Play it loud: the 25 finest music documentaries on Netflix

You might need playlists loaded up together with your favorite artists on Spotify or Apple, however how a lot have you learnt about how the track was made, and why it was made? And what was occurring on this planet for the artist to want to create that exact monitor, or that live performance that grew to become a cultural second? 

Whether or not you’re becoming a member of recording classes with Taylor Swift, WHAM!, Girl Gaga, BLACKPINK, or Keith Richards, or sitting in on rehearsals for Beyoncé’s iconic Coachella efficiency, attending to know the method and context of an artist whose work has valiantly soundtracked your individual life is an act that takes the music itself even additional, supplying you with a better appreciation for the tracks in your pocket. That is the place documentaries are available in. On the very least, you’ll have one thing smug to inform your mates about subsequent time you’re listening to a track.

Netflix has a bunch of sturdy music documentaries, with some notably standout movies able to stream, from Martin Scorsese’s spin on the shape-shifting of Bob Dylan to the much-talked-about Miss Americana. Every comes virtually brimming with music, together with behind-the-scenes interviews and photographs of a number of the most prolific artists of our time.

With out leaving your home, right here’s your ticket to the very best documentary movies about music that you will discover on Netflix, in no explicit order…

1. WHAM! 

Although you may in all probability have that infernal vacation earworm “Final Christmas” caught in your head for a month after watching this doc on the ’80s British pop tremendous two-some consisting of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, it is nonetheless definitely worth the threat! The latter title being the very best cause why — we have all heard Michael’s story by now, however Sr. director Chris Smith lastly offers “the opposite one” Ridgeley the main target he deserves because the co-songwriter on all of the duo’s hits.

With the ’80s feeling additional away with each passing 12 months (to not point out each passing celebrity of the time), this doc will ship you proper again to these heady days of pegged denims and puffy stickers. That “Careless Whisper” sax solo for the win. — Jason Adams, Leisure Reporter

Easy methods to watch: WHAM! is now streaming on Netflix.

2. Homecoming

Once you consider landmark live performance movies of the final ten years, Homecoming instantly springs to thoughts. Directed, written, and government produced by Beyoncé, the electrifying two-hour movie captures the creation and efficiency of the celebrity’s unforgettable 2018 Coachella set, placing you each behind the scenes and centre stage of this historic cultural second.

Set on a now-iconic bespoke pyramid stage, Beyoncé’s set pays tribute to the artistic spirit of Traditionally Black Schools and Universities (HBCU) and options particular visitor appearances by Future’s Youngster, Jay-Z, and Solange. Bow down, certainly.

Easy methods to watch: Homecoming is now streaming on Netflix.

3. Hate To Love: Nickelback

Canadians have a popularity for being extremely good folks. So, how did the Canadian rock group Nickelback go from being chart-topping hitmakers promoting 50 million information to a much-loathed punchline in principally the span of a decade? Hate To Love, the 2023 doc from filmmaker Leigh Brooks, takes a have a look at the band’s profession and tries to reply that query. Finally, it actually appears past the group’s management; certain, they make generic music, however so do 90 p.c of the mainstream artists on the market. Nickelback’s downside is that they grew to become a meme, and there is actually no getting back from that. However hey, it might be worse. They’re wealthy as hell, and a minimum of they don’t seem to be Creed! — J.A.

Easy methods to watch: Hate To Love: Nickelback is now streaming on Netflix.

4. Miss Americana

Whether or not you are a fan of Taylor Swift or simply interested in her meteoric rise to fame, Miss Americana permits you a uncommon peek into the pop celebrity’s life. Director Lana Wilson crafts an intimate portrait of Swift, via loads of interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, taking you into the songwriting classes of her album Lover, backstage on the spectacular Fame tour, via her comparatively brief journey from teen nation singer to world celebrity, via the sexual assault lawsuit she gained towards radio host David Mueller, and the breaking of her political silence.

