50 greatest music films ever

First off, an apology. Nowhere in this list of fantastic films about musicians will you find ‘This is Spinal Tap’. As much as we love Christopher Guest’s mockumentary, the band never actually existed (sorry to break it to you, Tap fans). Instead we’re celebrating great films – dramas and documentaries – about real musicians. We’ve polled our film and music writers for their personal favourites and looked beyond the obvious to include films about jazz, films about opera, films about Finnish polka rock and films about Gilbert and Sullivan.

Why? Partly to coincide with the release of ‘Control’, Anton Corbijn’s new film about Joy Division, and partly because we recently saw ‘I’m Not There’, Todd Haynes’ movie about Bob Dylan, which reminded us just how superb films about musicians can be. Here we offer you 50 excellent cinematic creations and guarantee that the one we’ve picked for the Number One spot may not be to everyone’s taste. We, however, think it’s a work of genius. But if you disagree, we want to hear from you. Have your say.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

41

42

43

44

45

46

47

48

49

50