Thursday, October 08, 2015
‘Hamilton’ Is The Very Model Of A Modern Fast-Paced Musical
FiveThirtyEight: “Hamilton,” the hit Broadway musical biography of Alexander Hamilton, helped its composer, writer, lyricist and star Lin-Manuel Miranda win a MacArthur fellowship, and many critics seem to think it packs a lot of genius into its more than two hours. Miranda’s music is much closer to hip-hop and rap than to the usual Broadway ballads, and he explained, in an interview with Grantland, that it would be impossible to tell Hamilton’s story at the pace of a conventional musical.
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I think this article is interesting not only for the pure cool value but also because of the implications. Does a musical having more words mean that it has a richer exploration of the plot and characters, or is the increase in wordage solely because the hip-hop style is faster and therefore requires more words per song? Maybe asking questions like that is needlessly pedantic, but I think it's worth thinking about. After all, a musical hailed as being that revolutionary and game-changing deserves to be talked about analytically and I think amount of words is an interesting concept to discuss. What I really loved about this article, however, was when they compared the fastest song in Hamilton to the fastest songs in other musicals and found that the only ones that could keep up were songs in which the characters were ranting hysterically. An interesting epilogue to this study would be to ask people if they thought the speed of the lyrics enhanced or diminished the quality of the songs and the musical as a whole. I feel like some people would be put off by the rapidity of the words, although again the fact that it's hip-hop might render that point null.
Having seen Hamilton and listened to the soundtrack religiously, I can say that the speed definitely adds to the spectacle. I will admit, when I saw the show in person, I did not understand or process every word. However, the way in which the score is written gives the audience a sense of urgency by the cast to tell a story, and the audience listens on the edge of their seats for each performance. While there is a lot of positive buzz about Hamilton, I think there is definitely a sizable group of people who are skeptical about seeing Hamilton because of its rap, hip hop style music. My grandma, for example, is an avid theatre-goer and has told me she won't see Hamilton because she "hates that rap stuff." This brings up a marketing challenge for the producers of Hamilton. While these producers may specifically be targeting younger audiences (this can be proved through their Ham4Ham $10 loterry ticket campaign,) older audiences (65 and up) make up the majority of the Broadway audience. While many of these audience members will attend Hamilton just based on the "buzz," there are others who will refuse to attend because of its style of music. I wonder how the producers feel about this. Perhaps they do not want these people in their audiences at all.
Though the number of words per minute in Hamilton is quite impressive, and from the songs I have heard, it works quite well, I’m not sure if Hamilton’s existence means fast-paced will be the new trend with musicals. I don’t think it would be a bad thing if it were, and I’m not saying that it is impossible, but I’m not sure if one show doing well is enough to say it is “the pulse of revolution.” I wouldn’t be surprised if there are more musicals with a similar music style that come out soon, in fact, I’d be surprised if there weren’t, but I’m not sure if Hamilton will redefine musicals as we know it. I’m also not entirely sure if Hamilton is the first to use that music style, as I assume Holler if Ya Hear Me also had a pretty high words per minute count, though, Holler If Ya Hear Me was not nearly as successful as Hamilton. Still, I can’t deny that such a new music style in a successful musical is ground-breaking.
On a completely separate note, I really like the way this article is presented. The charts really helped me understand how quick Hamilton really is relative to other musicals. It think it was an interesting thing to compare, as even though I’ve heard some songs from Hamilton and noticed they were fast, I didn’t really register how fast, but once I saw the bar graphs in this article, it was clear. And, another unrelated notes, I thought the title was clever.
