MusicalComplications Ensue
Complications Ensue:
The Crafty Screenwriting, TV and Game Writing Blog




Archives

April 2004

May 2004

June 2004

July 2004

August 2004

September 2004

October 2004

November 2004

December 2004

January 2005

February 2005

March 2005

April 2005

May 2005

June 2005

July 2005

August 2005

September 2005

October 2005

November 2005

December 2005

January 2006

February 2006

March 2006

April 2006

May 2006

June 2006

July 2006

August 2006

September 2006

October 2006

November 2006

December 2006

January 2007

February 2007

March 2007

April 2007

May 2007

June 2007

July 2007

August 2007

September 2007

October 2007

November 2007

December 2007

January 2008

February 2008

March 2008

April 2008

May 2008

June 2008

July 2008

August 2008

September 2008

October 2008

November 2008

December 2008

January 2009

February 2009

March 2009

April 2009

May 2009

June 2009

July 2009

August 2009

September 2009

October 2009

November 2009

December 2009

January 2010

February 2010

March 2010

April 2010

May 2010

June 2010

July 2010

August 2010

September 2010

October 2010

November 2010

December 2010

January 2011

February 2011

March 2011

April 2011

May 2011

June 2011

July 2011

August 2011

September 2011

October 2011

November 2011

December 2011

January 2012

February 2012

March 2012

April 2012

May 2012

June 2012

July 2012

August 2012

September 2012

October 2012

November 2012

December 2012

January 2013

February 2013

March 2013

April 2013

May 2013

June 2013

July 2013

August 2013

September 2013

October 2013

November 2013

December 2013

January 2014

February 2014

March 2014

April 2014

May 2014

June 2014

July 2014

August 2014

September 2014

October 2014

November 2014

December 2014

January 2015

February 2015

March 2015

April 2015

May 2015

June 2015

August 2015

September 2015

October 2015

November 2015

December 2015

January 2016

February 2016

March 2016

April 2016

May 2016

June 2016

July 2016

August 2016

September 2016

October 2016

November 2016

December 2016

January 2017

February 2017

March 2017

May 2017

June 2017

July 2017

August 2017

September 2017

October 2017

November 2017

December 2017

January 2018

March 2018

April 2018

June 2018

July 2018

October 2018

November 2018

December 2018

January 2019

February 2019

November 2019

February 2020

March 2020

April 2020

May 2020

August 2020

September 2020

October 2020

December 2020

January 2021

February 2021

March 2021

May 2021

June 2021

November 2021

December 2021

January 2022

February 2022

August 2022

September 2022

November 2022

February 2023

March 2023

April 2023

May 2023

July 2023

September 2023

November 2023

January 2024

February 2024

 

Saturday, July 17, 2010

I have a question for you guys.

Pre-GLEE and pre-HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, movie musicals have been on the ropes since the 1960's.  There have been some standouts usually based on Broadway hits (HAIR, CABARET) but many have flopped disastrously (PENNIES FROM HEAVEN, I'LL DO ANYTHING, that horrible Woody Allen thing).

On the other hand there are any number of successful movies about musical performers. Every rock'n'roll biopic ever made, THIS IS SPINAL TAP, THE COMMITMENTS, A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, etc.

What all exactly is the distinction? Is it that in musicals, characters sing about their emotions, whether directly (WEST SIDE STORY) or onstage (CABARET)? Whereas in a movie with music, the story is often about how they're doing with their music, are they succeeding, are they singing the happy song with tears in their eye...

What do you think?

Labels:

19 Comments:

First and foremost, I think it's that musicals tend to utilize two different "realities" without bridging the two--they are simply treated as discontinous. Movies about musicians are often "realist"--and the musical numbers fit right into this realism; and so neither the acting nor the singing breaks the fourth wall, we don't have to interpret the musical scenes metaphorically or ask whether or not the other characters can "hear" what's being sung, etc.

I think this also explains the success of the most successful "pre-HS:TM" quasi-musicals. In High Fidelity, for example, Bruce Springsteen can show up and start playing a song about the main character's life, because it happens within a consistent, already-established convention of the main character breaking the 4th wall. Or take "Once More, With Feeling," the musical episode of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer; the musical numbers are dropped back into the "normal" mode of interaction, and explained from within. These two examples have different modes of "reality," but both are self-consistent in both speaking and musical interludes.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:17 AM  

This is going to sound flippant, but it really isn't.

