Behind the Music

This article is about the television series. For the album by The Soundtrack of Our Lives, see Behind the Music (album). For the song by Cher Lloyd, see Sticks and Stones (Cher Lloyd album).
Behind the Music
Also known as VH1's Behind the Music
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes 244
Production
Running time 60–90 minutes
Production company(s) Gay Rosenthal Productions
VH1
Paramount Television (select episodes)
Viacom International
Distributor CBS Television Distribution
Release
Original network VH1
Original release August 17, 1997 – present
External links
Website

Behind the Music is a television series on VH1. The series places its generality on documentation of musical artists or groups who are interviewed and profiled, and discuss how their careers became successful and what hardships they undertook.

Premise

Each show focuses on a musician or musical group, documenting both the successes of the musicians and the problems they faced during their careers. Except for the first two episodes (which focused on Milli Vanilli and M.C. Hammer), all programs are narrated by Jim Forbes. Forbes was later used to narrate the Milli Vanilli episode when it was modified to include the death of Rob Pilatus. The UK airings of the episodes focusing on Thin Lizzy, Aerosmith and Genesis were narrated by Mary Anne Hobbs while Forbes narrated the US airings.

VH1's criterion for choosing the musicians who appear on the show is, in many cases, to profile those who are no longer in the music industry, or were moderately significant in rock history (although many are in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame such as Neil Diamond, The Police, Metallica, AC/DC, Aerosmith among others). This is as opposed to VH1's other biography show, VH1's Legends, which profiles musicians that have been very significant to the industry. However, there are some artists that were profiled on both Behind The Music and Legends, including Tina Turner, Elton John, The Who (although their Behind the Music exclusively focused on their drummer Keith Moon), and John Lennon (although Behind The Music exclusively focused on the months and days leading to his murder in 1980).

Another episode of Behind the Music on KISS was re-christened KISS: Beyond the Makeup in July 2001 (which was 2 hours in length). This featured Matt Pinfield, formerly of MTV's 120 Minutes, as narrator instead of Jim Forbes.

Behind the Music came to be after Paul Gallagher and George Moll produced a one-hour special entitled Dying in Vein which first aired on VH1 in December 1996. While Dying in Vein was a magazine style show, its approach to storytelling served as the prototype for Behind the Music.

A short-lived half-hour spin-off series titled BTM2 (short for Behind the Music 2), chronicled the careers of newer upcoming artists.

A spin-off titled Behind the Music: Remastered on VH1 Classic airs the updated original episodes with new interviews, footage and the later half of the artist's career. Motörhead and Deep Purple are the only all-original Remastered episodes despite not having a Behind the Music episode.

Musicians

The following is a list of artists who have appeared in episodes of the series:

Other features

Other than musicians, some episodes were documentaries on musical events, films, and non-musicians who were influential on the music world. The following appeared in episodes of the series:

Similar VH1 programs

The following is a list of artists who have appeared in VH1 TV programs similar in format to "Behind the Music" but are not officially part of the series:

In popular culture

In film

In music

In television

Online

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ Hibberd, James. "Lil' Wayne, Scott Weiland on Board for VH1's Revived 'Behind The Music'". billboard.com. March 19, 2009.
  2. ↑ Chris Gaines VH1 Behind The Music Part 1. October 30, 2014 – via YouTube.
  3. ↑ Kiss VH1 Beyond The Makeup 2001. January 7, 2013 – via YouTube.
  4. ↑ behind the wall doc. Vimeo.
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