when did musicals become popular

Full Answer

When did musicals stop being popular in movies?

After the immense success of Disney and other houses with animated film musicals beginning with The Little Mermaid in 1989 and running throughout the 1990s (including some more adult-themed films, like South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)), fewer animated film musicals were released in the first decade of the 21st century.

How did Broadway musicals grow in popularity?

The growth of musical theater on Broadway coincided with the relocation of the theater scene in New York, which saw the most famous theaters in midtown rather than downtown. The show that we can call the first Broadway musical is a point of dispute.

When did musicals become popular in India?

The genre made a comeback beginning in 2010 with Tangled (2010), Rio (2011) and Frozen (2013). In Asia, India continues to produce numerous "Bollywood" film musicals, and Japan produces "Anime" and "Manga" film musicals. Made for TV musical films were popular in the 1990s, such as Gypsy (1993), Cinderella (1997) and Annie (1999).

What are the most famous musicals of all time?

Some of the most famous musicals through the decades that followed include West Side Story (1957), The Fantasticks (1960), Hair (1967), A Chorus Line (1975), Les Misérables (1985), The Phantom of the Opera (1986), Rent (1996), The Producers (2001), Wicked (2003) and Hamilton (2015). Musicals are performed around the world.

When did musical Theatre become popular?

In the 1920s, song and dance performers became even more popular, and some of the most famous musical composers created shows during this time period. Broadway entered its ''Golden Age'' after the Great Depression in the 1940s, where many hits ran for more than a thousand shows.

When did musicals become a thing?

Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century, with many structural elements established by the works of Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and those of Harrigan and Hart in America.

Why did musicals become popular?

He said, “Those productions are profit-based and heavily marketed.” As for why musicals are so popular, Friedman said, “It's a fun entertainment,” and, “People want to be entertained.” He said musicals have happy endings and offer escapism adding, “Fantasy is part of it.”

What was the first popular musical?

The musical as we know it has some of its roots in the French and Viennese Operettas of the 1800s. The satiric works of Jacques Offenbach (Paris) and the romantic comedies of Johann Strauss II (Vienna) were the first musicals to achieve international popularity.

What is the most famous musical?

5 Most Popular Broadway Musicals EverThe Phantom of the Opera.Cats.Les Misérables.A Chorus Line.Oh! Calcutta.

What was the first modern musical?

The Black CrookThis was an advertisement poster for the 1866 production of "The Black Crook", which many consider to be the first modern musical.

Why did Hollywood stop making musicals?

Hollywood released more than 100 musical films in 1930, but only 14 in 1931. By late 1930, audiences had been oversaturated with musicals and studios were forced to cut the music from films that were then being released.

Why are musicals more popular than plays?

They're more captivating. It's hard to fall asleep when there's powerful and loud singing going on. The bright lights, the catchy songs…they capture your attention in ways that regular movies and plays simply can't do. You can get lost in the music and the show.

Why were musicals so popular in the 1930s?

They enjoyed many forms of entertainment, particularly if they could do so inexpensively. With the addition of sound, movies became increasingly popular. Comedies, gangster movies, and musicals helped people forget their troubles. In the early 1940s, some of the great dramas of American film reached theaters.

What is the first musical song?

“Hurrian Hymn No. 6” is considered the world's earliest melody, but the oldest musical composition to have survived in its entirety is a first century A.D. Greek tune known as the “Seikilos Epitaph.” The song was found engraved on an ancient marble column used to mark a woman's gravesite in Turkey.

What's considered the first musical?

The first theater piece that conforms to the modern conception of a musical is generally considered to be The Black Crook, which premiered in New York on September 12, 1866. The production was a staggering five-and-a-half hours long, but despite its length, it ran for a record-breaking 474 performances.

How many musicals exist?

There Have Been Over 300 Broadway Musicals, And I'll Be Impressed If You Can Name 11.

Why were musicals of the 1920s used as entertainment?

Performances were often used in clubs and speakeasies in order to hide the fact that people were flocking in for illegal alcohol, which led to the “upgrade of entertainment into a small Vaudeville show”.

What was the first Broadway show ever?

The Black Crook (1866)The Black Crook (1866), considered by some historians to be the first musical.

What is the first Broadway musical in 1927?

Show BoatThe musical was first produced in 1927 by Florenz Ziegfeld. The premiere of Show Boat on Broadway was an important event in the history of American musical theatre....Show BoatLyricsOscar Hammerstein IIBookOscar Hammerstein IIBasisShow Boat by Edna FerberPremiereDecember 27, 1927: Ziegfeld Theatre New York City4 more rows

How did musicals come about?

