I was listening to the radio the other night and several songs from modern musicals were played and it got me thinking how poor the melodies are, the sophistication of the songs and the wittiness of the lyrics compared with older musicals.
If we compare the songs from musicals such as the Lloyd Webber series, Wicked, Les Mis, Miss Saigon, Hairspray etc what a poor bunch compared with those of the Gershwin brothers, Porter, Kern, Rodgers and Hart (and Hammerstein),Loesser and Leowe. How many songs from the older musicals ( some as old as the 1920s) are still being sung as standards - loads. How many songs from the musicals written within the last 30 years are still being sung as standards - very few. I believe it's because the quality of the music and lyrics of the likes of Loyd Webber are inferior whereas those of e.g Gershwin are so sophisticated and of such a high quality (especially musically)that they transcend the time they were written in, and are still being performed as popular songs almost a century after they were written.
I don't know the reason for this downward shift in quality but I suspect it arises from the music of the 50s and 60s when three chord pop songs became the acceptable sound of popular music and now anything more sophisticated is alien to most musical goers. Hence the poorer quality music on offer in our theatres nowadays.
2008-02-07 @ 12:30