In a phrase - more brown people.*

Bollywood has never lost it's taste for musicals, and the Indian film industry has long had an enormous influence on pretty much everywhere in the globe outside of the Americas. As entertainment markets have gone global, with media companies deriving increasing revenues from markets abroad, musicals and musically themed media have had more support in North America. Even if the large scale audiences are not watching these shows and movies in North America (Glee, while a hit, is often only just barely in the double digit millions in the US), they are being watched abroad.

To give you an example of how global audiences are influencing North American media companies - take CTV's "The Listener." It was originally a US-Can co-pro, but when NBC canned it during season one, that should have been it. Even a few years ago, the show would have been dead and gone right there. But FOX did so well distributing the show internationally (It was #1 in a number of markets) that CTV decided to go it alone and fired up production on season 2.

No, The Listener is not a musical, but the relevant point is that other, global considerations are seeping into the decision process for North American media companies. Recently Slate had an article about the death of the box office bomb, that international markets are making profits for films that should have died ignominious deaths.

So, as regards musicals, and musical themed media, and the reasons for their recent resurgence, my money is on my original contention - more brown people.

They love musicals. (And so do I!)


*Not a being racist here.. I am married to an Indian, and while I probably couldn't tell you what Brad Pitt is up to, I probably could fill you in on the latest SRK, Big B, Little B news...

By Blogger James O'Hearn, at 2:47 AM  

This comment has been removed by the author.

By Blogger James O'Hearn, at 2:47 AM  

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:18 AM  

Sorry to chime in here.... but as I walked into the living room, and watched my kids playing on their Wii, I got to wondering if maybe the rise of collaborative (and solo) music gaming, with games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, might have shifted popular opinion on the role of, or inclusion of music in entertainment.

Perhaps there are more than a few Gleeks out there who like watching Mr. Schu and the crew rock out because they like rocking out on their own time as well.

By Blogger James O'Hearn, at 5:53 AM  

Musicals make me cringe. I think the big problem with them for me is that the pacing keeps shifting between the musical numbers and the story, and that makes it harder for me to get into flow watching the thing. I felt that way a bit about L'infant prodige, too, because the music, while beautiful, went on for so long it broke the flow of the story. So I don't think it's just that they're singing about the plot (which is bad enough), it's that it takes them so long to do so, and by the time they get back to the plot, my mind is out of gear.

And yet I liked Evita, probably because my expectations were different going in.

By Blogger Anemone, at 7:47 AM  

when I was younger, I used to love musicals. Now as an adult, they mostly grate. I watch Glee and enjoy it but find myself losing interest halfway through. I think it's the level of frantic energy that I find exhausting and ultimately bores me. It's like hanging out with a very adorable cheerleader who's hopped up on caffeine. After a while, no matter how adorable she is, you're eventually going to want her to shut up because her perpetual artificial sunniness is draining.

It's very "shiny" music, if you get what I mean and hence musicals are all about the highs. Whereas a movie about a musician often has a lot of scenes about struggle interspersed with the high points.

By Blogger Marly K, at 11:00 AM  

There are all different kinds of approaches to writing a musical and dozens of styles of "musicals."

Stephen Sondheim hates the kind of musical some of you are talking about - where the songs consist of the characters telling you directly what they're feeling. He writes a lot in subtext. In fact, perhaps his approach is closer to what screenwriters are told to do.

But save for a few others who preceeded him, like Rodgers and Hammerstein and Lerner and Loewe, I think most other musicals, from the past to contemporary stuff, feature more on-the-nose songs.

So that is one of the problems having those types of songs in a medium that's already so rich visually and full of information in other ways.

And has been discussed many times, the North American audience's tastes changed in the 60s. Perhaps because of other things going on in the culture. Before that they would accept characters singing and dancing in a movie, but after that it seemed silly to them. Unless it is in the context that the characters are performers, and we're just seeing them do their job.

My first great love was musicals. And even though I'm not a big Glee fan, I'm happy that it, as well as DWTS and SYTYCD have brought singing and dancing back to the "little screen" in NA, because that combines my two favorite things, music and TV. (Especially because I have an original pilot that's about Latin ballroom dancers in down-and-out Detroit!)

By Blogger amyp3, at 12:05 PM  

The keyword is "program musical" here. This is the sort of realistic musical where no one sings about their emotions.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 4:40 PM  

Film musicals are rarely hits for the same reasons that staged musicals have long runs only in the very largest urban centers - the audience for them is limited. That's always been the case and is not a recent development.

Any film musical that is a genuine hit has to be considered a cross-over hit, and the reasons for its success attributed to something other than it being a musical. If there are fewer film musicals doing well these days, it's because they're not pushing the right non-musical buttons with the film-going audience.

Similarly, I don't think the music had anything to do with the success of This is Spinal Tap or A Hard Day's Night. This is not to say the music was bad, only that it wasn't what drove ticket sales.

