What are your favorite bands? the ones you put on when you're having a bad day or at a party or to just feel something?

Music has the power to change your life and your world, and when paired with movies, I think you're cooking with two forms of art that have shaped humanity over the last hundred years.

Today, I want to take you through some movies about legendary bands, both real and fake, to brighten up your day and bring you back to the power of music.

Let's dive in.

1. Almost Famous

  • Director: Cameron Crowe
  • Writer: Cameron Crowe
  • Cast: Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand

One of my favorite movies of all time, I don't care that the band isn't real. The journey is so beautiful and sweet that I think it's important everyone watches this movie. It has so much to say about life and love and parents and music that it would be impossible to cover it all here.

2. Straight Outta Compton

  • Director: F. Gary Gray
  • Writers: Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff
  • Cast: O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell
This is a band movie that's really a political film. It's about fighting censorship and oppression, and expressing yourself without being silenced. I love the characters in this movie and the cinematography was next level.

3. The Doors

  • Director: Oliver Stone
  • Writers: Oliver Stone, Randall Jahnson
  • Cast: Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan

I remember smoking weed and watching this Oliver Stone movie on Saturday nights in college as part of a pregame ritual. I still have no idea what the dream sequences mean but I know that Kilmer becomes Jim Morrison for the entire runtime and his performance is special.

4. The Last Waltz

  • Director: Martin Scorsese
  • Cast: The Band, and numerous guest musicians (Bob Dylan, Neil Young, etc.)
My pick for the best movie about a band ever, this one is about The Band's last show. We get the honest interviews, we get some drug use, we get all-time good performances, we get egos, it's all wrapped up in Scorsese's expert and touching direction.

5. Gimme Shelter

  • Directors: Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin
  • Cast: The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are one of the greatest bands of all time. Taking a peak behind the curtain and seeing what makes them tick, as well as seeing them play live, is an unprecedented view of a world most of us will never see.

6. This is Spinal Tap

  • Director: Rob Reiner
  • Writers: Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner
  • Cast: Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner
Quite possibly one of the, if not the funniest movie ever made. It's the perfect look at an ego-fueled rock industry and the hilariously overwrought ideas behind stage performances and big tours.

7. Let It Be

  • Director: Michael Lindsay-Hogg(Neil Aspinall is also credited)
  • Cast: The Beatles, Billy Preston.
This gripping doc follows the Beatles preparing for a concert on a roof and fighting after making The White Album. It's such a poetic look at creation and songwriting and the dynamics of a group at the top of the world, literally.

8. The Commitments

  • Director: Alan Parker
  • Writers: Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais, Roddy Doyle (novel)
  • Cast: Robert Arkins, Michael Aherne, Angeline Ball
An absolute hidden gem of a movie. This hilarious Irish story is about finding soul music on the Emerald Isle. It really taps into the bar music scene and juxtaposes tradition with growth and modernity with eloquence.

9. School of Rock

  • Director: Richard Linklater
  • Writer: Mike White
  • Cast: Jack Black, Joan Cusack, Mike White.

Before White Lotus, Mike White was crushing rock and roll on the page, while Linklater crushed the direction of this movie. I feel like everyone saw this movie and immediately Googled how to play an instrument. Or, at least, enrolled their kids in lessons.

10. Sing Street

  • Director: John Carney
  • Writers: John Carney, Simon Carmody (story by)
  • Cast: Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Lucy Boynton, Jack Reynor, Aidan Gillen, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Kelly Thornton.
This charming coming-of-age movie takes fictional musical performers and adds in one of the most emotional and charming threads about fitting in at a new school, where music is the only thing you have in common.

Summing Up 10 Great Movies About Legendary Bands

These real and fake bands made perfect topics for some great movies. I think music and cinema are the perfect match, and when you get them both at the top of their game, the results are magical.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

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