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Beyond Popular Song: Analysing Persona–Environment Relationships in Contemporary Musical Theatre

image of Beyond Popular Song: Analysing Persona–Environment Relationships in Contemporary Musical Theatre
  • By Nick Braae
  • Source: The Intellect Handbook of Popular Music Methodologies , pp 81-95
  • Publication Date: June 2025
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/9781835951033_7
  • Language: English
  • Accessibility Summary:  EPUB 3 and pdf file included; compatible with devices and software which can read these formats. Adjustable font size, spacing, contrast, text justification, number of columns (ePUB only). Alternative text for images. Tagged with a logical reading order to assist screen readers. Navigation between in-text citations and reference list, and endnotes and endnote markers.

Since the 1960s, the worlds of recorded popular song and musical theatre have grown ever more intertwined. From an academic perspective, and as the field of musical theatre studies grows, it seems appropriate to consider how the tools and methodologies of popular music analysis might transfer into a musical theatre context. This paper argues that Moore's influential (2012) persona-environment model, developed for recorded popular song, may be a more fruitful analytical tool, particularly for grappling with the varied stylistic worlds in contemporary musical theatre. I explore this method with respect to shows that create a specific ‘environmental’ musical language to frame the characters’ setting and/or emotional states. These ideas are explored in relation to a range of contemporary musicals, including Sister Act by Alan Menken; Dogfight by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul; and Mean Girls by Jeff Richmond and Nell Benjamin.

Keywords: Analysis ; Interpretation ; Musical theatre ; Pastiche ; Persona ; Style

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References

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  27. Pasek, Benj and Paul, Justin (2013), Dogfight: Original Cast Recording, USA: Dfight LP and Justin Paul.
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  28. Queen (1980), ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, The Game, Vinyl, UK: EMI.
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  35. Summer, Donna (1979), ‘Hot Stuff’, composed by P. Bellotte, H. Faltermeyer and K. Forsey, Bad Girls, Vinyl, Los Angeles, CA: Casablanca.
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  36. The Village People (1978), ‘Y.M.C.A.’, composed by J. Morali and V. Willis, Cruisin’, Vinyl, New York: Casablanca.
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  37. The Weather Girls (1982), ‘It's Raining Men’, composed by P. Jabara and P. Shafer, Success , Vinyl, New York: CBS.
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  38. Voelker, Kathryn Laura (2015), ‘The musical theater style of Jason Robert Brown’, Ph.D. dissertation, Greeley, CO: University of North Colorado.
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References

