In 1939 Kansas City, Missouri, young alto saxophone player Charlie "Bird" Parker (Forest Whitaker) performs at the Reno Club.

Ray is a 2004 American biographical film focusing on 30 years in the life of rhythm and blues musician Ray Charles.

Lymon was 13 years old when the teenage group Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers erupted from radios and jukeboxes with their 1956 hit "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" and appeared in the movie Rock, Rock, Rock (1956).

Donald "Duck" Matthews, Anthony "Choirboy" Stone, J. T. Matthews, Terrence "Dresser" Williams, and Eddie King Jr. perform at a Battle of the Bands contest as The Heartbeats.

In late 1969, Mary Rose Foster is a famous rock and roll diva known as "The Rose. " In spite of her success, her personal life is lonely and exhausting.

In 1947 in Chicago, a Jewish immigrant from Poland and bar owner Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody) hires a blues combo, including guitarist Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright) and harmonica player Little Walter (Columbus Short).

Introducing Dorothy Dandridge is a television film directed by Martha Coolidge.

Born and raised in Nutbush, Tennessee, Anna Mae Bullock grows up in an unhappy family with her parents leaving and abandoning her at a young age.

In 1961, a young Abraham Quintanilla and his band "The Dinos" are rejected by a racist white restaurant owner for an audition in Texas.

Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling is a 1986 American biographical comedy-drama film directed, produced by and starring Richard Pryor, who also wrote the screenplay with Paul Mooney and Rocco Urbisci.

In 1968, as an audience of inmates at Folsom State Prison cheer for Johnny Cash, he waits backstage near a table saw, reminding him of his early life.

Bessie is an HBO TV film about the American blues singer Bessie Smith, and focuses on her transformation as a struggling young singer into "The Empress of the Blues".

Round Midnight is a 1986 American-French musical drama film directed by Bertrand Tavernier and written by Tavernier and David Rayfiel.

Buddy Holly, a teenager from Lubbock, Texas, emerges into the world of rock and roll with friends and bandmates, drummer Jesse Charles and bass player Ray Bob Simmons, forming a trio known as The Crickets.

In 1988 Nina Simone is financially unsound, mentally unstable and an alcoholic. Her 1960s heyday is far behind her.

On 12 October 1978, police are summoned to the Hotel Chelsea in New York City, where they find Nancy Spungen, dead.

Born in Seattle, Washington, Frances Elena Farmer is a rebel from a young age, winning $100 in 1931 from The Scholastic Art and Writing Awards for a high school essay called God Dies.

Crazy is the story of a legendary guitar player who emerged from Nashville in the 1950s.

Coal Miner's Daughter is a 1980 American biographical musical film directed by Michael Apted from a screenplay written by Tom Rickman.

The film uses a nonlinear narrative, following James Brown's stream of consciousness as he recalls events from his life in an asynchronous manner, occasionally breaking the fourth wall to address the audience.