The musical film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative. The songs are used to advance the plot or develop the film's characters. A subgenre of the musical film is the... [more]

The musical film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative. The songs are used to advance the plot or develop the film's characters. A subgenre of the musical film is the musical comedy, which includes a strong element of humour as well as the usual music, dancing and storyline. The musical film was a natural development of the stage musical. Typically, the biggest difference between film and stage musicals is the use of lavish background scenery which would be impractical in a theater. Musical films characteristically contain elements reminiscent of theater; performers often treat their song and dance numbers as if there is a live audience watching. In a sense, the viewer becomes the deictic audience, as the performer looks directly into the camera and performs to it. Musical films of the classical sound era The 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s are considered to be the golden age of the musical film, when the genre's popularity was at its height in the Western world. The first musicals Musical short films were made by Lee De Forest in 1923-24, followed by thousands of Vitaphone shorts (1926-30), many featuring bands, vocalists and dancers. In 1928, Warner Brothers released the first all-talking feature Lights of New York (1928) which included a musical sequence in a night club. The enthusiasm of audiences was so great that in less than a year all the major studios were making sound pictures exclusively. The first movie that could be said to be a musical was The Broadway Melody, it was a smash hit and won the Academy Award for Best Picture for 1929. There was a rush by the studios to hire talent from the stage to star in lavishly filmed version of Broadway hits. Since the 1950s, the musical film has declined in popularity. One reason was the change in culture to rock n' roll and the freedom and youth associated with it. Elvis Presley made a few movies that have been equated with the old musicals in terms of form. Most of the musical films of the 50s and 60s, for example Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music, were straightforward adaptations or restagings of successful stage productions. After the 1960s, filmmakers tended to avoid "musical films" in favor of using music by popular rock or pop bands as background music, in the hope of selling a soundtrack album to fans. However, there are exceptions to this rule. Films about actors, dancers or singers have been made as successful modern-style musical films, with the music as a diegetic part of the storyline. Many animated movies also include traditional musical numbers; some of these movies later became live stage productions, such as Beauty and the Beast, Cry-Baby and The Lion King. In the early 2000s, the musical film began to rise in popularity once more, with new works such as Moulin Rouge!, Across the Universe, High School Musical, and Enchanted; film remakes of stage shows, such as Chicago, The Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Dreamgirls, Sweeney Todd, Little Shop of Horrors, and Mamma Mia!; and even film versions of stage shows that were themselves based on non-musical films, such as The Producers, Hairspray and Reefer Madness. Under the mainstream radar, there have been acclaimed independent musical films, such as Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Dancer in the Dark; and foreign musical films, such as 8 femmes, The Other Side of the Bed, Yes Nurse, No Nurse and Clear Blue Tuesday. In 2004, the New York Musical Theatre Festival presented a week-long festival of modern movie musicals that included 10 independent features made since 1996, as well as several programs of short movie musicals. A new wave of Teen Musicals have come with the success of The Cheetah Girls franchise. After the first was a big success in ratings and album sales, Disney released High School Musical franchise, Camp Rock. excerpted from wikipedia (ml) [show less]