For my years best list, I decided to write about my favorite music documentaries because I have loved watching music documentaries with my dad the past year. As you may know, my dad and I are both huge music nerds and we watch things for music nerds. All the documentaries in this list are music documentaries we’ve watched in the past year that I like. So, without further adieu, I, Lucas Hanson present…
- 808 is a documentary about the history of the 808 drum machine and how it changed across the world.
- Watch the Sound is a docu-series where music producer Mark Ronson talks about different music technology and experiences them by talking with different people about them.
- Soundbreaking is a docu-series where each episode talks about the production and history behind a type of music technology.
- Band called Death is a documentary about an obscure all black punk band called Death.
- Classic Albums is a series where each episode talks about the making of a classic album like Pet Sounds.
- 1971: The Year that Music Changed Everything is a series that goes deep into the music and culture of the year 1971.
- Amy is a documentary about the life of Amy Winehouse as a musician.
- Tad: Busted Circuits and Ringing Ears is a documentary about the Seattle rock band Tad.
- Summer of Soul is a movie about a music festival of all black people in Harlem.
- Eight Days a Week is a documentary about the Beatles and how they’re so popular.
- Bad Reputation is a documentary about Joan Jett and how she was an activist, especially for women.
- Rock Milestones is a series about famous rock albums like Ziggy Stardust and Master of Puppets.
- Monterey Pop is a concert movie of the Monterey Pop festival in the 60s.
- Woodstock is a movie that’s the filming of a famous festival called Woodstock that happened shortly after Monterey Pop.
- Running Down a Dream is a documentary about the life of the band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. It goes through the positive and negative stages of the band.
Hey Lucas,
I love this list. I’ve seen most of these – but I’m gonna check out the Tad documentary, and the Apple TV series 1971 which I have not seen.
A Band Called Death was amazing. I bought their album, “…For the Whole World to See”, right after watching this. It is very good. Freakin’ Out is probably my favorite song.
I’m curious if you have a favorite performance from Monterrey and Woodstock? Jimi Hendrix’s version of Killing Floor is my fav from Monterrey. There are a lot of amazing Woodstock performances, but I think my favorite song is probably Soul Sacrifice by Santana – the drum solo is amazing!! Hendrix’s set is also amazing at Woodstock.
Summer of Soul was incredible. I wish it had been longer, but the production looked great. I think my favorite performance from this was Nina Simone’s. If you liked that, some of the same performers took part in massive festival in Los Angeles a called Wattstax (for Stax records). There is a cool documentary about Wattstax in 1972 that was released a couple of years later you can watch on stream by the same name.
The Classic Album series is an all time fav. I’ve watched the Dark Side of the Moon episode about 5 times 🙂
The Soundbreaking series is cool – I only watched the first one though, about George Martin and the Beatles. I will have to go back and watch some more now.
Anyway, thanks for sharing these. I’m excited to check out the Tad documentary, and I’m setting up my “Free trial” on Apple TV so I can watch 1971.
I’ll give you a couple of suggestions for 2023:
Gimme Danger – About the Stooges, and directed by Jim Jarmusch. I loved this. I really like the first part of this because there is a lot info about the heavy rock music scene in Detroit in the late 1960’s. The only down side is that there is not a lot of film of the band from the brief period when they were big. But the interviews are fun!
Rumble – This is a documentary about the influence of indigenous musicians on rock and roll. The title is from a song called Rumble by Link Wray, which is was one of the first rock songs where the guitarist used distortion. It was hugely influential song – as you’ll see.
Let there be drums – this is fun documentary about, you guessed it, drummers. Stephen Perkins from Janes Addiction is kind of the guide, and he’s a very cool guy!
Moonage Daydream – This is the David Bowie documentary. I’ll be honest, I have not watched it yet, but will be watching it soon. The director is the same guy who did Montage of Heck about Kurt Cobain – which I did not really like so much. But I’ve heard that Moonage Daydream is excellent.
Have a great new year! I look forward to seeing what you write next year. And by the way – just know that I read everything, even if I don’t always reply with a post!! This is my favorite blog!
peace,
tom
A Band Called Death is one of my favorite docs. Have you watched Searching for the Sugarman? If you’re into this list I bet you’d love that one; it’s an incredible story.
Hi Lucas! This is Max in DC. I loved this post and want to see some of these documentaries! It also reminded me that I really loved the documentary Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony about the struggle for freedom in South Africa and the role music played in that. Hope you’re doing well! Keep on writing!
Try Trainwreck:Woodstock 99 on Netflix. It’s pretty insane. Also Stevie Ray Vaughan docs are cool bc he is insane w the guitar… and I like watching footage of Elvis too. Love, Stacy, almost 37 yo, from Dallas, TX
Thanks for the list.I’ve seen the one about the Monterey Pop Festival quite a while back. Seen quite a bit of videos from Woodstock over my 65 years. The Tom Petty one seems interesting.