5 top fictional bands in film history

The Netflix animated film KPop Demon Hunters has become the most-watched film in Netflix history. The all-pervasive musical phenomenon centres on two fictional K-pop bands, Huntr/X and Saja Boys.

If you somehow haven’t yet seen it, think of an anime-inspired version of Star Wars via West Side Story. It’s not the first film to find major success with fictional bands.

There are plenty that come to mind: The Blues Brothers (“The Blues Brothers”), Sex Bob-Omb (“Scott Pilgrim vs. The World“), The Wonders (“That Thing You Do”), Stillwater (“Almost Famous”), Citizen Dick (“Singles”) and The Lone Rangers (“Airheads),” to name a just a handful.

Here are five movie bands that transcended and overshadowed their celluloid source material to soar into a life of their own.

1. Spinal Tap

Released in 1984, the “This is Spinal Tap” mockumentary charted the struggling career of the eponymous heavy metal band. In this, his debut feature, director Rob Reiner both paid homage and satirised the self-importance of preceding rock documentaries and their source material – the bands.

“This is Spinal Tap” laid the blueprint for appreciation of these types of bands and films for years to come, leaving us with now culturally ingrained scenes such as “these go to eleven” and “he died in a bizarre gardening accident”.

Reiner and his Spinal Tap co-stars and writers went on to make more films in this style, such as the under-appreciated A Mighty Wind (2003). A more gentle type of mockumentary, it pokes fun at the insular folk music scene featuring fictional folky bands such as Mitch and Mickey, and The Folksmen.

2. Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes

Perhaps not the most instantly recognizable name on this list, this band are onscreen in Star Wars: Episode is– A New Hope (1977) for little under a minute, but their impact and legacy live on.

This seven-piece ensemble house band soundtrack the Mos Eisley Cantina scene in George Lucas’ first Star Wars film. The scene itself introduces many weird and wonderful non-human creatures from across the galaxies to the audience for the first time, with the house band performing simultaneously familiar and futuristic swing music.

Prompted by Lucas to try something in the style of Benny Goodman, composer John Williams delivered a piece of music so memorable that the non-existent Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes have been covered multiple times by artists in styles ranging from techno to metal, electro and country.

3. Soggy Bottom Boys

Drawing heavily from Homer’s “The Odyssey” (complete with a scene-stealing Cyclops cameo from John Goodman), the Coen Brothers’ “O Brother, Where Art Thou” (2000) follows the exploits of three escaped convicts played by George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson. Along the way, they find themselves in a band called The Soggy Bottom Boys and record the hit song “Man of Constant Sorrow.”

In reality, this song was performed for the film by American Bluegrass musician and 14-time Grammy winner Dan Tyminski, with George Clooney and co miming along. Upon its release, the ensuing soundtrack to the film produced by T-Bone Burnett, charted at number one on the Billboard 200. The album featured the non-existent Soggy Bottom Boys sitting comfortably alongside the very real Gillian Welch, Norman Blake and Emmylou Harris.

4. Cell Block 4

Another mockumentary, CB4 (1993) sent up the then-nascent but wildly popular gangsta rap scene. Co-writer and star Chris Rock took aim at acts like NWA through satirical songs such as “Straight Out of Locash” and “Sweat From My Balls,” as delivered by the Cell Block 4 band members MC Gusto, Stab Master Arson and Dead Mike.

As a lifelong fan of hip hop music, Rock has always maintained that the film is more of an affectionate tribute as opposed to an all-out satirical skewering. Upon release, the CB4 soundtrack charted highly. CB4 held their own alongside actual big rap names of the day, such as Public Enemy, Fu-Schnickens, BDP — and somewhat ironically — MC Ren of NWA.

5. The Commitments

The Commitments blasted onto screens in 1991, seemingly a fully formed musical entity, all sweat, bulging veins and soul power. In reality, director Alan Parker had scoured the streets of Dublin in search of young musicians he felt would suit the look and personalities of the characters from the pages of Roddy Doyle’s novel.

Parker secured the likes of then 16-year-old Andrew Strong as the band’s lead vocalist, Glen Hansard as lead guitarist, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Bronagh Gallagher and Angeline Ball as “The Commitmentettes”, as well as the real band The Corrs in a variety of supporting cameo roles.

The film gave us a visceral and often hilarious look at life in a band on the mean streets of “Barrytown”. Crucially, all the songs featured in the film were performed live on set by the musicians and singers, perhaps somehow contributing to the enormous success of the accompanying soundtrack album.

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