AICE Media Studies A: Genre Research

What is a Musical?

Musicals are one of the 12 main genres in movies and tv shows. This genre usually consists of people, animals, or even objects bursting out into multiple songs throughout the course of the movie/series. These mediums can be either live action or animated. The usual target audience for these types of films includes kids and females between the ages of 18-30. Companies such as Disney, Warner Brothers, and Dreamworks focus on making movies for kids while a variety of other companies produce musicals for adults.

Genre Convention

Content

Musicals tend to include dance routines, a boy and a girl singing to each other, and most of the time have a theme of relationship and romance. There's also usually always a song that the protagonist sings describing the hardships of his or her life. All of these aspects are expected from audiences around the world, and they generally move the story along as well as make it more interesting.

Production Techniques

These movies usually include bright lighting, colorful costumes, and have a warm feel to it. They also have original songs, except for films such as Mamma Mia (2008) and Moulin Rouge (2001) which are considered jukebox musicals. These types of musicals take songs from artists and other places and puts weaves them into the plot of a specific project.

Institutional Techniques

Marketing for musicals is typically the same. They create and send out trailers on social media platforms as well as television networks and the previews before movies start at the movie theater. Ads on billboards also appear nearer to the release date. Toys, for the younger target audience, would be released as well. Another thing that promotes these films, are the short bits of song and dance they release prior to the release date. For example, right before Encanto (2021) came out, clips of "The Family Madrigal" and "We Don't Talk About Bruno" were released. It would not show the full song, but it would show just enough to get them interested and curious as to what the rest of it is. A thing that promotes musicals while it is showing in theaters and after are parodies. These tend to catch the attention of someone who was not originally interested in the movie or tv show and add a bit of their humor. This gets people a little bit more curious as to the origin of the parody song.

Towards the beginning of each movie, the company that produced said movie, puts their logo on it. Not only would they be recognized, but it unconsciously creates a stereotype for said film. For example, Disney would be stereotypes for producing animated musical movies. This could be beneficial when promoting movies.

Movies

The Greatest Showman (2017)

This movie follows a poor, orphaned, Phineas Talor Barnum (Hugh Jackman) as he falls in love with Charity (Michelle Williams), and then decides that that he should be doing greater things. Barnum decides to open a wax museum but when that doesn't go too well, he decides to invest in the interesting and peculiar. He decides to present never before seen live acts in a circus and decides to hire a young playwright named Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron) to help him out. Everything falls into place, making him a bit egotistical and eventually gambles everything on an opera singer, making him lose sight of what is truly important. This movie starts off with more monotone colors and as he creates the circus, the center of attention, the characters wear colorful colors, including red, purple, yellow, and pink. Throughout this film powerful songs are sung, and these songs move the story along. There are dance numbers scattered throughout the film as well. It also is an example of a musical that isn't so much for kids as it is older teenagers and adults.

Frozen (2013)

This is a perfect example of a kid's musical movie. This story follows two sisters, Elsa (Idina Menzel) and Anna (Kristen Bell). Elsa has ice powers that can grow to be very dangerous, so after almost seriously injuring her sister, she shuts herself out of the outside world. Anna is forced to stay in the castle until the day of Elsa's coronation. During that day, she meets Hans (Santino Fontana) and believes that he is her one true love. Elsa thinking otherwise, tries to walk away and Anna, angered, accidently reveals that her sister had powers by taking of her sister's glove. Elsa runs away into the mountains causing an eternal winter in the kingdom. Anna sets of to find her to put an end to it. This story includes romance and the relationship of two sisters. It also includes many songs that contribute to the plot. Although the color palette includes more cool hues to stimulate winter, they still make everything pretty bright to give it more of a musical feel to it.

Other Examples