The end of Musicals?

The musical films used to be kind of main stream in the early Hollywood (1930’s – 1950’s); however, they are no longer a regular feature in current Hollywood. Does this mean the end of the Musicals? This question needs to be explored in the context of the shifts in popular music and the film production during the late 20th century and the early 21st century.

As the various music and dance styles existing inside and outside of today’s film industry have broadened the audiences’ eye-views; even some classic musicals such as Evita (1996), Chicago (2002) still could secure the audiences, the new style films becoming more and more popular such as rap, lambada and biography films of some famous singers. This suggests that musical films are not over; they just show up with many new appearances to meet nowadays viewers’ taste. And as Estella said, “the tradition of the musical’s affective use of music - to produce and organise an emotional response that is overtly presented as part of the film text – retains its importance in cinema”(“The soundtrack movie, Nostalgia and consumption”, in Ian Conrich and Estella Tincknell(eds), Film’s Musical Moments, 2006).