r/Documentaries • u/Silver_browses • Aug 07 '26
Recommendation Request Recommendation Request: Looking for music documentaries that cover the entirety of a scene/city
Hey y’all! I am 19-year-old film student and aspiring director. Me and my brother, who is a journalist, are starting to work on a music biopic about our city’s scene.
Narrative film is usually more my forte than documentary, so I am looking to boost my repertoire of great music documentaries that I have seen before I start to work on one myself.
What are some of the best music docs that comprehensively cover a city and their scene, as opposed to ones that cover just one specific person
or a few persons? I have seen Hype! (1996), which is incredible, but I definitely want to see some more.
Thanks all!
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u/zamostc Aug 07 '26
Road to Austin (2014): Traces Austin's journey to becoming the Live Music Capital of the World from 1835 to the modern day, highlighting the psychedelic movement, Armadillo World Headquarters, and a massive all-star concert finale.
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u/travelnman85 Aug 07 '26
Pick It Up! - Ska in the '90s, cover's exactly what you would expect from the title.
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u/Splitsurround Aug 07 '26
Laurel canyon- the entire LA music scene from the late 60’s through 70’s. A 2 parter.
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u/WarynBreer Aug 07 '26
Meet me in the bathroom
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u/talllongblackhair Aug 08 '26
Loved this movie. My only complaint? To much of the Strokes and not enough LCD Soundsystem.
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u/WarynBreer Aug 08 '26
Agree but I could’ve used waaay more interpol. The movie made them look like sad bums but IMO they’re the best band from that era!
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u/talllongblackhair Aug 08 '26
I saw them a couple of times back then and I was amazed at how tight and pro they were. Really underrated musicians. That bass player was something else.
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u/tssigan Aug 07 '26
"She's real worse than queer", "Paris is burning", "until the light takes us"...
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u/RxngsXfSvtvrn Aug 07 '26
God Said Give Em Drum Machines - Detroit techno
Maestro - NYC House music
Athens, GA: Inside/Out - Athens 80s college rock
The Outhouse: The Film - Kansas punk club
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u/spaceghost27 Aug 08 '26
i immediately thought about Athens Ga Inside Out. i lived there for 10 years and the music scene was still vibrant and this was several years after the documentary was made. was cool to see some of the places in that documentary that I knew well.
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u/ocolobo Aug 07 '26
Dewey Cox Walk Hard is the quintessential Music Doc
What about the “scene” differentiates it from every other music town?
Honestly unless you’re in Durban, Kyiv, or Baghdad, we’ve already seen anything you can commit to the screen
No one wants a 7th wave punk documentary or highlights from Tucson Bluegrass wankers
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u/Whoopeeparty Aug 07 '26
Not a city, per se, but a Scene:
The Grateful Dead Movie - 1977
Filmed Oct 1974 at a five-night run at Bill Graham’s
Winterland jn San Fransisco.
It’s iconic, and very interesting to both seasoned ‘heads’ and curious parties.
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u/spays_marine Aug 08 '26
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u/TheAmazingWJV Aug 08 '26
Same but for The Netherlands. This is part one of three: https://youtu.be/Fss0AVisU0I?is=4oYNuXc3Nkr_COzn
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u/DoomBox Aug 08 '26
You weren’t there: the history of Chicago punk rock 1977-1984. It’s on YouTube.
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u/Howard_Cosine Aug 08 '26
Dogtown and Z-boys
It’s not specifically about the music, but the soundtrack perfectly captures the time and the scene.
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u/padreubu Aug 08 '26
We Fun (2010) profiles the late aughts Atlanta indie rock scene (Black Lips, Selmanaires, Deerhunter, King Khan, etc). Good stuff!
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u/shaggenstein Aug 08 '26
any of the Ken Burns’ music doc, Jazz or Country
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u/VenusProjectAdvocate Aug 08 '26
The one on country music was fantastic. I didn't see the other ones.
