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A<\/span>s a giant glittering ferris wheel dissolves into a closeup of Michael Jackson\u2019s face, legendary producer Quincy Jones explains to him that what people want is \u201cpure escapism\u201d. Michael, a new biopic about Jackson\u2019s rise to fame directed by Antoine Fuqua, is certainly that: a fantastical greatest hits playlist scrubbed clean of the darkness that tarnished the singer\u2019s reputation. The songs, which were licensed by Sony and the Jackson estate, remain glorious, transporting and indelible.<\/p>\n Michael is the latest addition to a new canon of authorised music biopics including films about and featuring the official music of Elton John, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Presley, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, Bob Marley, Robbie Williams, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. The genre was revived by the success of the 2018 Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, which was made with Queen\u2019s involvement and took home four Oscars and $911m at the box office. Never mind that it was dismissed by critics<\/a>; the boost it gave to the band\u2019s streaming figures<\/a> set a new precedent for hungry estate holders keen to cash in \u2013 and to control the narrative.<\/p>\n Biopics are tasked with making sense of creative choices in hindsight, of grafting on meaning. Sometimes it works well: A Complete Unknown<\/a> smartly focuses on Bob Dylan\u2019s folk music beginnings, a choice that allows it to tell a bigger story about celebrity, and the culture that was shifting around him. Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere<\/a> is about how the Boss\u2019s 1982 album Nebraska was born from a low ebb: it suggests that inspiration does not materialise out of thin air, but that artists might have to search for what they want to say.<\/p>\n