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(see this post for the rest of the paper)
Narratively, the show supports individuality and "finding your voice." Musically, however, this expression is heavily constrained by the economic, and consequent aesthetic, realities of the show. Indeed television has historically been fairly hostile towards serial musicals. While there is a strong and critically acclaimed tradition of intermittent musical theater in television—one prominent example being Buffy the Vampire Slayer—musical series have a history of resounding failure. The longest running musical series before Glee was Cop Rock, which ran for 11 one-hour episodes in 1990 before being cancelled as a popular and critical failure[15]. Cop Rock paved the way, film scholar George Plasketes argues, for musical episodes such as Buffy’s “Once More with Feeling,” which in turn can be said to have paved the way for the return of musical series in Glee[16]. However, that legacy of the myriad challenges associated with a serial musical looms heavily over Glee’s proverbial head. Therefore, instead of relying on traditional television methods of promotion and fundraising, which seem to be unhelpful for this subgenre, Glee takes the film strategy of cross-promotion. The recording industry, as music scholar Jeff Smith has described, has a long history of alliance with the film industry, and the two symbiotically draw profits to each other by simultaneously promoting a film and the music for that film[17]. If an audience sees a film and likes it, one can in a sense “double dip” by charging the audience for the movie and then charging them for the separate “complete” soundtrack. Glee adopts this strategy readily, and has so far[n] released 19 soundtracks (including 5 compilations), 7 EPs, and over 350 singles. There was also a live concert tour between the first and second season.
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( Notes )
Narratively, the show supports individuality and "finding your voice." Musically, however, this expression is heavily constrained by the economic, and consequent aesthetic, realities of the show. Indeed television has historically been fairly hostile towards serial musicals. While there is a strong and critically acclaimed tradition of intermittent musical theater in television—one prominent example being Buffy the Vampire Slayer—musical series have a history of resounding failure. The longest running musical series before Glee was Cop Rock, which ran for 11 one-hour episodes in 1990 before being cancelled as a popular and critical failure[15]. Cop Rock paved the way, film scholar George Plasketes argues, for musical episodes such as Buffy’s “Once More with Feeling,” which in turn can be said to have paved the way for the return of musical series in Glee[16]. However, that legacy of the myriad challenges associated with a serial musical looms heavily over Glee’s proverbial head. Therefore, instead of relying on traditional television methods of promotion and fundraising, which seem to be unhelpful for this subgenre, Glee takes the film strategy of cross-promotion. The recording industry, as music scholar Jeff Smith has described, has a long history of alliance with the film industry, and the two symbiotically draw profits to each other by simultaneously promoting a film and the music for that film[17]. If an audience sees a film and likes it, one can in a sense “double dip” by charging the audience for the movie and then charging them for the separate “complete” soundtrack. Glee adopts this strategy readily, and has so far[n] released 19 soundtracks (including 5 compilations), 7 EPs, and over 350 singles. There was also a live concert tour between the first and second season.
( Read more... )