By Blogger Greylocks, at 7:34 PM  

I don't care for musicals because they're usually too cheery, even the morose tunes. However, I did like Cop Rock and "That horrible Woody Allen thing" - it was a musical for people that can't sing, and a romantic comedy for people who aren't good at relationships - I thought it was genius.

I think musicals went out of style before the new liberation of film took place. Grease was a hit because it dealt with stuff that couldn't have been touched in the 50's. Still, it was surrounded by some flops that made producers wary. Maybe this new generation will get back to taking this type of risk.

By Blogger Keith, at 2:35 PM  

The successful music-based films are successful for the same reason most films are successful: they're good stories.

For example, THE COMMITMENTS: it's a well crafted story with sympathetic characters and relationships. Early in the film, it creates a compelling question in the audience, namely "What's going to happen to these interesting people?" Who cares about (or remembers one song from) the music? Ditto RAY and I WALK THE LINE.

On the other extreme is I'LL DO ANYTHING: dull story and characters. Poor story-telling.

By Blogger 77kart, at 6:39 AM  

Musicals might not have been for the past decade but they have still been around.

Just look at 'Rug Rats'.

It's been running for almost a decade continually - a kids show where they inevitably have a fantasy filled music number at some point in the episode.

But it doesn't get classed as 'a musical'.

Why not? Because the most interesting thing about the series isn't the music.

And that's the way it should be. If a series' major feature was the music then, unless it is Glee, it is a major problem.

Mac

By Blogger Mac Harwood, at 4:22 AM  

The best episodes of Glee for me are ones where the musical choices work with the characters' thoughts and emotions, without telling us exactly what they feel and think. But a couple Glee episodes feel like someone said, "let's chain these songs together in a plot." And others are really on the nose, which gets my eyes rolling but which for some reason I accept in this show - probably because it's set in that sort of primary-coloured world.

I think musicals are coming back because our current arts culture is about the ludicrous. There's not much more ludicrous and artificial than some types of musicals.

By Blogger Unknown, at 12:09 PM  

Is it a coincidence that the decline of the film musical (the late 60s) also coincided with the decline of the Broadway musical? Milliions of people still attend Broadway every year, but its undeniable that Broadway has been in an artistic decline for about forty years. There is almost nothing but junk being written for the musical theatre anymore.
The reason for the decline of the musical was that pop music changed in the 60's(like so much else). Pop went from Tin Pan Alley and Cole Porter and Sinatra to Rock and Roll and the Beatles. For comlicated reasons, rock music just doesn't work well in musicals. In the 50's, My Fair Lady dominated the charts, and for a while was actually the Number 1 selling album of all time, if you can beleive it. But when popular taste in music changed, the music of the broadway musical no longer dominated the charts.
Musician bio-pics are a completely different animal. Those are popular because Johnny Cash, Ray Charles etc. are popular and people wanted to see films about the performers they love.

By Blogger Joshua Carnes, at 6:13 PM  

"For comlicated reasons, rock music just doesn't work well in musicals":

HAIR. JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. TOMMY.

By Blogger Alex Epstein, at 7:23 PM  

I tend to think the most successful recent film musicals are ones that most skillfully integrate the musical numbers into the story. (Chicago occurs to me as a good example.) The musical films that fail usually feature a lot of "singing for the sake of singing," rather than making each song an expression of a character desperately wanting "something." The soundtracks for most hit musical films usually include at least a song or two not in the film, usually because that number has nothing to do with advancing the story.

From an acting perspective, bursting into song is what happens when plain dialogue isn't enough for the character to get his/her point across. Musical numbers allow the characters to amplify the fight for their objectives by linking their dialogue directly to the soundtrack, and often to "on the nose" physical expression (dance). A musical number gives an actor even more tools than dialogue because the you get both text (the lyrics) and the subtext (the music) up front. The main difference is, unlike a non-musical film, The Rules of the musical's world allow the characters to belt out songs without their fellow characters looking at them like they're insane.

The best film musicals succeed because they've used the songs to flesh out the story -- to the point that we can't imagine the story being told any other way.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:52 AM  

It's that whole "suspension of disbelief" thing. Very hard to do when 2 characters are talking and one suddenly bursts into song. I've found it (unintentionally) humorous since I was a leetle kid.

By Blogger Rob Lewis, at 6:13 PM  

And yet, why are people so open to musicals when they're animated? That's always puzzled me.

By Blogger PlasmicSteve, at 12:06 PM  

Post a Comment

Back to Complications Ensue main blog page.



This page is powered by Blogger.