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Died Young, Stayed Pretty

2008 film

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ15052379
Source-derived summary

Died Young, Stayed Pretty is a 2008 documentary movie on underground indie-rock poster art and its subculture. The film was written, directed and produced by Eileen Yaghoobian who filmed on location in 30 different states from 2004 to 2007. It features posters for Radiohead, White Stripes, Arcade Fire, The Flaming Lips, The Melvins, Nick Cave, Broken Social Scene, Black Keys, Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam, Queens of the Stone Age, Bob Dylan and Marianne Faithfull. Poster artists whose work appear in the film include Ames Bros, Amy Jo Hendrickson, Dan Grzeca, Methane Studios, Todd Slater and Zachary Hobbs.

Showing

The film was an Official Selection of the 2009 SXSW Film Festival, 2008 Montreal World Film Festival and the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con Film Festival. The film opened its theatrical run at the IFC Center (NYC) and ICA London (UK). Died Young, Stayed Pretty is a part of the permanent collection at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.

Music

Mark Greenberg of the band The Coctails created 16 original tracks for the film. Brian Chippendale of Lightning Bolt (band) and Black Pus are featured.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews with most reviewers praising the film's visual concept and some criticizing its disorganization, and some praised its free-form group portrait of people, Peter Rainer of NPR points to the films deconstruction as "Raw...an outlaw movie about outlaw artists".

Editorial summary

“Died Young, Stayed Pretty” enters the record as 2008 film. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Died, Young and Stayed can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—2008, 2004, 2007, 2009—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 2008-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Died, Young and Stayed.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Died Young, Stayed Pretty” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Died, Young and Stayed provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q15052379. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2008, 2004, 2007 and 2009.

Critical limits

Titles can refer to several editions, objects or performances, making precise identification essential before interpretation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Died Young, Stayed Pretty”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Died Young, Stayed Pretty primary sources, Died Young, Stayed Pretty archive and Died research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Died Young, Stayed Pretty”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Died Young, Stayed Pretty” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.