Free and easy? a defining history of the American film musical genre / Sean Griffin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Griffin, Sean, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Musical films--United States--History and criticism.

Musical films.

United States.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

vii, 368 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2018.

Summary:

Free and Easy? A Defining History of the American Film Musical Genre narrates the evolution of this hugely popular genre from classical Hollywood studio days to contemporary independent cinema, music publishing, and the music recording industry. On the way, the book provides an engaging and comprehensive survey of music history beginning with the music and dance of Native Americans and moving right up to contemporary music performance in streaming media. Griffin examines the different ways in which the film musical genre has been defined, what gets counted as a musical, why, and who gets to make that decision. The text expands beyond the glory days of MGM and the blockbuster Broadway adaptation to also reflect on sound experiments, short subjects and cartoons, foreign-language films, "race movies", documentaries, and contemporary independent cinema. There is in-depth discussion of how the genre has incorporated other forms of musical entertainment, such as folk music, vaudeville, musical theatre, and rock. It also describes the contributions made to the genre by a number of social factors, including marginalized or subordinated identity groups who have helped invent and shape the musical, and how the genre has in turn reflected issues of race, gender, sexuality, and class. Underlying this history is an examination of how the genre continually attempts to balance a celebration of individual freedom with efforts to bring people together in a joyous community. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

Overture: musical traditions before cinema

You ain't heard nothin' yet: the sound revolution

Face the music and dance: the depression

Singing a song of freedom: World War II

There's beauty everywhere: MGM and the freed unit

Something's gotta give: the postwar musical

Bustin' out all over: the rise of the musical blockbuster

In a minor key: the B musical and beyond

The sound of money: musicals in the 1960s

Whistling in the dark: a genre in crisis

Can't stop the music: musicals and the new Hollywood

Just like Scheherezade: reviving the musical film genre.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Griffin, Sean author. Defining history of the American film musical genre

ISBN:

9781405194969

1405194960

9781405194952

1405194952

OCLC:

963914614