Why do people hate musicals so much?

When did I say that?

I struggle with it a lot, which is why I also don't typically like Science Fiction and Fantasy movies. But the awkwardness of the song and dance numbers just makes my struggle that much more difficult. Besides Hedwig, the only live action musicals I've seen as an adult and liked were Chicago (in which the musical numbers happen only in the protagonist's imagination) and My Fair Lady. MFL was kind of a fluke and I've only seen it once. I intend to rewatch it for the 60s list so it remains to be seen if I still like it or if I just happened to be in the right mood for it the first time. I also liked Les Miserables, but that's an opera and perhaps the lack of actual dialogue made it easier for me to palate.

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Absolutely! Some of my favorite musicals:

Chicago

Cabaret

Fiddler on the Roof

West Side Story

Sweet Charity

The Sound of Music

All That Jazz

Grease

1776

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Funny Girl

Jesus Christ Superstar

My Fair Lady

The Music Man

Dreamgirls

Hair

The Wizard of Oz

Victor/Victoria

The Band Wagon

A Star is Born(1954)

Rent

This is by no means a complete list and advertising my favorite musicals was not the purpose of this thread. I've just noticed a lot of hate for musicals on movie discussion boards (and not just this one) and I thought it would be interesting to get to the root of all the hate.

I'm not exactly a fan of the genre, but I most certainly have nothing against them. I quite enjoy a decent musical.

Grease for example is just a fun movie in my opinion, great songs too. But when it comes to amazing musicals, then I must give it to Singin' in the Rain! I LOVE that one! Oh yeah, and The Sound of Music is great as well, and Wizard of Oz is a classic.

Well Gideon I've gave you a couple reasons why I think musicals aren't so popular here.

So what is your opinion on why?

Grease had sawbladewheelz, for that I am forever grateful. To me musicals are not movies, as much as filmed plays. It's the same thing others have said, it just breaks the continuity too much for me.

I love it when people randomly burst into a song and dance number so I love musicals!!!

Songs and dances are just the way the characters' hopes, dreams and motivations are exposed in a musical. If other movies can express this through "straight surrealism" (dreams, blurring reality and fantasy - a major device of musicals as well as practically every movie), action, murders, sci-fi, horror, long takes, good, meaningful dialogue, jokes, lighting, settings, locations, etc., I don't see what's the difference. Maybe the difference, as was mentioned, is exposure to the genre and a person's personal connection (not taste) to how they consume songs and music outside of the movies and how it bleeds into how they experience and what they think of musicals.

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I'm very open to musicals, although there hasn't been too many that I've really loved. It's harder, because now I don't just have to enjoy the movie, I have to enjoy the music. I think the odds are lessened. Overall, I'm more apt to get into a movie that just features a lot of music such as Saturday Night Fever, Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Flashdance, Grease, The Blues Brothers, etc., but maybe isn't a true musical. Traditional musicals often just feature the kind of music I'm not a fan of. Like Miss Vicky, Hedwig is one I like. But of course, that's rock music, which is what I like. How many musicals are like that?

i enjoy a good musical, i just haven't watched a lot of them

believe it's possible one reason they're not popular message board movies bc they don't have that vibe of being edgy, dark, etc. even if that can be an erroneous assumption in some cases

enjoyed My Fair Lady when i saw it a few months back, not only bc of Audrey Hepburn, but especially Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins. found him excellent





and of course love Singin' in the Rain, find it to be a delight pure happiness and bliss



really a genre i haven't explored a lot of yet. sure i've seen others, these are the first two i'm favorable about that come to mind

A few rock musicals

Jesus Christ Superstar
Phantom of the Paradise
A Hard Day's Night
Hair
Grease
Tommy
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Rock and Roll High School
The Doors
That Thing You Do!
The Rocky Horror Picture Show

How can you not like musicals? I love musicals.

I have no problem with people enjoying musicals, one thing that I do find however is how people define musicals. For example, two films I love with musical elements are "South Park: Bigger, Long & Uncut", that for me is a musical, it even uses a montage and I found it hilarious. The lyrics were good and used correctly, the music was wonderful and everything had it's place in the story itself. Another film I would say is 8 Mile, the music and the singing bring that story along and make the film what it is without it being up in your face.

I have mentioned those films in social circles before and have been told that they are not musicals and okay, they may not be musicals in the traditional sense but for me they are still to an extent musicals.

I think part of the reason people may dislike the genre is the cheese factor. I love "Once more with Feeling" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer but I knew of people who disliked it because they felt it was cheesy and forced, when I asked them how they felt about it having the plot evolve and where it led from there they admitted they had never got to the ending and so as a result they had missed that it was in fact a plot device and maybe that is the problem. People may simply not see things within them as plot devices and may not see the fact that actually the scenes do move the story along.

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When I want to hear people singing, I just listen to regular songs.

Some singing is okay in a good movie, but everyone singing all of the time just doesn't work for me.

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Well, the fact that all dialogue is sung does not make it an opera... There are a lot of operas that have spoken dialogues! The only thing that differs an opera from a musical is the genre of the music being played and the type of singers that are used! There are composers however, as Kurt Weil, that work in the borderline between both genres and whose works can be interpreted by opera singers or musical singers...

As for the question, there are some musicals I love and some musicals I hate. I like Singing, in the Rain, Chicago, West Side Story, Nightmare Before Christmas, Jesus Christ Superstar but I hate Les Miserables, Sweeney Todd and The Phantom of the Opera. Not because of the music but because of the actors/singers... It's not easy to act and sing at the same time, the timing is different, and most of times they focus so much in singing that forget to act (ask Russel Crowe)... Musical and opera singers practice to do both things for years, you can't ask a Hollywood actor that never sung in his whole life to suddenly do a musical and be great at it, even with a lot of autotune. In some rare ocasions, it can happen but it's risky.

For those who hate musicals, I recommend that you try to watch one live done by professionals, you will see that your opinion won't stay the same!

Usually I just don't like the music/songs and I've never been a fan of dancing. Put the two together and you're unlikely to get something I want to watch.

This isn't new, though. The reason Hollywood stopped making them is because the people who liked them stopped going to the cinema in the 60's, which is why they died out and had to be revived in a different form a few decades later.

When did The Doors become a musical?

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Most musicals are best written for theater, even with an amazing talented lyricist/composer (Stephen Schwartz for example), you still need to translate the whole thing to another medium-- so many elements to put together for a successful film.

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To write off ALL musicals because you didn't like the music in the few you've seen is kind of unfair, don't you think? I bet if you gave me a hint as to the kind of music you like, I bet I could recommend a musical that you might enjoy.

I think people consider musicals unrealistic and can't behind movie characters walking down the street bursting into song and I definitely understand that, but number one, not all musicals are alike that and number two, there are a lot of things I see in non-musicals that I can't get behind either, but I don't write off the entire genre because of it.

Singin in the Rain was written for the screen and it seems to be the one musical that just about everyone can tolerate. All of the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musicals were written for the screen. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was written for the screen.

Unfortunately, that's the problem...people are so close-minded about the genre that they won't give musicals of substance a chance.