Why We’re Obsessed With Music Shows and How Netflix Just Leveled Up

There’s something timeless about music competitions. For decades, we’ve gathered around the TV with family, sometimes alone with a blanket and snacks to cheer on complete strangers chasing their dreams through a microphone. Shows like The Voice became weekly rituals and let us experience real emotional rollercoasters.

Now Netflix is shaking up the music TV game with Building the Band and Hitmakers. Building the Band brings global talents together to form bands and Hitmakers takes us inside luxe songwriting camps, where top writers create songs together.

Why does it work?

We love watching people chase something big. We love not just seeing the finished product, but the messy, beautiful, emotional process of making it. Netflix has taken that core appeal and given it a polishment. These aren’t just talent shows, they’re cinematic journeys into the heart of music culture. They combine the best of reality TV and musical storytelling. It feels new and bingeable and still, they remind us why we fell in love with this genre in the first place.

Building the Band: Music Meets Reality TV (and Gen Z Style)

Think Love Island, but make it musical. In Building the Band, Netflix brings together young singers from around the world and throws them into a high-pressure environment where they have to connect, collaborate and ultimately create something meaningful. It’s part performance, part personality clash. We’re not just watching people sing, we’re watching friendships form, egos clash, visions collide. What makes this show even more iconic is the lineup behind it.

Building the Band is hosted by an absolute dream team of pop royalty: Nicole Scherzinger (Pussycat Dolls), Liam Payne (One Direction, whose untimely death earlier this year makes his presence even more meaningful), Kelly Rowland (Destiny’s Child) and AJ McLean(Backstreet Boys). Four lead figures from four of the biggest bands of all time, brought together to mentor and judge the next generation. It’s not just nostalgia; it’s legacy leading the future.

Hitmakers: The Magic Behind the Music

Hitmakers invites us backstage - into the studios, homes and minds of the people who quietly shape global music culture: the songwriters and producers. These are the names you might not know, but you definitely know their work. The cast features real people from the industry, who’ve created chart-topping hits for artists like Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Beyoncé, Dua Lipa, Sam Smith, The Weeknd and more. They're the creative forces behind the hooks we sing in the car and cry to during heartbreaks. But until now, most of them have existed in the shadows. Hitmakers changes that by bringing these behind-the-scenes legends into the light, not only as artists, but as people. Each episode places them in stunning locations around the world - from desert villas in Miami to cozy countryside lofts in Nashville, where they’re tasked with creating original songs for real, high-profile musicians. They have to do it in teams, which means clashing styles, unexpected synergies and sometimes, total creative chaos. We see egos fall, ideas spark and moments of genius unfold in real time. Visually it’s part music documentary, part Selling Sunset glam with breathtaking writer retreats, candlelit dinners, wild parties, deep late-night convos and creativity shown in the most intimate, unexpected and addictive way.