Yes they may be able to sing and rap all of those words, but is it understandable? Not just in the way that the actors articulate what is saying, but can that much content be processed that fast on stage with all of that other visual stimulation? Personally, I do not think I would be able to process all of it because I have a hard enough time understanding what people are saying when they sing on stage at a slow pace; how am I going to be able to understand what people are rapping to me? I have heard a few songs from the cast recording, and I was able to comprehend some of the language, but unless I listened more than once, I would not get every single detail. Cast recordings are also much better quality than hearing it on stage due to the ability to edit the sound, and rerecord. This is my own personal problem, because by the numbers, Hamilton seems like it will break some records of being the newest top selling Broadway show. But overall, I wouldn’t get the story and I’m sure older audience members are struggling as well.
This is such a fabulous article, mainly because I love to run these kinds of statistics. I have not seen Hamilton yet, but I am very excited about it and love the amount of buzz it is getting from even the most non-theatre folks. I think Hamilton is such an incredible and important show simply for the impact it is having on the musical theatre world. When we were driving down to Pittsburgh from Massachusetts, I decided to play some showtunes. My mom (a non-theatre person), asked me in an attempt to sound polite, "So, don't take this the wrong way, but....do all Broadway shows just...sound the same?" I stupidly answered "Pff, no. No they don't. What are you talking about, no they don't." But from an outsider's perspective, they really, really do. I love that there is a show out there that is revolutionizing the way musicals are thought about both in the "outside" world and within the industry. I think this show is really going to cause theatre-makers to broaden their horizons. This does not mean that everyone is going to be creating extremely fast-paced musicals now, but I think we're starting to break out of the bread and butter musical theatre.
Side note: I would do anything to call this show.
I’m a little confused as to why it is important to compare how many words per minute one musical has to other musicals. The research is really interesting and it shows how “Hamilton” is twice the speed of most Broadway musicals but how important is that really. I have never seen the show, but I cant help but wonder how easy it is to follow along if all the words are bing said so fast, but no doubt they take pronunciation very seriously and have lyrics repeat within a song so you can catch the meaning even if you missed it the first time around. But considering that is a common element in nearly all musicals, how do they make it even better at a fast pace?
So I decided to look up some of the songs on youtube….. and maybe i’m just missing the really fast songs but these are not actually that fast. Every word is just pronounced at a normal pace and not held for a long time because it’s a rap not an opera. It’s talking to a beat so of course the songs don’t take that long to sing.
This was such an interesting article to see the statistics of words and speeds. When I listen to a musical I don’t ever think about how fast they sing or how many words they say per song but now I will start to think about that. What I enjoyed about this article is that the writer of Hamilton specifically chose to have only King George have the slower songs to indicate the difference between him and the others. Sometimes I get too involved with the story happening that I forget that everything is a choice. Every inflection, word and even speed of song is a choice that the actor/writer makes at every point. I think that is so important when working on a show. All of that information can help make the show even better. I know now as I work on shows that I will think about each of these choices so that I can make my work better in rehearsal and performances.
But think about it. That’s what our culture is, lots of words being thrown in our face all the time. Online media is just a constant stream of fast information being launched at you. Why shouldn’t musical theatre keep up with that? That’s what we, as a society, have become used to. We’ve learned to keep up with a fast paced stream of words.
I’ll admit, I haven’t heard the whole album, but I’ve heard a little bit and it sounds pretty cool. I hear a lot of people using words like “revolutionary” to describe it, but I wonder if that’s true. I wonder if listening to the show get’s exhausting, especially for patrons that are used to the Pirates of Penzance pace. Based on the pace of Hamilton, you could do Pirates of Penzance in about 41 minutes. Wouldn’t that be a lot to handle?
Sounds really cool. Also sounds exhausting.
I think something interesting about this article is that it is not only discussing the logistics of the pace of the show, but also, perhaps unknowingly, the storyology surrounding the musical. Alexander Hamilton was a damn go getter by any definition of the word. His life and who he was was constantly evolving, always moving. Ballads couldn’t get as much as the story in like this article says, but it also wouldn’t have done justice to the story itself. Hamilton’s life wasn’t beautiful and slow. In order to have the audience fully engaged with the plot they need to feel the rhythm of the life this man lived. Miranda fully understood this notion of the medium of the story must relate to the story it’s telling while composing the score for this. I think we can attribute that attention to detail to why the show is running so well, this musical is thought out to be an all out experience.
