Cross-media picks for Bob Dylan fans — films, series, games and books in the same vein.
These picks orbit a particular American feeling: music as autobiography, artistic restlessness, and the tug between where you come from and where you're going. Whether it's a young singer remaking himself in early-1960s New York, a blues obsessive chasing a lost Robert Johnson song, or a record exec trying to hear what the city is becoming, the thread is people who take music seriously enough to let it define — and sometimes destroy — them. Expect honesty over polish and outsiders who end up shaping culture.
Film
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
A chronicle of Dylan's transformation from folk singer to protest singer to rock star, 1961–1966.
Film
Bob Dylan – Don't Look Back
Dylan surrounded by fans, sparring with journalists, and relaxing with fellow musicians Joan Baez and Donovan.
Film
Crossroads
A would-be blues virtuoso hunts a long-lost song by the legendary Robert Johnson.
Film
Song Sung Blue
Two down-on-their-luck musicians form a Neil Diamond tribute band and discover it's never too late.
Film
Coal Miner's Daughter
The biography of Loretta Lynn, a country singer who rose from poverty to fame.
Film
A Complete Unknown
An enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives in early-1960s New York carrying revolutionary musical talent.
Film
Cadillac Records
The turbulent lives of Chicago's musical legends — Muddy Waters, Etta James, Chuck Berry — in the 1950s.
Film
Rhinestone
A country singer bets she can turn a New York cab driver into a singing star.
Series
Classic Albums
A documentary series examining the pop and rock albums most distinctive to a band or era.
Series
Boone
A Tennessee teenager defies his father to pursue rock and roll in the early 1950s.
Series
Vinyl
A jaded 1970s New York record exec tries to resurrect his label while tracking the city's new sound.
Series
Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll
An aging rocker gets a second shot at fame as a songwriter, trying to put his band back together.
Series
CMT Crossroads
Country stars collaborate with artists from other genres, trading stories about their shared love of music.
Series
The Monkees
Four young men in mid-1960s LA chase their big break with a struggling country-folk-rock band.
Series
NPR Tiny Desk Concerts
Intimate performances recorded live at a desk — music stripped back to its essentials.
Series
Seven Ages of Rock
A landmark documentary series tracing rock's emergence, told through the musicians who shaped it.
Game
Let's Sing Country
Sing along to country music's biggest tracks and perform like the genre's leading artists.
Game
Rock Band 2
Master guitar, bass, drums, and vocals across rock's most celebrated songs in one package.
Game
AC/DC LIVE: Rock Band
A rock-band game built around AC/DC's catalogue for fans who want to live out a concert fantasy.
Game
Friday night funkin: whitty mod (lo-fight) with music
A fan-made rhythm game that earned strong word of mouth on Scratch.
Game
The Beatles: Rock Band
Play through the Beatles' career from Liverpool to Abbey Road on drums, guitar, bass, and vocals.
Game
A Highland Song
A young woman treks across the Scottish Highlands, guided by songs, to reach the sea.
Game
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s
Play through retro 80s rock tracks with Gibson-shaped controllers in classic Guitar Hero style.
Game
MSM: The Lost Landscapes
A fan-made game set in the My Singing Monsters universe, built by a small independent team.
Book
On the road with Bob Dylan
A firsthand account of Dylan's 1975 Rolling Thunder Revue — a travelling music show like a psychedelic carnival.
Book
Everybody needs a rock
A children's book about the qualities that make a rock the perfect one for play and pleasure.
Book
Rock and roll, 1955-1970
A history examining rock's roots, rhythm and blues, solo stars, and the rise of supergroups.
Book
Invisible Republic
Greil Marcus on the legendary basement recordings Dylan and the Band made near Woodstock in 1967.
Book
A freewheelin' time
A firsthand account of the 1960s creative scene, before Bob Dylan became its anointed ringmaster.
Book
Thomas and Beulah
A Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry sequence tracing the lives of an African American couple across generations.
Book
Country
Country music's dark origins traced from blackface minstrels through honky-tonk to rockabilly.
Book
Bob Dylan
Over two dozen interviews with Dylan, spanning his career from street poet to Nobel Laureate.
Start with A Complete Unknown (2024) for a dramatised take on Dylan's early New York years, then pair it with No Direction Home and Don't Look Back for documentary perspectives on the same period.
Invisible Republic by Greil Marcus covers the legendary basement recordings Dylan made with the Band near Woodstock, A Freewheelin' Time is a firsthand memoir of the early 1960s scene before Dylan became famous, and Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews collects over two dozen conversations spanning his full career.
Cadillac Records follows the turbulent lives of Chicago's rock and roll legends in the 1950s, Coal Miner's Daughter traces country singer Loretta Lynn's rise from poverty to fame, and Crossroads follows a blues guitarist hunting a lost Robert Johnson recording.