Hitsville: The Making of Motown
Aug 24, 2019 | IMDB 7.6
113 min Watch NowDocumentary, Music
The remarkable story of the legendary Motown Records is told through exclusive interviews with the label’s visionary founder, Berry Gordy, and many of its superstar artists and creative figures, as well as rare performances and behind-the-scenes footage unearthed from Motown’s vaults and Gordy’s personal archives.
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
BadPuss: A Popumentary
Happy on the Ground: 8 Days at Grammy Camp
Utopia Ltd.
The Sparks Brothers
Dreamgirls
Show!
Elvis
The Cavern Club: The Beat Goes On
Heaven Tonight
American Pop
Standing in the Shadows of Motown
King of the Hill: A 70th Anniversary Retrospective of Cincinnati’s King Records
Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee
Rockin' at the Red Dog: The Dawn of Psychedelic Rock
Sparkle
American Hot Wax
Sharon Osbourne Presents Rock 'n' Roll's Dodgiest Deals
Welcome to Death Row
I Need That Record!
Money for Nothing: Behind the Business of Pop Music
SIMILAR MOVIES
BadPuss: A Popumentary
IMDB 0 | Nov , 2014
An Honest and hilarious look at the music industry through the eyes of an all girl rock band.Happy on the Ground: 8 Days at Grammy Camp
IMDB 0 | Apr , 2011
Talented teen musicians from around the USA spend a week working with Grammy nominated professionalsUtopia Ltd.
IMDB 0 | May , 2011
Anton Spielmann (18) and his two younger friends Basti Muxfeldt and Jonas Hinnerkort are living in their family homes with their parents in an idyllic village close to Hamburg. The three of them founded the band 1000 Robota. The band has an ambitious aim: „We want to cause creation not to remind of it”, and they want to live up to their ideals. In a society affected by economic pressure 1000 Robota are questioning themselves and others and they don‘t want to meet other people‘s expectations. In a world of excessive supply they are looking for significance and want to unite with others to create a new way of youth culture. But soon they have to face some serious difficulties.The Sparks Brothers
IMDB 7.3 | Jun , 2021
Take a musical odyssey through five weird and wonderful decades with brothers Ron & Russell Mael, celebrating the inspiring legacy of Sparks: your favorite band’s favorite band.Dreamgirls
IMDB 6.7 | Dec , 2006
A trio of female soul singers cross over to the pop charts in the early 1960s, facing their own personal struggles along the way.Show!
IMDB 0 | Nov , 2013
A surprisingly intimate portrait of how the dream of running one’s own business can take on monstrous contours. Managed by the father of one of the singers, over the course of five years the girl band 5Angels had reached the gates of pop fame. But it is a path paved not only with the songs of Michal David, but also with the dogged determination of a man who loses any notion of where his role as manager ends and his role as parent begins. An emotionally moved Karel Gott, five angelic girls, and one overly involved father, thanks to whom the behind-the-scenes pre-Christmas atmosphere melts away just as rapidly as the fat should disappear from the belly. “A singer can’t be a lard bucket!”Elvis
IMDB 7.5 | Jun , 2022
The life story of Elvis Presley as seen through the complicated relationship with his enigmatic manager, Colonel Tom Parker.The Cavern Club: The Beat Goes On
IMDB 7.8 | Apr , 2019
Presented by Paul McGann, The Cavern Club and LA Factual have come together to produce "The Cavern Club: The Beat Goes On" - a unique documentary feature, telling the untold, complete and colourful story of the 'greatest club in the world'.Heaven Tonight
IMDB 3 | Nov , 1990
The film covers the conflict between a father and his son both being musicians. The father is the leader of a band making rock-music from the 60s but his son becomes a star of techno-pop music.American Pop
IMDB 6.9 | Feb , 1981
The history of American popular music runs parallel with the history of a Russian Jewish immigrant family, with each male descendant possessing different musical abilities.Standing in the Shadows of Motown
IMDB 6.9 | Sep , 2002
In 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. gathered the best musicians from Detroit's thriving jazz and blues scene to begin cutting songs for his new record company. Over a fourteen year period they were the heartbeat on every hit from Motown's Detroit era. By the end of their phenomenal run, this unheralded group of musicians had played on more number ones hits than the Beach Boys, the Rolling Stones, Elvis and the Beatles combined - which makes them the greatest hit machine in the history of popular music. They called themselves the Funk Brothers. Forty-one years after they played their first note on a Motown record and three decades since they were all together, the Funk Brothers reunited back in Detroit to play their music and tell their unforgettable story, with the help of archival footage, still photos, narration, interviews, re-creation scenes, 20 Motown master tracks, and twelve new live performances of Motown classics with the Brothers backing up contemporary performers.King of the Hill: A 70th Anniversary Retrospective of Cincinnati’s King Records
