Talk:Rock musical

Rock Musical vs Rock Opera

This may be opening a can of worms here, but I am not sure that there really is a difference between what is called a "Rock Opera" and what is called a "Rock Musical". When asked whether his pieces were operas or musicals, Stephen Sondheim replied: Where are they being performed? If they are being performed in an Opera House, then they are operas. If they are being performed on Broadway, they are musicals. I am inclined to think the same thing in this instance. Thanks -Broadwaygal 18:05, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

I agree, but the editor who split this article from the rock opera article disagrees. I think the best thing at this point is to improve this article, and later we can discuss merging them. -- Ssilvers 18:17, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

The split was driven, in part, by this discussion regarding the related categories. -- SteinbDJ · talk · contributions 12:25, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. I know that this topic has been debated more than once on Wikipedia. If you look at the rock opera article, I think you'll agree that it is so badly organized, and its content so confused as to make it almost worse than nothing. I tried to work on it yesterday but ran into an editor who did not want to discuss it. He also deleted information from the list of rock operas, which used to be very informative and is now just a naked list in alpha order. The problem is that there is no research and referencing there, just fancruft, OR and POV. I happen to think that rock opera is a genre that, as Broadwaygal implies above, is "rock musical" when it is presented on stage, and "concept album" or "concert" when it is presented in those media. So, I think it's OK to have two articles, and if we can't make "rock opera" into a decent article, at least we'll make this one into a decent article. Best regards, -- Ssilvers 14:11, 13 June 2007 (UTC)

Excuse me, but why was there no discussion about this brought up on the Rock opera talk page? I know I've worked quite a bit on the article and it's really annoying to have people parachute in and make drastic, unnecessary changes. They clearly are the same thing. Is a recorded song and a song performed live two separate things? No, I'm pretty sure it's still a song.--Lairor 00:19, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

So listening to a CD is just as good as going to a concert? —  MusicMaker 05:32, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

Whether or not it's "as good" is beside the point. I might think a jelly donut isn't as good as a chocolate donut but that doesn't make it not a donut. Furthermore some of the most famous examples of rock operas/musicals (Hair, Tommy, JCS, Rent) have experienced considerable success both on stage and on record. I would ultimately like to see a merger but I I think Ssilvers may have a good idea to work up this article first. Vegaswikian, who originally split the articles seems to have lost interest so hopefully it shouldn't be to hard to come to a merger consensus sometime in the future. And Spylab keeps reverting my reversions to the original Rock opera article while he seems to be silent on this one. I was a little worried at what I saw as drastic changes made in the couple weeks I was absent but I'm starting to feel better now.--Lairor 10:53, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Check out all the stuff that the editor over at rock opera deleted. He split the articles, not us. -- Ssilvers 01:56, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

50's Rock and Roll

Bye Bye Birdie premiered in 1960. It featured a largely "Rock and Roll" score. It was fifties Rock and Roll, but still Rock and Roll. The kind of Rock in Hair hadn't really been invented yet. Do others think that this counts as a Rock musical? Thanks-19:40, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't think Bye Bye Birdie is a "rock musical" even though rock music is used in the score. It is certainly less of a rock musical than Phantom or Les Mis. However, I think that its early use of rock music paved the way for "Hair", etc. I added a sentence and a cite. See what you think. I also modified the first sentence of that paragraph to reflect the earlier pieces. -- Ssilvers 20:43, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

I don't think a score that contains "Put On a Happy Face" can be considered a rock musical. —  MusicMaker 05:27, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

I agree, but it is an important historical antecedent to the rock musical. This is in the history section, and it helps to explain the development of the genre. -- Ssilvers 06:07, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

My 1957 Rock Musical at Swarthmore College (fully documented at the Internet Archive) was acknowledged yesterday, but that has been killed.