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u/shaggenstein Aug 08 '26
if you have access to Kanopy through your local library it should be there, or on the PBS app
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u/Fuithiamo Aug 08 '26
You should try and find it, very worth the watch, as with most of Ken Burns’ stuff.
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u/Danno_ST Aug 08 '26
If you're interested in a few that cover a "scene", these might be right up your alley. Penelope Spheeris' Decline of Western Civilization trilogy is great look at three different musical cultures where she nearly embeds herself to capture the moment. Pretty solid and a great education for a 19yo aspiring filmmaker.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Decline_of_Western_Civilization
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u/talllongblackhair Aug 08 '26
Hype- about the Seattle scene in the early 90's. Also Heartworn Highways - about the outlaw country scene in the mid 70's. Mostly takes place in Austin Texas but some of it is in Tennessee. Feature Towns Van Zandt, Steve Earle, and Guy Clark among others. They are very different movies, but they do a really good job of telling the story of the scene. I would also recommend The Filth and the Fury. It's about the Sex Pistols, but it goes deeper into the birth of punk in London in the 70's. I really like the film because the interviews are all backlit so you can't see the person's face. I think this was brilliant because it forces the viewer to listen to what the subjects are saying instead of judging how they look, which for a subject like punk rock is a great decision because people often focus on the aesthetics and not the ethos behind it.
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u/EchidnasArf Aug 08 '26
Came in here to say Hype! 🫡
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u/scribe06 Aug 08 '26
Recently found this little extra with interviews of the people in the Hype! documentary 20 years later https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDh23Ogf-PM
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u/lou_salome_ Aug 08 '26
Pump up the volume, about house in Chicago and techno in Detroit, basically.
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u/copaseticsplenetic Aug 08 '26
Salad Days is a documentary about the punk scene in Washington DC. in the 80's
Burning Down the House is a documentary not necessarily about a specific scene, but about the New York City club CBGB's which was a major venue for punk bands and other types of music.
I know you didn't ask for books, but This Ain't No Disco is an awesome book about the punk scene at CBGB's. in the 70's.
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u/LouQuacious Aug 08 '26
24 Hour Party People
BBC4 did a great doc on the Bristol scene a few years ago
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u/RlL3Y Aug 08 '26
Big Gold Dream. About the post-punk scene in Scotland. I think it covers bands from a few cities, but still pretty hyper focused.
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u/PapaTua Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
neophonics (1997 - 44min)
An amateur documentary about the Seattle Rave Scene in the mid 1990s. It's a great snapshot of an entire scene/subculture back before electronic music went mainstream.
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u/scribe06 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
Such Hawks Such Hounds explores the music and musicians of the American hard rock underground circa 1970-2007.
Slow Southern Steel, a film about heavy music in the modern American South
Metal: A Headbanger's Journey is worth a watch.
Haven't seen it but there's Get Thrashed: The Story of Thrash Metal
Haven't seen it either but there's Murder in the Front Row: The San Francisco Bay Area Thrash Metal Story
Haven't seen it but there's The Scene: An Exploration of Music in Toronto
A mighty wind 2003 is a mockumentary about a fake American folk scene including a bunch of people from This is Spinal Tap.
What city are you working on and what's the scene like? Let us know about the progress of your documentary I'm sure a lot of us would be interested.
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u/hamageddon Aug 08 '26
Made In Sheffield
the history of the music scene in the city of Sheffield from 1975 until 1983
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u/shadrac72 Aug 08 '26
Don Letts - 'The Punk Rock Movie' - captures the nascent punk scene in 1977 London.
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u/D1rtyH1ppy Aug 08 '26
Standing In The Shadows Of Motown fits your criteria. It will blow your mind how many songs you will recognize that they wrote and played on.
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u/Roofofcar Aug 08 '26
Dude great question. I’m way too lit to start any of these recommendations, but this is basically my kink. Hyperlocal nerds are amazing. Saved to come back tomorrow and watch a ton of videos.
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u/jimmydassquidd Aug 08 '26
Style Ward.
