This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Music is an integral part of any film, and sometimes it's the main focus. Here's a look at five music-related films playing at the Sundance Film Festival:

BAND AID

Zoe Lister-Jones and Adam Pally star as a funny-but-sad hipster couple who constantly bicker about seemingly innocuous relationship stuff like whose turn it is to wash the dishes. They get the idea to turn their fights into songs and start a band (isn't that how Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" album happened?), recruiting their pervy neighbor Dave (Fred Armisen) to fill the drum chair. There are some great laugh lines — or not, if you're offended by Hitler/Holocaust references — and Judd Apatow fans will find the film's tone familiar. It takes an extremely dark turn halfway through that might have you cringing more than laughing, but the songs are a hoot. You might leave the theater wanting to pick a fight with your significant other just to see what creative spark ignites.

"Band Aid" (U.S. Dramatic Competition) screens Tuesday at 12:15 p.m. at the Eccles Center Theatre; Wednesday at noon at the Library Center Theatre; Thursday at 3:45 p.m. at Broadway Centre Cinema 3; Friday at 9:15 p.m. at Library Center Theatre; and Saturday at 3 p.m. at Yarrow Hotel Theatre.

TOKYO IDOLS

The creepiest movie at Sundance? Maybe. "Idols" is a documentary focusing on the thousands of Japanese teenage girls who are part of the country's current "pop idol" culture, essentially Spice Girls-like performing troupes with even crappier electronic dance music. But the other half of the story focuses on the girls' fans, all of whom are much older men — "otaku," and yes, there's a name for them — who obsessively follow the girls, even to the point of quitting their jobs. A scene where members of an idol group are publicly elected in a large stadium is weirdly but fittingly straight out of "Hunger Games." We see the men and girls at meet-and-greets and autograph sessions, fawning over girls as young as 13, and when one of the guys tells the camera, "Their selling point is that they're not fully developed. If they were older they wouldn't interest me," well, you might just throw up. The objectification of women in music is a topic that's been argued at least since it was first recorded and marketed, but "Tokyo Idols" is what happens when it's taken to the perverted extreme.

"Tokyo Idols" (World Cinema Documentary Competition) screens Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Broadway Centre Cinema 6; Thursday at 3 p.m. at Temple Theatre; and Friday at 9 a.m. at Temple Theatre.

RUMBLE: THE INDIANS WHO ROCKED THE WORLD

A long-overdue documentary that explores the influence of American Indians on rock 'n' roll, starting with the legendary Link Wray, whose guitar buzz on the classic 1958 instrumental "Rumble" was so threatening and gritty that radio stations banned it, fearing it would incite teenage riots. An A-list of sonic celebs are interviewed — Iggy Pop, Robbie Robertson, Martin Scorsese, Tony Bennett and others — and everyone relates needed-to-be-preserved stories of Indian musicians both long-gone and still-here, musical lines that stretch as far back as blues player Charley Patton (whose singing style is likened to traditional Indian vocalizing, a revelatory moment) and go through Howlin' Wolf, jazz singer Mildred Bailey (who influenced the likes of Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald), Jimi Hendrix, Buffy Sainte-Marie and the band Redbone, whose '70s smash "Come and Get Your Love" was revived massively in "Guardians of the Galaxy." An often thrilling and eloquent film, it doesn't veer from tragedies, such as the heroin death of guitarist Jesse Ed Davis, who had fans like Eric Clapton and George Harrison, and delves deep into the discrimination Indian musicians faced trying to break into a largely white rock world.

"Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World" (World Cinema Documentary Competition) screens Sunday at 9 p.m. at Yarrow Hotel Theatre; Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. at Redstone Cinema 1; Thursday at 6 p.m. at Library Center Theatre; Friday at 11:59 p.m. at Broadway Centre Cinema 6; and Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at Holiday Village Cinema 1.

