New on DVD

Though no one who remembers his emergence in the early '90s -- with the possible exceptions of himself and Dr. Dre -- would have thought it at the time, Snoop Dogg has become not just a superstar (anyone could've seen that), not just a major hip-hop icon (ditto), not just a survivor (some people are just lucky that way), but a legitimate entertainment institution. Just about anything you can say about Snoop -- he's lovable, he's a criminal, he's funny, he's pathetic, he's great, he's over, he's a pimp, he's a ho ­-- has been said, again and again, by thousands and even millions of people, yet he endures. One thing you don't hear a lot of people say is that Snoop is a super-engaging live performer. That's sure to change with the release of this DVD, which captures a 2005 appearance in Brussels (just a stone's throw from Amsterdam, really), and a couple of bonus tracks from Jamaica in 2001.

Running through the set list, which is basically nothing but gems, including "Murder Was the Case," "Tha Shaznit," "Deep Cover: 'G' Thang," "Snoop's Upside Ya Head," "Lodi Dodi," "Gin and Juice" and the title megahit, plus a guest appearance by the Game on "Lay Low," the star works hard to make what he does look easy. He strolls the stage, matching his laconic verbal delivery (amped up a couple notches for the live audience, but still recognizably chill) with a rambling physical ease. He looks like what he is: The Dean Martin of rap.

Unofficial documentaries about musicians usually mean two things: (1) the musicians in question don't appear in the film because the production is too low-rent, and (2) neither does their music, because the producers can't afford it. Well, neither of these conditions apply to "Raw Spice," despite the fact that it is a little low-rent. Although it's true that neither Posh, nor Ginger, nor Scary, nor Sporty, nor Baby participates in this not-quite-feature-length examination of the Spice Girls' rise to international music chart and pop-culture dominance, they left such a trail of interviews, press conferences, camera ops, ribbon cuttings, advertisements and live appearances in their original wake that the filmmakers need only cut them together to tell -- if not the story, then certainly a story -- about how global fame is manufactured.

The Spice Girls arrived in 1996, fully formed, though the documentary spends some time on their prehistory as well. With rampant sex appeal, slogans, catchy music and an instantly memorable name-brand hook, they were a pop group whose only goal was world domination. For the next few years, they achieved that goal with the help of good videos, good producers, an adoring public and a compliant media. But what "Raw Spice" reminds us is that they also knew how to stay on message. Interview after interview finds the girls extolling Girl Power even though they're plainly sex objects, group unity even as they vie for individual dominance, their love of music even though they barely participate in their own singles, the challenges of being in the media even as they run screaming for any spotlight they can find and so on. Then you realize that that they, not Madonna, were ground zero for today's pop scene of oversexed young girls and music that doesn't quite matter. Welcome (back) to Spice World.

Aside from writing and performing hit songs such as "Blue Monday," "Bizarre Love Triangle" and "Age of Consent," New Order is famous for two things. The first is rising from the ashes of the influential Joy Division when the band's charismatic singer, Ian Curtis, took his own life in 1980. Though nothing could've seemed less likely, surviving members Peter Hook, Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris took stock, changed the band name and soldiered on for more than 25 years of dark dance-pop splendor. The second thing for which New Order is famous is sucking live. The reputation is perhaps unfair, because the band has often been transcendent onstage. But, owing to technical difficulties, especially in the early days, the live show is famously hit and miss. All of which makes it interesting timing for a live DVD. With three Joy Division DVDs recently released, and last year's announcement that Sumner and Hook refuse to work together anymore, you could be forgiven for wondering, "Why now?" But the show, taped live at a two-night stand in Scotland in 2006, should at least put to rest the notion that the band is anything less than airtight (if perhaps less than dynamic) in performance. Disc 2 proves that they have always been a formidable live band, with show excerpts filmed between 1981 and 2006. And, in case anyone forgot, the Glasgow show ends with three Joy Division songs that sound as vital and alive as anything else on the set list.

Let's be serious: There has never been anything cool about Steve Miller. Even with his Texas/Chicago blues roots, his association with late-period Beatles (Apple released his early recordings), his unbelievable string of early-mid '70s hits, his '80s renaissance, the evergreen endurance of his catalog and his life as a career road dog, Steve Miller is synonymous with the uncoolest aspects of rock 'n' roll: white guys singing along in their SUVs, fraternity brothers bobbing their heads with sorority sisters at keggers, tailgate parties, etc. (These elements are on view in the Disc 2 documentary bonus feature.) Still, there is something undeniable about the best of Miller's music, and this live show offers a perfect vista from which to regard a seasoned veteran who never changes because he has no need to.

"Live in Chicago" is full of the staples of live DVDs (repeated swooping crane shots, audience close-ups, so forth), but it's also fresh enough to remain lively throughout. Miller himself is remarkably well-preserved, and the lean five-piece band, unsurprisingly, is masterful. Dorky color is provided by Miller's "partner in harmony for 31 years," Norton Buffalo, a proper old hippie in a beret and a vest who plays tambourine and maracas. Lights flash and smoke rises. But everything else is meat-and-potatoes rock 'n' roll. Twenty songs' worth. The set opens with "Fly Like an Eagle," closes with six more in a row from the perennial best-seller "Greatest Hits 1974-1978" -- and each is a gem. Clearly, it ain't broke, so who needs to be cool?