The 25 Best Music Centered Films
by The-Plague | created - 08 Jul 2011 | updated - 15 Oct 2014 | PublicThese are the best of the best. The 25 greatest films that focus mainly on music.
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1. The Blues Brothers (1980)
R | 133 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy
Jake Blues rejoins with his brother Elwood after being released from prison, but the duo has just days to reunite their old R&B band and save the Catholic home where the two were raised, outrunning the police as they tear through Chicago.
Director: John Landis | Stars: John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Cab Calloway, John Candy
Votes: 214,561 | Gross: $57.23M
2. The Doors (1991)
R | 140 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band The Doors and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison, from his days as a UCLA film student in Los Angeles, to his untimely death in Paris, France at age 27 in 1971.
Director: Oliver Stone | Stars: Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan, Frank Whaley
Votes: 99,100 | Gross: $35.18M
3. This Is Spinal Tap (1984)
R | 82 min | Comedy, Music
Spinal Tap, one of England's loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DiBergi on what proves to be a fateful tour.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Rob Reiner, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Kimberly Stringer
Votes: 147,399 | Gross: $4.74M
4. Purple Rain (1984)
R | 111 min | Drama, Music, Romance
A young musician, tormented by an abusive situation at home, must contend with a rival singer, a burgeoning romance, and his own dissatisfied band, as his star begins to rise.
Director: Albert Magnoli | Stars: Prince, Apollonia Kotero, Morris Day, Olga Karlatos
Votes: 23,829 | Gross: $68.39M
5. Hard Core Logo (1996)
R | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
A group of washed-up Canadian punk rockers get back together for a road trip in memory of a dear friend who was supposedly shot, or so rumors imply. As they travel, they ignore the underlying psychological darkness within each other.
Director: Bruce McDonald | Stars: Hugh Dillon, Callum Keith Rennie, John Pyper-Ferguson, Bernie Coulson
Votes: 2,822 | Gross: $0.02M
6. Airheads (1994)
PG-13 | 92 min | Comedy, Crime, Music
Three band members hoping for a big break head to a radio station to play their demo tape and wind up holding everyone hostage with plastic guns when the head D.J. refuses to play them.
Director: Michael Lehmann | Stars: Brendan Fraser, Steve Buscemi, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley
Votes: 56,408 | Gross: $5.37M
7. Amadeus (1984)
R | 160 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The life, success and troubles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as told by Antonio Salieri, the contemporaneous composer who was deeply jealous of Mozart's talent and claimed to have murdered him.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: F. Murray Abraham, Tom Hulce, Elizabeth Berridge, Roy Dotrice
Votes: 428,263 | Gross: $51.97M
8. Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989)
PG | 90 min | Adventure, Comedy, Music
Two rock-'n-rolling teens, on the verge of failing their class, set out on a quest to make the ultimate school history report after being presented with a time machine.
Director: Stephen Herek | Stars: Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, George Carlin, Terry Camilleri
Votes: 141,714 | Gross: $40.49M
9. Crossroads (1986)
R | 99 min | Drama, Music, Mystery
A wannabe blues-guitar virtuoso finds an old blues player and hopes he can teach him a long-lost song by legendary musician Robert Johnson.
Director: Walter Hill | Stars: Ralph Macchio, Joe Seneca, Jami Gertz, Joe Morton
Votes: 17,660 | Gross: $5.84M
10. 8 Mile (2002)
R | 110 min | Drama, Music
Follows a young rapper in the Detroit area, struggling with every aspect of his life; he wants to make it big but his friends and foes make this odyssey of rap harder than it may seem.
Director: Curtis Hanson | Stars: Eminem, Brittany Murphy, Kim Basinger, Mekhi Phifer
Votes: 321,050 | Gross: $116.72M
11. Ray (I) (2004)
PG-13 | 152 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The story of the life and career of the legendary rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles, from his humble beginnings in the South, where he went blind at age seven, to his meteoric rise to stardom during the 1950s and 1960s.
Director: Taylor Hackford | Stars: Jamie Foxx, Regina King, Kerry Washington, Clifton Powell
Votes: 157,436 | Gross: $75.33M
12. I'm Not There (2007)
R | 135 min | Biography, Drama, Music
Ruminations on the life of Bob Dylan, where six characters embody a different aspect of the musician's life and work.
