The world of rock ’n’ roll is brimming with outrageous clichés. So much, in fact, that it needed to be made into a film. This Is Spinal Tap, originally released on March 2, 1984, is a mockumentary about the faux British band Spinal Tap that humorously attacks every stereotype in the book. Director Rob Reiner plays Marty DiBergi, the maker of the “documentary.”

This Is Spinal Tap follows the nearly washed-up band on the latest tour for its controversial album Smell the Glove and the hilarity that ensues. There is not one scene from this movie that does not have its own handful of unforgettable quotations, the most memorable certainly being, “These go to 11,” regarding the top volume of their amps. Stage snafus and creative differences plague the band throughout its tour, in addition to the ever decreasing size of its audience. You know something’s wrong when you’re opening for a puppet show.

All of the antics provided by Spinal Tap’s core three members — David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), and Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) — are fictional, yet have proven frighteningly accurate for many real rock stars. Artists such as Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osbourne, among countless others, have commented that everything in this film has happened to them at one point or another.

Granted, it was probably not nearly as amusing.

— by Rebecca Koons