Dart Adams presents 20 Music Documentaries You Should See

I grew up at the great time for music fans (don't we all think that, though?). I grew up listening to all my parents records and 8 track cassettes in an age where it was tough to trust your kids with your music collection. My mom and pops drilled it in my head to respect each record and listen to the music and handle everything with care, even the 45's. We had some family friends that lived upstairs from us and both of the teenage sons had record collections and grew up to be DJ's. Between all of those records, I was in heaven.

Little kids aren't conscious of genres or have no idea what kind of labels some music has. I listened to the radio and watched TV all throughout the late 70's and 80's and I absorbed it all. I also discovered all types of music through documentaries that used to come on Pay TV (this was before cable TV existed the way it does now) channels like Starcase and Preview. My dad had one of those old school industrial top loading metal VCR's back in the days (and my closest sibling was 6 years older than me) so I saw a gang of joints that most other kids never did.

Here is a list of some up my favorite music documentaries/concert films that I saw as a kid all the way up until now that span different genres. If you can't find any of them on DVD then chances are that some of them just might be available "somewhere" or you can watch them "somewhere". Just keep your eyes open and check out my list of 20 music docs and concert films that I recommend:


The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)

Pop Gear (1965)

Monterey Pop (1968)

Woodstock (1970)

Message To Love-The Isle Of Wight Festival (1970)
Gimme Shelter (1970)

Wattstax (1973)

Jimi Hendrix (1973)

Janis (1974)

The Band: The Last Waltz (1978)

The Who: The Kids Are Alright (1979)

Urgh! A Music War (1981)

Gil Scott-Heron: Black Wax (1982)

Talkin' Headz: The Metalheadz Documentary (1998)

Big Brother & The Holding Company: Nine Hundred Nights (2001)

Made In Sheffield (2002)

Standing In The Shadows Of Motown: The Funk Brothers (2002)

Fela Kuti: Music Is The Weapon (2003)

Festival Express (2003)

The Original Soul Men: Sam & Dave (2008)

One.