GIVE ME FUTURE

"Give Me Future" chronicles the first concert by an American music act to Cuba after the thawing of Cold War-era relations between the two countries that began in December 2014. That the act is Major Lazer isn't particularly compelling — their hit songs like "Lean On" are too pop-oriented for my EDM tastes — but their spirit of bringing their sound to a large audience they've never played to before is infectious, and you wind up enjoying their journey almost as much as they do. Best parts: When we learn about the paquete, the underground distribution system where Cubans get their American music and culture, through which 400,000 people who turned out for the Major Lazer show got their music; and when the band members totally dis the Rolling Stones, who played Cuba just weeks after they do, even though they could've done so years earlier, being British and all. "They're scared! Major Lazer got here first!" Music is freedom.

"Give Me Future" (Documentary Premieres) screens Friday at 5:30 p.m. at The MARC.

DRAWN AND RECORDED: TEEN SPIRIT

An animated song-origin story narrated by T Bone Burnett, it's only 3 minutes long and to say anything else would spoil it. But you don't even have to leave your laptop — you can watch it right here.

"Drawn and Recorded: Teen Spirit" screens as part of the Animation Spotlight lineup Sunday at 10 p.m. at Redstone Cinema 2; Tuesday at 3 p.m. at Broadway Centre Cinema 6; and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at Holiday Village Cinema 1.

OTHER MUSIC-RELATED FILMS OF NOTE

"Roxanne Roxanne" • A dramatic telling of one of the earliest hip-hop feuds, the "Roxanne" records from the 1980s, and the untold story behind it. Screens Sunday at 3 p.m. at Library Center Theatre; Monday at 9:15 p.m. at Tower Theatre; Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. at the Egyptian Theatre; Thursday at 9:30 p.m. at Eccles Center Theatre; and Saturday at 3 p.m. at Redstone Cinema 7.

"Patti Cake$" • Jersey girl seeks fame and fortune busting hip-hop rhymes whilst trying to break out of her dead-end New Jersey life. Is this the Bruce Springsteen Story updated to 2017? Screens Monday at 12:15 p.m. at Eccles Center Theatre; Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. at Redstone Cinema 1; Thursday at 6 p.m. at Broadway Centre Cinema 6; Friday at 8:30 p.m. at Prospector Square Theatre; and Saturday at 9 a.m. at Library Center Theatre.

"Long Strange Trip" • Is there anything about the Grateful Dead we don't know or haven't already seen? Apparently yes, as this 4-hour (!) doc boasts production credits by members of the band themselves. Bust out that tie-dye. Screens Monday at 8:30 p.m. at Yarrow Hotel Theatre; Tuesday at 8:30 p.m. at Yarrow Hotel Theatre; Thursday at 6 p.m. at Tower Theatre; and Saturday at 8:45 p.m. at Yarrow Hotel Theatre.

"The Polka King" • A true-ish story starring Jack Black as a Polish immigrant who arrived in America and became the King of Pennsylvania Polka in the 1990s while getting involved in a money-fleecing scheme. See what accordions can do, kids? Screens Sunday at 9:45 p.m. at the Eccles Center Theatre; Monday at 9 a.m. at the Eccles Theatre; Thursday at 9 p.m. at Sundance Mountain Resort; Friday at 6:30 p.m. at Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center; and Saturday at 8:30 p.m. at the Egyptian Theatre.

"White Riot: London" • Doc short about the rise of punk rock in Britain circa 1977 and the movement's clash — see what I did there? — with anti-immigrant racists. Screens as part of the Documentary Shorts program, Sunday at 9 p.m. at Broadway Centre Cinema 6; Monday at 5:30 p.m. at Yarrow Hotel Theatre; and Thursday at 9 p.m. at Yarrow Hotel Theatre.

Sundance rocks

P The 2017 Sundance Film Festival runs through Jan. 29 in Park City and at venues in Salt Lake City and the Sundance resort in Provo Canyon. Ticket and schedule information at sundance.org.