why are some people just unwilling to try out musicals?

[hortonhearsasam]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 6:02pm

I have a lot of friends who don't like musicals, and whenever I'm listening to a cast recording (in my car or my dorm room or whatever) people ALWAYS say "Can we listen to something else?" or "Can we listen to regular music?"

So basically what I'm asking is, why are people unwilling to give Broadway a chance? I get a lot of people who say that they just don't like the style of music, but I think that's kind of bogus because different musicals feature SO MANY different styles of music.

[luvliza89]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 6:03pm

I've always loved Broadway because it is every kind of music, even if it is rapped up in a showtune.

[TennesseeTwang]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 6:14pm

It hasn't always been this way.

Did it change because of the rise of rock music?

And the way musicals are marketed and spoken about in popular culture, practically screams, " If you aren't a middle aged female or a gay male, you aren't supposed to be interested."

[vmlinnie]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 6:17pm

I get a huge slagging because of my liking of musicals, because the boys in my class are all 14 or 15, and they'd be far too macho to like girly musicals, basically.

[Funny Face]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 6:23pm

It's really weird how Broadway has changed in pop culture. In the 50's, music from Broadway shows were popular music, and almost everything on stage had a movie adaptation. Ever since the movie msuical died out, Broadway seemed to become less popular. Maybe because Broadway was so popular then, people still equate it with that. Many people's idea of Broadway is a character on stage belting out "There's No Business Like Show Business". They don't realize that musical theater has evolved beyond that style of music.

Also I find that a lot of people these days don't really buy the whole breaking into song out of nowhere. When we watched 1776 in A.P. U.S. History, there were a dozen groans everytime another song started.

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 6:31pm

"It's really weird how Broadway has changed in pop culture. In the 50's, music from Broadway shows were popular music, and almost everything on stage had a movie adaptation. Ever since the movie msuical died out, Broadway seemed to become less popular. Maybe because Broadway was so popular then, people still equate it with that. Many people's idea of Broadway is a character on stage belting out "There's No Business Like Show Business". They don't realize that musical theater has evolved beyond that style of music. "

I know in the 50's and 60's Broadway was so mainstream. Now most people just think Braodway is Jazz hand's and musicals like Grease. It seem's like nobody outside of theater know's what a rock musical is. If someone who didn't know Broadway very well and listened to RENT, they would be suprised it was Broadway.
Updated On: 8/19/06 at 06:31 PM

[queendork]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 6:43pm

Updated On: 8/28/06 at 06:43 PM

[hortonhearsasam]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 7:23pm

Queendork, that's interesting. What musicals do you like?


Also, I'm talking more on the level of the music. I'm not even trying to convince my non-theater friends to come see shows with me. I'm just trying to get them to listen to the recordings.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 7:24pm

It is their loss

[RyanDavis]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 7:29pm

So many different kinds of music!

Like.. "musical theatre country" or "musical theatre pop" or "musical theatre rock" ... :)

[Becoz_i_knew_you21]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 7:30pm

"Queendork, that's interesting. What musicals do you like? "

Yeah, I would like to know as well. I don't know what musical's you have seen but, acting in musical's can be just as great as plays.

[vmlinnie]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 7:36pm

'Many people's idea of Broadway is a character on stage belting out "There's No Business Like Show Business". '

Very true. I was talking to a person my age and they she asked me what was on my iPod. I said mostly musicals, she wouldn't know them. She said 'Oh, like Oklahoma and Fiddler on the Roof?'

I don't think, because musicals are now just in theatres and not on our screens, that people realise what a modern musical is.

In Dublin there was a comedy show based on a major soccer story that happened in 2002. They made the show a musical 'just to make it even more ridiculous'.

It also tells that people remember old movie musicals ahead of actual stage musicals, because a year ago there was a poll on Channel 4 in Britain of the Nation's top 100 musicals. Grease won. People haven't got a clue.

[Carl Magnum]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 7:43pm

Honestly I have had a much harder time trying to turn people on to plays. The general public seems to be much more apt to see a musical than sit through a 2 hour Shepard.


And I'm sorry, I am an actor, and I love musicals but I'm definitly in the camp that can't just sit around and listen to them when I'm chilling out all the time. And I certainly cannot work out to showtunes. They have a time and a place and too much will turn anyone off to them. I lived in a theatre dorm and if I had to listen to RENT one more time back then I would have shot someone.

