‘Springsteen’: The top 9 pop-music biopics in Oscars history

What is it about this musical biopic that has generated so much Oscar love? Is this a genre's front row seat to the tumultuous, provocative, culture-changing lives of the artists we've worshiped from afar? Is it the transformational, unbridled acting showcase it offers, and the painstaking historical recreation so necessary for time travel? Or is it simply the enduring power of popular music and the icons who created and performed it?

With the release of writer-director Scott Cooper's biographical drama Springsteen: Deliver Me Out of Nowhere, starring Fame Magnet. Jeremy Allen White as the Boss Circa 1982 seems like the perfect time to look back at some of the most respected pop music biopics in Oscar history.

“Complete Unknown” (8 nominations)

This nostalgic snapshot of the early career of legendary folk singer Bob Dylan received eight Oscar nominations, including for film, director (James Mangold), adapted screenplay (Mangold and Jay Cox), and actors Timothée Chalamet (Dylan), Edward Norton (Pete Seeger) and Monica Barbaro (Joan Baez). Although the film walked away from the awards ceremony empty-handed (it also received praise for its sound and costume design), the film made solid box office during awards season. mostly positive reviews and further cemented Chalamet's reputation as a versatile and chameleonic leading man.

“Elvis” (8 nominations)

Charting the meteoric rise and fall of the King of Rock 'n' Roll, this electric, eclectic mid-century biopic impressed critics, rocked the box office and made him a star. Presley's confidante Austin Butler. (Go ahead and say, “Thank you, thank you very much!”) Although “Elvis” left the building on Oscar night without scoring a single win from its eight nods—including picture, lead actor, cinematography and film editing—the film brought the energetic singer back into the zeitgeist and gave director Baz Luhrmann another feather in his film-musical cap.

“Yankee Doodle Dandy” (8 nominations)

An oldie but a goodie, this popular and patriotic musical drama starring James Cagney as prolific composer, singer and showman George M. Cohan was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including for Picture, Director (Michael Curtiz), Lead Actor and Supporting Actor (Walter Huston). For this striking role, Cagney received his only Oscar. (He was also nominated for 1938's “Angels with Dirty Faces” and another musical biopic, 1955's “Love Me or Leave Me.”) “Yankee” received additional statuettes for sound and, as the category was then called, for best scoring in a musical picture.

“Coal Miner's Daughter” (7 nominations)

Country star Loretta Lynn She may have been born a miner's daughter, but Sissy Spacek was born to play her, as evidenced by the Oscar she won for her powerful performance. The film, which chronicles Lynn's humble youth in Kentucky and her marriage at 15 through her extraordinary rise to fame – and the nervous breakdown that nearly derailed her career – received seven nominations, including for picture and adapted screenplay (for Thomas Rickman). Spacek, the film's only Oscar winner, received four other leading actress nominations.

“On the Path to Glory” (6 nominations)

Prominent American folk singer Woody Guthrie, who played a key role in last year's Total Unknown, gets his biopic treatment in this lyrical drama directed by the great Hal Ashby. Based on Guthrie's 1943 autobiography and starring David Carradine as a traveling and socially conscious musician, the film was nominated for six Oscars, including picture, adapted screenplay and editing. It won for Haskell Wexler's haunting cinematography and Leonard Rosenman's stunning score, but remained a critical rather than a commercial success.

'Ray' (6 nominations)

Jamie Foxx took home an Oscarfor his powerful portrayal of the pioneering singer, songwriter and pianist Ray Charles, among many other awards. The ambitious box office hit, which followed the influential crossover artist from his childhood in 1930s Georgia (when he went blind) through the late 1970s, and all the successes, detours and struggles in between, received six nominations, including best picture and director (Taylor Hackford). Along with the award for the leading male role, “Luch” received an award for sound mixing. That same year, Foxx also won a supporting actor award for his excellent dramatic work in Michael Mann's Collateral.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” (5 nominations)

Audiences and Academy voters were kinder than many critics to this often dazzling, mega-grossing ($910 million worldwide) portrait of the pioneering frontman and Queen co-founder Freddie Mercury, who died of complications from AIDS in 1991. Although the film was intended to clean up the private (and not-so-private) life of a strange, vocally gifted musician, it was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Picture. With wins in film editing, sound editing, sound mixing and, most importantly, leading actor (for Rami Malek's breathtaking performance as Mercury), the film collected the most statuettes at the race that year.

“Lady Sings the Blues” (5 nominations)

Diana Ross makes her feature film debut in this sweeping biopic about the tribulations and triumphs of famed jazz singer Billie Holiday. An iconic music star (she recently left the hit-making group the Supremes to pursue a solo career), Ross received her first (and only) Oscar nod for her activism. The film received four additional nominations, including original screenplay and costume design, but did not win any. Ross, who lost to Liza Minnelli in Cabaret that year, will appear in only a few other films. (Mahogany, anyone?)

“Walk the Line” (5 nominations)

The life of country-folk-rockabilly star Johnny Cash gets a polished, emotionally rich treatment on the big screen, thanks to the excellent direction of James Mangold (who co-wrote the screenplay with Gill Dennis) and the turn of the powerful star. Joaquin Phoenix as the complex Man in Black and Reese Witherspoon as his stoic wife, singer June Carter Cash. The popular, well-reviewed drama collected five Oscar nominations for lead actors and actresses, costume design, editing and sound mixing. Witherspoon won Oscar gold—along with numerous other awards—for her memorable performance.