Hollywood Musical Genre

• What is genre?

• Narrative vs. Musical Realities

• Musical Forms

• The Astaire-Rogers Musical

• Integrated Musical

• Musical and Ideology

Musical as a Genre

• What is genre?– Nature of each film as independent product– Plots and characters– Audience expectations

Narrative vs. Musical Realities

• Narrative reality within the film– Not simple reality but a style created

• Musical reality ruptures narrative reality

• Shifts in registers

• Creation of pleasure

The Backstage Musical

• Tension between narrative and musical numbers– When musicals try to cohere the two, the

narrative must resolve the “problem” of the musical numbers

• Busby Berkley– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJOjTNuuEVw

(“We’re in the money” from Gold Digger of 1933)– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIO9y1xMPIA (“The

words are in my heart” from Gold Digger of 1935)

• Show people

The Cakewalk Musical

• Fluidity of the transformation from narrative to song– Actors are performers and actors as

audiences– Use of props– Who are they performing for?– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ2Q8_P_

msg (“Under the bamboo tree” from Meet Me in St. Louis)

The Operetta

• Unmotivated musical numbers

• Fantasy settings

• Shift in registers marked by dialogue

The Astaire-Rogers Musical

• Perfect exemplification of “genre”– Subgenre of “screwball musical”

• Sexual desire is displaced into song and dance

• Musical numbers function as extensions of the characters and reflect stages in their developing relationship– Solve obstacles thrown out by narrative– In-class activity:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxPgplMujzQ (Dance Studio Number from Swing Time)

The Integrated Musical

• MGM and Arthur Freed (1939-1960)

• Blurs the boundaries of narrative and performance spaces

• Singin’ in the Rain– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1ZYhVpd

XbQ

The Musical and Ideology

• Escapism at its best

• Creates utopian version of capitalist society where there is boundless cheer and energy and everyone who deserves it ends up happy

• Remember what “We’re in the money” says about the Depression?