Dangerous Rhythm: Why Movie Musicals Matter

Singin' in the Rain, The Sound of Music, Camelot--love them or love to hate them, movie musicals have been a major part of all our lives. They're so glitzy and catchy that it seems impossible that they could have ever gone any other way. But the ease in which they unfold on the screen is deceptive. Dorothy's dream of finding a land "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" was nearly cut, and even a film as great as The Band Wagon was, at the time, a major flop. In Dangerous Rhythm: Why Movie Musicals Matter, award winning historian Richard Barrios explores movie musicals from those first hits, The Jazz Singer and Broadway Melody, to present-day Oscar winners Chicago and Les Misérables. History, film analysis, and a touch of backstage gossip combine to make Dangerous Rhythm a compelling look at musicals and the powerful, complex bond they forge with their audiences. Going behind the scenes, Barrios uncovers the rocky relationship between Broadway and Hollywood, the unpublicized off-camera struggles of directors, stars, and producers, and all the various ways by which some films became our most indelible cultural touchstones -- and others ended up as train wrecks.Not content to leave any format untouched, Barrios examines animated musicals and popular music with insight and enthusiasm. Cartoons have been intimately connected with musicals since Steamboat Willie. Disney's short Silly Symphonies grew into the instant classic Snow White, which paved the way for that modern masterpiece, South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut. Without movie musicals, Barrios argues, MTV would have never existed. On the flip side, without MTV we might have been spared Evita. Informed, energetic, and humorous, Dangerous Rhythm is both an impressive piece of scholarship and a joy to read.

Table of Contents:
A Note of Explanation Introduction ALL THAT JAZZ Chapter One EVERYTHING'S BEEN DONE BEFORE Chapter Two WHERE DO THEY COME FROM (AND WHERE DO THEY GO?) Chapter Three SEEING'S BELIEVING Chapter Four PEOPLE From Jolson to Justin in 85 Years Chapter Five THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE Chapter Six MUSIC MAKES ME Chapter Seven WITH PLENTY OF MONEY Chapter Eight I GET THE NECK OF THE CHICKEN Chapter Nine TURN ON THE HEAT Chapter Ten PAINTING THE CLOUDS Snow White, South Park, and Other Ways to Animate a Musical Chapter Eleven UNDER MY SKIN Musicals and Race, Musicals and Sexuality Chapter Twelve PUT 'EM IN A BOX Epilog DREAM DANCING

About the Author :
Richard Barrios worked in the music and film industries before turning to film history with the award-winning A Song in the Dark and with Screened Out, which was the basis of a film series by Turner Classic Movies. He lectures extensively and appears frequently on television and in film and DVD documentaries. Born in the swamps of south Louisiana and a longtime resident of New York City, he now lives in western New Jersey, near Philadelphia

Review :
"Barrios knows this material inside out, which allows him to step back to make often inspired observations." -- New York Times Book Review "[Barrios] writes about his subject authoritatively ...and always directly. He does so with an absence of heavy theorizing and an abundance of strong opinions. Part of what makes Dangerous Rhythm enjoyable to read is its idiomatic prose." --Wall Street Journal "[A] hugely readable, authoritative meditation on the Hollywood musical." -- Philadelphia Inquirer "Simultaneously a rigorous dissection of and a valentine to the movie musical." -Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Few people can discuss early-talkie musicals and television's Glee with equal authority. Richard Barrios sees it all as part of a continuum, which is what makes his wide-ranging book so relevant. His sense of humor and lively prose style transform a scholarly treatise into a highly enjoyable reading experience." --Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian. "Barrios knows his stuff, and musical film aficionados are well advised to get a hold of Dangerous Rhythm. He combines vast knowledge of the subject with tangy writing, resulting in a hard-to-put-down read." --Matthew Kennedy, author of Roadshow! The Fall of Film Musicals in the 1960s