Cast recordings ARE Soundtracks.

[binau]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 12:32am

According to the Legally Blonde Tour website, under sights/sounds.

I thought it was only the ignorant Hills girls during the MTV broadcast that mistakingly referred to it as that, now I guess they were just reading lines (I suppose their 'acting' already showed this).

I guess the "waa waa it's not a soundtrack it's a cast recording" does seem annoying etc.. but still, I'm surprised at least one 'musical' officially refers to their recording as a sountrack (and also a cast recording on the same page), hence according to them they are the same thing.

In retrospect, I'm not sure what I expect in terms of response. But still. Perhaps it's just some 'interesting trivia'.

[HollyGolightly2]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 12:55am

If Elle Woods said it, it must be right. She went to Harvard, after all. :)
Updated On: 10/11/09 at 12:55 AM

[tazber]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 1:18am

I didn't need another reason to loathe this waste of a show, but there it is.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 9:26am

Does this mean that we now must refer to deleted musical numbers as "outtakes"?

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 9:54am

If they are showing clips from the MTV video version and the audio is from that, it technically is a soundtrack (TV cast?) But I would prefer they just say "Listen to the songs..."

The screen cap above cuts this off bit at the bottom they do say:
Want to hear more? Get the entire Legally Blonde Cast Album on iTunes or go here to purchase now!

Updated On: 10/11/09 at 09:54 AM

[lisaatje009]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 10:10am

uh-oh, this is going te be a fun thread!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 11:53am

Going slightly off subject, I have 3 LP's (this is ancient I know) of outakes & deleted numbers from movie musicals. One is a number sung by Jack Nicholson from on A Clear Day cut from the film and it was one written for the film & not from the show.

Would a album from a Broadway musical made into a film be a sountrack or cast album or a new hybrid cast soundtrack?

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 12:11pm

Well, technically albums with the film casts ARE cast albums, even when they were recorded directly from the soundtrack (which due to sound quality issues was abandoned 40 years ago.) There are no true "soundtrack" albums any more, but somehow the term has stuck.

Ethan Mordden points out that even "album" is a wrong term. It applied when cast recordings were issued as sets of 78-rpms housed in leaf-type albums. Since the introduction of the LP, a single record is not an "album."

Odd, isn't it.

[Jon]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 1:08pm

Well, the Grammys still give out "record of the year" and "album of the year" awards, so screw you, Ethan Mordden.

They also give out an award for Best Liner Notes. Does a CD have a "liner"? Shouldn't it be "Best Booklet Notes"?

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 2:05pm

Mr. Roxy, I have those 3 Volumes of out-takes. Some great stuff (mixed with some no-so-great) but most of the MgM tracks are on the Rhino Cd's with better sound.

I hoped that when ON A CLEAR DAY was reissued a few years ago it would include "Wait Till We're 65" and the Jack Nicholson song, but apparently Striesand nixed the idea.

[lifesacabaret]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 7:08pm

And Legally Blonde continues to amaze me...

[Jaynrand]

Posted: 10/11/09 at 11:30pm

Damn. Now I have to rearrange ALL of my CD's.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 10:49am

but still, I'm surprised at least one 'musical' officially refers to their recording as a sountrack

I've seen actors being interviewed on this site and on Broadway.com refer to their cast albums as soundtracks! I can't believe their equity cards aren't revoked!

[temms]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 1:54pm

THEY ARE RECORDINGS, NOT ALBUMS!

I can't tell you how offended I get when I hear people talk about the "Original Cast Album". It is not an "album"! It is a "recording"!

History lesson: once upon a time, recordings were on 78 rpm discs that were only about 3 minutes long. So, if you wanted a complete recording of a show, it took multiple discs. So, the record companies compiled these multiple discs into "Albums", like your family photo album, which consisted of all the 78 disks that made up the show.

But a single disc is, by definition, not an album! So to the ignorant people who keep referring to the "Legally Blonde Cast Album", I just want to scream, "IT DOESN'T EXIST! IT'S ONLY ONE DISC!"

Cast "Recordings" is the proper term. "Album" just shows how painfully ignorant you really are. It's truly one of my pet peeves.


edited to add: In my rush to express my very important opinion, I missed that frontrowcentre already mentioned this. But somehow he still thinks okay to use the term even when he himself admits it's wrong. Really makes ya think, doesn't it...

