Whether one likes musicals or not, there is no question that the musical genre suffered a decline in popularity in the 1960s but that musicals such as Moulin Rouge (2001) and Chicago (2002) indicate a modicum revival of interest in the musical. There were still musicals during the 1960s, but the popularity of such musicals, like West Side Story (1961) didn’t increase until later generations resurfaced it.
The 1960s were a time of change of the old ways of seeing the world. People were fighting for a dramatic shift in the way life was lived and the movies reflected that need of the public. People wanted movies and characters that they could recognize with like Dustin Hoffman’s character Ben Braddock in The Graduate (1967). People were tired of beautiful actresses and hunky actors and they made a change from studs like Clark Gable to regular men like Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson. The 1960s was an age of anti-glamour where gruesome shoot out scenes were shown, uncut, to audiences like in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). The whimsical musical had no place in this time period. With their shifts in register and dream-like musical sequences, the musical didn’t fit into the gritty realism that the people of the 1960s craved so badly.
Not everyone was jumping on the revolution bandwagon, though. Movies like West Side Story, which showed the racism that Latinos suffered in America, were a slight success. Also, the 1960s was the time when Elvis Presley made his musical movies like Roustabout (1964) and Spinout (1966) which caught the young girl population of that time.
Recent movies have revived the musical slightly. Movies like Across the Universe (2007), which ironically is a musical set in the 1960s, The Nightmare before Christmas (1993), which was an innovation of the musical, and Sweeney Todd (2007) have grasped a younger audience into appreciating the meticulous work that goes into musicals. There is minimal dancing in these movies, but the audiences is captivated by the intergration of the storyline into the musical numbers, like in Across the Universe, which was on everyone’s favorite movie list for years after the release. The musical The Nightmare before Christmas is a pivotal film in cinematic history and its merchandise is still being sold quite impressively. These movies show that a modicum revival of the musical is taking place which may lead to gradual increase in the popularity of the musical.
The 1960s were a time of change of the old ways of seeing the world. People were fighting for a dramatic shift in the way life was lived and the movies reflected that need of the public. People wanted movies and characters that they could recognize with like Dustin Hoffman’s character Ben Braddock in The Graduate (1967). People were tired of beautiful actresses and hunky actors and they made a change from studs like Clark Gable to regular men like Al Pacino and Jack Nicholson. The 1960s was an age of anti-glamour where gruesome shoot out scenes were shown, uncut, to audiences like in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). The whimsical musical had no place in this time period. With their shifts in register and dream-like musical sequences, the musical didn’t fit into the gritty realism that the people of the 1960s craved so badly.
Not everyone was jumping on the revolution bandwagon, though. Movies like West Side Story, which showed the racism that Latinos suffered in America, were a slight success. Also, the 1960s was the time when Elvis Presley made his musical movies like Roustabout (1964) and Spinout (1966) which caught the young girl population of that time.
Recent movies have revived the musical slightly. Movies like Across the Universe (2007), which ironically is a musical set in the 1960s, The Nightmare before Christmas (1993), which was an innovation of the musical, and Sweeney Todd (2007) have grasped a younger audience into appreciating the meticulous work that goes into musicals. There is minimal dancing in these movies, but the audiences is captivated by the intergration of the storyline into the musical numbers, like in Across the Universe, which was on everyone’s favorite movie list for years after the release. The musical The Nightmare before Christmas is a pivotal film in cinematic history and its merchandise is still being sold quite impressively. These movies show that a modicum revival of the musical is taking place which may lead to gradual increase in the popularity of the musical.
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