IMDB 4.6 | Aug , 2014
James Brown was the jewel in the crown, but the throne of Cincinnati’s King Records always belonged to its irascible founder, Syd Nathan. This is the 70th anniversary of the legendary record label and studio. It closed shop nearly 40 years ago, in a now long-neglected warehouse on the neighborhood border of Evanston and Walnut Hills, but its impact still reverberates across today’s music.Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee
IMDB 6 | Oct , 2009
An improvised comedy, shot over five days by Shane Meadows, devised with and starring Paddy Considine. Rock roadie and failed musician, Le Donk has lived, loved and learned. Along the way he's lost a girlfriend but he has found a new sidekick in up-and-coming rap prodigy Scor-zay-zee. With Meadows' fly-on-the-wall crew in tow, Donk sets out to make Scor-zay-zee a star...Rockin' at the Red Dog: The Dawn of Psychedelic Rock
IMDB 0 | Jul , 2005
This documentary pays tribute to the contributions and importance of the title watering hole in the creation of the psychedelic dancehalls that littered the West during the late '60s and helped launch such super groups as The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and The Quicksilver Messenger Service. Music by Big Brother and the Holding Company, and the Charlatans is also featured. The Red Dog Saloon had its genesis in 1964 when a group of free-thinking, LSD-enhanced Northern California students and young folks had a party and began thinking about starting up a saloon that would evoke the old West. They decided to build their saloon in Virginia City, Nevada, a once prosperous town that was by then nearly empty. The ambience of the saloon blended Old West sensibilities with modern psychedelia, go-go girls and plenty of illegal drugs. The film is comprised of interviews with surviving founders, actual archival footage, and even a performance of some of the musicians who appeared there.Sparkle
IMDB 7.4 | Apr , 1976
Three sisters start out singing in their church choir in Harlem in the late 1950s and become a successful girl group in the 1960s.American Hot Wax
IMDB 5.6 | Mar , 1978
This is the story loosely based on Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed, who introduced rock'n'roll to teenage American radio audiences in the 1950s. Freed was a source of great controversy: criticized by conservatives for corrupting youth with the "devil's music"; hated by racists for promoting African American music for white consumption; persecuted by law enforcement officials and finally brought down by the "payola" scandals.Sharon Osbourne Presents Rock 'n' Roll's Dodgiest Deals
IMDB 9 | May , 2017
Sharon Osbourne presents the story of pop deals through the decades. She looks at some memorably bad and good deals offered to a range of musicians from Little Richard to NWA.Welcome to Death Row
IMDB 7.7 | Sep , 2001
The record label Death Row Records has, since its creation in 1993, been synonymous with the American hip-hop climate. Formed by ex-bodyguard Suge Knight, the label has released seminal rap albums from luminaries including Dr. Dre, Snoop Doggy Dogg, and the famous hip-hop martyr Tupac Shakur. WELCOME TO DEATH ROW is a fascinating, well-researched documentary which explores the history of this intriguing and incredibly significant company.I Need That Record!
IMDB 6.4 | May , 2008
Guerilla filmmaker Brendan Toller unleashes I NEED THAT RECORD! THE DEATH (OR POSSIBLE SURVIVAL) OF THE INDEPENDENT RECORD STORE, "an elegy for a vanishing subculture...a lively, bittersweet film that examines - with caustic humor, brutal candor, and, ultimately, great affection - why roughly 3,000 indie record stores have closed across the nation over the past decade," (Johnathan Perry, Boston Globe). A tour-de-force tale of greed, media consolidation, homogenized radio, big box stores, downloading, and technological shifts in the music industry told through candid interviews, crestfallen record store owners, startling statistics, and eye-popping animation. Fat cats or our favorite record stores? You decide. Featuring- IAN MACKAYE, NOAM CHOMSKY, MIKE WATT, THURSTON MOORE, LENNY KAYE (Patti Smith), CHRIS FRANTZ (Talking Heads), GLENN BRANCA, PATTERSON HOOD (Drive By Truckers), PAT CARNEY (Black Keys) , LEGS MCNEIL, BOB GRUEN, BP HELIUM, and many indie record stores across the U.S.Money for Nothing: Behind the Business of Pop Music
IMDB 0 | Jan , 2001
The hallmarks of popular music - artist independence and diversity of voices - are threatened by a contracting marketplace of record companies, radio ownership and playlists, as well as increased use in advertising. Big-name artists, historians and economists explain how popular music is produced and marketed and critique its current state.