Updated On: 10/12/09 at 01:54 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 1:56pm

Oh, for F*CK'S sake.

[yeomansden]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 2:11pm

1 a : a book with blank pages used for making a collection (as of autographs, stamps, or photographs) b : a cardboard container for a phonograph record : jacket c : one or more recordings (as on tape or disc) produced as a single unit
2 : a collection usually in book form of literary selections, musical compositions, or pictures : anthology

According to the above definitions of "album" from Meriam-Webster's (1c which says "one or more" and 2 which talks about collections), an album can be a single disc, as long as it contains multiple recordings, which they usually do, since each song is a separate recording. Therefore, "cast album" is appropriate.

But overall, I agree with Phyllis.

"Are you calling me a procrastibator?" Hunter, [title of show] "Guess who's gonna get blamed for the war in Europe?" Eugene, Brighton Beach Memoirs

[tazber]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 2:40pm

What yoem and Phyl said.

[Marquise]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 2:56pm

yeah, um...so what's all the ruckus about again?

[James885]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 3:04pm

I really can't believe people get so worked up about this. Is it really that big of a deal if someone calls a cast recording an 'album' or a 'soundtrack'?

In the grand scheme of things, who cares? There are so many more important issues to get worked up over.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 3:18pm

Since single discs of recordings have been called albums for over sixty years, I think those who take issue with it are being pedantic and (in at least one case) psychotic.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 3:23pm

I didn't know that soundtracks are no longer made from a sound track.

So, really, the subject line of this thread should be "Soundtracks ARE Cast Albums," since movies have casts.

I wouldn't want to lose the word "album," although I guess we will soon be calling it an "original cast download."

Which will make it an OCD.

Updated On: 10/12/09 at 03:23 PM

[yeomansden]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 3:24pm

"I wouldn't want to lose the word "album," although I guess we will soon be calling it an "original cast download."

Which will make it an OCD."

I think I love you...

[Calvin]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 3:25pm

Too bad William Safire's dead. He could have cleared all this up.

[Jane2]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 3:32pm

"I can't tell you how offended I get when I hear people talk about the "Original Cast Album"

Oh dear. Are you a visitor from All that Chat?

[frontrowcentre2]

Posted: 10/12/09 at 4:00pm

I didn't know that soundtracks are no longer made from a sound track.

It's true. They haven't been for years. At best the tracks for the CD are taken from pre-recording sessions but remixed for CD sound.

The first "soundtrack" album was made by RCA Victor in the 1930s featuring songs from Disney's SNOW WHITE. In 1946 M-g-M formed a record label and decided to market albums of highlights from their top film musicals with TILL THE CLOUDS ROLL BY as their first such album. To get the songs down to fit the 3-minute 78-rpm sides the music had to be copied and mixed from disc to disc to disc until they got the final master. The sound quality so many generations away from the original was pretty bad but on 78's it wasn't as noticable. (Listen to this album on CD..it sounds horrible! And Rhino has remastered this film.)

Through the 1950s and 60s most musical "soundtrack" records were assembled from the pre-recordings BUT those masters were EQ'd for a very flat sound because in the big movie theatres the sound would gain reverb as it bounced from wall to wall. Listen to the WB soundtracks: PAJAMA GAME (on Columbia), MUSIC MAN, and GYPSY for example and you hear a very flat "boxy" sound on the record. In the 1960s Columbia records tried to compensate by adding a lot of reverb to the records (MY FAIR LADY and 1776 are good examples.)

In the 1970s as multi-track recording became the norm it was easier to create separate mixes for use on the film and on the record, and the practise of recording "directly from the soundtrack" was retired.

Strangely the term "soundtrack" has stuck and through confusuoin over what it means, people assume it is any recoding of a movie OR a stage show. (Some younger audience members assume that the stage performers are just lip-synching to pre-recorded tapes!) It's still wrong and those of us who are true theatre fans prefer to use the correct terms.

It also helps clarify which version when more than one exists.

If you say to me that you have the "soundtrack" of RENT or HAIRSPRAY Then I assume you have the movie cast recordings.

I prefer the soundtrack of CALL ME MADAM over the cast recording, but I prefer the cast recording of MAME over the soundtrack.