10 Best Documentaries About Musicians

Music documentaries are in full form when their focus is limited to a specific artist or band. When the subject is at most four or five people, there is more potential to arrive at bare human emotion than say, a film covering a wide movement of a certain important genre. The most interesting films about music are the ones that put you in the head of the artist in question. Maybe they won't release every factual detail to sum up an artist's life, but they infuse the documentary with a mood that puts you directly in the shoes of an artist either at a specific point in time or throughout their entire life. As we see from the following documentaries, music is not always fun. Whether the conflict of enjoyment is brought about from malicious record companies, family drama, or mental illness, most brilliant musicians become consumed by their environment. The exhausting effects of one's surroundings can both trip up an artist's success and fuel their voice, and the following documentaries display how far a musician can be pushed by their situation for better or worse.