However greater than something, the movie makes plain that our loud opinion is the very last thing that issues to Swift. As Mashable’s Angie Han writes, “Possibly it is not the film everybody wished. Possibly this newest reinvention of Taylor Swift, this time as a lady who’s snug sufficient in her energy to wield it totally, is not for everybody, both. However perhaps, additionally, that is the thought: Swift, Miss Americana tells us, is completed worrying about what everybody else thinks.”

Once you’re finished, watch the Fame tour movie on Netflix, figuring out the story behind the scenes.* — S.C.

Easy methods to watch: Miss Americana is now streaming on Netflix.

5. ReMastered: Tough Dick and the Man in Black

Co-directed by Sara Dosa and legendary documentarian Barbara Kopple (Harlan County, USA), this can be a look again on the 1970 White Home efficiency by nation music firebrand Johnny Money. The president on the time was none apart from Richard M. Nixon, making this assembly the equal of spraying gasoline on a freshly lit hearth. It isn’t laborious to see looking back that these two gents would by no means in one million years get alongside, so how on earth did this occur?

This was all Nixon’s good concept; he noticed similarities of their poor childhoods and, extra importantly, a doable political goldmine in associating himself with the God-fearing, down-home crowd that Money represented. Money is, after all, a much more sophisticated determine, and his sympathy for the underdogs and the downtrodden combined with the horrors of the Vietnam Struggle had been at that second in historical past reaching a boiling level. What occurred when Money walked into the White Home that day makes for some really flamable historic leisure. – J.A.

Easy methods to watch: ReMastered: Tough Dick and the Man in Black is now streaming on Netflix.

6. Rolling Thunder Revue 

Half-real and half-phony similar to the musician that impressed it, Martin Scorsese’s 2019 pseudo-documentary Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese (which is its full title) places precise footage of Bob Dylan’s 1975 tour via the Northwest and Canada alongside faked interviews and photographs, and leaves it as much as the viewer to discern which is what. Did Dylan actually placed on white face after seeing KISS carry out? Was Sharon Stone actually a groupie turned costumer in her teenage years?

Add to this the truth that many of the actual footage from the tour was filmed by Dylan himself for a semi-fictional and unreleased movie known as Renaldo and Clara, which complicates the unique confusion additional. Like the very best Dylan track, this Revue accommodates meta multitudes. — J.A.

Easy methods to watch: Rolling Thunder Revue is now streaming on Netflix.

7. Quincy

Over 2,900 songs and over 300 albums recorded. 51 movie and TV scores. Over 1,000 unique compositions. 79 Grammy nominations and 27 wins. You get it, but? Quincy Jones has been busy for the final 70 years. Created by his daughter Rashida Jones with Alan Hicks, Quincy examines the immense affect the document producer, arranger, and musician has had on music during the last seven many years. It’s principally narrated by Quincy himself, with archival audio from well-known mates like Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra, alongside a treasure trove of residence footage and new materials.

It’s fascinating to observe simply how a lot of the historical past of recent music Jones has been part of, and what number of “firsts” he achieved as a Black musician and producer in America. Quincy strikes via the many years of music alongside Jones’ personal life story — he found music amongst a tough childhood on the South Aspect of Chicago through the Nice Despair within the ’30s, earlier than diving into the be-bop scene in New York within the ‘50s. Then, he moved via pop, funk, jazz, and disco within the ‘70s and ‘80s in Los Angeles, and thru the hip hip explosion within the ‘90s. Preserve a watch out for the brief however highly effective heart-to-heart between Quincy and Kendrick Lamar.— S.C.

Easy methods to watch: Quincy is now streaming on Netflix.

8. I will Sleep Once I’m Useless

Celebrity EDM artist Steve Aoki as soon as performed 300 reveals in a single 12 months, and that’s the breathless spirit this 2016 doc from filmmaker Justin Krook goals to seize.

The son of the Japanese wrestler turned Benihana restaurant entrepreneur Rocky Aoki, Steve offers greater than a touch that his whole propulsive profession has been a rebuke to his father’s lackluster parenting expertise. However the lulls between the chaos come few and much between — very like Aoki’s life and very like he appears to choose it. Just like the documentary’s title suggests, that is social gathering after social gathering, scene after scene, and cake after cake after cake smashed in his followers’ keen faces, with sleep rendered an excessive afterthought. — J.A.