[hortonhearsasam]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 7:43pm

Well, why did musicals drop out of the more popular culture?

(I realize this is a HUGE question.)

[TennesseeTwang]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 7:44pm

I know that one of the major reasons that people say they don't like musicals is because it's unrealistic for people to burst into song.

Maybe so. But it didn't suddenly become unrealistic. It was ALWAYS unrealistic, even during the days when both stage and screen musicals were wildly popular.

And when people say bursting into song is fake, I can't help but think that it's no more fake than those death defying escapes made by male protagonists in most action films.

People are simply selective in what types of unrealistic things they'll tolerate.

So why DID audiences turn against musicals anyway?

This writer thinks the times call for MORE movie musicals.

http://film.guardian.co.uk/patterson/story/0,,1852390,00.html

[Carl Magnum]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 7:46pm

"Well, why did musicals drop out of the more popular culture?

(I realize this is a HUGE question.)"




Honestly? The short answer is The Beatles. Once bands and artists started writing and performing their own material and not others work all the time. I think that's just about when it started.

[catharsis]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 7:47pm

It's sad that people won't give Broadway a chance- they're really missing out.
I do have friends that will ask for different music if I'm grooving to showtunes. I took one of them to see the Rent tour when it came to Boston, free of charge (so if they didn't like it, they wouldn't feel bad about spending the money). Sure enough, I got a call from her a few days later asking about the show. She had looked it up, and had also read about other broadway shows. She now knows the difference between Sondheim, Schwartz, and Webber.

I think that people nowadays just need to be exposed to what is GOOD musical theater, and the many genres of music it contains. There are still a lot of people with the mentality that they hate musicals because they "can't stand that minutes song from the musical about AIDS." So they may not like Rent, but they may like something darker, like Sweeney Todd, etc.. They may not say "WOW, that's really awesome," but they might say "hey, that's not as bad as I thought it would be."

[CurtisTaylorJr2]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 7:51pm

Broadway shows have used all sorts of music, Rock, Pop, R&B, Jazz and lesser known types of music, so the notion show tunes aren't regular music is stupid.

[RyanDavis]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 7:53pm

But don't you agree it's never REALLY that style of music. It's a broadway version of it?

[CurtisTaylorJr2]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 8:01pm

True, there always is that traditional show tune style in most musical theater songs, so matter what genre it's based on.
Updated On: 8/19/06 at 08:01 PM

[greeneyed_one]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 10:36pm

The real problem is not people disliking showtunes, it is people refusing to even listen to showtunes. Many non-theater people refuse to listen to any musical theater song because "it is from a musical." However, I am sure there are an equal number of people who change the radio as soon as a rap or country song comes on because they "do not like rap" or "do not like country."

[Caroline-Q-or-TBoo]

Posted: 8/19/06 at 10:45pm

I find that I ease my friends into the showtunes mindset. I started on the most open minded one, with two songs from Ave. Q to show that musicals aren't just people singing about love...

now we groove out to my Jesus Christ Superstar record :)

[safran]

Posted: 8/20/06 at 2:28am

"The real problem is not people disliking showtunes, it is people refusing to even listen to showtunes. Many non-theater people refuse to listen to any musical theater song because 'it is from a musical.' However, I am sure there are an equal number of people who change the radio as soon as a rap or country song comes on because they 'do not like rap' or 'do not like country.'"

But they love it when Gwen Stefani and Jay-Z sample from showtunes. Heh.

[thevolleyballer]

Posted: 8/20/06 at 2:31am

I can owe it to just a different taste in music. When friends pound out screamo, hardcore punk metal, I'll ask to listen to regular music. When I hear Bob Marley mumbling about whatever drug he's on, I'll ask for regular music. When I'm just listening to some ridiculous rapping that isn't appealing (and hey, there's some rap that is), I'll ask for regular music. It's nothing against the genre, I think. Those same friends who blast the metal and the Marley and the rap loved Rent and listened to that when they saw the movie. It's not anti-musicals, it's just anti-difference.

[WiiCKED x3]

Posted: 8/20/06 at 6:50am

Usually in the car I always listen to my iPod. And my friends ALWAYS ask me to change the song if i'm listening to broadway.
Only 1 of my friends actually likes Broadway. So she listens.