List of films about bands
Popular music and motion pictures have been linked since the dawn of the talkies and 1927's The Jazz Singer. While numerous films in the intervening years have featured popular music in their sound tracks, and many have profiled solo artists, the list of films about popular bands is much shorter. The following are significant theatrical films that tell the stories of real or imagined musical groups.
List of motion pictures about music bands (real or fictional)
| Year | Film/Title | Director | Cast/Leads | Notes |
| 1954 | The Glenn Miller Story | Anthony Mann | James Stewart June Allyson | The film tells the story of the Glenn Miller Orchestra and big band leader Glenn Miller from his early days in the music business in 1929 through to his 1944 death when the airplane he was flying in was lost over the English Channel during World War II. The film features ten songs performed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. |
| 1956 | Rock Around the Clock | Fred F. Sears | Bill Haley and his Comets Alan Freed | Considered the first true rock and roll feature film, it is a highly fictionalized account of the origins of rock. The film features several major acts of the day, including The Platters, but largely focuses on the success of Haley and his band, whose single "Rock Around the Clock" is widely considered to be the first rock and roll hit. |
| 1964 | A Hard Day's Night | Richard Lester | The Beatles | Several days in the lives of the Beatles. |
| 1966 | Charlie Is My Darling | Peter Whitehead | The Rolling Stones | The first documentary film about the Rolling Stones, shot during the band's tour of Ireland in September 1965. A restored edition, with additional material, was released theatrically in 2012. |
| 1970 | Let It Be | Neil Aspinall | The Beatles Billy Preston | A documentary about The Beatles rehearsing and recording songs for the album Let It Be, it was filmed in January 1969. The film features an unannounced rooftop concert by the group, their last performance in public. Released just after the album, it was the final original Beatles release. |
| 1970 | Gimme Shelter | Albert and David Maysles Charlotte Zwerin | The Rolling Stones | A documentary film chronicling the last weeks of The Rolling Stones' 1969 US tour which culminated in the disastrous Altamont Free Concert. The film is named after "Gimme Shelter", the lead track from the group's 1969 album "Let It Bleed". |
| 1975 | Flame | Richard Loncraine | Slade Tom Conti Alan Lake | Film starring the British rock band Slade. The film charts the history of "Flame", a fictitious group in the late 1960s who are picked up by a marketing company and taken to the top, only to break up at their zenith. Described as the "Citizen Kane of rock musicals" by BBC film critic Mark Kermode, the film went on to achieve critical acclaim years after the mixed feelings on its original release. |
| 1977 | ' | Lasse Hallström | ABBA Robert Hughes | Largely filmed during ABBA's 1977 Australian tour, the film is a record of a pop band at the peak of its global chart success. It was the first English-language feature directed by future Academy Award nominee Hallström, who also directed most of the band's pioneering music videos. He is also credited as writer, though he has admitted that much of the story, involving a radio reporter trying to land an interview with the band, was mostly improvised on the fly. The film features 19 live performances including one song, "Get on the Carousel", that has never been officially released on any other medium. |
| 1978 | Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park | Gordon Hessler | Kiss | In this made-for-television film, Kiss use their superpowers to battle an evil inventor and to save a California amusement park from destruction. |
