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Television series
the television series

Behind the Music is a documentary television series that initially aired on VH1 and currently streams newer episodes on Paramount+. Each episode profiles and interviews a popular musical artist or group. The program examines the beginning of their career, their road to success, and the hardships they may have encountered. In 2021, it was announced that the series would be rebooted by Paramount+, which premiered on July 29, 2021.

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).

While being interviewed by Rolling Stone in October 2000, co creator and executive producer Gay Rosenthal explained "Jeff Gaspin, who's the executive vice president of VH1, and I were at lunch, and we said, 'Whatever happened to Milli Vanilli?' I said, 'I don't know, but why don't you let me take the ball and run with it, and let me see what I can find out?' Milli Vanilli was hard. Nobody knew where they were. I had to be a private eye. I got a list of addresses where Fabrice had lived and sent letters to every address. Two weeks later, I got a call from Fabrice's manager. And then I spent a good two months with them – having dinner, having them at my house – before they agreed to do it. They didn't know if they wanted to relive the story, but I said, 'Listen, no one has heard your story from you. This will be a great opportunity to set the record straight.'" "When we saw it in the edit room, we thought we had something special. The stories were working, and the series was green lit." Rosenthal later stated in an August 1999 interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Another episode of Behind the Music on KISS was re christened KISS: Beyond the Makeup in July 2001 (which was two hours in length). This featured Matt Pinfield, formerly of MTV's 120 Minutes, as narrator instead of Jim Forbes. In June, 2000, VH1 aired the BBC produced Behind the Music like program on Pink Floyd entitled Behind The Wall which coincided with the release of Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live 1980 81 and focused on the making of The Wall, concerts that went with it and Pink Floyd The Wall film and had interviews with the band members and it featured no narration. A short lived half hour spin off series titled BTM2 (short for Behind the Music 2), chronicled the careers of newer upcoming artists. The spin off Behind the Music: Remastered that aired on VH1 Classic updates the original version of the Behind the Music episodes with new interviews, footage, and the later half of the artist's career. The series also included two original episodes on Motörhead and Deep Purple. In September 2020, a spin off known as MTV's Behind the Music: The Top 40 was announced for Paramount+, which was to feature a countdown of the 40 "biggest artists of all time". In March 2021, it was revealed via a promo aired during the Grammy Awards that the spin off would instead be positioned as a full reboot of Behind the Music, seven years after the last episode had aired on July 16, 2014. In May 2021, it was announced that the revival would premiere on July 29, 2021, with two episodes. Similar to the original series and Behind the Music: Remastered, it includes both new episodes and updated versions of past ones.

Behind the Music was nominated for five Primetime Emmy Awards including the Outstanding Non Fiction Series category for four constitutive years (2000 2003). In 1999, the series won an ALMA Award for Outstanding Made for Television Documentary for the episode featuring Selena and in 2001, Behind the Music won a TV Guide Award for Music Series of the Year. Behind the Music episodes received multiple nominations including a GLAAD Media Award nomination for Outstanding Film (Documentary) in 1998 for the episode featuring Boy George as well as multiple Image Awards for episodes featuring Tina Turner and Bob Marley.