Opinion: For audiences there is rarely something new to be found in the biopic, but there is comfort and nostalgia in the familiarity
We have recently passed the peak of a decade in which the Marvel Cinematic Universe has dominated film and much of big-budget television. It has been replaced by a growing trend in recent years – the music biopic. But how original is it for film studios and major streamers to flick through their Spotify playlists and see which artist is next for the biopic treatment? Are the biopics providing good film-making and storytelling, or is the trend merely symptomatic of a wider foot-tapping escapism entertainment?
The music biopic genre is undeniably popular and audiences and Hollywood both agree. Singers from Amy Winehouse to Elvis to Bob Dylan, and Maria Callas have all received the big-screen treatment of late. Rami Malek won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Freddy Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), the Queen biopic, though Timothée Chalamet may have been overlooked as Best Actor as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown at the 2025 Oscars (pipped by an unbeatable Adrian Brody in The Brutalist). Audiences are looking to these movies in the wake of super-hero-movie fatigue as well as reconnecting with the songs, music, and personalities of their favourite personal playlists.
With income directly derived from music sales no longer the primary stream for artists, the major acts of recent decades are looking at new ways of securing their legacy, and their bank balance. Selling the rights to entire back catalogues has proved lucrative. Universal Music Group paid a reported $400 million to acquire Bob Dylan's back catalogue in 2020. Stevie Nicks struck a similar deal for over $100 million also in 2020. Today, Recognition Music Group (formerly Hipgnosis) is one of the largest music rights management companies in the world, with a portfolio of tens of thousands of tracks by hundreds of artists on their books. The exposure through a major film biopic, aided with the attraction of a star actor is further good business for any act.
From Searchlight, The official trailer for A Complete Unknown
Walk The Line (2005), the Johnny Cash biopic directed by James Mangold, revitalised the modern obsession with the music biopic. Joaquin Phoenix and Reece Witherspoon led the cast as Johnny Cash and June Carter with award-winning performances that didn’t romanticise the story of Cash and his rise to global fame and inevitable self-destruction, but rather focused on the flawed genius of the singer and his relationship with Carter.
The story of Elton John is told in 2019’s Rocketman, and through a young Reginald Dwight before he becomes Elton John. Rocketman is less a narrative-led drama film than a stage-busting musical on film, where the songs tell the story and pick-up on themes and stages of John’s life as they occur in the film, such as I’m Still Standing when the singer emerges from addiction rehab.
Directed by Pablo Larraín and written by Steven Knight, Angelina Jolie starred in in one of the arguably under-appreciated recent music biopics, in the role of opera singer Maria Callas. Maria (2024), depicts the singer in a Paris apartment in the final days before her death and where she traces her life and memories through a series of pill-induced flashbacks/hallucinations. The grand narrative of Callas’s life sweeps us from a childhood under Nazi-occupation to later grand opera houses, with Jolie is a career-defining performance.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Arena, a look at the life and all-too-short career of Maria Callas
Bob Marley: One Love (2024) starring Kinsgley Ben-Adir as Bob Marley, proved less popular with critics (slating it as a standard 'biopic-by-numbers’ showing little beyond the popular image of Marley) but still drew solid box-office and reaction from audiences.
What makes these music movies so popular? For audiences there is rarely something new to be found in the biopic, but there is comfort in that familiarity and undoubtedly a nostalgic fandom for devotees of their favourite act. We come for the music and songs as much as for the story. For the lead actor there is also a major role that allows them to grasp and embody the famous mannerisms and voice of a well-known singer, a formula that Hollywood and the Academy loves come award-season.
The music biopic genre is also guilty of its clichés. The character of the sinister artist manager and music executive, the kind who greedily chomps cigars side-stage with dollar-signs in their eyes as their musical prodigé expends their talent to their adoring fans is an over-worn feature (see: Tom Hanks as Colonol Tom in Elvis). Elvis (2023) starring Austin Butler, is visually excellent in the familiar Baz Luhrmann-style, dripping in carnival-esque romance that sees Elvis fall between the glamour and tragedy of earlier Luhrmann movies, Moulin Rouge and The Great Gatsby.
From Sony Pictures, The trailer for Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story
The formula of the music biopic has such a recognisable trajectory that it bore its own parody film. Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007) spoofs the genre in a satirical send up of the ‘rags-to-microphone’ stories of singers such as Johnny Cash to Ray Charles.
The popularity of the music-to-film biopic shows no sign of abating. The recent A Complete Unknown told the story of wayfaring Bob Dylan who arrives to the hospital bedside of his folk music hero, Woody Guthrie, alongside a priestly Pete Seeger, brilliantly played by Ed Norton. Based on book by Elijah Wald, Dylan Goes Electric!, the film depicts Dylan’s rise to fame amidst a battle for folk music from the older keepers of the tradition. Culminating at the famous Newport Festival of 1965 when Dylan plugged in and shocked folk audiences, the performances of Chalamet, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez and Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo (based on Suze Rotolo, Dylan’s real girlfriend at the time) are the selling point of the movie, producing a captivating love-triangle story to the soundtrack of Dylan’s greatest counter-culture hits.
From Rotten Tomatoes, The best music biopics
Already in production are biopics of Bruce Springsteen, Deliver Me From Nowhere, starring Jeremy Allen White as The Boss and Stephen Graham as Springsteen’s father. The biopic of Ronnie Spector will also be eagerly awaited, based on her autobiography, Be My Baby, with Zendaya cast in the lead role.
What is surely to create new levels of fandom crossover will be the four-part movie biopic of The Beatles, scheduled for a 2028 release. Directed by Sam Mendes, each Beatle will receive their own film, creating a multi-layered story of Beatlemania. Irish interest will also lie with Barry Keoghan starring as Ringo Star and with Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney. We may know the music and remember the hits of the musical stars on screen, but audiences show no sign of tuning out of the rise of the music biopic.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
