Want to learn about the lives of your favourite music acts? Start here.

Daft Punk Unchained

You might not immediately recognise the names Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, but you’ve definitely heard of Daft Punk, the iconic French electronic music duo comprising two robotic entities: Bangalter and de Homem-Christo’s alter egos. Active from 1993 to 2021, the duo is regarded as one of house music’s most influential acts. Daft Punk mined the mystique of their sci-fi-inspired personas to achieve mythic status, leaving their mark on pop culture in various ways, including scoring the 2010 film Tron: Legacy.

Daft Punk rarely spoke in public and almost never showed their true faces. So this 2015 documentary from French filmmaker Hervé Martin-Delpierre is particularly valuable to fans, offering rare insight into the lives and careers of Bangalter and de Homem-Christo, who formed two-thirds of indie band Darlin’ before founding Daft Punk. The film includes interviews with the duo’s illustrious collaborators, including Pharrell Williams, Giorgio Moroder, Nile Rodgers, Skrillex, and filmmaker Michel Gondry.

Moonage Daydream

David Bowie endures as a cultural icon years after his death. He made an indelible lightning-shaped mark on the music industry with an innovative sound and flamboyant stage personas, including his glam rock alter-ego Ziggy Stardust. Documentarian Brett Morgan’s Moonage Daydream is presented as a collage, with footage — including interviews and concert videos — assembled from Bowie’s personal archive. Clips from movies, including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Nosferatu, Metropolis, and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, are edited into the film, alongside footage from movies that Bowie appeared in as an actor, including The Man Who Fell to Earth,* The Hunger* and Labyrinth. Cinematic, atmospheric, and surrealistic in a way that befits Bowie, Moonage Daydream is described by The Guardian as “a mind-blowing labour of love”.

Thriller 40

Released in 1982, Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the best-selling album of all time. With over 70 million copies sold, it is a landmark album with an enduring legacy. Consisting singles such as “Billie Jean”, “Beat It”, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’”, “Human Nature”, and, of course, its title track, Thriller, the follow-up to 1979’s Off the Wall, cemented Jackson’s status as a superstar solo artist. This documentary commemorates the album’s 40th anniversary and features interviews with artists including will.i.am, Usher, and Mark Ronson, as well as Myles Frost, the musical theatre performer who portrayed Jackson in MJ The Musical on Broadway. This documentary reminds music lovers that while there will always be celebrated new albums, nothing will ever come close to replicating the achievements of Thriller.

The Real Taylor Swift: Wild Dreams

Taylor Swift is arguably the current Queen of Pop and the most culturally relevant music artist. She is conducting her worldwide Eras Tour, which revisits all her past albums and ‘eras’. Born in the small town of West Reading, Pennsylvania, Swift went from teenage guitar-strumming country artist to international pop sensation, reinventing herself several times over the course of her career. Her loyal fans, dubbed ‘Swifties’, love her music for its intimate, relatable quality, for her lyrical sensibilities as a songwriter, and for how she makes fans whom she’s never met feel like she’s their best friend. *The Real Taylor Swift: Wild Dreams *takes viewers back to the beginning of her music journey to track how Swift turned her childhood pop-star dreams into a colossal music empire that is both an economic engine and an undeniable cultural movement.

Fight the Power: How Hip-Hop Changed the World

Hip-hop has always been political and is inextricably linked to the Black experience in the United States. The genre traces its roots back to the ’60s in the Bronx, New York, and has since gone mainstream, been embraced by the world, and influenced many artists from various backgrounds. This four-part miniseries, presented by Chuck D, the frontman of pioneering hip-hop group Public Enemy, examines the genre’s social and cultural impact. From Grandmaster Flash and Ice-T to will.i.am and Jay-Z, meet the figures who shaped hip-hop and learn about the circumstances surrounding its creation and evolution.