I love this article because it talks about something I haven't ever heard referenced in relation to Hamilton. The number of words per second in Hamilton is a note able quality of the soundtrack (I have listened to the whole thing at least twice) but more than that I think what should be acknowledges about Hamilton is that the music reflects our time period, and less itself extraordinarily well to history. It seems silly that it has taken this long to put something long and for lack of a better word wordy subject into a musical form that prides itself on ability to squeeze a lot of information into small amounts of time. As a musical theater buff I am excited about what Lin-Manuel Miranda has done for the theater, but I am more excited about what he has done for our perception of learning. I learned a lot about the history of the U.S. Listening to Hamilton and I think other people, especially young people, will take to that Mathis of learning rather well. We have really only scratched the surface in this art form, and way of relaying a message, I am so excited for what is to come, in theater and in the classroom.
This is amazing! I knew that this musical was groundbreaking but I think this article points out a new innovation that not many people would think of. I think that in order for musicals to continue to thrive is embrace modern forms of music. Don’t get me wrong I love a classic, but it’s clear by embracing rap and hip-hop more complex stories can be told on stage. Think about it, people love binge watching TV shows in a way that we haven’t been able to do before Netflix. People get less invested in movies because they only know the characters for two hours. With the style of musical that Hamilton introduces it provides the amount of information found in a TV miniseries but in the length of a movie. If we want theatre to continue we need to adapt to the culture at hand. We have such immediate access to long form story telling that we should embrace that too.
This was a really interesting article to read, especially since so many Hamilton articles discuss the same aspects of the show over and over. As someone who has seen the show, I feel that the speed of the score contributes a lot to the show itself. From the first line to the last, you feel like you're on a non-stop ride. Every word is so perfectly chosen and expresses exactly what Miranda is trying to say. Everything is coming at you at a million miles a minute and it's overwhelming in the best way.
I loved the ending of this article where they discussed the contrast between older fast songs and newer fast songs. Like they said, older songs that were extremely fast-paced were used exclusively to show a nervous breakdown or for comedic value. Hamilton flips this on its head, and uses the fast-paced nature of its soundtrack to create an overwhelming sense of urgency and life. I think a lot of this has to do with the genre of the show, and how society's taste in music has changed and developed overtime. Twenty years ago the idea of a hip-hop musical would have been laughable, but now it's what brings people back to the theatre night after night. People no longer want to just listen to long, drawn-out ballads about love or fear or death. I think the pace of Hamilton also shows that people like for things to move faster now, which wasn't really how things were when Company or Pirates of Penzance were written. When I listen to the Hamilton soundtrack I don't notice that hours have gone by because of how immersive it is, but listening to long, older musical is extremely draining. At this point I think it's necessary for shows to try and emulate Hamilton's pace, and I hope that this trend continues.
So, all Hamilton fan-girling aside, this musical presents something which is incredibly unique. Not only has Hamilton found success in the world of theatre, but also had one of the most downloaded albums, and placed on the charts for rap music. I never really noticed the fast pace of the show until I added it into a playlist. When I had listened to the musical at first, I had listened straight through the album, which gave me little else to compare to. I also went in with the expectation of a rap musical, so the quick verses were expected. But listening to Hamilton sandwiched between more conventional musical theatre gave new light. It definitely had a distinct sound and pace, which I think is a positive factor. Lin-Manuel Miranda stripped down the conventions of musical theatre and built back up a piece which speaks to a more modern audience and intrigues not only the classic theatre-goer, but also the everyday person. The pace and style of Hamilton, I think, will attract new people into the world of theatre much in the same way shows like Wicked and Le Mis did. It’s a brilliant show, and it proves just how diverse theatre can be in style. Theatre isn’t a genre, it’s a medium, and nothing shows that more the Hamilton.
