Amateur Musicians

I wrote my dissertation on amateur musician narratives in films made in the 1980s and 1990s. Although I concentrated on Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, Ishtar, Half-Cocked, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch as representative subjects, I considered so many more. Here is a partial (maybe even growing) list of films featuring (largely fictional) amateur (largely rock) musician narratives.

That’ll Be The Day (Goodtimes Enterprises, dir. Claude Whatham,1973)

Stardust (Goodtimes Enterprises, dir. Michael Apted, 1974)

The Blues Brothers (Universal, dir. John Landis, 1980)

Coal Miner’s Daughter (Universal, dir. Michael Apted, 1980)

The Decline of Western Civilization (dir. Penelope Spheeris, 1981)

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (Paramount, dir. Lou Adler, 1981)

This is Spinal Tap (Embassy Pictures, dir. Rob Reiner, 1984)

Sweet Dreams (TriStar, dir. Karel Reisz, 1985)

Howard the Duck (Universal, dir. Willard Huyck, 1986)

One Crazy Summer (Warner Bros., dir. Savage Steve Holland,1986)

Ishtar (Columbia, dir. Elaine May, 1987)

La Bamba (Columbia, dir. Luis Valdez, 1987)

Light of Day (Tristar, dir. Paul Schrader, 1987)

Satisfaction (Twentieth Century Fox, dir. Joan Freeman, 1988)

Great Balls of Fire (Orion Pictures, dir. Jim McBride, 1989)

Leningrad Cowboys Go America (Orion Classics, dir. Aki Kaurismäki,1989)

Say Anything (Twentieth Century Fox, dir. Cameron Crowe, 1989)

The Decline of Western Civilization, Part II: The Metal Years (dir. Penelope Spheeris, 1988)

The Commitments (Beacon Communications, dir. Alan Parker,1991)

Singles (Warner Bros., dir. Cameron Crowe, 1992)

CB4 (Universal, dir. Tamra Davis, 1993)

Backbeat (Gramercy, dir. Iain Softley, 1994)

Reality Bites (Universal, dir. Ben Stiller, 1994)

Half-Cocked (dir. Suki Hawley, 1995)

Empire Records (Warner Bros., dir. Allan Moyle, 1995)

Radiation (dir. Suki Hawley & Michael Galinsky, 1998)

Still Crazy (Columbia Pictures, dir. Brian Gibson, 1998)

Velvet Goldmine (Miramax, dir. Todd Haynes,1998)

The Decline of Western Civilization, Part III (dir. Penelope Spheeris, 1998)

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (New Line, dir. John Cameron Mitchell, 2001)

Thank You, Good Night (dir. Chuck Griffith,2001)

Sons of Provo (Halestone Distribution, dir. Will Swenson, 2004)

Ray (Universal, dir. Taylor Hackford, 2004)

Walk the Line (Twentieth Century Fox, dir. James Mangold ,2005)

Once (Fox Searchlight, dir. John Carney, 2006)

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (Columbia, dir. Jake Kasdan, 2007)

more to come…