ABSTRACT
Absolute Beginners (1986) was the most expensive British film musical ever made. It tried to pull together a diverse set of interests, many of which were traditional concerns of the film musical as a form. These included uniting a divided community (partially defined through race), selling music both old and new, and the exploitation of other existing properties such as stardom. But it was a misfire, misjudging the potential for jazz and jazz-inflected pop to be sold as mainstream pop music, and also misjudging how far audiences overseas would want to see a lightweight narrative set around racial tensions in Britain in the 1950s. This chapter engages the complex discursive nexus of the film that coheres around its music.