The antecedents of the musical can be traced to a number of 19th-century forms of entertainment including the music hall, comic opera, burlesque, vaudeville, variety shows, pantomime, and the minstrel show. These early entertainments blended the traditions of French ballet, acrobatics, and dramatic interludes.

When was the first musical comedy?

Premiered in 1866. It was the first show to bill itself a “musical comedy.”

What was the growth of musical theater on Broadway?

The growth of musical theater on Broadway coincided with the relocation of the theater scene in New York, which saw the most famous theaters in midtown rather than downtown.

What & Where is Broadway?

However, the geographical location of Broadway is New York City’s Theater Subdistrict. In Midtown Manhattan, the Subdistrict runs north to south from West 40th to West 54th Street and east to west between Sixth Avenue and Eighth Avenue.

How many theaters are there in Broadway?

Although people refer to the entire Subdistrict as Broadway, only three theaters are on Broadway itself.

What do playwrights aspire for?

Playwrights aspire for their plays to become Broadway productions.

What was the golden age of Broadway?

Broadway’s golden ages. 1943 1950. Many people consider the time from 1943, when Oklahoma! was released, to the late 1950s to be one of Broadway’s golden ages. Critics and commentators today regard the shows of the 1950s to be the core around which all modern musical theater is or should be built.

What was the first musical to pull together a story and its score?

Broadway would also respond to the emergence of cinema with its first dramatic productions. Show Boat, which premiered in December 1927 and ran for 572 performances, was the first musical to pull together a story and its score. Instead of merely being a collection of songs, sometimes sang at seemingly random times, Show Boat used its songs to tell stories and deliver a more meaningful all-round message from its production.

Which countries produced the most musicals?

The U.S. and Britain were the most active sources of book musicals from the 19th century through much of the 20th century (although Europe produced various forms of popular light opera and operetta, for example Spanish Zarzuela, during that period and even earlier). However, the light musical stage in other countries has become more active in recent decades.

Where did musical theatre originate?

The antecedents of musical theatre in Europe can be traced back to the theatre of ancient Greece, where music and dance were included in stage comedies and tragedies during the 5th century BCE. The music from the ancient forms is lost, however, and they had little influence on later development of musical theatre.

How are musicals related to opera?

First, musicals generally have a greater focus on spoken dialogue. Some musicals, however, are entirely accompanied and sung-through, while some operas, such as Die Zauberflöte, and most operettas, have some unaccompanied dialogue. Second, musicals usually include more dancing as an essential part of the storytelling, particularly by the principal performers as well as the chorus. Third, musicals often use various genres of popular music or at least popular singing and musical styles.

How many players are in a musical?

While opera typically uses a conventional symphony orchestra, musicals are generally orchestrated for ensembles ranging from 27 players down to only a few players. Rock musicals usually employ a small group of mostly rock instruments, and some musicals may call for only a piano or two instruments.

How long is a musical?

While it can range from a short one-act entertainment to several acts and several hours in length (or even a multi-evening presentation), most musicals range from one and a half to three hours. Musicals are usually presented in two acts, with one short intermission, and the first act is frequently longer than the second. The first act generally introduces nearly all of the characters and most of the music and often ends with the introduction of a dramatic conflict or plot complication while the second act may introduce a few new songs but usually contains reprises of important musical themes and resolves the conflict or complication. A book musical is usually built around four to six main theme tunes that are reprised later in the show, although it sometimes consists of a series of songs not directly musically related. Spoken dialogue is generally interspersed between musical numbers, although "sung dialogue" or recitative may be used, especially in so-called " sung-through " musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar, Falsettos, Les Misérables, Evita and Hamilton. Several shorter musicals on Broadway and in the West End have been presented in one act in recent decades.

What is the book of a musical?

The book or script of a musical refers to the story, character development and dramatic structure, including the spoken dialogue and stage directions, but it can also refer to the dialogue and lyrics together, which are sometimes referred to as the libretto (Italian for "little book").

What are the components of a book musical?

The three main components of a book musical are its music, lyrics and book.

What were the first musical inventions?

The first stirrings of popular or pop music—any genre of music that appeals to a wide audience or subculture—began in the late 19th century, with discoveries by Thomas Edison and Emile Berliner. In 1877, Edison discovered that sound could be reproduced using a strip of tinfoil wrapped around a rotating metal cylinder. Edison’s phonograph provided ideas and inspiration for Berliner’s gramophone, which used flat discs to record sound. The flat discs were cheaper and easier to produce than were the cylinders they replaced, enabling the mass production of sound recordings. This would have a huge impact on the popular music industry, enabling members of the middle class to purchase technology that was previously available only to an elite few. Berliner founded the Berliner Gramophone Company to manufacture his discs, and he encouraged popular operatic singers such as Enrico Caruso and Dame Nellie Melba to record their music using his system. Opera singers were the stars of the 19th century, and their music generated most of the sheet music sales in the United States. Although the gramophone was an exciting new development, it would take 20 years for disc recordings to rival sheet music in commercial importance (Shepherd, 2003).

