5 shows and movies about music icons like Selena: The Series

Shows and movie like Selena: The Series

The artists who inspire us with their music, their talent, and their spirit hold a special place in our hearts long after they retire or pass from this world.

It’s why we immortalize them in works of biographical fiction, trying desperately to get close enough to their stories to feel like we were a part of it in some way. Or to understand them as people. Or to uplift their legacy. Perhaps that’s why Selena Quintanilla has both Selena: The Series and Selena, the movie, to her name.

Music icons tread in both culture and history, often shaping the industry, public opinion, and taste with their influence. One doesn’t have to be a fan or know who an icon is for their impact to be felt. In fact, sometimes people are introduced to a legend through their biopic or bioseries.

Dramatized music history, which draws from real life events to paint a picture of a person’s life, is a subgenre of entertainment that is endlessly fascinating. So, if you’ve finished Selena: The Series and you’re looking for more stories about music icons, then here are five shows and movies you can stream on Netflix now.

Is Get on Up on Netflix?

The late Chadwick Boseman’s filmography is filled with more than one biopic in which he embodied the life of a historic figure. He has played Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, and in 2014, he took on the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown.

Get On Up is a biopic that remains aware of Brown’s legendary status in the world of music, largely in part because he’s the one telling the story. For over two hours, viewers are taken on a non-linear journey through Brown’s life.

Some events read almost fantastical in their retelling, their importance highlighted by the film’s elevation of what’s unfolding on the screen. But the film doesn’t paint Brown solely in gold, recognizing only his expertise and genius in the medium of funk and soul music. It treats him as the talented musician and singer he was and depicts his temper, abuse of his partners, and willingness to cut even his closest friends out. The film does this while also showing the pain of his childhood, zeroing in on the fact that, though the world knows him as the James Brown, he was once simply James, a boy abandoned by his parents.

Get On Up isn’t a full picture of Brown’s life, no biopic or bioseries really can be, but it does solid work depicting the man, the myth and the legend of who James Brown was.