Movies like Pump Up the Volume (1990)
The best movies like Pump Up the Volume (1990) are Permanent Record (1988), SLC Punk (1998) and Dazed and Confused (1993). If Pump Up the Volume hooked you with its music and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedClouds (2020)8.2/10 from 1,072 votes
- NewestClouds (2020)Released 2020
Permanent Record (1988)
David Sinclair seems to have everything going for him: he's smart, musically talented, and very successful. To top off his senior year in high school, his band is trying to get a recording session. Therefore, David's suicide leaves everyone, especially his best friend and bandmate, Chris, with a lot of questions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSLC Punk (1998)
Two former geeks become 1980s punks, then party and go to concerts while deciding what to do with their lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDazed and Confused (1993)
The adventures of a group of Texas teens on their last day of school in 1976, centering on student Randall Floyd, who moves easily among stoners, jocks and geeks. Floyd is a star athlete, but he also likes smoking weed, which presents a conundrum when his football coach demands he sign a "no drugs" pledge.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEmpire Records (1995)
The employees of an independent music store learn about each other as they try to stop the store from being absorbed by a large chain.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Breakfast Club (1985)
Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast Allison, brainy Brian and Andrew, the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently -- and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHeathers (1989)
A girl who halfheartedly tries to be part of the "in crowd" of her school meets a rebel who teaches her a more devious way to play social politics: by killing the popular kids.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPretty in Pink (1986)
Andie is an outcast, hanging out either with her older boss, who owns the record store where she works, or her quirky high school classmate Duckie, who has a crush on her. When one of the rich and popular kids at school, Blane, asks Andie out, it seems too good to be true. As Andie starts falling for Blane, she begins to realize that dating someone from a different social sphere is not easy.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFerris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
After high school slacker Ferris Bueller successfully fakes an illness in order to skip school for the day, he goes on a series of adventures throughout Chicago with his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron, all the while trying to outwit his wily school principal and fed-up sister.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSuburbia (1984)
When household tensions and a sense of worthlessness overcome Evan, he finds escape when he clings with the orphans of a throw-away society. The runaways hold on to each other like a family until a tragedy tears them apart.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Suicide (2009)
After declaring that he's going to film himself committing suicide for a school project, Archie videotapes his surprising interactions with worried family members, interested classmates, unreliable medical experts and the hottest girl in school.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWe Are the Best! (2013)
Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band—despite not having any instruments, and being told by everyone that punk is dead.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Trotsky (2010)
Leon Bronstein is not your average Montreal West high school student. For one thing, none of his peers can claim to be the reincarnation of early 20th century Soviet iconoclast and Red Army hero, Leon Trotsky. When his father sends Leon to public school as punishment for starting a hunger strike at Papa's clothing factory, Leon quickly lends new meaning to the term 'student union', determined as he is to live out his pre-ordained destiny to the fullest and change the world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSay Anything... (1989)
Average student and eternal optimist Lloyd Dobler seeks to capture the heart of Diane Court, a beautiful but unattainable valedictorian classmate. He surprises just about everyone - including himself - when she returns the sentiment. However, Diane's divorced, over-protective father soon begins to disapprove of the match, and Lloyd realises that it's going to take more than just the power of love to conquer all.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSixteen Candles (1984)
With the occasion all but overshadowed by her sister's upcoming wedding, angst-ridden Samantha faces her 16th birthday with typical adolescent dread. Samantha pines for studly older boy Jake, but worries that her chastity will be a turnoff for the popular senior. Meanwhile, she must constantly rebuff the affections of nerdy Ted, who is unfortunately the only boy in school who seems to take an interest in her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLucas (1986)
A brilliant but socially inept 14-year-old experiences heartbreak for the first time when his two best friends – Cappie, an older-brother figure, and Maggie, the new girl with whom he is in love – fall for each other.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEddie and the Cruisers (1983)
A television newswoman picks up the story of a 1960s rock band whose long-lost leader — Eddie Wilson — may still be alive, while searching for the missing tapes of the band's never-released album.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
A group of Southern-California high school students ignore their studies in favor of indulging in their teenage distractions.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisZero Day (2003)
Two troubled adolescents chronicle the events that ultimately lead up to a terrifying assault on their school.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDetroit Rock City (1999)
In 1978, a Kiss concert was an epoch-making event. For the four teen fans in Detroit Rock City getting tickets to the sold-out show becomes the focal point of their existence. They'll do anything for tickets -- compete in a strip club's amateur-night contest, take on religious protesters, even rob a convenience store!
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVision Quest (1985)
A high school wrestler in Spokane, Washington has trouble focusing on his training regimen when a beautiful young drifter takes up temporary residence at his home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAirheads (1994)
The Lone Rangers have heavy-metal dreams and a single demo tape they can't get anyone to play. The solution: Hijack an FM rock radio station and hold the deejays hostage until they agree to broadcast the band's tape.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCBGB (2013)
A look at New York's dynamic punk rock scene through the lens of the ground-breaking Lower East Side club started by eccentric Hilly Kristal in 1973 which launched thousands of bands.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & music
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSing (1989)
When a volatile young street tough with a talent for singing and dancing is tapped by the high school music teacher to lead the upcoming senior "Sing," he is forced to come to terms with his defiant self-destructive lifestyle and his growing attraction to his co-star.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Election (1999)
A high school teacher meets his match in an over-achieving student politician.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1991. High school freshman Charlie is a wallflower, always watching life from the sidelines, until two senior students, Sam and her stepbrother Patrick, become his mentors, helping him discover the joys of friendship, music and love.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBang Bang You're Dead (2003)
A troubled and bullied high school student fights against judgement from his community after threatening to bomb the football team.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Legend of Billie Jean (1985)
Average Texas teen, Billie Jean Davy, is caught up in an odd fight for justice. She is usually followed and harrased around by local boys, who, one day, decide to trash her brother's scooter for fun. The boys' father refuses to pay them back the price of the scooter. The fight for "fair is fair" takes the teens around the state and produces an unlikely hero.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisS.F.W. (1995)
An alienated and misanthropic teenager gains sudden and unwanted celebrity status after he's taken hostage by terrorists where his indifference to their threats to kill him makes news headlines.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
SnoozefestMovies like thisClouds (2020)
Young musician Zach Sobiech discovers his cancer has spread, leaving him just a few months to live. With limited time, he follows his dream and makes an album, unaware that it will soon be a viral music phenomenon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both music & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBravetown (2015)
After an accidental drug overdose, a talented teenage DJ goes to live with his estranged father in a small Army town, where he gets to the bottom of his own pain and learns empathy for others.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & music
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Pump Up the Volume?
The closest matches to Pump Up the Volume are Permanent Record (1988), SLC Punk (1998) and Dazed and Confused (1993). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Pump Up the Volume?
People who watched Pump Up the Volume most often go on to Permanent Record (1988), SLC Punk (1998) and Dazed and Confused (1993).
What is the highest-rated movie like Pump Up the Volume?
Clouds (2020), rated 8.2/10 by 1,072 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Pump Up the Volume?
Clouds (2020) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Pump Up the Volume?
Yes: Permanent Record (1988), SLC Punk (1998) and Dazed and Confused (1993).
How are movies similar to Pump Up the Volume chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Pump Up the Volume, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.