Popular Music and the Musical

When people talk about the musical theatre, they fittingly talk about the music and what it does in telling a great story. As composers added musicals into the canon, a "musical theatre sound" emerged with contributions from Richard Rodgers, Frederick Loewe, Jerry Bock, Leonard Bernstein and many others. This sound became the Broadway brand. This music crossed over into the world of popular music and people from Frank Sinatra to Barbara Streisand would take songs from Broadway musicals and make them even more popular as standards.

Today, this sound is almost looked at as pastiche. Many have said "They don't make them the way they used to." When The Producers came on the scene in 2001, the overwhelming sentiment was that this was the return to this musical comedy form. From my perspective, these people are referring more to how music is being used to tell a certain type of story. For example, Frederick Loewe came from a Viennese musical background, so his music for far-away places like Brigadoon and Camelot, fit his setting of waltzes and lavish ballads.

For years I've pondered this sentiment of "They don't make them like they used to." Other than I find it a bit insulting to the wonderful pieces of musical theatre recently added to the canon, I thought I needed to flip the question around and ask: what should audiences expect musically from today's musical? And, why doesn't the music on the stage for the most part not reflect popular music?

To search for answers to these questions I did something I hadn't done in years: listen to popular music on the radio. For years I've stayed away from music on the radio simply because I didn't enjoy the music. The music I listen to is so varied and I usually rely on friends to introduce me to interesting new artists and songs. For me, the radio has always been about playing the 15 most popular songs over and over without any air time for up and coming voices. So after months and months of listening to the radio, here are some observations and how they relate to the musical theatre.

1. Lyrics really don't matter. This is not a new idea, but I seem to remember a time when lyrics had a bit more substance and structure. Popular music lyrically has always been grounded in the fact that you are going to introduce one idea and talk about it for three minutes. You knew what you were getting when you heard "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," "Just the Way You Are," "My Own Worst Enemy." Today, as long as language fits into the musical setting or beat, it seems as if the lyrics are almost just placeholders for accents.

One artist that seems to be a prime example of this, whose music continues to hurt my brain is Ke$ha. No, that is not a typo. She apparently chooses to have a dollar sign in her name as a means of expression. This lack of basic phonics is repeated in her song titles; most famously the hit "Tik Tok." Once again, she consciously chooses to misspell in the title, for no real apparent reason other than to be different. If you actually take two minutes to read the lyrics to this song (which I went against doctor's orders and did), it's fascinating to see what counts as a sentence or a phrase these days. It also fascinates me how bloated and trivial the imagery becomes on the page. Take this for example: "Before I leave, brush my teeth with a bottle of Jack, Cause when I leave for the night, I ain’t coming back." I give her a half a point for rhyming, but what the hell kind of image is that? Brushing your teeth with Jack Daniels? Is that supposed to be provocative or sexy? It sounds pretty stupid and a bit of an exaggeration. Even funnier is the musical setting of the lyrics, with most coming on the opposite beat, thus "scanning" in an awkward way. "Drop-toping, playing our favorite c-ds, Pulling up to the part-ies. Trying to get a little bit tip-sy." Having awkward emphasis on the wrong syllables yields an awkward result and you can almost feel the songwriters shoehorning these lyrics into the melody.

2. Lady Gaga is pretty much the only icon in relation to popular music. I seem to remember a landscape where several artists shared the spotlight in a given year. As a counter cultural icon whose music is actually interesting, I'm surprised more artists are not succeeding to find their niche in the popular music world today. From what I've gathered, the artists who are elevated to stardom are the teenagers like The Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus and Justin Beiber.

3. A song that people can dance to has a better chance of being a hit. Although this is also not a new idea, it seems that pretty much every hit song has some sort of primary beat that is unique and recognizable. Lately, I've heard songs like "Sexy Chick", "In My Head", "Down", "Break Your Heart" and many more that use a dance beat as a way of propelling the intention of the song.

4. I'm impressed by the amount of collaboration in today's popular music. Today's charts are filled with artists who come together from two different backgrounds and create diverse music. Some interesting songs I've heard were Jason Derullo mixing Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek" in with his song "Whatcha Say" or Katie Perry collaborating with Snoop Dogg on "California Gurls" (Again with the spelling?) Each of these pieces succeed in creating something different for these artists by combining their efforts for an alternative purpose.

These are just a few of many observations I have made in the past couple of months. So how does this relate to the musical theatre? Basically, I feel the musical theatre is doing its best at reflecting our musical culture, but because today's popular music is so varied and frankly without much substance, people don't realize the challenge and how some artists have already bridged this gap. After these past few months of listening to this music, I'm even more enamored with the craftsmanship of compsers like Duncan Sheik & Steven Sater, Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and others who are on the front lines of creating relevant contemporary musical theatre. They have the unenviable task of adapting a form that is not grounded in conveying multiple ideas and uses contemporary technology and have to tell a clear and concise story. This is a tough job that unfortunately gets unrewarded a good amount of the time.

Another way I see it relating to the musical theatre is from one of my popular music observations: the importance of collaboration. This idea has been at the cornerstone of all great musical theatre, but collaboration for the musical theatre is starting to change in an exciting way. I think a big part of the future of the musical theatre could come from artists in the popular music collaborating with theatre artists on new works for the stage. With musicals like American Idiot, Memphis, Taboo, Spring Awakening, and more, these collaborative musicals are yielding interesting stories that are being told in new ways. This is a trend that is growing and can only lead to more interesting pieces. Some pieces I'm excited about are Tales of the City, which brings together Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q, Bring It On) and Jake Shears & John Garden (From the Scissor Sisters) to adapt Armistead Maupin's iconic novels, as well as Beauty, a new adaptation of the Sleeping Beauty story being written by Tina Landau, Michael Korie and Regina Spektor and of course, Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark by Julie Taymor and Bono & The Edge. These collaboration's success could lead even more popular artists to consider telling large stories on the musical stage.

I could go on for days about this topic, but I think you can see that adapting popular music on the stage is a huge challenge and I think writers will get better at it the more they examine it. Think about what the musical landscape would be like without a writer like Jonathan Larson, a composer who made it his mission to reflect popular music on the stage. He laid the groundwork and many others have followed. I'm excited to see what's next and do my part in supporting this process. It can only lead to interesting nights at the theater.

Let me know what you think? Am I dead wrong? Leave me some comments.