When did jazz become popular?

However, jazz became a legitimate form of entertainment during the 1930s, when White orchestras began to incorporate jazz style into their music. During this time, jazz music began to take on a big band style, combining elements of ragtime, Black spirituals, blues, and European music.

What was the golden age of radio?

The 1920s through the 1950s is considered the golden age of radio. During this time, the number of licensed radio stations in the United States exploded from five in 1921 to over 600 by 1925 (Salmon, 2010). The introduction of radio broadcasting provided a valuable link between urban city centers and small, rural towns. Able to transmit music nationwide, rural radio stations broadcasted local music genres that soon gained popularity across the country.

What style of jazz was popular in the 1930s?

Although improvisation was allowed during solo performances, the format became more structured, resulting in the swing style of jazz that became popular in the 1930s. As the decade progressed, social attitudes toward racial segregation relaxed and big bands became more racially integrated.

What was the music of the 1930s?

The 1930s: The Rise of Jazz and Blues. The ascendance of Tin Pan Alley coincided with the emergence of jazz in New Orleans. An improvisational form of music that was primarily instrumental, jazz incorporated a variety of styles, including African rhythms, gospel, and blues.

What were the two technological developments that threatened Tin Pan Alley's dominance of the popular music industry?

In the 1920s, Tin Pan Alley’s dominance of the popular music industry was threatened by two technological developments: the advent of electrical recording and the rapid growth of radio.

How did flat discs affect the music industry?

This would have a huge impact on the popular music industry, enabling members of the middle class to purchase technology that was previously available only to an elite few.

How many musicals were made in 1930?

In addition, there were scores of musical features released with color sequences. Hollywood released more than 100 musical films in 1930, but only 14 in 1931. By late 1930, audiences had been oversaturated with musicals and studios were forced to cut the music from films that were then being released.

When did musical films become less mainstream?

In the 1960s, 1970s, and continuing up to today, the musical film became less of a bankable genre that could be relied upon for sure-fire hits. Audiences for them lessened and fewer musical films were produced as the genre became less mainstream and more specialized.

What musicals did Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers make?

These lavish production numbers are typified by his choreographic work in 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933, Footlight Parade (all from 1933). During the 1930s, the musical films of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers became massive cultural fixtures in the eyes of the American public.

What were the most famous movies of the 1930s?

These films included, Top Hat (1935), Follow the Fleet, Swing Time (both 1936), and Shall We Dance (1937). Victor Fleming's The Wizard of Oz (1939) would become a landmark film for movie musical as it experimented with new technology such as Technicolor .

What is the genre of singing in the rain?

Film genre. Singin' in the Rain (1952) film poster. Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, ...

When were musical shorts made?

Musical short films were made by Lee de Forest in 1923–24. Beginning in 1926, thousands of Vitaphone shorts were made, many featuring bands, vocalists, and dancers. The earliest feature-length films with synchronized sound had only a soundtrack of music and occasional sound effects that played while the actors portrayed their characters just as they did in silent films: without audible dialogue. The Jazz Singer, released in 1927 by Warner Brothers, was the first to include an audio track including non-diegetic music and diegetic music, but it had only a short sequence of spoken dialogue. This feature-length film was also a musical, featuring Al Jolson singing "Dirty Hands, Dirty Face", "Toot, Toot, Tootsie", " Blue Skies ", and " My Mammy ". Historian Scott Eyman wrote, "As the film ended and applause grew with the houselights, Sam Goldwyn 's wife Frances looked around at the celebrities in the crowd. She saw 'terror in all their faces', she said, as if they knew that 'the game they had been playing for years was finally over'." Still, only isolated sequences featured "live" sound; most of the film had only a synchronous musical score. In 1928, Warner Brothers followed this up with another Jolson part-talkie, The Singing Fool, which was a blockbuster hit. Theaters scrambled to install the new sound equipment and to hire Broadway composers to write musicals for the screen. The first all-talking feature, Lights of New York, included a musical sequence in a night club. The enthusiasm of audiences was so great that in less than a year all the major studios were making sound pictures exclusively. The Broadway Melody (1929) had a show-biz plot about two sisters competing for a charming song-and-dance man. Advertised by MGM as the first "All-Talking, All-Singing, All-Dancing" feature film, it was a hit and won the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1929. There was a rush by the studios to hire talent from the stage to star in lavishly filmed versions of Broadway hits. The Love Parade (Paramount 1929) starred Maurice Chevalier and newcomer Jeanette MacDonald, written by Broadway veteran Guy Bolton.

