What ever happened to the music documentary?

By Lola Nam de Giorgio

Music biopics haven’t gone out of style, not yet anyway. In the last ten years we’ve had Bohemian Rhapsody, Elvis (and Priscilla), Back to Black, A Complete Unknown, and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. The list goes on, that’s just to name a few. There’s even talks of a new Beatles biopic starring the likes of Barry Keoghan and Paul Mescal. Every year (like clockwork), a new music biopic stealthily swaggers to the forefront of the cultural epicentre, with media critics and music/film buffs alike plunging into garbled discourse about inconsistencies and inaccuracies. What I am curious about though, is the decline in appreciation for concert film. We are no longer satisfied by this, instead craving biopics that embellish and chart the rise or fall of an artist. 

When I think of films about music, I think of The Last Waltz, Depeche Mode’s 101, Nick Cave’s This Much I Know to Be True. The capturing of artists, creatives in their prime – there’s glamour, there’s  vulnerability, but most importantly there’s the music. What you see is what you get. In The Last Waltz, Scorsese interviews, jibes and gets to the heart of The Band as they bid farewell to the world of rock. These moments of dialogue are spliced within various performances which include fellow legends such as Joni Mitchell, Dr. John, and Bob Dylan. It serves not only as a capsule to a time before the mass recording of concerts, but also as a way of returning to one of the greatest nights in rock history. Unlike the music biopic which sprinkles in overly generous subplots about failed romances, meeting heroes in the psychiatric hospitals (looking at you, A Complete Unknown), the music documentary offers a no-frills insight into the inner-workings of the artist. It would appear that this is not enough for us as an audience. We crave great tales of musicians with star-studded casts and high-production value. 

The music documentary seems to have slipped under the radar, somewhere along the way, thanks to the rise of streaming services, and the need for rapid-fire content. A quick search on YouTube or Instagram can display a myriad of different concert videos, all from different angles - effectively allowing the viewer to be part of the concert experience. Yet the reel of concert film is captured from the perfect place: getting the backstage content, the crowd’s reaction and the concert itself. 101 delivers this perfectly, with D.A. Pennebaker filming several fans who were travelling to see Depeche Mode’s Pasadena concert from their album Music for the Masses. It chronicles the anticipation, the excitement and the moments in between the show. There is something quite special about seeing these moments, immortalised in film – backstage moments of the band on the road, flitting back to stories from fans, which led them to find pleasure in the music of Depeche Mode . The images from music documentaries form the basis of how we think about artists.  Dave Gahan (lead singer of Depeche Mode) performed for over 60,000 people in Pasadena, twirling around in an all-white number, playing to the crowd. Martin Gore stuns in suspenders made of leather, in front of him a synthboard, singing along to hits like ‘Never Let Me Down’, and ‘Strangelove’. Moments before, we see Gahan nervously trying to figure out how he will address their fans - what’s the right sequence of words? What sentence will rev the crowd up? We see the human side to them, beyond their discography, their aesthetics. Music is both a performance and a means of authenticity. At times we become indifferent to the inner musings of these musical giants, and so concert film can become a means of viewing art beyond the lens of an artist in front of us. It becomes clear that in recent years, concert footage has become less appreciated. There is no decline per se, but rather a lack of attention to these forms of footage. 

In recent years there have been countless concert films that have emulated (at certain points) this golden age of concert film. Capturing the nerves, soundcheck, the final product. I just can’t help but wonder if we will ever reach the point of excitement with a concert film that we did several decades ago. But perhaps perfection doesn’t need to be meddled with. That being said, it would be interesting to see artists emulate the same sort of magic that has been revered and captured by the greats of the pre-digital age. A Scorsese production of Geese’s 2026 tour, or some sort of experimental documentary on The Last Dinner Party’s From The Pyre. Music has always been accompanied by some element of documentation, we still talk about Mick Jagger’s performance from The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus, or the Live Aid performance of 1985. These build to become cultural references and points of appreciation for generations to follow, and so maybe a return to appreciating the good ol’ times of  music documentaries wouldn’t go amiss in this day and age.