Baudrillard on Broadway: Bio-musicals, the hyperreal and the cultural politics of simuloquism | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Volume 5, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2057-0341
  • E-ISSN: 2057-035X

Abstract

This article considers the nature of vocal hyperreality in bio-musicals: a form of musical theatre in which actors simulate the voices of well-known pop singers or groups in theatrical retellings of their lives and careers. To do so, I employ the four successive stages of simulacrum found in Jean Baudrillard’s ‘The precession of simulacra’ (1981) to consider the potentials and limitations of such vocal simulation in the act of (re)authoring pop singers for the musical stage. Considering the way in which such performances mask or denature their source material (the ‘original’ voices of pop singers and artists), while at the same time employing a dual temporality of cultural memory and current experience, I offer a neologism that may help articulate the complex experience for audience members who attend these productions. The final part of the article considers the peculiar convention of releasing Original Cast Recordings of these works, arguing that these may be symptomatic of Baudrillard’s simulacrum, as popular culture reaches a terminus from which it is unable to progress without regression, intertextuality or manufactured nostalgia.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jivs_00015_1
2020-04-01
2024-05-03
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/jivs/5/1/jivs.5.1.43.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1386/jivs_00015_1&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

References

  1. Adorno, Theodor Wiesengrund. ( 2001;), ‘ On the fetish character in music and the regression of listening. ’, in T. W. Adorno. (ed.), The Culture Industry, London and New York:: Routledge;, pp. 2961.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Barker, Hugh, and Taylor, Yuval. ( 2007), Faking It: The Quest for Authenticity in Popular Music, London:: Faber;.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Barthes, Roland. ( 1977;), ‘ The grain of the voice. ’, in R. Barthes. (ed.), Image, Music, Text (trans. S. Heath) , London:: Fontana;, pp. 17989.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Baudrillard, Jean. ( [1981] 1994), Simulacra and Simulation (trans. S. F. Glaser) , Ann Arbor, MI:: University of Michigan Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Bijsterveld, Karin, and van Dijck, José. (eds) ( 2009), Sound Souvenirs: Audio Technologies, Memories and Cultural Practices, Amsterdam:: Amsterdam University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Buse, Peter, and Scott, Andrew. ( 1999;), ‘ Introduction: A future for haunting. ’, in P. Buse, and A. Scott. (eds), Ghosts: Deconstruction, Psychoanalysis, History, Basingstoke:: Palgrave Macmillan;, pp. 120.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Cavarero, Adriana. ( 2005), For More Than One Voice: A Philosophy of Vocal Expression, Redwood City, CA:: University of Stanford Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Coombe, Rosemary J.. ( 1998), The Cultural Life of Intellectual Properties: Authorship, Appropriation, and the Law, Durham, NC and London:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Corner, Natalie. ( 2018;), ‘ Tina Turner? More like Tina turn-off!: Star of west end musical inspired by singer’s life performs on this morning—but viewers say she sounds NOTHING like her. ’, MailOnline, 1 May, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5678033/This-Morning-viewers-brutally-mock-star-Tina-Turner-West-End-musical.html. Accessed 6 February 2019.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Derrida, Jacques. ( 2006), Specters of Marx, London and New York:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Diamond, Elin. ( 1995), Writing Performances, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Dyer, Richard. ( 1993;), ‘ Entertainment and utopia. ’, in S. During. (ed.), The Cultural Studies Reader, London and New York:: Routledge;, pp. 27183.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Fisher, Philip. ( 2013;), ‘ Beautiful—the Carole King musical (review). ’, British Theatre Guide , 21 November, https://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/beautifulthe-stephen-sondhei-11086. Accessed 21 December 2019.
  14. Fois, Eleonora. ( 2018;), ‘ Theatrical translation or theatrical adaptation? Staging Noises Off in Italy. ’, Journal of Adaptation of Film and Performance, 11:3, pp. 24157.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Hutcheon, Linda. ( 2006), A Theory of Adaptation, London and New York:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Jarman-Ivens, Freya. ( 2011), Queer Voices: Technologies, Vocalities, and the Musical Flaw, Basingstoke:: Palgrave;.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Kenney, William Howland. ( 1999), Recorded Music in American Life: The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890–1945, New York:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Knapp, Raymond. ( 2005), The American Musical and the Formation of National Identity, Princeton, NJ:: Princeton University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Kreiman, Jody, and Sidtis, Diana. ( 2011), Foundations of Voice Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Voice Production and Perception, Hoboken, NJ:: Wiley Blackwell;.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Macpherson, Ben. ( 2016;), ‘ (Re)authoring the 27 club: Bewildered voices, acousmatic audiophilia, and the dangers of listening-in. ’, Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies, 1:2, pp. 13142.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Maslon, Laurence. ( 2018), Broadway to Main Street: How Showtunes Enchanted America, New York:: Oxford University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Mauger, Colin. ( 2019;), ‘ Tina—the Tina Turner musical (original London cast recording) product page. ’, Customer review, Amazon UK , 6 April, https://www.amazon.co.uk/productreviews/B07NY6R5N3/ref=acr_dpproductdetail_text?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1. Accessed 1 May 2019.
  23. Mayo, Douglas. ( 2018;), ‘ Are bio-musicals taking over broadway and the west end?. ’, British Theatre , 18 April, https://britishtheatre.com/are-bio-musicals-taking-over-broadway-west-end/. Accessed 1 April 2019.
  24. O’Connell, Sam. ( 2011;), ‘ Performing “Judy”: The creation and function of cover personae in popular music in Rufus Wainwright’s Judy Garland concerts. ’, Contemporary Theatre Review, 21:3, pp. 31731.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Reddick, George. ( 2011;), ‘ The evolution of the original cast album. ’, in R. Knapp,, M. Morris, and S. Wolf. (eds), The Oxford Handbook to the American Musical, New York:: Oxford University Press;, pp. 17996.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. Rush, Adam. ( 2017;), ‘ Recycled culture: The significance of intertextuality in twenty-first century musical theatre. ’, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Lincoln:: University of Lincoln, http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/27701/1/27701%20RUSH%20ADAM%20-%20PERFORMING%20ARTS%20-%20JUNE%202017.pdf. Accessed 5 January 2019.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Schwartz, Hillel. ( 2014), The Culture of the Copy: Striking Likenesses, Unreasonable Fascimiles, New York:: Zone Books;.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Sontag, Susan. ( 1964), Notes on ‘Camp’, London:: Penguin Books Ltd;.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Taylor, Millie. ( 2012), Musical Theatre, Realism and Entertainment, Farnham:: Ashgate;.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. van Dijck, José. ( 2009;), ‘ Remembering songs through telling stories: Pop music as a resource for memory. ’, in K. Bijsterveld, and J. van Dijck. (eds), Sound Souvenirs: Audio Technologies, Memories and Cultural Practices, Amsterdam:: Amsterdam University Press;, pp. 10722.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Macpherson, Ben. ( 2020;), ‘ Baudrillard on Broadway: Bio-musicals, the hyperreal and the cultural politics of simuloquism. ’, Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies, 5:1, pp. 4357, doi: https://doi.org/10.1386/jivs_00015_1
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/jivs_00015_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error