‘Tis the season to deck yourself with festive pyjamas and settle down for some serious chill time – but as we all know musical inspiration never sleeps. So the team at SEM have compiled their ultimate list of music documentaries to inspire. In no particular order, here are some all-time gems in the musical documentary genre, as well as some of the now free to stream on Youtube shorts. Merry Christmas, you’re welcome.
SEM‘s ultimate music documentaries to Xmas ’n’ chill with
- Daft Punk Pump Up The Volume. A mindblowing insight into the famously shy and technically genius French electro duo who in the space of their career burst onto the scene, defined an era, made one of the most hyped comebacks of all time and gave Nile Rogers a new lease of life.
- The History Of House Music streaming now on Netflix
- 10 years of dance featuring all the greats this charts the decade that was Dance.
- The Hip Hop Revolution – some omissions i.e. very little said about females, but still a good journey from disco onwards.
- A Band Called Death – costs to rent but f***** well good, 92% on rotten tomatoes. Sets the story straight that one of the first punk bands in the U.S. in the sixties (!) was black.
- What Happened Miss Simone? – as relevant then as it is now. An icon of the civil rights movement and one of the most recognisable and sampled voices in history. Miss Simone was a firebrand and this doc reveals her highs and very low lows with style.
- Searching For Sugarman – unfortunately not available on Netflix anymore but “suuuuuch a good watch.” We won’t give away the ending but a guy who basically ‘went viral’ back in the day in South Africa, except he’d moved to USA, was living in poverty and no idea. The mythology of his death was common knowledge in SA, but a music journo decides to investigate…
- Eats Everything in a short film a very, very inspiring short about following your dreams. Love this.
- Nas: Time Is Illmatic a feature length exploring the making of the album with one of hip-hop’s greats.
- Organized Noize track the movement that brought us Outkast and a movement of production that “shaped the landscape of hip-hop”.
- Sample This – available on Netflix. A super inspiring doc for hip-hop sample nerds. Must see.
- Carl Cox Space is the place a Resident Advisor film on Youtube follows the dance music titan for a season in Ibiza.
- Richie Hawtin a freebie doc on Youtube for those interested in the origins of one of Techno’s pioneers.
- PressPausePlay an intellectual look at what it means to be a creative in the digital era. Free on Vimeo.
- Inside Clone Records a look inside one of the legendary record stores to still be going since the nineties, free to watch on Youtube.
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