Best Music Movies

Being a teenager is tough, and no one knows this better than Ren McCormack, a city kid with a strong feeling for music. Ren's life changes when he moves to a small town where rock-n-roll and dancing are criminal activities. When Ren falls in love with the reverend's daughter, Ariel Moore, the music pauses and Ren needs to shape up or make dancing a legal activity once again.

Following the death of her parents, teen-aged Andie West is living with her mother's best friend, Sarah. Andie, who doesn't care about school, is trying to figure out where she fits in in life. The only thing she loves is dancing with her street crew, the 410, led by Tuck. The 410 are the most notorious of the street crews in Baltimore and are wanted by the police for their acts of vandalism and public mischief. Sarah threatens to send Andie to live with relatives in Texas unless she cleans up her act, which includes ending her association with the 410 and trying harder at school. Andie's neighborhood friend, Tyler Gage, convinces Andie to audition for entry into the Maryland School of the Arts (MSA), an institution which ended up turning his life around for the better. Andie passes the audition but isn't sure she fits in there. The school's director, Blake Collins, isn't sure she fits in there either. Blake is a brilliant dancer but looks for conformity to his way. After learning that Andie's absences from rehearsals are due to her new association with MSA, Tuck kicks her out of the 410. Chase Collins, a dance student at MSA, convinces Andie to start her own street dance crew using all the dance misfits from MSA i.e. those that don't conform to Blake's way of thinking. Chase feels like he's one of those misfits being Blake's brother and living in his shadow. This new association brings up a few conflicts within Andie, as her new dance crew tries to gain respect on the streets, especially among her old and judgmental friends, and as she and the crew try to hide the fact of what they're doing from Blake, who ultimately threatens expulsion from the school of anyone participating in the illegal street competitions.

Cheery Alex Fletcher lives comfortably in Manhattan off the residuals from his 80's pop success and reprising his hits at school reunions, theme parks, and state fairs. But those gigs are declining, so he jumps at the chance to write a song and record it with reigning teen idol Cora Corman. Trouble is, he's good at melodies but needs a lyricist and has less than a week to finish. Enter Sophie Fisher, subbing for a friend who waters Alex's plants; she's a pretty good poet, quick witted, and could do it, if she'd agree. But there's some sort of shadow over her head that Alex may not be able to charm his way past. And what if they do get a song written, what then?

A day in the life of the employees of Empire Records. Except this is a day where everything comes to a head for a number of them facing personal crises - can they pull through together? And more importantly, can they keep their record store independent and not swallowed up by corporate greed?

When the teenager Mary Elizabeth Steppe, a.k.a. Lola, moves with her mother and two younger twin sisters from New York to the suburb of Dellwood, New Jersey, she has the feeling that her cultural and entertaining world ended. While in school, the displaced Lola becomes close friend of the unpopular Ella, who is also a great fan of the her favorite rock band Sidarthur. However, the most popular girl in the school, Carla Santini, disputes the lead role in an adaptation of Pygmalion with Lola and also the leadership of their mates. When the last concert of Sidarthur is sold-out, Lola plans with Ella to travel to New York and buy the tickets from scalpers. However, the girls get into trouble while helping the lead singer and Lola's idol Stu Wolf, changing their lives forever.

Classic tale of teenage rebellion and repression features a delightful combination of dance choreography and realistic and touching performances. When teenager Ren McCormack and his family move from big-city Chicago to a small Midwestern town, he's in for a real case of culture shock. Though he tries hard to fit in, the streetwise Ren can't quite believe he's living in a place where rock music and dancing are illegal. However, there is one small pleasure: Ariel Moore, a troubled but lovely blonde with a jealous boyfriend. And a Bible-thumping minister, who is responsible for keeping the town dance-free. Ren and his classmates want to do away with this ordinance, especially since the senior prom is around the corner, but only Ren has the courage to initiate a battle to abolish the outmoded ban and revitalize the spirit of the repressed townspeople. Fast-paced drama is filled with such now-famous hit songs as the title track and "Let's Hear It for the Boy".

The Burlesque Lounge has its best days behind it. Tess, a retired dancer and owner of the venue, struggles to keep the aging theater alive, facing all kinds of financial and artistic challenges. With the Lounge's troupe members becoming increasingly distracted by personal problems and a threat coming from a wealthy businessman's quest to buy the spot from Tess, the good fortune seems to have abandoned the club altogether. Meanwhile, the life of Ali, a small-town girl from Iowa, is about to change dramatically. Hired by Tess as a waitress at the Lounge, Ali escapes a hollow past and quickly falls in love with the art of burlesque. Backed by newfound friends amongst the theater's crew, she manages to fulfill her dreams of being on stage herself. Things take a dramatic turn though when Ali's big voice makes her become the main attraction of the revue.

After a little white lie about losing her virginity gets out, a clean cut high school girl sees her life paralleling Hester Prynne's in "The Scarlet Letter," which she is currently studying in school - until she decides to use the rumor mill to advance her social and financial standing.

12 years ago, on a moonlit rooftop above Washington Square, sheltered young cellist Lyla Novacek (Keri Russell) and charismatic Irish singer/songwriter Louise Connelly (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) were drawn together by a street musician's rendition of ''Moondance'' and fell in love. After the most romantic night of her life, Lyla promised to meet Louis again, but despite her protests, her father rushed her to her next concert--leaving Louis to believe that she didn't care. Disheartened, he found it impossible to continue playing and eventually abandoned his music while Lyla, her own hopes for love lost, was led to believe months later that she had also lost their unborn child in a car accident. Their orphaned son (Freddie Highmore) uses his musical talent as a clue to find his birth parents.

