Rock Musical
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The rock musical brings amplified rock instrumentation, backbeat, and rock-singer vocal styles onto the theatrical stage, replacing the pit orchestra's strings with electric guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards. Musically it favors driving rhythm, blues-rooted harmony, raw belted and rasped vocals, and the raucous energy of youth culture, often addressing rebellion, sexuality, and social protest that golden-age musicals avoided. Numbers can play as concert-grade rock songs while still serving the drama. The mood is loud, urgent, and countercultural, the theatre plugging into the sound of its era.
History
Hair (Off-Broadway 1967, Broadway 1968) broke the form open as "the American tribal love-rock musical," and Jesus Christ Superstar (concept album 1970) proved rock could carry epic drama. Rent (1996) updated the model for the alt-rock generation, and Spring Awakening (2006) and Green Day's American Idiot (2010) brought indie and pop-punk to Broadway. From Galt MacDermot to Duncan Sheik, rock-musical writers repeatedly injected contemporary sound into a tradition that had drifted from popular music; the style opened the stage to every subsequent wave of pop and rock and reshaped who came to the theatre.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- Aquarius(1968) — Original Broadway Cast of HairSpotifyYouTube
- Let the Sunshine In(1968) — Original Broadway Cast of HairSpotifyYouTube
- Superstar(1970) — Murray HeadSpotifyYouTube
- La Vie Boheme(1996) — Original Broadway Cast of RentSpotifyYouTube
- Mama Who Bore Me(2006) — Lea MicheleSpotifyYouTube
- The Bitch of Living(2006) — Original Broadway Cast of Spring AwakeningSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Elizabeth L. Wollman, The Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical
- Scott Miller, Rebels with Applause
- Larry Stempel, Showtime (2010)