Director: Todd Haynes | Stars: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw
Votes: 61,195 | Gross: $4.02M
13. Almost Famous (2000)
R | 122 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
A high-school boy in the early 1970s is given the chance to write a story for Rolling Stone magazine about an up-and-coming rock band as he accompanies them on their concert tour.
Director: Cameron Crowe | Stars: Billy Crudup, Patrick Fugit, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand
Votes: 293,532 | Gross: $32.53M
14. Walk the Line (2005)
PG-13 | 136 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A chronicle of country music legend Johnny Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins.
Director: James Mangold | Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Ginnifer Goodwin, Robert Patrick
Votes: 265,907 | Gross: $119.52M
15. Great Balls of Fire! (1989)
PG-13 | 108 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The life and career of wildly controversial rock 'n' roll star Jerry Lee Lewis.
Director: Jim McBride | Stars: Dennis Quaid, Winona Ryder, John Doe, Stephen Tobolowsky
Votes: 18,894 | Gross: $13.74M
16. The Buddy Holly Story (1978)
PG | 114 min | Biography, Drama, Music
The story of the life and career of the early rock and roll singer, from his meteoric rise to stardom, to his marriage and untimely death.
Director: Steve Rash | Stars: Gary Busey, Don Stroud, Charles Martin Smith, Conrad Janis
Votes: 9,989 | Gross: $14.36M
17. La Bamba (1987)
PG-13 | 108 min | Biography, Drama, Music
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.
Director: Luis Valdez | Stars: Lou Diamond Phillips, Esai Morales, Rosanna DeSoto, Elizabeth Peña
Votes: 36,456 | Gross: $54.22M
18. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)
R | 96 min | Comedy, Music
Singer Dewey Cox overcomes adversity to become a musical legend.
Director: Jake Kasdan | Stars: John C. Reilly, Jenna Fischer, David Krumholtz, Nat Faxon
Votes: 77,266 | Gross: $18.32M
19. Losers Take All (2011)
Not Rated | 96 min | Comedy
Chosen by the man himself, the Kevin Smith Movie Club presents Losers Take All. A band is given the chance of committing the ultimate sin: selling out. They must decide if they'll stick to their roots or give in to corporate rock.
Director: Alex Steyermark | Stars: Kyle Gallner, Tania Raymonde, Allison Scagliotti, Aaron Himelstein
Votes: 442
20. Control (2007)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, Music
A profile of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic singer of Joy Division whose personal, professional, and romantic troubles led him to die by suicide at the age of 23.
Director: Anton Corbijn | Stars: Sam Riley, Samantha Morton, Craig Parkinson, Alexandra Maria Lara
Votes: 68,571 | Gross: $0.87M
21. Woodstock (1970)
R | 184 min | Documentary, History, Music
Oscar-winning musical chronicle that brilliantly captures the three-day rock concert and celebration of peace and love that became a capstone for the Sixties.
Director: Michael Wadleigh | Stars: Joan Baez, Richie Havens, Roger Daltrey, Joe Cocker
Votes: 18,469 | Gross: $50.00M
22. The Stöned Age (1994)
R | 90 min | Comedy, Music
Joe and Hubbs are a pair of rockers who are on a quest for 'chicks.' This is the tale of their adventures over one night.
Director: James Melkonian | Stars: Michael Kopelow, Bradford Tatum, China Kantner, Renee Allman
Votes: 5,325
23. Elvis (I) (1979 TV Movie)
168 min | Biography, Drama, Music
Biographical movie about the famous rock singer Elvis Presley.
Director: John Carpenter | Stars: Kurt Russell, Shelley Winters, Bing Russell, Robert Gray
Votes: 5,137
24. Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny (2006)
R | 94 min | Adventure, Comedy, Music
To become the greatest band of all time, two slacker, wannabe-rockers set out on a quest to steal a legendary guitar pick that gives its holders incredible guitar skills, from a maximum security Rock and Roll museum.
Director: Liam Lynch | Stars: Jack Black, Kyle Gass, JR Reed, Ronnie James Dio
Votes: 115,264 | Gross: $8.32M
25. SLC Punk! (1998)
R | 97 min | Comedy, Drama, Music
In the early 1980s Stevo, and Heroin Bob are the only two dedicated punks in conservative Salt Lake City.
Director: James Merendino | Stars: Matthew Lillard, Michael A. Goorjian, Annabeth Gish, Jennifer Lien
Votes: 32,823 | Gross: $0.30M
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