Easy methods to watch: I will Sleep Once I’m Useless is now streaming on Netflix.

9. Biggie: I Bought a Story to Inform

A compelling, private portrait of one of many best rappers of all time, Biggie: I Bought A Story To Inform is an intimate have a look at the lifetime of Christopher Wallace, AKA The Infamous B.I.G., whose loss of life at 24 years previous has additionally grow to be the stuff of legend. However though the movie begins at a tragic finish, it truly concentrates extra on Wallace’s life via those that actually knew him.

Directed by Emmett Malloy and made in collaboration with Biggie’s property, the documentary options an enormous quantity of backstage, onstage, and on-the-road footage filmed by his finest buddy Damion “D-Roc” Butler, alongside interviews with household, together with his spouse Religion Evans, mom Violetta Wallace, grandmother Gwendolyn Wallace, uncle Dave Wallace, and mates from each childhood and later years. It was co-executive produced by Sean “Diddy” Combs, who additionally seems. Particularly distinctive to this documentary is the brief time spent on Wallace’s visits to household in Jamaica, and sudden musical influences — interviews together with his neighbour, saxophonist Donald Harrison, concerning the affect of bebop and jazz on his rap methods are a deal with. — S.C.

Easy methods to watch: Biggie: I Bought a Story to Inform is now streaming on Netflix.

Mashable High Tales

10. Shania Twain: Not Only a Lady

She’s nonetheless the one we run to! Taking a web page from the guide of Tina Turner isn’t a nasty concept, and nation/pop celebrity Shania Twain appears to’ve lifted the very best web page of all, having moved to a beautiful home set towards the majestic surroundings of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. That’s the place she’s primarily interviewed for this 2022 doc on her profession, and the place she talks about a lot of such influences — the earliest being Dolly Parton, due to course. Nonetheless holding the title of the best-selling studio album by a solo feminine artist ever for Come On Over in 1997 (it’s the ninth best-selling album of all time), Shania, sensible, grounded, and humorous, nonetheless impresses us a lot. — J.A.

Easy methods to watch: Shania Twain: Not Only a Lady is now streaming on Netflix.

11. What Occurred, Miss Simone?

What have you learnt about Nina Simone? You’re about to study so much on this distinctive documentary concerning the singer, classical pianist, and Black Energy activist, whose life was no straightforward path.

Directed by Liz Garbus and tightly woven with Simone’s music, What Occurred, Miss Simone? examines the star’s public profession and personal life, her childhood in segregated North Carolina, her survival of home abuse, her battle with dependancy, the expertise of residing with undiagnosed bipolar dysfunction, revelations of abuse towards her daughter, and her function within the civil rights motion and its affect on her profession. This Greatest Documentary nominee will go away you with a fancy image of Miss Simone, and a radical understanding of the affect of a track like “Mississippi Goddamn” on the music trade, on society, and on the artist herself. — S.C.

Easy methods to watch: What Occurred Miss Simone? is now streaming on Netflix.

12. The Different One: The Lengthy, Unusual Journey of Bob Weir

“It’s a must to see it to see it,” says Bob Weir, famed guitarist for legendary jam-band The Grateful Useless. And he’s not flawed — this 2014 doc from director Mike Fleiss (God Bless Ozzy Osbourne) trains its lens on the much less well-known member of the well-known outfit with the intention to chart a lesser identified voyage via rock historical past, and finds all types of hidden gems from the highway that was.

Operating in at simply 85 minutes, the movie may be shorter than a number of the Useless’s guitar solos, nevertheless it manages to seize that sure one thing that stored folks coming again, and again, and again to the band for many years. Reminiscences which can be in all probability in any other case misplaced to most of the individuals who skilled it! — J.A.

Easy methods to watch: The Different One: The Lengthy, Unusual Journey of Bob Weir is now streaming on Netflix.

13. BLACKPINK: Gentle Up the Sky

You might need watched their movies, seen them reside, or simply watched this celebrity Okay-pop group smash information all around the joint, however how a lot do you truly find out about BLACKPINK? Directed by Caroline Suh, Gentle Up the Sky is an enchanting, enjoyable, and honest portrait of one of many largest teams on this planet proper now.