Which Indian movie was the first to be a musical?

Despite this exception of almost every Indian movie being a musical and India producing the most movies in the world (Formed in 1913), the first Bollywood film to be a complete musical Dev D (Directed by Anurag Kashyap) came in the year 2009. The second film to follow its track was Jagga Jasoos (Directed by Anurag Basu) in the year 2017.

The Spectacle of Musical Numbers on a Big Screen

While some might say the magic of live theater is not likely to ever be properly captured in movies, you could also argue that live theater cannot duplicate the spectacle of musical numbers on the big screen. Both offer unique and special experiences.

Musicals Offer a Different Emotional Connection with the Viewer

Music can be at the forefront of a movie scene or provide a subtle background effect. It can build or dissipate, create a vibe or set an expectation, sometimes all without the use of words. It’s interchangeable.

What was the biggest blow to musicals?

The real killing blow to musicals came with the same blow that threw the entire industry into crisis: advent of Home Television. It was a slow death however, over a number of years. For the most part, the Industry didn't even realize it was dying. People had been provided with Choicefor the first time, and for an industry who's unofficial motif was "You'll get what you're given", this was bad news...The motto slowly became its epitaph. Some Studio's began to experiment with Television, and set up sister studio's in the rival industry, but even this did little to change their programming output.

Which studios continue to explore musicals?

The only studio to continue exploring Musicals as a prolific statement is Disney, for obvious animation reasons. It is for this reason that they are able to credibly produce programmes like Glee and movies like High School Musical: They have a fair claim to owning the Modern Musical Mastership, and they pretty much kept it breathing for the last part of the 20th century.

What was the result of the studios being only really competing with a small market?

The result of this set up meant that Studios were only really competing with a small market, and as they had all more or less decided to keep out of each others pockets, very little even there. This meant that there was no competitive market to decline or bargain for movies, so the only thing that could influence what sort of film was being made was a studio executive in his office, who were hardly representative of the masses!

What was the first sound in a movie?

The Jazz Singerfeatured the first sequence of synchronized sound in a widely distributed feature film, and was met with immediate success. From its very inception, the use of sound in cinema was linked with music, and more specifically yet singing, so the connection to musical theater was recognized and explored immediately.

What was the connection between music and sound in cinema?

From its very inception, the use of sound in cinema was linked with music, and more specifically yet singing, so the connection to musical theater was recognized and explored immediately. The Star System was already in place, and as such singing and dancing were added to actors feature lists to make them all rounders.

When did the Star System fall apart?

It wasn't until the late 1950's that things within the Star System started to fall apart, and it was just as much the studio's fault than it was that the audiences didn't want to see musicals anymore.

Did Pixar make a musical?

Pixar's never made a musical, it makes more sense to just say Disney films, or even animated as non-Disney production houses had fair amounts of success with musicals.

When did musicals start to dwindle?

By the mid-1930s, the taste for musical film was already starting to dwindle, West said. By the 1940s, the U.S. had a new burden to bear, this time in the form of World War II.

Why were musicals an ideal genre for the escape?

"Musicals presented an ideal genre for the escape because it made people leave the gloom and doom of poverty behind and see films that depicted people in joyous movement but had very lavish surroundings."

What was the name of the musical that starred Ruby Keeler?

Most of these films focused on the lives of the upper crust of society, but one quintessential 1930s musical film, "42nd Street," shows a working class woman toiling to break into showbiz. It starred Ruby Keeler, Hollywood's top tap-dancer of the time.

What is the second musical film?

It might be a toe-tapping, jazz-handed renaissance. "La La Land" swept the Golden Globes last night and has been lauded as the second coming of musical film in American cinema. Other modern movie musicals like "Pitch Perfect," "Into the Woods" and "Les Miserables" and TV shows like "Glee" and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" (not to mention the recent trend of networks broadcasting live musical productions) have gotten a ton of attention—and made a ton of money. We clearly still have a craving for song and dance on our TV sets. So what caused a one-time industry staple to nearly disappear after the genre peaked in the 1930s?

Who sang in the rain in 1952?

The late, great Debbie Reynolds (center), Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor in "Singing In the Rain" (1952).

Is masculinity fashionable in America?

To this day, popular portrayals of masculinity don't leave room for song and dance: "that kind of malehood is just not fashionable in America" anymore, West said.

Overview

Early antecedents: Antiquity to Middle Ages

Renaissance to the 1800s

1850s to 1880s

1890s to the new century

Operetta and World War I

The Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression

1930s to Oklahoma!

Overview

History

Definitions and scope

International musicals

Amateur and school productions

Relevance

See also

Further reading