the musical movie genre

Nancy West, who teaches U.S. film history at the University of Missouri, thinks the move away from musical film has everything to do with a changing political climate. It’s cheaper and easier than ever before to shoot, edit and distribute a feature film, not to mention the effect of the internet in sharing ideas, knowledge and advice. I allowed each movie to have up to three genres, which was derived as an aggregate of all the sources listing that movie. So in a sense musicals weren't seen as a kind of escapism as much as a sign of disrespect.".

An internationally popular film genre, featuring music, song, and dance in varying combinations, often intertwined with a romance plot with a happy ending. "The more practical thing is: more people are watching television, movies are in crisis. That study looked at how films were received in cinemas, but a few weeks ago, it occurred to me that there was another group of people whose genre tastes we could measure – the filmmakers making the movies. That being said, they’re also losing interest in War movies, along with Action and Crime movies.

Most of these films focused on the lives of the upper crust of society, but one quintessential 1930s musical film, "42nd Street," shows a working class woman toiling to break into showbiz. Today I’ll share the global genre trends and next week I’ll discuss individual countries. The movie's very meta plot takes a look, and a bit of a lighthearted jab, at 1920s Hollywood and the come-up of the "talkies. Stephen Follows 2 Comments February 12, 2018. Your email address will not be published. "And then she makes it.". Select an icon or film genre category below, read about the development and history of the genre, and view chronological lists of selected, representative greatest films for each one (with links to detailed descriptions of individual films). So I’m going to split the results into two articles. ", When you kind of interrogate a genre that way, maybe this is now the end. Filmmakers seem to have much less love for Romance than they once did. Drama is cheap.

In some ways I see 'Singing In the Rain' as the height of the musical and also its endpoint.

Required fields are marked *. To this day, popular portrayals of masculinity don't leave room for song and dance: "that kind of malehood is just not fashionable in America" anymore, West said. The dominance of drama as a genre is perhaps not surprising when we consider the following: Film marketers often complain that “Drama is not a genre”, insofar as it doesn’t give the potential audience member any clues as to what to expect. Film versions of operas and stage musicals made in the silent era were usually screened with live musical accompaniment, often as part of theatrical entertainments featuring musical acts (see music). but those films also finance the cool indie movie that only made 79 dollars, and the haughty period film adapting an elitist type novel that made just 9 people go squee, etc. Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site. Your email address will not be published. Global film production is booming, thanks in large part to new technologies. "It was a different gloom: it's not economic crisis, it's death. I allowed each movie to have up to three genres, which was derived as an aggregate of all the sources listing that movie. Political protest and the counter-culture movement spurred by the Vietnam War didn't provide a fitting backdrop.

The data for today’s article came from a variety of sources, including IMDb, Wikipedia and Movie Insider. "Musicals presented an ideal genre for the escape because it made people leave the gloom and doom of poverty behind and see films that depicted people in joyous movement but had very lavish surroundings.". "Instead of putting us in a joyous mood, it winds up breaking our hearts," West said. In 1998, there were 410 Romance movies made globally and in 2017 the figure stood at 887. "It's all about us not being together, maybe we'll be together next year if not this year. The data from today’s research suggests that the broad nature of Drama may be further compounded by the sheer number of such movies on offer. I disagree totally! why shouldn’t people see the tent poles if they want–they have other options, no one is force-feeding them(i say them, but i’m crazy about cartoons and sci-fi and sometimes even superheroes too; i just also happen to gluttonously consume all kinds of movies). After the 1950s, "the climate just didn't support the musical," West said. Once we add tv/streaming/internet, i have access to exponentially more movies than i could even stay aware of, let alone watch–and i put a lot of screen-time in, more than most people.

Other popular genres include Comedy (28.4% of movies made), Thrillers (12.4%), Romance (11.6%), Action (11.2%) and Horror (10.6%). It starred Ruby Keeler, Hollywood's top tap-dancer of the time. With so many films claiming the Drama moniker, audiences may find it impossible to form useful genre-wide expectations, unlike the narrow pool of Westerns. Take a look at the Wikipedia entry "List of musical films by year" and you can see it right there—huge numbers in the 1930s and '40s dwindle to almost nothing by the 1970s. As a distinct genre, the film musical refers to movies that include singing and/or dancing as an important element and also involves the performance of song and/or dance by the main characters. How is Hollywood supposed to compete with that? This instinctively feels like a better measure of a nation’s filmmaking tastes, as otherwise a country could make 660 micro-budget dramas and play host to one Hollywood action film and the nation’s output would be classed as ‘50% action movies’.”. A true love letter to Hollywood and the musical film genre, La La Land follows the dreamy romance of an aspiring actress (Emma Stone) and a jazz musician (Ryan Gosling) in golden-age L.A. Across the dataset, the average movie had 1.7 genre classifications. Global film production is increasing and so even if a genre is comparatively less popular than it once was, there still may be more movies made in that genre than in previous years. Book Review:'The Movie Musical!' However, the majority of these By the 1940s, the U.S. had a new burden to bear, this time in the form of World War II. The 20 genres I included were Action, Adventure, Animation, Biography, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Family, Fantasy, History, Horror, Music, Musical, Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi, Sport, Thriller, War and Western.

