Rockumentaries, Part 1: Rock & Roll Documentaries You Have and Haven't Seen

Whether strictly educational or purely entertaining or a hybrid of both, "rockumentaries," documentaries centering on the world of rock & roll music, its performing artists, its fans, its events, and its subcultures, are growing in number and popularity every year.

Coined in the first minutes of the fictive This Is Spinal Tap, the term "rockumentary" now defines a body of films that lend filmic dimension to classic rock, punk, metal, grunge, indie, and every new and emerging form of rock & roll music.

Classic rockumentaries, such as Shine a Light (about the Rolling Stones) and Don't Look Back (based on the experiences of Bob Dylan in 1965), now share air time and shelf space with examinations of newer bands and rock subgenres, including the astounding Metal: A Headbanger's Journey and 1991: The Year Punk Broke, which features the fresh faces of then-unknown grunge bands.

Here are a few rockumentaries that are not to be left out of any rock fan's movie collection:

1991: The Year Punk Broke

(1992, Dave Markey, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, et al.)

This goofy, band-filmed rockumentary covers a seminal period for grunge (before the genre bore that name), following several now-major bands on a two-week European tour. Although deliberately anti-capitalist and often self-identified as having punk aesthetics, the bands are indeed much too silly to be punk; the behavior is more reminiscent of a good junior high sleepover than any kind of serious sociopolitical protest. Chipper faces and political/musical solidarity are presented with a good dose of traditional rock "fuck you," and concert footage is interspersed with bizarre commentary and personality performances from band members.

As with every let's-trail-a-touring-band movie, the film best succeeds in capturing each band member's hysteria and boredom. Most notably, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl go batshit in some dressing room, adopting vaguely European accents and drooling wine ecstatically while embracing one another.

The very cool concert footage, though rough and rarely shot from a good angle, is as raw and energetic as the then-unknown stars and includes Nirvana's first live playing of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and a spectacularly badass "Dustcake Boy" from Babes in Toyland.

Altogether, this rockumentary captures the optimism and revolution that grunge embodied for many of its fans and artists. The film shows a rebellion against the played-out debauchery of hair metal and the self-aggrandizing anger of punk rock alike, and all while Nirvana was still just an opening act for the underground.

Cocksucker Blues

(1972, Robert Frank, the Rolling Stones and entourage)

"Where can I get my cock sucked?/ Where can I get my ass fucked?" If a band with a planeful of naked groupies doesn't have the answer, then nobody ever will. In this gritty, lo-fi flick, the Rolling Stones pay tribute to sex, drugs, and rock & roll... obliquely within the first seven minutes and explicitly throughout (brace yourself for unsimulated sex, every kind of genitalia on display, snow-white lines disappearing up various noses, and a few instances of intravenous drug use).

The level of ennui required to produce cinéma vérité of this caliber is only to be found on the road with a touring band or in similar circumstances of social isolation and deteriorating morals (see Lord of the Flies). There's some so-so concert footage here, but for the most part, you're looking at an hour and a half of navel-gazing and debauchery, low on plot and high on, well, whatever substances are available. It's the rock filmic equivalent of low-grade cocaine: You know you won't feel good afterward, but you feel compelled to do it anyhow. Best shown to young teenagers with glamorous aspirations to rock & roll fame, this picture is ultimately a sad cautionary tale.

Metal: A Headbanger's Journey

(2005, Sam Dunn, Bruce Dickinson, Tony Iommi, Ronnie James Dio, Alice Cooper, Dee Snider)

Cultural anthropologist Sam Dunn has been a heavy metal fan since the tender age of 12. In this film, he delves deep and wide into the sociological meanings of the genre and does so with intelligence, passion, humor, tenderness, and great understanding. It doesn't hurt that he talks to metal gods such as Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Ronnie James Dio, Dee Snider of Twisted Sister, Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden, and representatives of metal bands great and gory, from Arch Enemy and Girlschool to Slipknot and Korn.

In addition to covering the topics of metal's origins in culture and music theory, Dunn also explores the community of metal fans and what sets them and the music apart from the wider audience of music listeners. He also takes a look at metal's effects on our society, including allegations of evil and associations with Satanism.

You'll leave a viewing of this film with a better general understanding of metal and some valuable tidbits and trivia, as well. This rockumentary is edutainment at its finest.

Stay tuned for more rockumentary coverage!