Amid behind-the-scenes footage of early auditions, childhood residence films, recording classes, and touring, together with that historic Coachella efficiency, the documentary sits you down with Lisa, Jisoo, Jennie, and Rosé, the 4 members of YG Leisure’s wildly fashionable South Korean woman group. These frank solo interviews, together with their heartfelt reflections on one another’s roles within the group, give perception into these gifted, decided younger ladies who labored extremely laborious for years in YG’s rigorous coaching program, debuting with chart-smashing single “Whistle,” and constructing their meteoric rise to fame (with all of the perfectionist strain that comes with it). — S.C.

Easy methods to watch: BLACKPINK: Gentle Up the Sky is now streaming on Netflix.

14. Duran Duran: There’s One thing You Ought to Know

Dubbed “Birmingham’s peacocks” by none apart from Boy George himself, the members of Duran Duran strutted their solution to huge stadium-filling fame within the Eighties. Led by their sneeringly horny frontman Simon Le Bon, this fab foursome from England — who took their title from the film Barbarella, of all locations — blew up the New Romantic scene because of their unforgettable made-for-MTV movies. Hits like “Women on Movie,” “Rio,” and “Hungry Just like the Wolf” ended up defining the period. This 2018 doc from director Zoe Dobson watches because the boys, right here of their sixties, look again on their profession album by album, nonetheless peacocking as a lot as ever. — J.A. 

Easy methods to watch: Duran Duran: There’s One thing You Ought to Know is now streaming on Netflix.

15. Halftime

Jennifer Lopez has been entertaining us for many years, so it’s best to take a second for Halftime. The documentary is concentrated on Lopez’s SuperBowl halftime present with Shakira (and her daughter Emme) in 2020 that made a public assertion concerning the border disaster, but in addition takes within the artist’s profession over the many years, from her beginnings within the ’90s as a Fly Lady on In Residing Color to her unimaginable efficiency as pop star Selena Quintanilla-Pérez within the lauded biopic, to her Grammy-winning music profession and its eras, to her critically acclaimed and Golden Globe nominated function in Hustlers.

Directed by Amanda Micheli and edited by Carol Martori, Lopez maintains full management on this documentary, having not all the time felt this fashion throughout her profession and talking at size about being underestimated and never taken significantly. Halftime brings the receipts too, displaying the unbridled racism and sexism she’s endured from the press and leisure trade. Regardless of all of it, Lopez continues to kick each aim.

Easy methods to watch: Halftime is now streaming on Netflix.

16. Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of our Lives

A hagiography might be simply what the physician ordered generally, when the topic calls for such respect. And in the case of the music trade, the legendary producer Clive Davis – the person behind Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Barry Manilow, Patti Smith, Alicia Keys, and his right-hand girl Whitney Houston, simply to get us began — warrants a very good quaint love-fest.

By all accounts an honest man (a minimum of by all of the accounts that they placed on the display screen right here) blessed with a “golden ear”, Davis knew tips on how to discover and nurture expertise and take them to the highest of the charts time and time and time once more. And his story will make you lengthy for the simplicity of his old school, private, one-on-one method, when every part wasn’t fairly so soullessly company. — J.A.

Easy methods to watch: Clive Davis: The Soundtrack of Our Lives is now streaming on Netflix.

17. Lewis Capaldi: How I am Feeling Now

Scotland’s celebrated and Grammy-nominated purveyor of high quality unhappy songs, Lewis Capaldi’s pure attraction, candour, and signature cheeky humour make this documentary each an absolute deal with and a deeply transferring portrait. Directed by Joe Pearlman, How I am Feeling Now checks in with Capaldi in Whitburn, Scotland, with 15 billion streams and bought out reveals in 36 nations underneath his belt. He is writing his second album in his dad and mom’ shed, the follow-up to his extremely profitable debut Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent, amid various lockdowns all over the world. Between reflections on fame, writing, and performing, the documentary paints a beautiful image of Capaldi in his hometown; you may meet Capaldi’s dad and mom, household, and mates, paired with loads of candy residence films and studio session recordings brimming with pure expertise.

