Wanna Sing and Dance? These New Guys Are Ambivalent About It

Abstract

The undercurrents of generic change manifest in the movie musicals’ emergent visual and narrative trends of the late sixties to early eighties were both reflected in and compounded by the genre’s shifting relationship with the roles of performers and performance. Whether due to modifications in the acting pool or changes in narrative focus, a decided shift in performer and performance style occurs during this period that further challenges the more idealistic phase of the genre. Where once the genre had been inextricably linked to energetic song and dance, community-bonding production numbers, and powerful professional and studio groomed musical talent, this new group of films displayed a tendency to eschew the finesse, naturalism, and idealism once inherent in musical performance. Performers and performances constructed a darker view of musical society, an overall conflicted view of the genre, and an embracing of the social struggles circulating in American society during the films’ releases. They ideologically assault early norms and compound diegetic shifts by moving away from the projection of spontaneous performance as indicative of an inner truth, joy, and communal harmony. A combination of intertextual star meaning and shifting norms regarding vocal quality, means of presenting the sung word, dance style and ability, and the context of such performances systematically highlight the connotative significance of song and dance in the musical motion picture.