It's pretty crazy to think about the speed with which Hamilton operates. I don't think its speed is necessarily a testament to where the modern theater is headed (in terms of pacing) as much as it is a spokesman for modern theater's ability to break the mold and redefine itself with new parameters for each new production. As far as I know, Lin-Manuel Miranda is the only playwright who has written modern hip hop musicals so far, and while the are unique and indicative of his particular style, the real beauty of these fast paced musical narratives is how they push the boundaries of what we would normally call conventional theater. If we look at the data presented in the article its fascinating to see how innovative Hamilton actually is, simply in terms of it's speed. In terms of raw words per minute it nearly doubles the speed of Company, which has been one of the leading fastest paced musical for quite some time. Across the chart we can see that a standard fast paced musical probably moved around 60-70 or 80 words per minute, but with Hamilton clocking out at an average of 144 per minute I think it serves as a good sign for the theater industry and the growing willingness to explore new innovative concepts.
Hamilton has been ruling the media when it comes to Broadway. Having listened to the sound track multiple times I can say that I love the rap influence to the common Broadway sound. The article brings up a good point that I did not think much about. It talks about the reasoning behind having this be a rap musical, to tell a faster story in a shorter amount of time, and it really is successful is doing so. When in comparison to others, it may not have the fastest words per minute or overall, but it is one of the first to do it in a rap style through out. The choice to have it be rap I thought was more to appeal to a wider audience, now however I see it really helps tell the story a lot better.
The fast pace of Hamilton’s music is one of the most defining elements of its performance. The show hits you hard right from the start and doesn’t let up for the next two hours. It pushes as much story down your throat as Lin-Manuel could cram into 200 words per minute. This is if not the end all be all on the direction musical theatre must take, at least an interesting new path for us to explore. A new tool to tell our stories in a more diverse and exciting way. I personally still love the classic ballad but I think a clever combination of both the old and the new styles could net something much more powerful than we have been able to achieve before. I think this might be why Next to Normal is one of my absolute favorite musicals of all time. Whatever your opinion is I think Hamilton’s success means that, at least to some degree Musical theatre’s course over the next few years might just change more than we may have thought.
Having listened to the soundtrack more times than I should probably admit, I can definitely see how Hamilton packs in so many words. I think that it is quite interesting to see Hamilton in comparison to many different types of musicals. It is intriguing how in the only other verse that keeps pace with Hamilton is where the character is in hysterics. The fact that the American Revolution and Hamilton's ambitious drive is where the show gets its speed from once again differentiates the show from any like it.
As I have had very little exposure to this musical, I now know what to expect when I see or listen to it for the first time! The numbers and figures provided by the author really do a nice job of conveying just how unorthodox HAMILTON really is--it's word count is roughly 4 times that of any other show on Broadway! The element of fast-paced rapping does account for this major difference, and perhaps this was the easiest way to incorporate all the information the writers wanted to get across in a limited amount of time. For those of us who aren't able to appreciate rap as a music genre, I wonder if HAMILTON will be lost on not only an older audience but on those who aren't accustomed to the fast-paced jargon of music artists who talk more than they sing. All things aside, I believe this show is worth going to just to see the differences between it and other more traditional shows on Broadway.
Going to this show tired probably is not your best idea. Because the show packs almost four times the amount of words into it's songs as most shows running currently on Broadway, a quick nap would be detrimental in you understanding the story. The numbers provided mid-way through the article helps to organize and graphic exactly how extreme the writing of HAMILTON's songs are. I am so excited to see this show, as it is getting endless positive write-ups. I am eager to see the production with older people as well. For people who go to the theater to see slow paced traditional theatre I don't know how well this would sit. The music leans more towards hip-hop than rap incorporating sung, and spoken words. I'm sure its an experience like no other.
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