Notably, having filmed with Capaldi throughout his expertise with nervousness, ticks, and being identified with Tourette’s syndrome, Pearlman’s documentary is an emotional, weak, and highly effective journey via a number of the most difficult occasions within the artist’s previous few years. It is one thing Capaldi commented on after the movie was launched. “I didn’t realise how a lot my nervousness and Tourette’s was taking on my life till I watched [the footage] again,” he informed The Impartial. “Once I noticed the primary draft, it was so miserable, I used to be shocked I didn’t die on the finish! I imply, there’s all the time the sequel.”

Easy methods to watch: Lewis Capaldi: How I am Feeling Now is now streaming on Netflix.

18. Barbra: The Music The Mem’ries The Magic

It is Barbra doing what Barbra does finest: belting out massive music whereas working a single fingernail via her hair. This live performance movie from Streisand’s 2015 string of 9 reveals was filmed in Miami and the Golden Women vibes are sturdy together with her shimmery black pantsuit and string of particular visitor stars. We see slightly backstage footage — hey there’s James Brolin, hey there’s her pampered pup — however principally it’s simply Barbra hitting the stage, starting proper off the bat with “The Method We Had been” and never stopping the hit parade for practically two straight hours. She tells some tales, she disco-dances, she says she’s on a weight loss plan however she needs the ice cream anyway. It’s all of the hits! — J.A.

Easy methods to watch: Barbra: The Music The Mem’ries The Magic is now streaming on Netflix.

19. Gaga: 5 Foot Two

Head into the studio with Girl Gaga amid the making of her fifth album, Joanne, on this characteristically uncooked, compelling documentary launched in 2017 — earlier than the “Shallow” insanity, although there’s a beautiful fleeting second when she will get the half in A Star Is Born in there, too. ahs

Directed by Chris Moukarbel, Gaga: 5 Foot Two follows the celebrity through the recording of her album with Mark Ronson (and for one wonderful minute, “Hey Lady” collaborator Florence Welsh), and forward of her Tremendous Bowl halftime performance, all peppered with a stream of reflections on love, work, and self-confidence — all whereas residing with persistent ache. However as Joanne is an album impressed by the loss of life of her aunt Joanne, it additionally fittingly affords some transferring glimpses into her household life.

Easy methods to watch: Gaga: 5 Foot Two is now streaming on Netflix.

20. Keith Richards: Underneath the Affect

In Metric’s track “Gimme Sympathy,” the band asks the query: “Who would you relatively be / The Beatles or the Rolling Stones?” Would you relatively burn massive and vivid and quick, or lengthy and regular, maybe previous your second? This 2015 doc on Stones guitarist Keith Richards makes a very good case for the latter.

Watching Richards within the course of of creating his first solo document in a number of many years, Underneath the Affect (directed by 20 Toes From Stardom director Morgan Neville) is especially only for Stones followers — fortunately, that’s a not small proportion of the inhabitants. Richards greater than lives as much as his standing because the hard-living rock star with a parade of well-worn tales entertainingly re-told — 5 many years into his profession and a happier bullshitter you’ll by no means see. Did Richards ever inform you concerning the time Chuck Berry famously popped him one? “I used to be one in all Chuck’s best hits,” he laughs. — J.A.

Easy methods to watch: Keith Richards: Underneath the Affect is now streaming on Netflix.

21. Ariana Grande: Excuse Me, I Love You

Launched through the 2020 pandemic lockdowns, this one was a shining gentle for reside music followers lacking concert events on the time — and it stays a beautiful instance of tips on how to movie a reside present. Shot at London’s O2 Area for Netflix throughout Ariana Grande’s 2019 Sweetener World Tour, Excuse Me, I Love You is the live performance movie that’ll remind you of these large-scale collective scream classes many people used to take pleasure in. As Mashable’s Rachel Thompson writes, the movie is “a love letter to the Time Earlier than. A time when singers pointed their mics to packed arenas, laughing as ecstatic crowds chanted again their lyrics phrase for phrase. A time once we’d throw our arms within the air and yell “encore” earlier than pouring our weary our bodies onto the final prepare residence.”

