6 Music Docs I Love

I’ve been thinking a lot about genre. Mainly because there are a couple of documentary genres that continue to do well in these somewhat challenging times. One is true crime (more on that later), another is music (we might crudely call this a subset of “celebrity,” or even more crudely: “existing IP”).

Another time I’ll get into why I think these genres will continue to get funded (hint, it’s not just audience demand), and how I am thinking about genre in terms of my own career sustainability, but for now: I just want to share some music documentaries that I am inspired by. Not making any claims they are “the best”, just some of my personal favorites.

1. Dig! (2004)
   Doc legend ’s breakout was this unbelievably engaging “tale of two bands” — the Dandy Warhols and the Brian Jonestown Massacre, who are best friends / rivals in the same music scene. Rides along as the Dandy Warhols get anointed as the next big thing by The Industry, and BJM (arguably the more talented of the two bands) understandably reacts by calling them sellouts. Delicious! Iconic!

   To better understand these strange forgotten Gen X values like “not selling out” and how important they were the music of the era, also see: Hype! (1996), 1991: The Year Punk Broke (1992), and The Target Shoots First (1999).

   

2. The Decline of Western Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years (1987)
   It’s so perfect, I don’t know where to begin. The stylized portraits of all the leading lights of my metalhead youth are are still amongst the funniest, most layered and playful depictions of musicians I’ve ever seen (plus: fans, club owners, record label execs). Impeccably cool filmmaking aesthetics, applied to the tackiest content ever. And there’s just enough crippling sadness in this film to make it feel honest.

   If you want to understand why heavy metal is hands down the funniest genre of music, I mean one truly need look no further than This is Spinal Tap (1984) (the only music “doc” we tried to copy in the Kenny G film) but also its real-life counterpart Anvil: The Story of Anvil (2008).

   

3. The Velvet Underground (2021)
   How do you make a documentary about a band with nearly no footage at all, and absolutely no concert footage? We love a constraint that forces artistry! While I generally feel depressed about celebrities and/or famous fiction filmmakers making documentaries because I really don’t know how to compete with that, come on man it’s hard enough out here, I’ll make an exception for Todd Haynes and this film because this film ROCKS!!! Kaleidoscopic and mesmerizing, WATCH IT BIG AND LOUD OR DON’T WATCH IT AT ALL!!!

   A couple other more avant-garde music docs I like: Milford Graves, Full Mantis (2018), Shirley Clark’s Ornette Coleman: Made in America (1985) and of course ’s Eno (2025) about which I eagerly await digital release news (you can sign up for email updates here).

   

4. BTS Army: Forever We Are Young (2025)
   I love a film about the fans. This one co-directed by (who has made some seriously funny documentaries such as The Grace Lee Project) and Patty Ahn is so fun! A joyous portrait of this fandom that kind of grows up and gets globally powerful alongside the band itself. I would imagine it’d be great for family viewing, too. It’s not out yet, but you can sign up for updates here.

   A classic must-see short doc about music fandom is Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986) and yet another, much darker one, is Dream Deceivers (1992)… yes, these are also heavy metal movies, you might be learning a couple things about my personal taste here.

   

5. Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell (2008)
   Speaking of personal taste: for me, this film was an introduction to a musician I’d never heard of at the time, and now count amongst my favorites. has made a bunch of incredible films about artists — 2025’s Pee Wee as Himself is absolutely outstanding — and his first feature feels like something close to a miracle. An engrossing, layered story of an artist who died tragically young during the AIDS era. I don’t always have to love the music to love a music doc, but this one really made me fall in love. Really interesting use of creative, classy recreations, too.

   

6. Mistaken for Strangers (2013)
   Has anyone seen this movie?? I feel like it was a bit of a sleeper, but I think about it often with glee and delight. An extremely funny, supremely entertaining and surprisingly poignant film about what it is like to be the unsuccessful brother of the lead singer of The National, during the height of The National’s fame. Brotherly love, self sabotage, feeling like a loser, the life of a roadie… it’s all a really good time and super charming. I’m a sucker for a kind of lo-res, on the fly, self-reflexive movie like this. Arguably, this isn’t really even a music documentary, but I love this film, and it’s my list!