| 1978 | The Last Waltz | Martin Scorsese | The Band | Arranged by travel-weary Robbie Robertson as a farewell concert for The Band. Containing comments by the bandmembers and a host of notable guest performers associated with The Band, it contains concert footage and interviews taped both upon the occasion and afterward. The film drew controversy in part, as the other bandmates did not share Robertson's eagerness to part. Other issues, according to Levon Helm, involved the lack of visibility of The Band itself, drug use both on set,, and Helm felt the film portrayed Robertson the key player in a star role, minimizing what appeared to him as the importance of the other bandmates and their contributions. |
| 1978 | Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | Michael Schultz | Peter Frampton The Bee Gees | The film uses the music of The Beatles to tell the story of a band as they wrangle with the music industry and battle evil forces bent on stealing their instruments and corrupting their home town of Heartland. |
| 1979 | Rock 'n' Roll High School | Allan Arkush | Ramones P.J. Soles | A musical comedy about a high school girl and her quest to meet her rock heroes, The Ramones. |
| 1980 | The Blues Brothers | John Landis | John Belushi Dan Aykroyd | Paroled convict Jake and his brother Elwood, set out on "a mission from God" to save the Catholic orphanage in which they were raised from foreclosure. To do so, they must reunite their R&B band and organize a performance to earn $5,000 needed to pay the orphanage's property tax bill. |
| 1981 | ' | Alfredo Anzola | Menudo Marisela Buitrago | Puerto Rican boy band Menudo is on a Venezuelan nationwide tour. They encounter fictionalized situations through the tour, interloped with images of the band performing at real concerts. |
| 1982 | Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains | Lou Adler | Diane Lane Laura Dern | A cult classic starring about three teenage girls who form a punk rock band. |
| 1983 | Eddie and the Cruisers | Martin Davidson | Ellen Barkin Tom Berenger | A Jersey band in the 1960s rises to fame but right before their second album comes out, the master recordings and the lead singer Eddie, mysteriously disappear. Twenty years later a reporter investigates. |
| 1984 | Purple Rain | Albert Magnoli | Prince Apollonia Kotero | A singer with a trouble past, the Kid is a Minneapolis musician on the rise with his band, The Revolution. While trying to avoid making the same mistakes as his father, the Kid navigates the music scene and a rocky relationship with a captivating singer. But a rival musician, Morris, looks to steal the Kid's spotlight -- and his girl. |
| 1984 | This Is Spinal Tap | Rob Reiner | Michael McKean Christopher Guest | A famous "mockumentary" about a heavy metal band trying to make a comeback while being followed around by a filmmaker. |
| 1986 | Sid and Nancy | Alex Cox | Gary Oldman Chloe Webb | A 1986 British film which portrays the life of Sid Vicious, bassist of the seminal punk rock band the Sex Pistols. It stars Oldman as Vicious and Webb as his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. The movie chronicles the lives of the couple and their early deaths. |
| 1987 | La Bamba | Luis Valdez | Lou Diamond Phillips Esai Morales Rosanna DeSoto | Biographical story of the rise from nowhere of early rock and roll singer Ritchie Valens who died at age 17 in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper. |
| 1987 | Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare | John Fasano | Jon Mikl Thor | The rock band Triton travels to a remote farmhouse to rehearse only to be attacked by an evil presence there. |
| 1988 | Vicious Lips | Albert Pyun | Dru-Anne Perry Gina Calabrese | Film about an all-female band that has to travel across the galaxy to play a gig. |
| 1988 | Satisfaction | Joan Freeman | Justine Bateman Liam Neeson Julia Roberts | Teenage band The Mystery is hired as the house band for a summer at a Florida bar. Lead singer Jennie falls in love with the owner of the bar, and they have to choose between fame and friendship. |
| 1989 | Eddie and The Cruisers II: Eddie Lives | Jean-Claude Lord | Michael Pare' Marina Orsini Bernie Coulson Matthew Laurance | After disappearing twenty-five years earlier, the music of rocker and lead singer Eddie Wilson of Eddie and The Cruisers suddenly becomes popular once again when a mysterious recording of Eddie is found. |