  1. Braae, Nick (2021), Rock and Rhapsodies: The Music of Queen, New York: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Bulcher, Michael (2008), ‘Modulation as a dramatic agent in Frank Loesser's Broadway Songs’, Music Theory Spectrum, 30:1, pp. 35–60.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Cahn, Norman (2016), ‘From “Hakuna Matata” to “Hasa Diga Eebowai”: Paradoxical bliss in The Book of Mormon’, Études, 2:2, http://www.etudesonline.com/dec2016cahn.html. Accessed 6 August 2024 .
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Callahan, Michael R. (2013), ‘Sentential lyric-types in the Great American Songbook’, Music Theory Online, 19:3, http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.13.19.3/mto.13.19.3.callahan.php. Accessed 6 August 2024 .
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Chic (1979), ‘Good Times’, Risqué, Vinyl, New York: Atlantic.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Covach, John (1991), ‘The rutles and the use of specific models in musical satire’, Indiana Theory Review, 11, pp. 119–44.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Covach, John (1994), ‘Destructuring Cartesian dualism in musical analysis’, Music Theory Online, 1, https://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.94.0.11/mto.94.0.11.covach.php. Accessed 6 August 2024 .
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Everett, Walter (2009), The Foundations of Rock, New York: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Fink, Robert , Latour, Melinda and Wallmark, Zachary (eds) (2018), The Relentless Pursuit of Tone: Timbre in Popular Music, New York: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Forrest, David L. (2017), ‘PL voice leading and the uncanny in pop music’, Music Theory Online, 23:4, http://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.17.23.4/mto.17.23.4.forrest.html. Accessed 17 January 2016 .
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Griffiths, Dai (2003), ‘From lyric to anti-lyric: Analyzing the words in pop song’, in A. F. Moore (ed.), Analyzing Popular Music, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 39–59.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Heidemann, Kate (2016), ‘A system for describing vocal timbre in popular song’, Music Theory Online, 22:1, https://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.16.22.1/mto.16.22.1.heidemann.html. Accessed 18 May 2020 .
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Hoffman, Brian S. (2011), ‘Elements of the musical theater style: 1950-2000’, Ph.D. dissertation, Cincinnati, OH: University of Cincinnati.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Hutchinson, Kyle (2020), ‘Retrospective time and the subdominant past: Tonal hermeneutics in contemporary broadway megamusicals’, Music Theory Online, 26:2, https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.20.26.2/mto.20.26.2.hutchinson.html. Accessed 6 August 2024 .
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Johnson, Jake , Asare, Masi , Coddington, Amy , Goldmark, Daniel , Knapp, Raymond , Wang, Oliver and Wollman, Elizabeth (2019), ‘Divided by a common language: Musical theater and popular music studies’, Journal of Popular Music Studies, 31:4, pp. 32–50.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Kool & the Gang (1980), ‘Celebration’, Celebrate!, Vinyl, USA: De-Lite.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Kubiak, Ben (2022), ‘“Viva La Vie Bohème”: An analytical history of rock musical theatre’, Ph.D. dissertation, Auckland: University of Auckland.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Malawey, Victoria (2020), A Blaze of Light in Every Word: Analyzing the Popular Singing Voice, New York: Oxford University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. McGill, Craig M. (2012), ‘Sondheim's use of the “Herrmann chord” in Sweeney Todd’, Studies in Musical Theatre, 6:3, pp. 291–312.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. McMillin, Scott (2006), The Musical as Drama, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. Menken, Alan (2009), Sister Act: Original London Cast Recording, CD, UK: First Night Records.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Moore, Allan F. (1995), ‘The so-called “Flattened Seventh” in rock’, Popular Music, 14:2, pp. 185–201.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Moore, Allan F. (2005), ‘The persona-environment relation in recorded song’, Music Theory Online, 11:4, http://www.mtosmt.org/issues/mto.05.11.4/mto.05.11.4.moore.html.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Moore, Allan F. (2012), Song Means: Analysing and Interpreting Recorded Popular Song, Farnham and Surrey: Ashgate.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Moore, Allan F. and Ibrahim, Anwar (2009), ‘Sounds like teen spirit; identifying Radiohead's idiolect’, in J. Tate (ed.), Strobe-Lights and Blown Speakers: Essays on the Music and Art of Radiohead, Aldershot: Ashgate, pp. 139–58.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Osborn, Brad (2020), ‘The subdominant tritone in film and television music’, Current Musicology, 107, pp. 62–92.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Pasek, Benj and Paul, Justin (2013), Dogfight: Original Cast Recording, USA: Dfight LP and Justin Paul.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Queen (1980), ‘Another One Bites the Dust’, The Game, Vinyl, UK: EMI.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Richmond, Jeff and Benjamin, Nell (2018), ‘Meet the Plastics’, Mean Girls: Original Broadway Cast Recording, digital, USA: Atlantic.
     [Google Scholar]
  30. Rush, Adam (2017), ‘Oh, what a beautiful mormon: Rodgers and Hammerstein, intertextuality and The Book of Mormon’, Studies in Musical Theatre, 11:1, pp. 39–50.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Spicer, Mark (2010), ‘“Reggatta de Blanc”: Analyzing style in the music of The Police’, in M. Spicer and J. Covach (eds), Sounding Out Pop: Analytical Essays in Popular Music, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, pp. 124–53.
     [Google Scholar]
  32. Spicer, Mark (2017), ‘Fragile, emergent, and absent tonics in pop and rock songs’, Music Theory Online, 23:2, https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.17.23.2/mto.17.23.2.spicer.html. Accessed 19 December 2017 .95
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Sternfeld, Jessica (2006), The Megamusical, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Sternfeld, Jessica (2013), ‘“Everything's Coming Up Kurt”: The Broadway Song in Glee’, in D. Symonds and M. Taylor (eds), Gestures of Music Theater: The Performativity of Song and Dance, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 128–45.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Summer, Donna (1979), ‘Hot Stuff’, composed by P. Bellotte, H. Faltermeyer and K. Forsey, Bad Girls, Vinyl, Los Angeles, CA: Casablanca.
     [Google Scholar]
  36. The Village People (1978), ‘Y.M.C.A.’, composed by J. Morali and V. Willis, Cruisin’, Vinyl, New York: Casablanca.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. The Weather Girls (1982), ‘It's Raining Men’, composed by P. Jabara and P. Shafer, Success , Vinyl, New York: CBS.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Voelker, Kathryn Laura (2015), ‘The musical theater style of Jason Robert Brown’, Ph.D. dissertation, Greeley, CO: University of North Colorado.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Zagorski-Thomas, Simon (2014), The Musicology of Record Production, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Zagorski-Thomas, Simon (2018), ‘The spectromorphology of recorded popular music: The shaping of sonic cartoons through record production’, in R. Fink , M. Latour and Z. Wallmark (eds), The Relentless Pursuit of Tone: Timbre in Popular Music, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 345–65.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Zalman, Paige (2019), ‘Operatic borrowing in Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd’, American Music, 37:1, pp. 58–76.
     [Google Scholar]

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