We all love music right? So why not watch the stories behind it? All the madcap characters, memorable moments and unscriptable oneliners.
The SHOOK team, our eyes boggling from staring at screens for more hours than optometrists would advise, have pooled together our top 50 music documentaries. Attempting a degree of ruthlessness, the ever-popular Buena Vista Social Club isn’t included and for all their brilliance, Rize and Paris Is Burning don’t feature, since their focus is on the dance. Straight-up concert footage also doesn’t make the grade. Those we’ve selected offer an opportunity to learn (firsthand in the best cases) more about the great artists whose work we cherish. They may not all be masterfully directed but something about them merits viewing. Maybe it’s the subject matter, the footage, or the funny lines.
In addition to the All Junglists: A London Some’ting Dis taster, here’s a few docs that made the list embed in full length, plus some trailers for those on DVD.
Good Copy, Bad Copy (Andreas Johnsen et al., 2007)
Taking you on a worldwide excursion from copyleft-to-right Good Copy, Bad Copy is a beautiful Danish piece about the current state of music rights. easily surpassing the cliché of the mash-up and remixing dilemma, the makers dig way deeper. The situations in Nigeria and Brazil are cited terms of innovative business models that have developed in response to new technological possibilities and changing markets. (Alex Deforce)
Modern Times: DJ (Robert Davis, 1997)
Is it a documentary? More like a drama! LTJ Bukem and Conrad push their manager Tony to breaking point, as the inner workings of Good Looking are presented on the BBC. From Bukem’s bedroom to nuff tribulations on tour. And a girl in the lav revealing the difference between DnB and Jungle. Comedy quotes are plentiful, especially from Tony. It’s a travesty he didn’t get his own show. (Ben V)
Rave (Boris McGooligan, 1992)
Cutting between promoters, ravers and the law, this 30min video attempted to sell the benefit of legitimised raves rather than illegal events, with a middle-England accented voiceover. Superintendent Pape sums it up, “If several thousand people want to meet in a field in a remote location then they’re not breaking the law and it’s not up to me to stop them.” (Ben V)
Afghan Star (Havana Marking, 2009)
In a country where not only music but also television was outlawed under the Taliban, the launch of TV show Afghan Star, a quest to find the country’s top singer in the vein of Simon Cowell’s Pop Idol format, has far reaching implications, not just in terms of Westernization but also, since the public gets to vote, for democracy itself. (Jez Smadja)
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (Sacha Gervasi, 2008)
Seeing a man in leggings playing his electric guitar with a vibrator might tell all there ever was to know about heavy metal. But this case study about a Canadian band that got promised so much and received so little is not about genres, it’s about human life – and the potential rise and fall of any music career. Long live Anvil! (Gerd Janson)
La Lupe Queen Of Latin Soul (Ela Troyano, 2006)
Betty Davis and Billie Holiday in one, firebrand Cuban singer Lupe Yoli’s life was as wild and pained as her vocals. Charting her life in suitably flamboyant and sobering style, this is as much oral history as standard music biopic, and is impossible not to be moved by. (Sunil Chauhan)
www.pbs.org/independentlens/lalupe
Note By Note, The Making Of Steinway L1037 (Ben Niles, 2007)
A surprisingly pleasing look at the yearlong process of building and fine-tuning a Steinway concert grand at its factory in Queens. Each piano has its own personality, and eccentricities, we are told, neatly mirroring the performers who come to feel them out, and the characters in the factory, many of whom have been tweaking notes for years. (Chris Robinson)
Queens of Sound (Sandra Krampelhuber, 2006)
This low-budget documentary provides the first visual herstory of reggae and dancehall in Jamaica, with interviews from top women deejays like Lady G, Tanya Stephens and Macka Diamond, talking (and toasting) about their experiences in a male-dominated industry. Yuh nuh ready fi dis yet! (Susannah Webb)
Wattstax (Mel Stuart, 1973)
Wattstax is both a commemoration of Black music of the day and an ode to the urban Black experience. The documentary contains live footage of the once-in-a-lifetime concert epic with the likes of Isaac Hayes, The Bar-Kays, The Staple Singers and The Dramatics with intermitted monologues by Richard Pryor. (Andres Reyes)
What The Future Sounded Like (Matthew Bate, 2007)
Forget where you think it began..this is the birth of electronic music. The stunningly pieced 30 minutes focuses on the pioneers of Electronic Music Studios (EMS) and the composers and innovators who harnessed technology to form the musical landscapes we take for granted. A definite highlight is the reaction to the first (and last) lone computer (opera?) performance at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1967. (Keith Pettinger)
For all 50 of the recommended documentaries check SHOOK 008.
Many of the docs mentioned can be seen online but where possible please purchase the DVDs to support the artists. Should you wish to add your recommendations or disagree with our choices, don’t shy from telling us why.
3 Comments »
No style wars?
Hi I am contacting you on behaf of pitchfork.tv, we are wondering if some of these documentaries can be streamed on our site, and where we can get the permission to do that. Please contact me asap, thanks for your time
Lizzy, drop me a line – mattbate@closerproductions.com.au
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