How Have Rock Musicals Inspired YOU?

Hey everybody!
For my high school senior project I am doing rock musicals and need a little help.

My thesis is: The rock musical is concerned with social issues, inspiring its audience, as well as its actors, to take action. Broadway's two most famous rock musicals, Hair and Rent, have successfully motivated people to rise up against social wrongs.

Here is where you come in.
How have Hair and Rent inspired YOU?

I really appreciate the help! Thanks very much!

Hair is a satire of war and the draft, sexual oppression, gender roles and inequality. When they are singing let the sun shine in they are trying to promote people to make changes. I believe the cast going down to the equality march is a perfect example of Hair inspiring people to stand up for what they believed in.

As for Rent, it promoted AIDS awareness and had a message of living life to the fullest. For this I found the connection with Friends in Deed and Broadway Cares as evidence.

Rent inspired me to kill an dog named Evita (not Patti).

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My dad has let us watch Hair the movie since I was in elementary school. So even though I've been exposed to that early on, the musical takes things to a whole new level.
It is a fun, energizing musical with fabulous songs. As the show goes on, it becomes less about the people and more about the various issues at stake, such as he draft, war itself, and others. And then it all comes together and the people and their struggles come together, leaving you with a deeper need for peace and to help those around you.
People leave that show different, whether or not that wares off or they apply it more into their lives is another story though.

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I don't think HAIR (the original in 1967/6inspired much of anything but it attracted an audience who saw their concerns being reflected on stage in a contemporary format. It did break some taboos as far as language/nudity and open displays of sexuality on stage.

RENT was Larson's attempt to meld traditional Broadway story-telling with an urban contemporary sound, but again aside from attracting a youthful audience to the theatre it did not cause any major social upheavals.

Rock music by its very nature is angry and aggressive. Sometimes it can be used to exhibit joy, but the range of emotions it can inspire is limited. Part of the problem is that very few rock musicians are trained in any other style of music, and they tend to think than an album of songs thematically linked will automatically transfer to the stage. These shows (AMERICAN IDIOT being the latest) are put on by people who do not understand or bother to learn about the musical theater's history. They don't know how to use music in a specific scene to heighten emotion. (They also seem to favour burying the vocals which runs counter to what good theatre is about: The text!)

I think it is wonderful that shows such as RENT, SPRING AWAKENING and NEXT TO NORMAL have attracted a new generation of theatre goers, a group that the industry had pretty much ignored from the late 1960s through the 90s. But it seems the only thing that they have been inspired to do is to go back and see the same shows over and over.

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