| 1991 | The Commitments | Alan Parker | Robert Arkins Colm Meaney | A film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Roddy Doyle, which tells the story of some unemployed Dubliners who form a soul band. |
| 1991 | The Doors | Oliver Stone | Val Kilmer Meg Ryan | biographical film about the 1960s rock band The Doors, focusing primarily on the life of Jim Morrison. |
| 1994 | Airheads | Michael Lehmann | Brendan Fraser Steve Buscemi | In a desperate attempt to gain radio airplay for their demo, a would-be rock band take a local radio station hostage until their songs are played on the air. |
| 1996 | That Thing You Do! | Tom Hanks | Tom Everett Scott Liv Tyler | The Wonders rise to fame for a brief while in the 60s before ultimately becoming a one-hit wonder. |
| 1997 | Bandits | Katja von Garnier | Katja Riemann Jasmin Tabatabai | A German film about four female convicts who start a band, and then escape prison. While on the run, the heroines perform concerts and attain fame as a rock band. |
| 2000 | Almost Famous | Cameron Crowe | Patrick Fugit Kate Hudson | Semi-autobiographical story of writer and director Cameron Crowe's life as a teenage journalist already working for Rolling Stone magazine while still in High School. |
| 2001 | Josie and the Pussycats | Harry Elfont | Rachael Leigh Cook Tara Reid Rosario Dawson | Loosely based upon the Archie comic of the same name and the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, the film is about a young all-female band that signs a record contract with a major record label, only to discover that the company does not have the musicians' best interests at heart. |
| 2001 | Rock Star | Stephen Herek | Mark Wahlberg Jennifer Aniston | Based loosely on the real story of the replacement lead singer for the band Judas Priest. In the film the band is the fictional "Steel Dragon" and the character is Chris Cole. Cole's life metamorphoses when he goes from singer of a Steel Dragon tribute band to the actual lead singer of Steel Dragon, replacing his idol in the process. |
| 2001 | Hysteria: The Def Leppard Story | Robert Mandel | Nick Bagnall Karl Geary Adam MacDonald | A dramatization of the early years of the hard rock band, Def Leppard, the group faces both success and personal tragedies such as drummer, Rick Allen losing his arm in a car accident and guitarist Steve Clark's alcohol addiction. |
| 2002 | Garage Days | Alex Proyas | Kick Gurry Maya Stange | The story of a young Sydney, Australia garage band desperately trying to make it big in the competitive world of rock and roll. |
| 2002 | Rock My World | Sidney J. Furie | Peter O'Toole, Joan Plowright | The rock band Global Heresy bursts onto the scene and then their frontman disappears on the eve of a European tour |
| 2003 | School of Rock | Richard Linklater | Jack Black Lucas Babin | A heavy metal guitar player voted out of his own band so later impersonates a substitute teacher for advanced placement kids for money. To compete in a battle of the bands with his former mates, the guitarist, played by Jack Black, teaches his students to be his rock group after discovering the kids are talented instrumentalists. |
| 2003 | Prey for Rock & Roll | Alex Steyermark | Gina Gershon Drea de Matteo | Jacki is the lead singer of the all-female punk band Clam Dandy. On the verge of turning 40, she decides to give the band one last shot at stardom before retiring her dreams. |
| 2004 | ' | Joe Berlinger Bruce Sinofsky | Metallica | A documentary showing the recording process of Metallica's eighth studio album St. Anger. |
| 2004 | Dig! | Ondi Timoner | The Dandy Warhols The Brian Jonestown Massacre | A documentary contrasting the success of the two bands. |
| 2006 | Dreamgirls | Bill Condon | Jamie Foxx Jennifer Hudson | Academy-award winning, critically acclaimed story about an all-female African-American singing group in the 1960s starring Beyoncé Knowles. |
| 2006 | BoyTown | Kevin Carlin | Glenn Robbins Mick Molloy | Australian comedic film about BoyTown, a fictional 80s boyband of the eighties who leave their terrible and bad-paying lives for one last crack at the big time. They return to the stage with slightly older fans and slightly larger pants to complete some unfinished business. |
