Music

Music on screen is two genres in one: the performance — the concert film, the documentary, the biopic — and the use of music as the emotional engine of everything else. Both are about the same truth: music reaches people before language does, and films about it are trying to catch that in a frame.

The music documentary has become one of the strongest forms of the last decade. It is where a band's story, a scene's history and a moment's sound get reconstructed with care, and where the archive footage finally gets the context it deserved.

Use it for: the concert film on a good sound system, the documentary about the band you grew up with, the biopic that gets the songs right. Don't expect it for: quiet — music films are loud by design.

Sound matters here more than in any other genre. Watch the performance films with the volume you would bring to the real thing.