Hello dopers,
I’m really in the mood for watching movies related to pop and rock. Mostly anything goes, documentaries and musicals also. Here are some examples:
High Fidelity - A comedy about the owner of a record store and his record collecting mates
School of Rock - A man takes on teaching a class of upper class children, teaches them to rock
Almost famous - Teenage kid becomes rock critic at Rolling Stone
Keep them coming!
Velvet Goldmine - A reporter looks retrospectively at a glam-rocker who he admired when he was younger.
24 Hour Party People - Sort of a documentary about the music scene in Manchester in the '70s. The parts that aren’t true are quite hilarious. Some of the parts that are true are heartbreaking.
Human Traffic - a low-key film about a group of friends and a regular weekend in the Cardiff club scene. Heavy on the drug use but very, very sweet, and quite a bit about music and dj-ing.
Glancing at my DVD collection…
24 Hour Party People: based-on-a-true-story black comedy/drama, about Factory Records, Tony Wilson, and Manchester, from the punk days to the Madchester club scene. The Tony Wilson character breaks the fourth wall throughout the film, and the DVD has a commentary track with the real Tony Wilson criticizing the movie’s Tony Wilson… great stuff. (On preview, I see this already mentioned, so consider this another suggestion that it’s worth seeing.)
Across the Universe: Beatles-inspired musical romance/drama.
American Massive: documentary of a multi-artist, cross-America house/trance tour; interesting for the looks at the American dance music scene, and the spats between tour members.
Empire Records: teen comedy set in an independent record store that is about to be sold to a conglomerate, lots of early 90s college rock.
The Filth and the Fury: Sex Pistols documentary.
Glitter: so-bad-it’s-good pseudobiography featuring Mariah Carey playing a Mariah Carey clone.
Graffiti Bridge: the mostly forgotten sequel to Purple Rain. The Kid vs. Morris Day, this time with way more symbolism and much less humor.
I Trust You to Kill Me: documentary on a small rock band that Kiefer Sutherland likes and promotes. Kind of a weird ride.
Just for Kicks.: documentary on the rise of sneakers as collectibles and fashion; because of its focus, it’s very slanted towards hip-hop and rap, and much of the focus is on the rise of those scenes.
Live Forever: documentary on “Britpop,” the resurgence of British pop music (and other pop culture) in the 1990s.
Mayor of the Sunset Strip: sympathetic documentary on Rodney Bingenheimer, 1960s LA rock scenester-turned-KROQ DJ who can break new artists.
New York Doll: documentary on Arthur Kane of the New York Dolls, after he left the group and seemingly trends towards a happy ending and a reunion with the band at the end…
Nirvana: Live! Tonight! Sold Out!: retrospectively sad documentary about Nirvana, made before Kurt’s death.
Party Monster: based-on-a-true-story retelling of the “club kids” and New York party scene from the 1980s; one of the characters is Keoki, currently a house DJ and singer, and who is one of the featured artists in American Massive.
Purple Rain: Prince plays a Prince-like character in a musical/drama/comedy loosely based on the Minneapolis scene in which he arose.
Scratch: documentary on DJ/scratching culture. For a fun drinking game, take a shot everytime someone name-drops Herbie Hancock in this one.
SLC Punk: comedy/drama about a small group of punk rock scenesters in the Salt Lake City area, who are on the edge of making major life changes.
tATu Anatomy (I’ve seen this rendered as Anatomy of tATu, but this translation means I get to shelve it along with my other tATu DVDs): documentary on the making/selling of tATu, the Russian “lesbian” pop duo, which revealed them as a fabrication of a Svengali-like manager.
UHF: “Weird Al” Yankovic! Comedy!
Oh yeah, I forgot, Hard Core Logo, a mockumentary (but not a comedy - not at all) about a washed-up Canadian punk band on a reunion tour of Western Canada.
This Is Spinal Tap - mockumentary about a fictional metal band. A classic, with stuff like the amplifier that “goes up to 11”, their difficulty with drummers that keep dying on them, the meddling girlfriend getting more power than others are comfortable with, etc. Quite a few rock/metal bands insisted that parts were either directly based on their lives or mirrored them to a scary extent. Get the anniversary edition DVD, if you can - there’s a commentary track done by the 3 band members in character, as if they were watching the film years later and talking about their impressions of it, and their lives since then.
I Am Trying to Break Your Heart - (real!) documentary about the band Wilco. It was intended to just be a documentary about the making of one of their albums, but all sorts of drama popped up around that time, including interpersonal conflict with one of the long-time members and eventually issues with the record label. A very good choice if you’re interested in the band at all.
No love for The Rutles?
Concert footage and various behind-the-scenes tour stuff:
Truth or Dare - In bed with Madonna
Rattle and Hum - U2’s tour of America
Movies about rock/pop musicians:
Music and Lyrics - Romantic comedy with Hugh Grant as a forgotten 80s musician (modeled after Andrew Ridgeley I think)
La Bamba - Richie Valens biopic
I’m Not There - Inspired by the life and songs of Bob Dylan. Cate Blanchett’s segment was the only one that stood out for me though. YMMV.
