Before I focused my attention on screenwriting, I was a music journalist. So the rock biopic is a genre that blends two of my main interests. With The Runaways going wide this Friday, I thought I'd look back at some of my favorites in the genre, in a six degrees kind of way.

In The Runaways, Kristin Stewart plays Joan Jett, the real life chart-topping rocker who made an impressive acting debut in the little-seen Light Of Day (1987) opposite Michael J. Fox in a rare dramatic role. Written and directed by Paul Schrader, the film follows Jett and Fox as a brother and sister struggling to keep their band, The Barbusters, on the road and on the stage. It's a raw look at blue collar life in middle America in the 80s. You'll have a hard time finding this one since it's not on DVD yet, but you can find Barbuster sideman Michael McKean playing in another fictional movie rock band in the classic This Is Spinal Tap (1984).

K-Stew's co-star in The Runaways is Dakota Fanning in her second attempt at a grown-up role, after playing an Elvis-obsessed rape victim in the failed indie flick Hounddog. This time Fanning plays Cherie Currie, the band's fifteen year old lead singer and wild child who penned the autobiography on which the film is based. If you want to see the real Currie in a movie, she co-starred with Jodie Foster in director Adrian Lyne's feature debut Foxes (1980) shortly after leaving The Runaways. While Foxes is not a rock biopic at all, it was released by Casablanca Records and features a long sequence at a concert for Casablanca rock band Angel. (Foster's character's father is their tour manager.) Ironically, the original draft of the script was about an all-girl rock band, according to the IMDb trivia section.

Like Foxes, Prey For Rock & Roll (2003) is a four-character ensemble drama. Like The Runaways, those four characters are members of an all-girl rock band. And like Light Of Day, it explores what the music means to them and how it keeps them going after they've reached the point when they know the dream of fame and fortune has drifted beyond their grasp. Gina Gershon plays the just-turned-forty lead singer of Clamdandy, faced with the decision of looking pathetic by staying in a young person's game while not getting anywhere, or looking pathetic by giving up the only thing that brings her life joy.

Notice a common thread in the movies I've singled out? The Runaways were a real band, while Clamdandy, The Barbusters and Spinal Tap are not. Nonfictional biopics have an obligation to hit all the famous events the fans expect to see, like the legendary anecdote of The Runaways' biggest hit, "Cherry Bomb," being written spontaneously for Currie at her audition. Movies about make-believe bands have more freedom to delve deeper into character because they're not forced to spend precious screen time on such scenes. Prey and Light Of Day have the added benefit of mining drama from following the broken dreams of unsuccessful bands. There's not much demand for true stories about real bands no one has heard of, is there?

Then there's the fictionalized true story. Taylor Hackford's feature debut, The Idolmaker (1980), is about fictional rock stars Tommy Dee and Caesare (Peter Gallagher in his acting debut), loosely based on real life singers Frankie Avalon and Fabian. As a work of fiction, The Idolmaker was not beholden to any facts, so the writer was able to craft a more satisfying narrative through line within a realistic glimpse of the machinations of creating early rock and roll icons. Hackford would later produce La Bamba (1987), the true story of Ritchie Valens, and direct both the Chuck Berry documentary Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll (1987) and the Oscar winning drama Ray (2004), about the life of Ray Charles.

Runaways' lead guitarist Lita Ford (Scout Taylor-Compton) barely gets any screen time in the new movie about her first band, and bassist Jackie Fox is not mentioned at all, replaced by a fictional composite of several of the band's bass players. Both musicians chose to restrict the filmmakers' use of their life stories. While this angers some fans, it's nothing new. Members of The Crickets refused to be depicted in The Buddy Holly Story (1978) because they were working on a competing project at another studio. Their names were changed and the film is sometimes criticized as being historically inaccurate, but no more so than Amadeus. The story still gives a good general sense of Holly's life and career and is one of my favorite nonfiction rock biopics.

Now it's your turn. What are your favorite music-related flicks?

Dan Margules was a regular contributor to L.A. Jazz Scene, The Jazz Link, and Contemporary Jazz Review. He is currently a Los Angeles based screenwriter. His award-winning short film, Begleiter, is available in a Special Edition from Amazon.com or happy-the-dog.com. He also co-founded, and was president of, San Diego Filmmakers.