Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

In recent years we've seen a flurry of music biopics. What makes a good biopic?

With the Christmas release of the movie about Bob Dylan -- "A Complete Unknown" -- we consider what elements make for a great music biopic... and why some films hit a sour note.

Copyright 2024 NPR

Asma Khalid is a White House correspondent for NPR. She also co-hosts The NPR Politics Podcast.
Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)