A Hard Days Night, of course.
Blue Hawaii, for the best (or, perhaps, most archetypal (sp?)) of Elvis films.
Grease
And, though it relates to your OP only tangentially, my nomination for worst soundtrack of all time will have to be Maximum Overdrive and its all AC/DC score.
Oh, I forgot to mention Dreamgirls. Error fixed. 
Quadrophenia.
“Standing in the Shadows of Motown”. As good a music documentary as you’ll ever see. You want great music? It’s here. Want a compelling story? It’s about the Funk Brothers - Motown’s group of studio musicians who played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined!!! But aside from James Jamerson (if him), I challenge you to name a single one of these legendary players. Just an amazing movie!
You shouldn’t forget That Thing You Do, about a one-hit-wonder band in the 1960s.
Another that many people nowadays have either forgotten or never knew about, is Phantom of the Paradise. It’s difficult to describe briefly, but if I had to try, I’d say it was a movie that (a) played off classics like Phantom of the Opera, (b) was a retelling of the story of Faust, (c) was a look at what might have been some parts of the starmaking and songwriting machinery of the 70s, and (d) a look at the glitter rock that was popular in the early 1970s. Worth a try, but don’t worry if you don’t like it; it seems to be one of those films that you either really, really like or really really hate.
Happened to think of a few more that I have:
1991: The Year Punk Broke: Documentary on a touring festival of alternative bands in 1991; the main focus is Sonic Youth, but there are performances by many other bands, including a Nirvana that was about to hit the big time.
The Doors: just as bombastic and over-the-top as any other Oliver Stone movie, and I know a number of people who hated Val Kilmer in the role of Jim Morrison… but still a fun rock movie. (Interesting to see in theaters around here, as showings were promptly claimed as territory for public sex and drug use).
The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle: Sex Pistols pseudodocumentary; I really didn’t like this one much, but it’s interesting seeing the Sex Pistols mocking themselves.
L7: The Beauty Process: Documentary/pseudodocumentary of the band L7. Pretty poorly made, good only for fans.
Punk Rock Movie: Great, early documentary on UK punk bands. Sex Pistols, the Slits, Siouxsie and the Banshees, etc.
Woodstock: The quintessential concert documentary. Interesting use of differing aspect ratios and split-screen techniques; inexplicable band omissions. One of a number of wothwhile 1960s concert documentaries (Monterey Pop, The TAMI Show).
The Last Waltz
Some Kind of Monster - real documentary about Metallica, which was supposed to be about the making of their “St. Anger” CD, but devolved into a story about James Hetfield’s rehab stint and how the whole band used psychobabble to attempt to deal with it.
The Last Waltz - documentary/concert film about The Band. Directed by Martin Scorcese and generally considered the best film of its type.
Stop Making Sense - concert film of Talking Heads, directed by Jonathan Demme.
ETA: Beaten to the punch on The Last Waltz!
Lots of good recommendations; if you want, for whatever reason, to throw a horror movie in there as well, Huey Lewis and the News have a pretty prominent presence in American Psycho.
Paris is Burning is about New York in the 80’s and the whole crossdressing Vogue dance movement. It’s a documentary as much about being an outcast in a culture yet to accept homosexuals, much less crossdressers as it is about the dance movement itself. I say this as a straight guy who doesn’t usually care for documentaries much less dance documentaries, but it was good.
The Kids are All Right, a documentary on the Who made up of various recorded performances of the group.
Wild in the Streets – a dystopian rock science fiction film where teens are given the vote and elect a charismatic rock star as president. Good rock score, too.
Bye Bye Birdie. Probably the first Broadway musical to incorporate a few rock songs ("Honestly Sincere’), it’s about a rock star. But as a caveat, the movie version is just plain terrible, with a pointless subplot tacked on that’s unfunny and stupid. See a local theater production, or, if you must, the Jason Alexander TV version (which shows you how terrible the movie was if I’m endorsing anything with Alexander in it).
Hair – The Great American Tribal Love Rock Musical. Score is pretty good.
The Girl Can’t Help It – Early (1956) satirical look at rock music, directed by Frank Tashlin.
Gigantic - Documentary about the rise of They Might Be Giants. Even if you don’t like them, it’s also about the world of alternative rock during the 80s and 90s
Interesting list. The Filth and The Fury is kind of fun. Does Live Forever have any Midge Ure footage? I love him. ETA- wait, it wouldn’t, that’s 80’s stuff…
Did you know that Rodney Bingenheimer was the first person to play Van Halen on the radio (I think- the 80’s are a bit hazy for me)? IIRC, he met a guy named Dave Roth playing a party in somebody’s garage, and played a little song they were shopping called “Running with the Devil.”
To the docs, I would add-
Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, a documentary/biography of the lead singer of The Clash.
If I Should Fall From Grace: The Shane MacGowan Story, a funny, sad and stunning biopic of the lead singer of The Pogues, a true Irish poet in every tragic sense of the phrase.