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17 music documentaries you should watch

It might be time to stop binge-watching your favorite shows for the third time. Instead, why not learn a thing or two about your favorite tunes?

These 17 documentaries (rockumentaries?) will teach you all about some of the most influential rock and punk bands, and also the music scene built around them.

1. 1991: The Year Punk Broke

Want a historic look at some of the most influential punk bands in history? This documentary features interviews with Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Ramones and more.

2. Three Cheers For 10 Years

Mayday Parade reminisced about their first 10 years of existence in this emotional documentary, which came out right around the same time as their 2015 album Black Lines.

3. Heart Like A Hand Grenade

This documentary follows Green Day as they create American Idiot in the studio, as well as rare footage of some of their shows following that release. According to a Rolling Stone interview with the director, many of the studio scenes were the first time anyone had been allowed into the studio to film the iconic band.

4. Glastonbury

Tons of bands have hit the stage at Glastonbury, a famous music festival in the U.K. This documentary looks at 35 years of its history, from 1970 to 2005. The film was released in 2006, so it doesn’t feature anything that’s happened in the past 10 years.  Regardless, it still covers the bulk of Glastonbury’s existence.

5. Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck

The Nirvana frontman is humanized in this doc, which shows the difficult aspects of his heroin addiction, the custody battle he and his wife Courtney Love experienced and his lifelong struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts. It’s the first documentary made about Nirvana that had the Cobain family’s support.

6. Metallica: Some Kind Of Monster

Metallica have had their fair share of issues throughout their decades-long history. Some Kind Of Monster, which shares its name with one of Metallica’s songs, chronicles the problems that plagued the group in the early 2000s.

7. Tired Violence

Before Underoath returned from their hiatus in 2015, the band created a documentary to follow their breakup. Tired Violence shows what was thought to be the band’s final show in 2013.

8. American Hardcore

The birth of hardcore , starting with groups like Black Flag, Bad Brains and Minor Threat, is shown in this documentary.

 

9. Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer

When Pussy Riot, a Russian feminist, anti-Putin punk rock group, performed in the middle of a cathedral, they immediately stirred a controversial movement against the government in 2012. This film shows the rebellious perspective of the musicians and follows the court cases against them.

10. Release The Bats

Fall Out Boy band members have gotten into some antics, and a lot of that is captured on Release The Bats. “This is music, this is mischief, this is mayhem,” Pete Wentz says at the beginning of the film, wearing a Satan costume.

11. The Damned: Don’t You Wish We Were Dead

British punk icons the Damned have a complicated and very, very long history in the U.K. scene. And if you like drama-filled twists and turns, this one might be for you.

12. Life On The Murder Scene

This 2006 documentary follows My Chemical Romance, including interviews with the band, and the hype built around their live performances.

13. Straight To DVD

All Time Low released a live album of one of their shows in New York City, and along with the CD, they released a documentary DVD with outtakes and a video of the performance. ATL also released a sequel documentary, titled Straight To DVD II, which picks up where the last documentary left off. The sequel shows what the band was up to during the recording of Future Hearts.

14. Bastards Of Young

Featuring bands like Thursday, Matchbook Romance, Taking Back Sunday and Underoath, Bastards Of Young shows the full beginning of the emo and hardcore scenes. (Keep an eye out for former AP editor Jonah Bayer!)

15. We're Never Going Home

Against Me! saw huge success with their 2003 album Against Me! As The Eternal Cowboy, and as a result, were faced with difficult decisions. Focusing on the band’s tough signing choices in 2004, We’re Never Going Home gives a glimpse of what it’s like to face moral dilemmas in modern music.

16. The Drop: Blink-182’s California

Released through Spotify in short segments, The Drop: Blink-182’s California looks at the band’s latest release,  including interviews with band members about Matt Skiba joining the lineup.

17. The Full Circle Story

OF MICE AND MEN – THE FULL CIRCLE STORY from Jon Stone on Vimeo.

Before vocalist Austin Carlile’s departure from Of Mice & Men late last year, the band released a documentary about their travels in 2015, when they performed with Queens Of The Stone Age, Metallica and Linkin Park. You can watch the full documentary below.

BONUS DOC: Bleeding Audio
Okay, so, this one hasn’t technically been released yet. But it looks awesome: It chronicles the work of the Matches, the quite fabulous pop-punk band, and tons of other scene favorites.