That includes pitch-perfect performances of tracks from Grande’s hit-heavy albums together with thank u, subsequent, Harmful Girl, and naturally, Sweetener, the movie additionally throws in some enjoyable footage of Grande together with her crew on the highway.

Easy methods to watch: Ariana Grande: Excuse Me, I Love You is now streaming on Netflix.

22. The Biggest Night time in Pop

Following the creation of the gargantuan 1985 charity single “We Are the World” from conception to complete chart dominance, this 2024 doc from director Bao Nguyen takes us behind that inescapable music. Alongside the way in which, we get additionally get a peek on the large musician egos that needed to get in sync to make it occur. It is sweaty, riveting, and humorous stuff. (So sweaty!)

The movie primarily focuses on footage of the epic recording session that occurred on the evening of January twenty eighth, 1985. Quincy Jones and co-writers Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie pounded out their ear-worm tune, then used their affect to strong-arm the singing roster — which included Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Bob Dylan, and plenty of, many extra — into spending their evening making the world a greater place. Promo and merch for the track, which was unavoidable that 12 months, has finally raised over 80 million {dollars} for African famine aid. — J.A.

Easy methods to watch: The Biggest Night time in Pop is now streaming on Netflix.

23. It is Solely Life After All

Amy Ray and Emily Saliers, higher referred to as the Indigo Women, started making music collectively as teenagers in Decatur, Georgia. Since releasing their first full-length album in 1987, they have been working collectively steadily and efficiently for over forty years. Their songwriting prowess is second solely to their frank political ardour and acoustic guitar expertise.

Director Alexandria Bombach by some means managed to whittle 1,000 hours of footage (!!!!) down into two fleeting hours — together with residence films and present-day interviews — illustrating how (and maybe extra importantly, why) these mavericks gathered a profoundly loyal following that rivals that of the Grateful Useless. This doc may have you feeling a lot, a lot nearer to high quality. — J.A.

Easy methods to watch: It is Solely Life After All is now streaming on Netflix.

24. The Black Godfather

“Life is about numbers. Nothing else.” That was one of many catchphrases of Clarence Avant, the music government who finally proved his catchphrase’s reality via the sheer variety of legends that director Reginald Hudlin was in a position to corral for this 2019 doc.

And it is not simply iconic musicians like Invoice Withers, Quincy Jones, Clive Davis, and Lionel Richie who converse glowingly about Avant’s affect on their lives; it is politicians like Barack Obama and Kamala Harris too, since Avant was additionally an enormous Democratic fundraiser. The footprint that Avant left on tradition — he handed away in 2023 on the ripe younger age of 92 — is immeasurable. This doc proves to be a significant portrait of an individual who labored behind the scenes to actualize actual and lasting change on this planet. — J.A. 

Easy methods to watch: The Black Godfather is now streaming on Netflix.

25. Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Insurgent

Certain, perhaps it is bizarre to have varied sound results that come to thoughts when folks hear your title, however Hans Zimmer does not give a “BRAAAM!” In case you are curious, that is the notorious sound from his rating for Christopher Nolan’s Inception, and it is grow to be one thing of an aural meme. The German composer has been Nolan’s go-to man since The Darkish Knight; he is additionally composed scores for every part from Tornado and Cool Runnings to Rain Man (which gained him his first Oscar nomination) and Dune: Half One (which received him his second Oscar). His profession stretches all the way in which again to Stephen Frears’ basic 1985 homosexual romance My Lovely Laundrette, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, for goodness’ sake. He was even within the first music video MTV ever aired!

Zimmer could be very practically as celebrated and iconic a cinematic sound-man as John Williams himself, and this hour-long doc does a grand job peering into his colourful and atypical course of. And that is no “BRAAAM.” — J.A.

Easy methods to watch: Hans Zimmer: Hollywood Insurgent is now streaming on Netflix.

UPDATE: Aug. 1, 2024, 6:02 p.m. UTC This checklist was initially printed on Sept. 4, 2020. It has been up to date to mirror the present streaming choices.