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25 Greatest Movie Bands, From ‘Sing Street’ to Spinal Tap

This list goes to 11 — counting down the screen’s best fictional rappers, rockers and R&B superstars

On October 5th, 1991, the Dublin-based soul band known as the Commitments hit their peak position on the Billboard 200 when they cracked the top 10 to secure the number eight spot on the music chart, wedged between Ozzy Osbourne and Bonnie Raitt. The biggest difference between those two legendary artists and the Irish newcomers? The Commitments were a work of pure fiction — at least, they were originally.

Originally created by writer Roddy Doyle for his 1987 novel of the same name, director Alan Parker brought The Commitments to life on August 14th, 1991 — with a cast of (mostly) musicians who had the acting chops to carry a movie. But those R&B road dogs are hardly alone: From Pitch Perfect‘s a capella champions to the punk Irish preteens of Sing Street, the movies are full of amazingly talented musical artists and groups who we only wish existed in real life.

We’re counting down 25 most amazing “movie bands” — those fake metalheads, glam divas, bluegrass crooners and underage rock superstars that have graced the screen, and a few cases, the actual stage. Some of them ended up touring (big up Jake and Elwood Blues!); others played their final note the minute they heard “That’s a wrap.” But all of them go to 11. Play this list loud.

[Editor’s Note: A version of this list was originally published in August 2016]

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5

The Folksmen, ‘A Mighty Wind’ (2003)

Though it wasn’t until 2003 that moviegoers got a taste of the clean-cut, folk music stylings of the Folksmen, the band’s origins go back nearly 20 years earlier. Like a bizarro version of Spinal Tap, the fictional folk trio is comprised of Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer. They made their debut (in 1984) on Saturday Night Live, and in the decades that followed, the fake band put on many real performances — things even got meta on a few occasions when they served as the opening act for the Tap. Though it may seem unfair to single the Folksmen out amidst the other entertaining acts featured in Guest’s A Mighty Wind (namely: The New Main Street Singers and Mitch & Mickey), this trio has the seniority.

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4

Hedwig and the Angry Inch, ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ (2001)

This indie film (and its namesake band) began life on the New York stage, and like any worthwhile musical, the movie’s narrative progresses through song. But Hedwig and the Angry Inch is about as far away from Singin’ in the Rain as you can get. The film operates more like a rock opera, which is part of what allows Hedwig and her band to pivot from hard-rock tunes to moving ballads without losing a step, go-go boots and all. Since becoming a movie, Hedwig has once again returned to the stage, this time on Broadway, with marquee names like Neil Patrick Harris taking over the lead. But nothing compares to John Cameron Mitchell’s original, especially when you see him front the band in the closest thing the movie has to a title song. Six inches forward, five inches back … .

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3

Stillwater, ‘Almost Famous’ (2000)

In real life, a 15-year-old Cameron Crowe had the opportunity to interview Poco for Rolling Stone. In the director’s most personal movie, the 15-year-old in question is a wide-eyed kid named William Miller and the band is Stillwater (which was, in fact, a real band in the 1970s, but that’s just a coincidence). What makes the band (featuring Billy Crudup and Jason Lee, in primo Seventies duds) such a standout in the landscape of fictional rock groups is not so much their music; it’s the depths to which music, on a holistic level, drives the members’ every decision. In the end, the movie stands as more of a testament to an era in music than one particular band, and Stillwater is the embodiment of that age of rockers — the good, the bad and the Golden God-like.

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2

The Blues Brothers, ‘The Blues Brothers’ (1980)

Introduced to television audiences on Saturday Night Live some 40 years ago, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi’s black-suited soul men were initially a lark. But they proved popular enough that they recorded a full album, Briefcase Full of Blues, then made the leap to the big screen with John Landis’ iconic 1980 comedy. And the rest is history, with the duo do a few shows as Jake and Elwood Blues and assembling a dream-team band (featuring members of Booker T and the MGs, the Bar-Kays and Blood, Sweat and Tears) to back them up. That’s when they weren’t trading licks, of course, with Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles. Belushi’s death in 1982 didn’t stop Aykroyd from resurrecting the brothers occasionally, but really, it’s the original siblings on a mission from God  — the guys making that Stax-style revue swing — that have earned a prime placement on this list.

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1

Spinal Tap, ‘This is Spinal Tap’ (1984)

Spinal Tap didn’t invent the concept of the parody band — but for many, they’re the still standard to which all others are held. While comedy-inclined audiences loved the band for their bitingly funny song titles and lyrics — “My baby fits me like a flesh tuxedo / I love to sink her with my pink torpedo” — dozens of famous musicians have been frank about just how accurately the movie depicts the life of a career musician. (Metallica’s Lars Ulrich famously classified the flick as a horror film and swore that “Every single functioning band out there has sat and looked at that movie and cringed.”) But look beyond its humor, its accuracy and the fact that the miniature version of Stonehenge is in danger of being crushed by a little person, and the fact remains that the band’s actually good. Really good. Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer have recorded and played live in character for so long as the metal trio that you sometimes forget they started life as a fictional band. Still, all these years later, their songs remain the same, the jokes are still funny — and in terms of fake movie bands, they still go to 11.