By Madeleine Lloyd-Jones
4th May 2024
The Idea of You was released on Prime Video this weekend, and with it, the latest fictional band has graced our screens. While many have attempted to portray in-universe rockstars and pop acts, only some of them have been successful: regardless, we’ve set out to hunt them all down.
From cheesy boybands to vampiric gothic rock groups, here is the Blueprint’s comprehensive rundown of the best fictional bands from film and television.
August Moon
The Idea of You
The newest entry in this list exists almost exclusively to remind us of an important truth: what a special time it was to exist at the same time as One Direction. Though the film doesn’t focus on the band as much as the original novel does, it’s pretty clearly a shot for shot remake of Harry Styles and the gang, though perhaps with a slightly more sickly sweet, almost K-pop influence. However compelling Nicholas Galetzine is, we will not likely be classing ourselves as “Auggies” any time soon.
Best Song: Closer
Sex Bobombs
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
“We are Sex Bob-omb and we’re here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff!”
Not every band on this list is worthy of being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve recognition. Scott Pilgrim’s indie rock band is comprised of friends, exes, and a guy known simply as “Young Neil”. They have a lacklustre energy and little overall commitment, but they do show a solid premise and good potential.
They do kind of suck. Kind of badly. But we kind of love it.
Best Song: Threshold
Stillwater
Almost Famous
n this fictitious retelling of writer/ director Cameron Crowe’s own experiences on the road writing for Rolling Stone as an adolescent, Stillwater represents a composite of very real bands of the era, the likes of the Eagles, Lynrd Skynrd, and Led Zeppelin. With five original songs featured in the film penned by Crowe alongside musical icons Nancy Wilson of Heart, Mike McCready of Pearl Jam and Peter Frampton, they’re such a convincing, lived in band struggling to make it that it’s no wonder “is stillwater a real band?” is a hit google search.
Best Song: Fever Dog
PoP!
Music & Lyrics
Though the concept of Hugh Grant being in an eighties synth-pop double act with an overtly monochrome music video to boot is, admittedly, a gem; between the obvious lip syncing and the painfully cringe signature ‘wiggle’ dance moves, let’s just say we’re grateful PoP! is only a parody.
Best Song: PoP! Goes My Heart
Sidarthur
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
Though we don’t necessarily agree with superfan Lola in saying that Stu Wolff is “the greatest poet since Shakespeare” with all but five of the lines of her favourite song penned by him being the same three words repeated (we counted), we can say with full determination that he is an icon deserving of onion rings.
Best Song: … it’s still Don’t Move On
Lemonade Mouth
Lemonade Mouth
This band might have the most ridiculous name and name origin in fictional band history, but god are they good. Before she was creating satellite startups, Bridgit Mendler was serving lead vocals for this poppy, energetic high school band, also featuring legends Naomi Scott and Hayley Kiyoko. If they had (per)formed at our school, we’d have been front row for every show.
Best song: She’s So Gone
The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers
Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi formed their double act after meeting on SNL, and took their original characters Jake and Elwood Blues to stardom with multiple albums, live tours, television appearances and most notably, a successful cult movie classic wherein they even feature on an inexplicable but exceptional Aretha Franklin musical number too. Even in the years since Belushi’s death, The Blues Brothers have covered so much ground that we’re not entirely sure that this band can be called ‘fictional’ anymore.
Best song: Everybody Needs Somebody to Love
The Ain’t Rights
Green Room
Jeremy Saulnier’s criminally unseen horror about a band unexpectedly trapped in a Neo-Nazi punk club is brilliant and horrifying, with some hardy punk bangers to soundtrack it. Saulnier used to play in a punk band himself, and in using that background as the setting for his film deliberately ensured his fictional band would “stand the test of real musicians scrutinizing every frame” creating a tangible punk spirit in both music and attitude that’s oh so compelling to watch.