Thirty-something Rob Gordon, a former club DJ, owns a not-so-lucrative used record store in Chicago. He not so much employs Barry and Dick, but rather keeps them around as they showed up at the store one day and never left. All three are vinyl and music snobs, but in different ways. Rob has a penchant for compiling top-five lists. The latest of these lists is his top-five break-ups, it spurred by the fact that his latest girlfriend, Laura, a lawyer, has just broken up with him. He believed that Laura would be the one who would last, partly as an expectation of where he would be at this stage in his life. Rob admits that there have been a few incidents in their relationship which in and of themselves could be grounds for her to want to break up. To his satisfaction, Laura is not on this top-five list. Rob feels a need not only to review the five relationships, which go back as far as middle school when he was 12, and try to come to terms with why the woman, or girl as the case may be, left him, but also, in the words of Charlie Nicholson, number four on the list, "what it all means" for why he has ended up where he is, which is nowhere, personally or professionally, close to what he envisioned. He also has to come to terms with what it means that Laura has moved on to Ian Raymond, a man for whom neither had any respect when they were together.

The Bellas are back, and they are better than ever. After being humiliated in front of none other than the President of the United States of America, the Bellas are taken out of the Aca-Circuit. In order to clear their name and regain their status, the Bellas take on a seemingly impossible task: winning an International competition no American team has ever won. In order to accomplish this monumental task, they need to strengthen the bonds of friendship and sisterhood, and blow away the competition with their amazing aca-magic! With all new friends and old rivals tagging along for the trip, the Bellas can hopefully accomplish their dreams once again.

Cole is an aspiring DJ who spends his days scheming with his childhood friends and his nights working on the one track that will set the world on fire. All of this changes when he meets a charismatic but damaged older DJ named James, who takes him under his wing. Things get complicated, however, when Cole starts falling for James' much younger girlfriend, Sophie. With Cole's forbidden relationship intensifying and his friendships unraveling, he must choose between love, loyalty, and the future he is destined for.

The education of three young students, Jodie, Eva and Maureen, as they study at the American Ballet Academy. Life isn't what they expected at the esteemed ABA, and all three face problems along the road. Jodie doesn't have the "ideal" body for dancing, Eva doesn't have the right attitude, and Maureen doesn't have the heart. Along the way, they learn that love can be found in unlikely places, and dancing should be a passion, not a duty.

Adapted from William Shakespeare's play "The Taming of the Shrew," 10 Things I Hate About You starts off with Cameron, new student at Padua High, sitting in the office of the quirky guidance counselor Ms. Perky. He is then shown around the school by Michael, who will become his best friend. During his tour is when Cameron first sees Bianca Stratford, a beautiful sophomore with one problem: she isn't allowed to date. And neither is her "shrew" sister, Katarina, a senior who loves indie rock and feminist prose and hates conformity. But Kat and Bianca's father alters his house rule: now, Bianca can date... as long as Kat has a date, too. Now, in order for Cameron to date Bianca, he has to find someone to date Kat. So Michael helps him enlist the help of pretty-boy/jerk/model Joey Donner, tricking him into thinking that *he* will get to take Bianca out if he pays someone to take out Kat. His choice: Patrick Verona, a bad-boy with a mysterious reputation--some say he ate a live duck once, others that he lit a state trooper on fire, and even more claim that he had a brief porn career. Will Patrick win Kat's heart? Will Cameron win Bianca's? Or will everything hit the fan...?

Teen queen Lizzie McGuire grows up a bit and hits the big screen in this comedy drama, based on the popular Disney Network series. Lizzie McGuire and her best friends Kate, Gordo, and Ethan have just graduated from middle school, and to celebrate, they're taking part in a class trip to Rome, Italy. Eager to celebrate their new maturity as high school students, Lizzie and her pals hope to live it up in one of Europe's most fabled cities, but fate has something more spectacular in store for Lizzie. Lizzie discovers that she bears a striking resemblance to Isabella, an Italian teen-pop idol famous for her duets with heart-throb Paolo -- so much so that when Paolo and Isabella have a falling out, he asks Lizzie to take Isabella's place for an upcoming concert. Lizzie, however, isn't sure she feels comfortable stepping into the spotlight, and is even less sure about the way she feels about Paolo, who makes no secret of his infatuation with her. Things don't get any simpler for Lizzie when her family gets wind of her newfound fame, and catch the next flight to Italy.

A guy who danced with what could be the girl of his dreams at a valentine mascarade ball only has one hint at her identity: the Zune she left behind as she rushed home in order to make her curfew. And with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in front of him, he sets out to find his masked beauty.

Janey is new in town and soon meets Lynne, who shares her passion for dancing in general and "Dance TV" in particular. When a competition is announced to find a new Dance TV regular couple, Janey and Lynne are determined to audition. The only problem is that Janey's father doesn't approve of that kind of thing.

Sara wants to be a ballerina, but her dreams are cut short by the sudden death of her mother. She moves in with her father, who she has not seen for a long time. He lives on the other side of town, in a predominantly Black neighborhood. She gets transferred to a new school where she is one of the few White students there. She becomes friends with Chenille, and later, falls in love with Chenille's brother, Derek.