Cross-media picks for Sparks fans — films, series, games and books in the same vein.
If Sparks are on your playlist, you probably like your pop with ambition attached. These picks share that instinct: stories about music as identity and obsession, groups built on friendship and rivalry, worlds where a song can save or destroy everything. From Harlem girl groups to alien rock stars to rhythm-battle showdowns, the thread running through all of them is that music matters — and the people who love it will go to extraordinary lengths to protect it.
Film
Sparkle
Three sisters take church-choir roots from Harlem to 1960s pop stardom.
Film
Sparkle
A musical prodigy navigates fame, family fracture, and romance in Detroit's rising music scene.
Film
Body Rock
A disco owner lures a New York breakdancer away from his crew and their shared world.
Film
Pump Up the Volume
A teenage pirate DJ uses shortwave radio to voice what an entire high school is feeling.
Film
Second Chorus
Two rival trumpeters in the same band compete for the same woman and the same big break.
Film
9 Songs
A glaciologist recalls a love affair measured out in shared rock concerts and intimacy.
Film
Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem
Four alien musicians are kidnapped, reprogrammed as humans, and stripped of their true identities.
Film
Suite Precure♪ The Movie: Take It Back! The Miraculous Melody That Connects Hearts!
Music is disappearing from the world, and only those who love it can bring it back.
Series
Chance Pop Session
Three girls from different worlds meet at a concert and discover a shared calling for music.
Series
takt op.Destiny
Monsters have silenced music worldwide; one musician's passion is humanity's last hope.
Series
Electric Bloom
Three pop stars look back at the friendships and ambitions that built their mega-famous group.
Series
Idol × Warrior Miracle Tunes!
Stolen Sound Jewels must be recovered before a kingdom's sacred Song of Blessings disappears.
Series
Gravitation
An aspiring singer pursues both stardom and the attention of a guarded novelist with equal desperation.
Series
Shut Up Flower Boy Band
An underground rock band transfers to a prestigious school and finds a rival band waiting.
Series
Music Up!
Four teenage boys with clashing personalities come together around a shared passion for music.
Series
DYNAMIC CHORD
Several bands under one label navigate musical careers and the personal lives tangled up in them.
Game
Lost Records: Bloom & Rage
Four high-school friends reunite decades later to confront a long-buried secret from one formative summer.
Game
Friday night funkin: whitty mod (lo-fight) with music
A rhythm-battle fan mod where every fight is a music showdown.
Game
MSM: The Lost Landscapes
A fan-made game where creatures from the My Singing Monsters franchise combine to create music.
Game
Melody's Escape
Your own music library powers the gameplay, turning every track you love into an obstacle course.
Game
Mixtape (2025)
Three friends spend one last high-school night on an adventure set to a generation-defining mixtape.
Game
DEF JAM: ICON
Hip-hop environments pulse, crumble, and explode to the beat as you fight your way through them.
Game
Just Dance 2022
Forty chart-topping hits become full-body performances in this high-energy dance party game.
Game
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s
Shred retro rock classics on a Gibson-shaped controller in a game built for pure 80s spectacle.
Book
Heart Song
A young woman named Melody works to escape a stifling home while searching for the truth about her father.
Book
Red sings from treetops
Color comes alive in lyrical, whimsical verse where every season sings in its own hue.
Book
Hot and bothered
An image consultant tries to polish a chaotic former pop star — and sparks fly between them.
Book
Glow
Rick James recounts a wildly entertaining life as hitmaker, innovator, and pioneer of funk-rock fusion.
Book
Rhythm of Love
A keyboard player loses her spot in the band and must choose between music and the bandleader she loves.
Book
Growin'
A girl whose father was her only believer finds unexpected connection after his sudden death.
Book
Chart topper
A student's YouTube song catches a record label's eye, pulling her into the industry's ruthless world.
Book
Listen to Your Heart (Sweet Dreams Series #112)
A girl is baffled and hurt when the boy she has dreamed about all summer suddenly turns cold and distant.
Start with Pump Up the Volume, about a teenage pirate DJ who turns a school's frustrations into open rebellion through music, or Interstella 5555, an animated sci-fi story about musicians kidnapped and stripped of their true identities — both treat pop music as something worth fighting for.
Try Mixtape (2025), a nostalgic adventure scored by artists including Roxy Music and DEVO, or Melody's Escape, which transforms your own music library into gameplay.
Glow offers an entertaining first-person account of Rick James's life as a hitmaker and pioneer of funk-rock fusion, while Hot and Bothered follows an image consultant trying — and failing — to tame a chaotic former pop star.