OK, so I'm doing research. And at the moment, this involves watching a bunch of films about dance music and nightclubs. So tonight I'm watching High Tech Soul, which bills itself as "the first documentary to tackle the deep roots of techno music."
What a mess! Clip after clip after clip, no thesis, no story development, and the organizational style of a high-school class presentation. Of absolutely no interest anyone but the most committed fans. I am 25 minutes into the film and there has not yet been a music sequence used as anything more than a few seconds of b-roll. I've heard about the history of Detroit (the first nine minutes), and seen a series of brief clips about DJs, promoters, etc. I still don't know what makes techno techno, what makes it exciting, how it relates to its musical forebears, or why I should care at all.
The best film I've seen about a subgenre of popular music is Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, which addresses both fans and non-fans, doesn't take itself too seriously, and at the same time tries to answer all the common questions about the genre. In comparison, High Tech Soul is strictly amateur hour.
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