Apart from a wide array of shows and films, the streaming platform Netflix offers several acclaimed documentaries in various genres. One such popular genre has been that of music. These music documentaries include concert films, archival footage, and other historical perspectives or social commentary based on an artist's life.
Some documentaries feature the life and work of current mainstream musicians like Travis Scott while others focus on legendary figures like Nina Simone. Here are 10 of the finest music documentaries streaming on Netflix right now.
Bad Rap
Hip-hop emerged from the black neighborhoods of the United States but has now reached all communities of the world in some way or another. Bad Rap is a showcase of four rappers of Asian origin based in the US, trying to make their mark in the rap world. It features new-age icons like the battle rapper Dumbfounddead and the rapper/Golden Globe-winning actress Awkwafina.
Salima Koroma's direction offers a candid look inside their personal and professional lives, including interviews with the artists' parents and peers. There's also a section when leading producers and label executives are made to hear songs by these four rappers and judge their sound and marketability.
Homecoming
Subtitled as "a film by Beyonce", this documentary offers an inside look at Beyonce's performance at Coachella in 2018. Directed and written by the songstress herself, it has been described as one of the greatest concert films in recent times.
It doesn't just feature concert footage but also the creative process that went into her performance. Beyonce has been known for focusing on the aesthetics and thematic elements behind each of her songs and performances and Homecoming is the prime of her creative prowess.
What Happened, Miss Simone?
The singer behind many a legendary R&B and jazz ballad-like I Love You, Porgy and Feeling Good lived a life of greatness as well as melancholy. This Academy Award-nominated documentary traces her origins on how she struggled as a civil rights activist and then migrated to Liberia in the 1960s, following the turbulence in America.
It spends no time in glorifying it's already-glorified subject and instead offers a perspective of Miss Simone as the human, not just the artist.
Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story
In the fall of 1975, folk/rock legend Bob Dylan embarked on his Rolling Thunder Revue tour. Director Martin Scorcese highlighted segments from this concert along with some fictional narratives too, giving this 2019 Netflix original the tone of a "pseudo-documentary". The movie also highlights the political and socio-economic mood of the country as the aftermath of the Vietnam War (which Dylan has constantly criticized through his work) and the Watergate scandal was still fresh in the minds of Americans.
The movie opened to rave reviews and carries on Scorcese's legacy of documenting Dylan's career. Scorcese's previous tryst with Dylan was No Direction Home which chronicled his rise as an artist and his shift from folk to rock.
I Called Him Morgan
Love, ambition, and music entangle in this account of jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan's death. Morgan breathed his last at the age of 33, shot by his wife Helen Morgan after a scuffle in the year 1972. Helen was sent to prison but released on early parole. She later died due to natural causes.
This Swedish-produced documentary was praised for its harrowing insights on the toxic relationship that these two ominous figures shared, almost making it feel like a true-crime drama.
Quincy
Parks and Recreation star Rashida Jones directed this biographical look in the life of 27-time Grammy Award winner and her father Quincy Jones. Quincy Jones has been reputed as a producer and trumpeter but he has also been a significant figure in music for nurturing and mentoring several icons like Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, and Will Smith. This clearly points to the huge influence he has had on the music industry.
While the movie celebrates his achievements, some wished that it dug deeper into his psyche, and explored what was behind these achievements. It played safe but still received enough rave reviews to be remembered as a significant Netflix music documentary. Quincy also won the 2019 Grammy Award for Best Music Film.
Sample This
Before Tupac, before N.W.A, there was the Incredible Bongo Band with an incredible reinterpretation of a song that led to the incredible journey of hip-hop. The aforementioned music group was created in the 70s and often produced upbeat, funky music on bongo and conga drums. They covered a guitar track called Apache by a British composer, putting their own spin on it. They created history in this process. The percussion pattern in the song became the basis for countless hip-hop songs in the future so much so that it was dubbed as the 'national anthem of hip-hop'.
Sample This features the story of this song and music group along with a profile on DJ Kool Herc, the godfather of hip-hop who sampled the record for the first time. It even features narratives around Robert Kennedy and Charles Manson on how they indirectly influenced rap music. Saying any more would just spoil the movie for you!
Tokyo Girls
Tokyo Idols is an amusing yet shady look into female musicians of the J-pop (Japanese pop) music scene, particularly a young singer called RioRio. What is interesting to note that although she was just 19 during the shooting of this documentary, her fanbase mostly comprised of middle-aged men who called themselves the 'RioRio Brothers'. These men are willing to spend thousands of dollars just to catch a glimpse of young female pop stars, buy their merchandise, or just shake their hands.
Apart from the music scene, Kyoko Miyake's film captures the various aspects of gender and sexuality in Japan. While women are rising independently in music, most of their songs and public image are shaped according to the male gaze. Many of the crazed middle-aged male fans worship J-pop queens but as we see, they are shy men who find it hard to talk to women otherwise. It is this disconnect between men and women which Tokyo Idols explores. The premise itself sounds intriguing enough for one to check out this film on Netflix, even if one has no idea about Japanese music.
The Black Godfather
A fitting tribute to an underrated legend in the recording industry, this recent Netflix offering details the life and times of Clarence Avant with interviews of several artists who worked with him. Avant might not have been a household name but is definitely one of the most major pioneers of the business angle of music, rightfully earning the sobriquet 'The Black Godfather'.
His was a multi-faceted lifetime in which the film details in great depth, documenting Avant's career as a manager, concert organizer, founder of record labels, and even a fund-raiser to Democratic politicians. So, even those who never knew Avant's name would know it now through this music documentary.
Whitney: Can I Be Me?
Like many other music legends, singer Whitney Houston had lived a tragic off-screen life filled with drugs and depressive episodes. Four years after her death, director Nick Broomfield attempted to take a look back to her beginnings and what went wrong in her glorious career which eventually made her shut herself from the rest of the world.
The title of this film itself along with stunningly dark archival footage sets a moody tone for the film. It does not just focus on her career highlights like other music documentaries but also attempts to unabashedly cover her downfall. Known for many such dark music docudramas, Whitney: Can I Be Me? continues to be one of Broomfield's renowned works.