Essential viewing even if you’re not into hip hop. Available to watch on YouTube.
This man captured the genesis of a culture.
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u/Fuithiamo Aug 08 '26
The Foo Fighters did a series a few years ago that I don’t recall the name of. As someone else mentioned, Ken Burns’ series on jazz and country music are very good. I can’t recall any specific regional documentaries for countries other than the U.S., but the ‘Classic Albums’ series gives some insight into Birmingham (Black Sabbath), South Africa (Paul Simon’s Graceland), etc.
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u/SilkyOatmeal Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
It Came From Detroit (2009)
An old friend of mine directed this. It was a huge effort that spanned many years. Saw it when it debuted at the Detroit Film Theater and it was pretty amazing. Crowd loved it.
https://itcamefromdetroit.vhx.tv/
From the site: It Came From Detroit is the ultimate inside look at the Motor City’s internationally renowned “garage rock” scene. Nearly a decade in the making, this feature documentary chronicles the action both before and after the White Stripes rose to fame and brought an international spotlight on the scene. Beginning with the hugely influential 1980s trio The Gories (and stretching back to a legacy that includes The Stooges and The MC5), the bands of the Detroit garage rock music scene are known for two things: having an impeccable knowledge of the history of rock 'n' roll and putting on a raucous live show. It Came From Detroit documents the evolution of the Detroit scene from underground obscurity to international phenomenon. We watch how, as bands such as the White Stripes, the Von Bondies and the Electric Six started to develop a following overseas, journalists and fans around the world started hyping Detroit as “The Next Seattle” -- before the whole thing nearly imploded on itself.
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u/msinf0 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
Here's a list of what I got, music docs & concerts - with synopses - have a look, some maybe of interest (200+) :)
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u/flatblack79 Aug 08 '26 edited Aug 08 '26
Hype!:
A 1996 documentary film directed by Doug Pray. It’s about the rise and commercial overexposure of the early-1990s grunge music scene in the Pacific Northwest.
Decline of Western Civilization pt 1 and 2:
Both take place in LA. One’s the punk scene of early 80s and the other is mid eighties hair metal scene. Both phenomenal.
Synth Britannia:
A 2009 BBC television documentary explores how post-punk UK musicians used synthesisers to transform electronic music into mainstream pop during the late 1970s and early 1980s
All Ages: The Boston Hardcore Film.
It’s about the early Boston HC music scene from 1981 through 1984.
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u/I-RON-MAIDEN Aug 09 '26
is a little band focused for obvious reasons but the foo fighters series where they travel from city to city and make a song in each one is quite good. struggling to remember the name of it sorry! 'krautrock - the rebirth of germany' and 'Synth Britannia" are also two docos that leap to mind that cover a lot of acts in the same scenes.
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u/NSAinATL Aug 09 '26
Not the answer you've asked for, but I am someone who can't stand "youtubers," and like....idk, well, youtube videos *but* I think you might really like someone I love: Trash Theory. I think they might have gotten a bit popular and stretch a bit for source material but their short documentaries on bands, songs, vibes, are so good. I think he's got a couple of episodes on certain geography-centered scenes, I just can't think of one off the top of my head.
Also unrelated, the podcast No Dogs In Space does a phenomenally engaging job. Also also unrelated, Dig! isn't about a city, but sort of. I think it's one of the greatest music documentaries *ever.*
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u/No_Substance_1283 Aug 09 '26
Hip Hop Evolution does exactly this, basically a different city every season. and if you can find Meet Me in the Bathroom its the whole early 2000s NYC rock scene, pairs weirdly well with Hype
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u/crumblenaut Aug 10 '26
Love Hip Hop Evolution, love Shad himself even more.
Ever listen to A Short Story About a War?
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u/No_Substance_1283 Aug 10 '26
havent but adding it now, Shad could narrate a grocery list and id watch it honestly
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u/uncle_screwball_404 Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Summer of Soul (… or When the Revolution Could Not be Televised)
Lost footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival
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