By the mid-1930s, the taste for musical film was already starting to dwindle, West said. I would have thought that if over half the number of tickets sold, are for the usual comedy or fantasy/action/thriller movies featuring loud bangs and gratuitous violence, then that should be the measure of all things.

Spectacular action thrillers featuring loud bangs and gratuitous violence cost money. Across the dataset, the average movie had 1.7 genre classifications. This research is focused on fiction feature films (so not short films, TV movies, documentaries, etc) and includes all movies produced, not just those that were released in cinemas. Now, I’m willing to concede that the scale of the research I did for today’s article was slightly out of proportion with the value of its findings, even by my standards. So what caused a one-time industry staple to nearly disappear after the genre peaked in the 1930s? The 20 genres I included were Action, Adventure, Animation, Biography, Comedy, Crime, Drama, Family, Fantasy, History, Horror, Music, Musical, Mystery, Romance, Sci-Fi, Sport, Thriller, War and Western. In 1998, 15.9% of movies made were Romances whereas last year it was just 7.6%. For example, although romantic films make up a smaller percentage of movies made, their raw production numbers are still increasing. I have access to plenty of cinema fare that aren’t the handful that make all the money.–at any given moment in my city there are 50-80 big screen options open to me that include foreign films, anime, classic cinema, indie fare, adult focused dramas, documentaries….anything i might like. But she thinks "La La Land" could bring the genre back into the cultural foreground. Like, how do we go from here?". A few years ago, I looked at what genres are disproportionately popular with cinema audiences around the world. In 1930, Hollywood put out 100 musical movies. The depression was raging on and Americans desperately needed an escape," West said. But West said one movie of the decade simultaneously paid homage to musicals while somewhat fortelling their demise. Nancy West, who teaches U.S. film history at the University of Missouri, thinks the move away from musical film has everything to do with a changing political climate. Note: Some of today’s charts may add up to more than 100% as each film could have up to three genres. "We're in a very very unhappy moment in America—we need something to take us out of our anxiety, our worries about the future, so it's no surprise to me in a way that the musical would come back. Your research demonstrates that the film industry is growing explosively and that films of all shapes and sizes are being made, even if it doesn’t say anything specific about type of film such as sequel or remake.

By the time I’d finished, I had tracked 117,134 movies made in 151 countries over the past twenty years. It’s not possible to give a definitive figure for the exact number of films made each year but the growth can be viewed through a proxy, such as the number of new feature films listed on IMDb each year. I always counter by saying there are more films made now than ever before, more mediums, more distribution, more variety, more diversity than ever in history. "I suspect that this is going to be the first of a good many now," West said. "The musical has associations too with femininity, so of course it becomes easy to dismiss, because it's chick stuff, it's frivolity, it's girlish," she said. Just over half of all films made anywhere in the world over the past twenty years are Dramas (51.6%). Is A Symphony In Praise Of The 'Razzmatazz' Of The Genre Jeanine Basinger argues, authoritatively and passionately, that the musical … ". The genre exploded in the early 1930s as the U.S. struggled through the Great Depression. It was designed for people watching the film whose soldiers might be away.". “It’s worth noting that we’re measuring production numbers, not amount spent, meaning that a micro-budget film has the same weight as a mega-studio tentpole. So I really dislike, and always challenge the myth of the lost art of movies and the absurd baseless fear that there’s just remakes, superheroes and sequels out there. Fresh graduates from film schools seem to have a depressing tendency to want to make gritty urban kitchen-sink dramas – films that have lines like “Dad, I’m pregnant.” and “Look out! In discussion, usually on the internet, I constantly come across bemoaning and laments that “hollywood has run out of ideas” or “all they make is sequels/superheroes/remakes”, “nobody makes movies for adults anymore”, etc. "You see (musical film) in the 1940s but I think World War II put a damper on that," she said. And the hyper-masculinity of the film industry in the 1980s—when action, adventure and science-fiction films were having their time in the sun—wasn't too welcoming of Fred Astaire types, West said.

It’s worth noting that we’re measuring production numbers, not amount spent, meaning that a micro-budget film has the same weight as a mega-studio tentpole. Your graphs make a handy reference. They are even more clear that they do not want to see gritty urban kitchen-sink dramas with poor production values such as point-n-shoot, location-based cinematography and poor scores, or even no music whatsoever! The genre exploded in the early 1930s as the U.S. struggled through the Great Depression. IMDb currently has 12,597 feature films listed as having first been released in 2017 – twice the figure for ten years ago.

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