The 1957 claim can be fully proven by

documentation at the Internet Archive--

= The review ("Nelson's Brilliance Sequins Sluggish Show")

 https://archive.org/details/@tednelson?query=anything

= The huge Program/Poster

 (photos of the cast tipped into a big, great cartoon by Russ Ryan)

https://archive.org/details/posterprogramfor00unse

= The Recording https://archive.org/details/TheFirstRockMusicalRemembered

= My recollections of doing it, forwarded by Bill Dutton in 2007,

 that fiftieth anniversary year--

https://archive.org/details/dutton-the-first-rock-musical-remembered-by-ted-nelson-william-h.-dutton

Yours, Theodor Holm Nelson — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nelsberg (talk • contribs) 20:28, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

Thanks

Thanks for fixing the wording and adding the additional information. I think there are still other examples out there like Bye Bye Birdie Thanks again! Broadwaygal 21:20, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

According to the book I cited, there was no rock and roll on Broadway between Birdie and Hair. Very nostalgic, old-fashioned stuff, like "Fiddler", Hello, Dolly! and Mame was on Broadway. See: http://www.musicals101.com/1960bway2.htm -- Ssilvers 21:43, 12 June 2007 (UTC)

Wicked

Can Wicked really be categorized as a Rock Musical? Broadening the genre a little too much it seems. I Just Kissed Al Pacino —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.61.118.78 (talk) 03:16, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, Wicked is unequivocally a rock musical, although I agree that it is not a rock opera. -- Ssilvers 05:47, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

Rock musical or musical with rock influences?

Basically, I agree with the point made in the previous section. This article seems to conflate musicals that have more or less a standard showtune score with some stylistic influences from rock, like an electric guitar and drum set in the orchestra (Pippin, Wicked, Bat Boy) with musicals where the score is 100% or almost 100% within the rock genre, like Hedwig or Spring Awakening. I realize there's a continuum, from Pippin to Les Misérables to Bat Boy to Aida to Rent to Spring Awakening, but this article doesn't make any mention even that there's a difference, treating Bat Boy and Hedwig in the same sentence as examples of the same thing. AJD (talk) 02:59, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

If you can find references for the discussion you are suggesting, by all means add it to the article. The only thing to keep in mind is that Wikipedia needs references to support new information added to articles and forbids WP:OR. Best regards, -- Ssilvers (talk) 16:57, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

By the same token, there are no references in the article for the assertions that shows like Pippin, Wicked, Bat Boy, and so on are "rock musicals" at all. AJD (talk) 23:12, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

This is not a great article and lacks enough referencing. If you have an interest in this area, please improve it by adding references. See WP:RS. Best regards, -- Ssilvers (talk) 00:54, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

I mean, I'm not inclined to spend time trying to find (possibly non-existent) references to support the claim that Pippin, Wicked, and Bat Boy are rock musicals when I don't believe that they are; I'd rather just exclude them from the article entirely. AJD (talk) 01:08, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Many of the previous contributors to this article think they are rock musicals. I understand that you disagree, but please don't make these changes without *some* reference to support your assertion that they all these contributors are wrong. Why don't you bring the question to the WP:MUSICALS talk page, if you want to get a new consensus to delete. -- Ssilvers (talk) 02:45, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

• Batboy: 1,720 hits for "Bat Boy" and "Rock musical": http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Rock+musical%22+%22Bat+Boy%22&btnG=Search and another 1,800 for Batboy and Rock musical: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22Rock+musical%22+Batboy

It's not necessary to have references to support not including something in an article. It seems to me that those who believe that Pippin et al. should be regarded as rock musicals bear the responsibility of finding references for their claims. But I apologize for acting fast and unilaterally in deleting the pseudo–rock musicals without giving you time to add citations to the article. AJD (talk) 14:28, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

No problem. I opened a discussion at the WP:MUSICALS talk page. If we don't get some help there, I'll have to do the research, although this is not really my core area of interest. -- Ssilvers (talk) 16:53, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

An editor there has dug up some references, which I have added to the article. I removed the mentions of Wicked and In the Heights, which you had objected to. If you think there are better examples to put in the article, however, why don't you add them? It seems to me, however, that the examples given should be well-known ones. -- Ssilvers (talk) 19:52, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

I added a reference to Grease and Godspell as examples of Rock Musicals. --Thomprod (talk) 22:03, 11 May 2009 (UTC)