Posted: 12/14/15 at 2:20pm
BWW has cleared this up.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 2:27pm
I wholeheartedly agree with this article but I recall a few weeks ago discussing this and no one really seemed to care, or the impression I was given by a board member was that even iTunes tagged cast albums as 'soundtracks' so who was I to quibble....?
Go figure.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 2:28pm
iTunes is going to make this a hard battle to fight, since their metadata/categories will sort it as a soundtrack.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 2:30pm
So if iTunes tags an album with a genre that it isn't it's supposed to be accepted and not challenged or even corrected?
Posted: 12/14/15 at 2:32pm
Have you heard the HAMILTON soundtrack? (Well, no, because there hasn't been a HAMILTON movie yet.) Some would say this is a harmless change in the language and roll their eyes dismissively at anyone who would try to correct them, but there really are good reasons to not call a cast album a soundtrack. Here are five of them.
Yes, that's basically the attitude I got from the responses to arguments in regards to soundtracks vs. cast albums.
Updated On: 12/14/15 at 02:32 PM
Posted: 12/14/15 at 2:35pm
Theater_Nerd said: "So if iTunes tags an album with a genre that it isn't it's supposed to be accepted and not challenged or even corrected?"
No, but if everyone downloading cast recordings finds them under the Soundtrack genre on their phones, it makes it harder to educate people on the difference. Plus, most people don't care to begin with...
Posted: 12/14/15 at 2:37pm
Someone said a few weeks ago that Renée Elise Goldsberry referred to the original Broadway cast recording of Hamilton as the "soundtrack" in some appearance of interview. So if even the people appearing on the cast albums (which is obviously the proper term) are not calling them the correct name, how can we expect the unwashed masses to not call them soundtracks?
Posted: 12/14/15 at 2:39pm
A lot of performers, when asked about the "soundtrack," will just reply about the soundtrack to be polite. Not sure that indicates they don't know the difference. Lin didn't correct Colbert on it being a soundtrack, although Colbert himself called it a cast recording at the end of the interview.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 2:42pm
No, but if everyone downloading cast recordings finds them under the Soundtrack genre on their phones, it makes it harder to educate people on the difference. Plus, most people don't care to begin with...
And that's exactly the wrong attitude to have in regards to this, that's why the BWW article was written, to challenge that very attitude.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 2:43pm
Theater_Nerd said: "And that's exactly the wrong attitude to have in regards to this, that's why the BWW article was written, to challenge that very attitude."
Err, an observation is not an attitude.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 2:46pm
haterobics said: "Theater_Nerd said: "And that's exactly the wrong attitude to have in regards to this, that's why the BWW article was written, to challenge that very attitude."
Err, an observation is not an attitude.
Very true. Thanks for the correction, sir.
"
Posted: 12/14/15 at 2:52pm
This quote from the article: "Don't allow others to assimilate our culture into the world that's familiar to them." I think that's so true for when things like Hamilton happen, and theater and musicals become closer to or a part of the mainstream. So you'll see and hear people talking about how "obsessed with the soundtrack to Hamilton" and they don't even know that they're incorrect. They think they're right, no matter that there isn't a soundtrack to Hamilton to be obsessed with.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 3:12pm
A lot of my theatre fan friends refer to their favorite cast recordings as "soundtracks." I don't really see what difference it makes; if someone says that they like the Hamilton "soundtrack," you know exactly what they meant either way.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 3:15pm
Yeah, but not once the movie comes out.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 3:15pm
The article explains the differences and why it's important to differentiate the two.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 3:17pm
Yes, I read the article. I rolled my eyes when the author made the mistake of comparing a cast album's "identity" to those of people's different races and genders.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 3:18pm
If I want to hear Streisand sing "The Music That Makes Me Dance" from "Funny Girl" I am not going to ask to purchase the soundtrack to "Funny Girl", because the soundtrack to "Funny Girl" does not have "The Music That Makes Me Dance", but the cast recording does.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 3:18pm
We probably won't have to worry about a movie for at least 15-20 years, so we won't need the soundtrack vs. cast recording debate for Hamilton til that happens.
Posted: 12/14/15 at 3:19pm
The races/genders part was a bit much. But it's still important that even though the attitude of "you know what I meant" often lets people squeak by (not just with this but a lot of other things), that doesn't mean you should let them go ahead with using the wrong terminology.
gypsy101 said: "We probably won't have to worry about a movie for at least 15-20 years, so we won't need the soundtrack vs. cast recording debate for Hamilton til that happens."
But why not get in the habit of using the right term now?
Updated On: 12/14/15 at 03:19 PM
Posted: 12/14/15 at 3:19pm
Whoever wants to call it a soundtrack, go right ahead but the fact remains...it isn't. Ignorance prevails, I guess.
Updated On: 12/14/15 at 03:19 PM
Posted: 12/14/15 at 3:20pm
A year or so ago, we could say they were *literally* two different things. But not anymore...
Posted: 12/14/15 at 3:22pm
Yeah, the article already said that.
Usually when a friend of mine is referring to the movie soundtrack, they specifically say "movie soundtrack" or something along those lines. I get that there's a distinct difference between the two (I personally refer to cast recordings as cast recordings and soundtracks as soundtracks), but I'm not about to go jumping down someone's throat for using the wrong label, either. It's not a big deal to me if I know what they're talking about.
Updated On: 12/14/15 at 03:22 PM
Posted: 12/14/15 at 3:41pm
It's possible to correct without doing the cliched jumping part.
Posted: 12/15/15 at 3:29pm
It's possible to correct without doing the cliched jumping part.
This is true, of course, but any personal interaction that involves correcting someone else is a potentially face-threatening act. One has to balance the possibility that the correction will be perceived as rude - no matter how gently the matter is approached - against the importance of the issue at hand. And I don't think this matter is particularly important, so I doubt I'd ever call anyone on it, unless I know them very well.
(Now, tossing cigarette buts in the gutter - that's another matter!)
Posted: 12/15/15 at 3:32pm
Tony Winning Best Musical "Contact" is a soundtrack "Contact (Music from the Broadway Show)"
