Miller-McCune: Broadway musicals are often thought of as lightweight entertainment. In fact, from South Pacific to The Book of Mormon, many of the greatest shows incorporate serious themes and challenge audience members’ assumptions. But can minds really be opened through story and song? Newly published research provides evidence that will warm the hearts of cockeyed optimists.
Friday, March 02, 2012
Musicals Have the Power to Change Minds
Miller-McCune: Broadway musicals are often thought of as lightweight entertainment. In fact, from South Pacific to The Book of Mormon, many of the greatest shows incorporate serious themes and challenge audience members’ assumptions. But can minds really be opened through story and song? Newly published research provides evidence that will warm the hearts of cockeyed optimists.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
Without a doubt do I think this is true. Any type of art should be something, put out into the world, created for a reason, and hopefully the most effective art will be understood, or at least interpreted for inspiration. Further, Musicals have such a HUGE power because so many group of people, from all different walks of life can/ want to/ will see them, that can't be said for all types of art, sadly those in galleries only attract certain age groups/ a specific set of gallery goers, which is a shame. But, all the more reason why Broadway and musical theater has to hold up the power they have, hopefully for the better of our society, to raise awareness, create acceptance, and slowly but surely, make a change.
Well I don't know how accurate that study was... sounds a little fishy to me. I think that theater can make you delve deeper into some difficult issues. But I also think that you can leave a theater and not be effected at all by what you have seen. Art is there to help people examine issues and themes and to start a "dialogue" but I don't know if it "changes minds". I think that you have to have someone with you so that you can talk over and process what you have seen. You can see a piece of theater and not be moved or changed at all but still be entertained. So does theater have to make people change their minds? or can it just be entertaining?
To jump on what Zoe has said, there is a difference between art that changes minds without being preachy (rare but oh so amazing!) and art that makes you stop and reconsider what you thought before. Both can indicate that a work has been effective in bringing an issue or question to light through the medium of musical theatre. It is unfortunate that there is no way to gauge data and see how much of this emotional/ideological change comes from the songs themselves-the brain processes sound and music so differently from any of the other stimuli in the show, in that sound immediately moves to somewhere deep and associative inside one's brain. Songs such as "you've got to be carefully taught" in South Pacific do just that: the lyrics are chilling, showing that americans are often raised racist through no decision of their own, but simply because they grew up in communities where hatred was the norm. However, the melody itself is in a bright major key, the notes are bouncy, and the character doesn't always give away his sarcasm. Sarcasm done effectively in song is a difficult thing, but one that is incredibly telling about the nature of a piece and the importance music in musicals plays in pushing towards real social change and away from the bad old ideas of how to live.
I agree that musicals absolutely have the power to change minds, but I think that's a little narrow. I think the reason musicals change minds is that they improve understanding. In this case, I doubt people who are 100% against hunting have ever been best friends with a hunter. The musical allows them to see inside the world of hunting, and confront their wrong assumptions. But, a play would do the same thing. A book or movie or class would do the same thing. I reserve the right to be dead wrong, but I believe that that's what's going on here--just an expansion of understanding.
Is this headline really a surprise? Isn't there plenty of evidence of theatre throughout the ages following the open systems model?
As for what Zoe said about theatre making changes vs entertainment, we are the summation of our past experiences, and so I contend that 'entertainment' can be just as important by injecting more positive energy into the world.
Theatre can also change minds in ways less apparent in the title/plot, e.g., small personal interactions that make us question the way we partake in such interactions.
I didn't have to read this article to know that this would be true. I have been around musicals since I was 3 years old and have often changed or at least molded my mind into a different way of thinking about certain things because of them. I find the example they gave on hunting an interesting one. It was more on the heavy side of what a musical usually is. I was surprised that the outcome was what it was as peoples feelings on hunting is usually one extreme or the other with nothing in between. To me, having music always makes a response more emotional so I can definitely see how musicals could have a profound impact on someone and their views.
Post a Comment