Teaching History with Musicals by Kathryn Edney

Author:Kathryn Edney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-02-22T16:00:00+00:00

1960s

Hair is an obvious choice for a unit on the 1960s, but as it was previously discussed in chapter 2, other films will be used here. There are many documentaries about the 1960s, such as Woodstock (1970), that include focused music of the period, but this section maintains the overall theme of the book by discussing two narrative musicals: Across the Universe (2007) and Hairspray (2007), both of which are explicitly histories about the decade rather than films produced during the 1960s.

As noted in the first chapter, many musicals produced during the 1960s, including Bye Bye Birdie (1963) and Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), ignored controversial issues such as the civil rights movement. The films from this decade also constructed youth culture as completely apolitical, harmless, and disconnected from real-life concerns. It is worth screening segments of such films to compare them with protest footage from the era, or to ask students how the conservative viewpoints of these types of films implicitly pose arguments against feminism, civil rights, and the presumed leftist politicization of college campuses. Having students research both the college conservative group Young American for Freedom founded in 1960 and the origins of the 1962 Port Huron Statement, alongside a film representing youth culture such as Bye Bye Birdie or Beach Blanket Bingo with Woodstock as counterpoint can help illustrate the give and take of politics in the 1960s.

Mainstream Hollywood musicals from the 1960s were generally careful to avoid race as an explicit topic. In contrast, musicals about the 1960s produced decades later often incorporate racial concerns within the narrative. A relatively recent example of this practice is the musical Hairspray (2007). The first nonmusical iteration of the film was directed by John Waters in 1988, was adapted into a Broadway musical in 2002, and was then readapted as a musical film starring John Travolta in the pivotal drag role of heroine Tracy Turnblad’s mother. Set in Baltimore in 1962, the film is a highly problematic representation of civil rights in America, but those problems make it extremely useful within the classroom setting. In a survey course, students will have already had the groundwork for the ways in which the civil rights movement had developed during the 1950s; this will prepare them for the movie. Before screening the film, either provide students with, or have them find, mainstream newspaper or magazine reviews of the musical. In class, students can then categorize the criticisms leveled at the film in terms of its racial, gender, and historical politics. Hairspray as a film defines the notion of “feel good,” and it is important to prime students to look beyond its universal message of acceptance.

After screening the film, or portions of it, ask students to discuss whether or not, and why, they agree with mainstream criticisms of the film and what other criticisms they might make of it based on their knowledge of the civil rights movement. If students resist criticizing the film, have them discuss what themes and issues defined the early

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