1 Daft Punk Unchained (2015)
Post-Get Lucky, Daft Punk's profile has risen enough to warrant a serious documentary in which various talking heads – from music execs to Kanye West – list all the types of ways they were visionaries (Skrillex of their live show: "It messed me up, in a good way"). It's quite the back-story, especially when the weight of their seminal Coachella 2006 show is explained.
2 Runnin' Down a Dream (2007)
Got a spare four hours? There are worse ways to spend it than watching Runnin' Down a Dream, directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Charting the successes and sore points in the 40-year career of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, the length is justified.
3 David Bowie: Five Years (2013)
Frankly, any David Bowie footage in the public domain is a privilege, but happily, Five Years surpasses base standards. Charting five key years in his extensive career, the documentary is pieced together from archive interviews, music videos and fascinating interviews; particularly insightful is Carlos Alomar's anecdotes of how enduring his songs and sounds came to be.
4 Brasslands (2013)
Brasslands captures the importance of Serbia's Balkan music to its culture. The cameras switch on when half-a-million people – including New York collective Zlatne Uste – descend on a tiny village for an international competition to mark the 50th anniversary of the world's largest trumpet festival: "The Olympics of gypsy grass music", as they describe it.
5 What Happened Miss Simone? (2015)
Using new interviews with rare footage from the vaults, this documentary provides great insight into the many facets of her tumultuous life, from domestic-abuse victim to activist to manic depressive. Set to her most moving songs, including I Loves You Porgy, Mississippi Goddam and Why? (The King of Love Is Dead), it's also a reminder of her enormous talent. A Netflix original, Liz Garbus's film was nominated for an Oscar and six Grammys.
6 The Other One: The L ong Strange Trip of Bob Weir (2014)
Never mind about Jerry Garcia, who's such an icon there's a charity, amphitheatre and ice cream named after him. This rock doc puts The Grateful Dead's founder in the spotlight instead, with interviewees including his biological father as well as peers such as Sammy Hagar, Bruce Hornsby and Perry Farrell. Also keep an eye out for The National, who make a cameo as fanboys extraordinaire.
7 The History of the Eagles (2013)
We'd need more than the three hours of this documentary to fully understand the acrimonious journey The Eagles endured, but this is a solid précis. It doesn't shy away from tackling their trickier times, like their business difficulties, infighting, and their U-turn with the When Hell Freezes Over tour. Of course, the story of The Eagles is the more poignant since Glenn Frey's death at the start of this year, a week after Bowie's.
8 Biggie and Tupac (2002)
Nick Broomfield's documentary is less a celebration of the rappers' music and lives than an investigation into theories surrounding their murders. While it's not without flaws, it's a culturally significant story.
9 Keith Richards: Under the Influence (2015)
A perfect documentary subject, The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards lets the cameras roll as he records Crosseyed Heart, his first solo album in 23 years. Classily created and loaded with musical snippets, Richards also tours musically impactful US cities, such as Chicago and Nashville.
10 I Dream of Wires (2014)
Paying tribute to the not-so-humble modular synth, Robert Fattinatto and Jason Amm's documentary gives us an education into the unusual evolution of the instrument. Ambitiously, it begins with the mass-production of electricity, and takes us right up to the "explosion of ideas" it gives us today, with contributions from synth figureheads Trent Reznor and Gary Numan.
