Movies about Music

I'm not talking about concert movies here. I'm talking about movies that are centered around people who live and love music. I'm a big fan of Nick Hornby and have read most of his books about pop music including Hi Fidelity. It's pretty rare that a good book becomes a good movie, but this one did. I watched it recently and was struck by this Jack Black line: "Rob, top five musical crimes perpetuated by Stevie Wonder in the '80s and '90s. Go. Sub-question: is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter day sins, is it better to burn out or fade away"? I admit that I haven't thought about Stevie Wonder in a while. That's my failing. Turn on Superstition or Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I'm Yours and enter the world of brilliance. In the 80s he recorded some lesser material (Part Time Lover and That's What Friends are For) and seemed to call it a day. He did some work after that but as the line asks "is it better to burn out or fade away"? Stevie just seemed to fade away. My youngest daughter loves the Karaoke in Cars bits and I happened to watch the one with Stevie Wonder. He's singing in a car and he's nailing it! He sounds, well, like Stevie Wonder. No loss of range, no nothing. So, off to the back catalogue we go...I listened intently to all of the old music starting with Fingertips and reoriented myself with his genius. I left that experience thinking that Stevie Wonder gets to do whatever he wants. So does Bob Dylan. So does Paul McCartney. If you want to stop and you can afford it (and I'm sure all three of them are in that category) then you should. But Stevie is the rarity. He really did stop. I don't know what's better or if there is a better, but I'm glad it took me back to Stevie Wonder. And by the way, watch the movie. Jack Black kills it. It's a funny, wonderful movie about people who really love pop music.