Description
Book SynopsisBut is it a musical? This question is regularly asked of films, television shows and other media objects that sit uncomfortably in the category despite evident musical connections.
Musicals at the Margins argues that instead of seeking to resolve such questions, we should leave them unanswered and unsettled, proposing that there is value in examining the unstable edges of genre. This collection explores the marginal musical in a diverse range of historical and global contexts. It encompasses a range of different forms of marginality including boundary texts (films/media that are sort of/not quite musicals), musical sequences (marginalized sequences in musicals; musical sequences in non-musicals), music films, musicals of the margins (musicals produced from social, cultural, geographical, and geopolitical margins), and musicals across media (television and new media). Ultimately these essays argue that marginal genre texts tell us a great deal about the musical specificall
Trade ReviewRichly referenced and meticulously edited,
Musicals at the Margins is an essential book in cinema scholarship and will surely lead to wider conversations and more specific studies in the future. * Lou Reviews Blog *
Harnessing a mixture of critical insight and knowledge as dazzling as the musical itself, Julie Lobalzo Wright and Martha Shearer have brought together a diverse group of writers to define and redefine musical films beyond the familiar canon. This superbly revealing collection offers entirely new perspectives on the boundaries of a genre that has often left scholars bewitched, bothered and bewildered. * Dominic McHugh, Professor in Musicology, University of Sheffield, UK *
Musicals at the Margins covers a wide range of musical texts existing on the borders of the genre, expanding and complicating how musical texts make meaning as musicals. The anthology’s remarkable selection of scholars examines generic outliers—like rockumentaries, dance-focused films, televised lip-synching contests, Bollywood “song picturization,” and short-form pop music film—demonstrating how methodologies developed by canonical musical scholars like Rick Altman and Jane Feuer continue to inform contemporary scholarship. As the boundaries between genres, media platforms, and audiences become increasingly difficult to parse, Shearer and Wright’s collection is a much-needed addition to the existing literature on the musical, and the field of genre theory as a whole. * Amanda Ann Klein, Associate Professor of Film Studies, East Carolina University, USA *
Table of ContentsList of Figures Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: Genre Panic at the Margins Julie Lobalzo Wright and Martha Shearer
Generic boundaries 2. Danceploitation, Musical Disruption, and Synergy in
Saturday Night Fever,
Flashdance, and
Breakin’ Jenny Oyallon-Koloski 3. Pitching Utopia: Popular Music, Community, and Neoliberalism in the Choir Film Eleonora Sammartino 4. E-Q-U-I-T-Y: Generic Boundaries, Gender, and Real Estate in the
Magic Mike Films Martha Shearer 5.
Saint-Louis Blues: From Oral Storytelling to Aural Filmmaking Estrella Sendra Fernández
Musicals of the margins 6. The Marseille Film Operetta Marie Cadalanu and Phil Powrie 7. Heteroglossia in the Musical Number: Song, Music Performance, and Marginalised Identity in Tony Gatlif’s
Swing (2002) Tamsin Graves 8. Sexsationalist Feminism in
The Devil’s Carnival Project (2012, 2015) Joana Rita Ramalho
Musical sequences 9. The On- and Off-Screen Politics of Sophia Loren’s Musical Performances in
Houseboat (1958) and
It Started in Naples (1960) Sarah Culhane 10. ‘Just a Little Warm-Up for the Job’: Harold Nicholas, the Specialty Act, and the Hollywood Song-and-Dance Man Kate Saccone 11. A Language of its Own: Mani Ratnam’s Experiments with the Song Scene Aakshi Magazine
Music 12. Pianos, Affect and Memory Paul Mazey and Sarah Street 13. Everybody Wants to Be a Cat: Jazz Culture and Disney Animation in the 1960s Landon Palmer 14. Short-Form Pop Music Films in 1960s Britain Richard Farmer 15. “Good Evening Pasadena!”: Fantastical Performance Spaces in the Rock Documentary Richard Wallace
Musicals across media 16. Live Musical Spectaculars: Eventizing Network Television in the Post-Network Age Anthony Enns 17. Camp and the Celebration of the Popular Song in
RuPaul’s Drag Race “Lip Sync for Your Life” Julie Lobalzo Wright List of Contributors Index
