouse’s closest friends and collaborators, it tenderly — and brutally, at times — tracks her rise from young, North London jazz singer to the biggest name in music in the world.
Her struggles with addiction, bulimia, and mental health are chronicled closely and distressingly. Perhaps most damning though, is the attitude and behaviour of her father Mitch, who, at one point in the film, follows her with a camera crew to the island of St. Lucia, where Amy had gone to escape the suffocating media attention in London. Mitch Winehouse has repeatedly criticised Kapadia’s depiction of him.
A chilling evisceration of celebrity culture, drug addiction, and fame — Amy is a must watch.
Kurt Cobain — Montage Of Heck
Pieced together from archival footage, scraps of lyrics, and Cobain’s own notebooks, Montage Of Heck takes a deliberately kaleidoscopic and jumbled look at the life of one of the 21st century’s most important musicians.
The story won’t be exactly new to even the most casual of Nirvana fans — so much of the singer’s life was slapped across the tabloids anyway, and his highs and lows are saturated firmly in our culture, almost to the point of cliché. But the real joy here is the emphasis on the music, and Cobain’s passion for it. It’s that approach that makes the film special: turning Nirvana choruses into throbbing, humming animated inter-titles, and taking a close look at what made Cobain a fascinating musician rather than just a human headline, elevates this beyond the usual doco fare.
Oh, and needless to say, that ending — not to mention the scene where a heroin-addled Cobain nods off while holding his daughter — still hit like an absolute freight train.
Avicii: True Stories
In the wake of Avicii’s suicide in April 2018, the story laid out in 2017’s True Stories becomes even more tragic and telling. Avicii — real name Tim Bergling — was pushed to the limit by a relentless touring schedule at the beginning of his career — between 2011 and 2015 he played a staggering 813 shows, 320 in one year alone.
True Stories follows Bergling through this gruelling time to his inevitable breakdown, both physical and mental. In one telling scene, just hours after being released from a Brisbane hospital while on tour with Future Music Festival, Bergling’s team is asking him to do some phone interviews — Bergling barely registers the question, clearly weakened and completely out of it. In another, he pleads with his team to cancel some of his shows, then is later furious when he finds out his team scheduled more without his knowledge.
The similarities between Bergling’s struggles and those of Amy Winehouse are striking — it’s the infuriating and gut-wrenching story of a musical genius pushed to the limit by the people around them. The very people who should have cared for them the most.
The Devil And Daniel Johnston
Outsider musician Daniel Johnston passed away last year. But his memory and his music live on, both preserved in the all-time great documentary The Devil And Daniel Johnston.
Following Johnston through both his highs and his lows, including his struggle with bipolar disorder and his changeable relationship with Christian faith, the documentary is scintillating even if you know nothing about the man’s music. In fact, you don’t even have to like the child-like, thrilling songs he wrote in order to find yourself deeply moved by the story — the finale hits even if you’re not a fan.
That’s a feat of documentary filmmaking in and of itself. The Devil and Daniel Johnston isn’t just a profile of a musician. It’s a profile of a person. And how many documentaries can boast that?
Shut Up And Play The Hits
In retrospect, the “end” of LCD Soundsystem seems at best like a blip on the cultural radar, and at worst like a deeply annoying misdirect. After all, the band’s frontman James Murphy has recently revealed that it was financial concerns that convinced him to split up his adored group, putting a sour taste in the mouths of all those who wept over the group’s collapse.
Still, even though LCD Soundsystem might have risen once again from the ashes that they themselves created, it’s still singularly exciting to see a musician perform grief. And yeah, sure, that grief might be artificial, designed to drum up album sales, but the tight timeframe of Shut Up And Play The Hits — not to mention Murphy’s general air of mournful regret — make this a deeper and more humane music biography than some might be used to.
Then there’s the adoring fans, watching from the sidelines, their faces explaining as best as possible what the group did for them.
Oh, and Donald Glover dancing.
20 Feet From Stardom
Music documentaries are usually exercises in myth-making, attempts to stamp the names of adored musicians into our collective idea of fame and talent.
Not so 20 Feet From Stardom. Rather than a profile of a world-renowned musician, the documentary takes a look at the performers standing just a little back and to the side from those headline-creating marvels, examining the under-explored world of back-up singers.
As a result, though you might not know the names of many of the singers profiled, you sure as hell will grow to learn and love their stories. At once a missive directed at the great injustice of the music industry, and an exploration of what Langston Hughes once called “the dream deferred”, 20 Feet will make you angry just as it will make you weep. Music docos rarely get this moving.
LoudQUIETLoud: A Film About The Pixies
Ever wanted to see Spinal Tap played out for real? Then watch LoudQUIETLoud, a documentary about a band in the process of total implosion. Come for Frank Black wandering around a tour bus shirtless while reciting self-help phrases to himself, stay for Kim and Kelly Deal slowly but completely losing any ability to stay in the company of men that they cannot stand.
The whole thing’s hilarious — albeit in a distinctly depressing and dark way. But it’s also deeply human; a portrait of people being pushed to their absolute limits.
Perhaps the most memorable scene of all comes when drummer David Lovering (also a magician in his spare time) suffers something like a nervous breakdown onstage, and won’t stop drumming the same pattern over and over, even as his bandmates try to stop him. It’s genuinely haunting, a stand-out moment in a documentary riddled with them.
If you need support, both Lifeline on 13 11 14 and the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800 offer 24-hour assistance. For further information about youth mental health, both headspace and Reach Out can provide guidance. You can also talk to a medical professional or someone you trust.