Best Song: Coronary
Pink Slip
Freaky Friday
This was the angsty garage girl group that formed a generation’s music taste – and we don’t know if that’s been captured in more mainstream way since, fictional or real. Pink Slip had guts, guitar solos and good lyrics, plus, a hell of a supportive parental network in the end who could step in as understudies should they be needed.
Best song: Take Me Away
Stiff Dylans
Angus Thongs & Perfect Snogging
You would be hard pressed to find a British woman who didn’t fall head over heels for Robbie Jennings, new kid in town and lead singer and songwriter of Stiff Dylans. He’s cool, charismatic, and he fell for the quirky weirdo who dressed up as a stuffed olive for a costume party then performed a song he wrote about her at her birthday party – and it doesn’t hurt that he’s played by a young Aaron Taylor Johnson.
Best song: Ultraviolet
Sing Street
Sing Street
For a band that was quickly formed by a bunch of teenagers specifically because their lead lied and told a girl he had a band, they really pulled some bangers out the bag. Sing Street has exceptional promise at such a young age, with brilliant lyrics, great versatility and high concept music videos. Not only is it eighties synth at its best, but it captures the joy of giving a shared dream with your friends a real go and running with it in its purest form.
Best song: Drive it Like You Stole It
The School of Rock
School of Rock
This film seems to be becoming more of a classic by the year. Jack Black originates the role of failing musician Dewey, who assumes the identity of his roommate to teach as a substitute teacher at a private school and ropes his class of young students into an education of rock and roll to compete at the Battle of the Bands under the name (you guessed it) School of Rock. With a huge cast of genuinely, madly talented kids; the film has inspired a successful onstage musical and a three-season television series in the two decades since its original release, proving it still resonates with the masses and has inspired kids to pursue music as they grow up – even artist of the moment, Djo, has repeatedly referenced the film as an early inspiration to him musically in recent press.
Best song: School of Rock
Hex Girls
Scooby-Doo
The Hex Girls originally appeared in the late nineties Scooby-Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost as a three piece gothic rock band, and their reception as musical icons who also served as a gay awakening for the vampire obsessed girlies was so evident that the characters Thorn, Dusk and Luna, are still occasionally appearing as the band in Scooby-Doo today. And just when you thought they couldn’t be any cuntier, Daphne herself briefly joined the band under the stage-name Crush in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
The Hex Girls are a personal highlight for Blueprint writer, Madeleine, as she had such a fixation on the band as a child that she still has a poster of them on her wall to this day, and went as Thorn for Halloween last year. Hex Girl till I die.
Best song: Hex Girl
The Clash at Demonhead
Scott Pilgrim vs the World
The Clash at Demonhead may be a worldwide success in the Scott Pilgrim universe, but they’re very much acclaimed in the real world too – Brie Larson’s cover of Black Sheep by the real band Metric was so sought after that director Edgar Wright finally released it in full after eleven years of ongoing fan requests. That’s power.
Sorry Scott, but your ex is doing it so much better than you.
Best Song: Black Sheep
Daisy Jones & the Six
Daisy Jones & the Six
The final band on our list is the one that blurs the most lines between fiction and reality. Taylor Jenkins Reid’s book of the same name owed a lot of it’s success to her ingenious way of documenting her imagined band’s rise to and fall from fame through faux interviews so authentically written that readers felt that they personally recognised the characters as both musicians and celebrity personalities. The book even came with full album lyrics as the final pages!
It set an enormously high bar to translate to screen in an adaptation; but perfect casting of the band, including Riley Keough as the titular Daisy Jones and Sam Claflin as troubled frontman Billy Dunne; lead to not only a brilliantly acted mini series, but the tandem release of an entire, real album performed by the actors alongside musical greats, that was critically acclaimed by many, charted across the world, and even nominated for a Grammy.
Best song: Look At Us Now (Honeycomb)/ Regret Me
Be right back, making a Spotify playlist of all the above artists and then closing our eyes and picturing the best fictional music festival you’ve ever been to.
And don’t even get us started on fictional solo artists. Ally Maine, we might be seeing you in.a Blueprint article very similar to this soon.
The Idea of You is on Prime Video now
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