| 2006 | Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny | Liam Lynch | Jack Black Kyle Gass | American fictional comedic film about real life rock band Tenacious D, on their quest to obtain a historic guitar plectrum that promises them fame and fortune. |
| 2007 | Control | Anton Corbijn | Sam Riley Samantha Riley | A film about the English 1976 band Joy Division. Focus on lead singer Ian Curtis. Shows how the band rose to success and the depression that Ian had which eventually led to his death. The film is shot completely in black and white. |
| 2008 | Rock On!! | Abhishek Kapoor | Arjun Rampal Shahana Goswami | A Bollywood film about a 90's-era grunge band who break up due to pressures of conforming to major label constraints. Ten years later, the estranged members meet up again by chance, eventually reforming the band and their friendships |
| 2008 | The Rocker | Peter Cattaneo | Rainn Wilson Christina Applegate | A failed musician goes on tour with his nephew's band after one of their songs goes viral. |
| 2008 | Shine a Light | Martin Scorsese | The Rolling Stones Jack White | A film documenting The Rolling Stones' 2006 Beacon Theatre performance on their Bigger Bang tour. The Scorsese film also includes archive footage from the band's career and marked the first utilisation by Scorsese of digital cinematography for his films with it being used for the backstage sequences. |
| 2008 | Anvil! The Story of Anvil | Sacha Gervasi | Anvil Slash | A documentary about the Canadian heavy metal band Anvil and the lives of its members after they fail to hit it big in 80s. |
| 2009 | Bandslam | Todd Graff | Aly Michalka Lisa Kudrow | After moving to a new school, previously unpopular music enthusiast Will teams up in an unlikely pairing with former cheerleader Charlotte to form a rock group and perform in a battle of the bands competition called "Bandslam". |
| 2010 | The Runaways | Floria Sigismondi | Dakota Fanning Kristen Stewart | Film about the 1970s all-female rock band The Runaways, based on the book Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway by the band's original lead vocalist Cherie Currie. |
| 2010 | Bus Palladium | Christopher Thompson | Marc-André Grondin Arthur Dupont | A comedy that follows the break-up of a French rock group. |
| 2011 | Killing Bono | Nick Hamm | Ben Barnes Robert Sheehan Martin McCann Pete Postlethwaite | Killing Bono is a 2011 British-Irish comedy film directed by Nick Hamm, based on Neil McCormick's 2003 memoir Killing Bono: I Was Bono's Doppelgänger. |
| 2012 | The Sapphires | Wayne Blair | Chris O'Dowd Deborah Mailman | It's 1968, and four young, talented Australian Aboriginal girls learn about love, friendship and war when their girl group The Sapphires entertain the US troops in Vietnam. |
| 2012 | Not Fade Away | David Chase | John Magaro Jack Huston James Gandolfini Bella Heathcote | Set in suburban New Jersey the 1960s, a group of friends form a rock band and try to make it big. |
| 2014 | Jersey Boys | Clint Eastwood | John Lloyd Young Christopher Walken Vincent Piazza Erich Bergen | The story of four young men who formed the group, "The Four Seasons." |
| 2016 | ' | Drew Fortier | Bang Tango Dee Snider Riki Rachtman Howard Benson | A documentary about the 80's hard rock band Bang Tango and their over 2 decade long decline into present day. |
| 2016 | Sing Street | Lucy Boynton Mark McKenna | Fictional story | |
| 2018 | Bohemian Rhapsody | Bryan Singer | Rami Malek Lucy Boynton Gwilym Lee | The story of the legendary rock band Queen and lead singer Freddie Mercury, leading up to their famous performance at Live Aid. |
| 2018 | Lords of Chaos | Jonas Åkerlund | Rory Culkin Emory Cohen Jack Kilmer | A horror film about the band Mayhem, guitarist Euronymous and their dark past. |
| 2018 | Leto | - | - | - |
| 2019 | The Dirt | Jeff Tremaine | Douglas Booth Colson BakerDaniel Webber Iwan Rheon | A biographical musical comedy-drama about glam metal band Mötley Crüe, featuring famous events in the band's history and their numerous struggles as a band. |