ABSTRACT
Many musicals from Hollywood’s studio era have become cult classics: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, West Side Story, The Sound of Music, as well as nearly the entire oeuvres of Judy Garland, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Doris Day, and Busby Berkeley. The chief reason that musical films have inspired ardent admirers is right there in their genre’s name. The music that musicals necessarily use to convey narrative and emotional content has long provided viewers with a particularly powerful and memorable means to access and enjoy the films. The first wave of film musicals employed music not just to create appealing, memorable scenes, but to sell sheet music, records, and concert tickets. Later cult musicals employ music for similar purposes, and as a means of rendering their challenging content more approachable, often in an ironic manner. The novelty of talking pictures engendered a bump in audience figures, which in turn spurred Hollywood studios to produce musicals in great numbers.
