The 9 most-lauded pop-music biopics in Oscars history: A 'Springsteen'-inspired guide

What is it astir the philharmonic biopic that has inspired truthful overmuch Oscar love? Is it the genre’s front-row spot connected the turbulent, provocative, culture-shifting lives of artists we’ve worshiped from afar? Is it the transformational, go-for-broke acting showcase it affords, and the painstaking play recreation truthful indispensable to the travel backmost successful time? Or is it simply the enduring powerfulness of fashionable euphony and the icons who’ve created and performed it?

With the merchandise of writer-director Scott Cooper’s biographical play “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere,” starring kudos magnet Jeremy Allen White successful an immersive portrayal of The Boss circa 1982, it feels similar the cleanable clip to flash backmost connected immoderate of the astir honored pop-music biopics successful Oscars history.

‘A Complete Unknown’ (8 nominations)

Monica Barbaro and Timothée Chalamet successful “A Complete Unknown.”

(Searchlight Pictures)

This nostalgic snapshot of the aboriginal vocation of legendary people vocalist Bob Dylan racked up 8 Oscar nominations, including for picture, manager (James Mangold), adapted screenplay (Mangold and Jay Cocks), and actors Timothée Chalamet (Dylan), Edward Norton (Pete Seeger) and Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez). Though it exited the awards ceremonial empty-handed (it besides earned nods for dependable and costume design), the movie enjoyed coagulated awards-season grosses, mostly affirmative reviews and further burnished Chalamet’s cred arsenic a versatile and chameleonic starring man.

‘Elvis’ (8 nominations)

Austin Butler successful “Elvis.”

(Warner Bros. Pictures)

Tracking the meteoric emergence and autumn of the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, this electric, eclectic, midcentury biopic impressed critics, shook up the container bureau and made a prima retired of Presley proxy Austin Butler. (Go ahead, accidental it: “Thank you, convey you precise much!”) Though “Elvis” near the gathering connected Oscar nighttime with zero wins from 8 nods — including picture, pb actor, cinematography and movie editing — the movie brought the hip-swiveling vocalist backmost into the zeitgeist and gave manager Baz Luhrmann yet different feather successful his movie-musical cap.

‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ (8 nominations)

James Cagney stars arsenic George M. Cohan successful the 1942 biographical philharmonic play “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

(Turner Entertainment)

An oldie but a goodie, this fashionable — and patriotic — philharmonic drama, starring James Cagney arsenic prolific composer-singer-showman George M. Cohan, was nominated for 8 Academy Awards, including for picture, manager (Michael Curtiz), pb histrion and supporting histrion (Walter Huston). Cagney won his lone Oscar for the exuberant role. (He besides received nominations for 1938’s “Angels With Dirty Faces” and 1955’s “Love Me oregon Leave Me,” different philharmonic biopic.) “Yankee” took location further statuettes for dependable and, arsenic the class was past called, champion scoring of a philharmonic picture.

‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ (7 nominations)

Levon Helm and Sissy Spacek successful “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”

(Universal Pictures)

Country prima Loretta Lynn whitethorn person been calved a ember miner’s daughter, but Sissy Spacek was calved to play her, arsenic evidenced by the Oscar she won for her striking portrayal. The film, which spanned Lynn’s humble Kentucky younker and matrimony astatine 15 done her bonzer emergence to chart-topping fame — and the tense breakdown that astir derailed her vocation — scored 7 nominations, including for representation and adapted screenplay (by Thomas Rickman). Spacek, the film’s sole Oscar winner, would spell connected to gain 4 much pb histrion nominations.

‘Bound for Glory’ (6 nominations)

David Carradine, who played people vocalist Woody Guthrie successful “Bound for Glory,” strums a guitar astatine the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.

(Keystone / Hulton Archive via Getty Images)

Seminal American people vocalist Woody Guthrie, who was a pivotal supporting quality successful past year’s “A Complete Unknown,” had a biopic each to himself successful this lyrical play directed by the large Hal Ashby. Based connected Guthrie’s 1943 autobiography and starring David Carradine arsenic the itinerant, socially conscious musician, the movie was nominated for six Oscars, including picture, adapted screenplay and movie editing. It won for Haskell Wexler’s evocative cinematography and Leonard Rosenman’s sweeping people — but remained much of a captious than commercialized success.

‘Ray’ (6 nominations)

Jamie Foxx successful “Ray.”

(Nicola Goode)

Jamie Foxx took location the Oscar, among galore different prizes, for his vibrant embodiment of pioneering singer-songwriter-pianist Ray Charles. The ambitious box-office hit, which followed the influential crossover creator from his puerility successful 1930s Georgia (when helium went blind) done the precocious 1970s — and each the successes, detours and struggles successful betwixt — garnered six nominations, including champion representation and manager (Taylor Hackford). Along with the pb histrion award, “Ray” won for dependable mixing. Foxx besides earned a supporting histrion motion that aforesaid twelvemonth for his good melodramatic enactment successful Michael Mann’s “Collateral.”

‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (5 nominations)

Rami Malek successful “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

(Alex Bailey / Twentieth Century Fox)

Audiences and Academy voters were kinder than galore critics to this often dazzling, mega-grossing ($910 cardinal worldwide) representation of groundbreaking Queen frontman and co-founder Freddie Mercury, who died of complications from AIDS successful 1991. Although called retired for sanitizing the queer, vocally talented musician’s backstage — and not-so-private — life, the movie was nominated for 5 Oscars, including champion picture. With wins for movie editing, dependable editing, dependable mixing and, astir notably, pb histrion (for Rami Malek’s captivating crook arsenic Mercury), the representation amassed the astir statuettes successful that year’s race.

‘Lady Sings the Blues’ (5 nominations)

Diana Ross successful “Lady Sings the Blues.”

(Paramount Pictures)

Diana Ross made an auspicious diagnostic acting debut successful this sprawling biopic astir the hardships and triumphs of celebrated jazz vocalist Billie Holiday. An iconic euphony prima herself — she’d precocious near the hit-making Supremes to spell solo — Ross earned her archetypal (and only) Oscar motion for her galvanizing recreation. The movie received 4 further nominations, including for archetypal screenplay and costume design, but won none. Ross, who mislaid that twelvemonth to Liza Minnelli successful “Cabaret,” would spell connected to prima successful conscionable a fistful of different films. (“Mahogany,” anyone?)

‘Walk the Line’ (5 nominations)

Joaquin Phoenix successful “Walk the Line.”

(Suzanne Tenner / 20th Century Fox)

The beingness of country-folk-rockabilly prima Johnny Cash received a polished, emotionally affluent big-screen attraction acknowledgment to good absorption by James Mangold (who co-wrote with Gill Dennis) and almighty prima turns by Joaquin Phoenix arsenic the analyzable Man successful Black and Reese Witherspoon arsenic his resilient wife, vocalist June Carter Cash. The popular, well-reviewed play collected 5 Oscar nominations: pb histrion and actress, costume design, movie editing and dependable mixing. Witherspoon captured Oscar golden — on with a raft of different awards — for her memorable performance.