Movie musicals are among the most quintessentially American art forms, often celebrating mobility, self-expression, and the pursuit of one’s dreams. But like America itself, the Hollywood musical draws from many distinct ethnic traditions. In this illuminating new study, Desirée J. Garcia examines the lesser-known folk musicals from early African American, Yiddish, and Mexican filmmakers, revealing how these were essential ingredients in the melting pot of the Hollywood musical. The Migration of Musical Film shows how the folk musical was rooted in the challenges faced by immigrants and migrants who had to adapt to new environments, balancing American individualism with family values and cultural traditions. Uncovering fresh material from film industry archives, Garcia considers how folk musicals were initially marginal productions, designed to appeal to specific minority audiences, and yet introduced themes that were gradually assimilated into the Hollywood mainstream. No other book offers a comparative historical study of the folk musical, from the first sound films in the 1920s to the genre’s resurgence in the 1970s and 1980s. Using an illustrative rather than comprehensive approach, Garcia focuses on significant moments in the sub-genre and rarely studied films such as Allá en el Rancho Grande along with familiar favorites that drew inspiration from earlier folk musicals—everything from The Wizard of Oz to Zoot Suit. If you think of movie musicals simply as escapist mainstream entertainment, The Migration of Musical Film is sure to leave you singing a different tune.

In this groundbreaking new book, Desirée J. Garcia examines one of the unsung influences on the Hollywood musical--the lower budget folk musicals produced by Mexican, Yiddish, and African-American filmmakers. Far from mere escapist entertainments, these films expressed both the struggles and dreams of immigrants and minorities in America. Offering a revised history of the American musical, The Migration of Musical Film provides a window into the ways in which Americans and immigrants have negotiated the boundaries of belonging in our society.

Putting Asian and European musicals into conversation with Hollywood classics like Singin’ in the Rain and La La Land, this study demonstrates the flexibility and durability of the genre. It explores how the movie musical mediates between nostalgia and technical innovation, while foregrounding the experiences of women, immigrants, and people of color.

Migrating Music considers the issues around music and cosmopolitanism in new ways. Whilst much of the existing literature on ‘world music’ questions the apparently world-disclosing nature of this genre – but says relatively little about migration and mobility – diaspora studies have much to say about the latter, yet little about the significance of music. In this context, this book affirms the centrality of music as a mode of translation and cosmopolitan mediation, whilst also pointing out the complexity of the processes at stake within it. Migrating music, it argues, represents perhaps the most salient mode of performance of otherness to mutual others, and as such its significance in socio-cultural change rivals – and even exceeds – literature, film, and other language and image-based cultural forms. This book will serve as a valuable reference tool for undergraduate and postgraduate students with research interests in cultural studies, sociology of culture, music, globalization, migration, and human geography.

Rethinking Genre in Contemporary Global Cinema offers a unique, wide-ranging exploration of the intersection between traditional modes of film production and new, transitional/transnational approaches to film genre and related discourses in a contemporary, global context. This volume’s content—the films, genres, and movements explored, as well as methodologies used in their analysis—is diverse and, crucially, up-to-date with contemporary film-making practice and theory. Significantly, the collection extends existing scholarly discourse on film genre beyond its historical bias towards a predominant focus on Hollywood cinema, on the one hand, and a tendency to treat “other” national cinemas in isolation and/or as distinct systems of production, on the other. In view of the ever-increasing globalisation and transnational mediation of film texts and screen media and culture worldwide, the book recognises the need for film genre studies and film genre criticism to cast a broader, indeed global, scope. The collection thus rethinks genre cinema as a transitional, cross-cultural, and increasingly transnational, global paradigm of film-making in diverse contexts.

As one of the most beloved and beguiling genres of entertainment, the film musical wears its style ostentatiously. The genre allows for hyperbolic expression, extravagant sonic and visual decor, and extremely stylized forms of movement and performance. By staging a glittering spectacle, by releasing a current of lush sentiment, by unveiling a world of elegance and romance, the film musical woos us with patterns, textures, finesse and sensory display. In this book, author Lloyd Whitesell asks what, exactly, makes film musicals so glamorous. As he argues, glamour projects an aura of ethereality or sophistication by way of suave deportment, sensuous textures, elevated styles, and aesthetically refined effects. Glamour, in other words, is what unites "Cheek to Cheek" from Top Hat and the title song from Beauty and the Beast, each a sonic evocation of luxury, sparkle, grace, and finesse. Whitesell redirects our attention from visual cues like sequins and evening gloves to explore how glamour resides in the sonic. Discussing dozens of musical numbers, analyzing ingenious orchestration, and appraising the distinctive styles of favorite musical stars, Whitesell illuminates fundamental traits of the genre, its aesthetic strategies, and cultural ambitions.

The Routledge Handbook to Spanish Film Music provides a significant contribution to the research and history of Spanish film music, exploring the interdependence and ways in which discourses of sound and vision are constructed dialogically in Spanish cinema, with contributions from leading international researchers from Spain, the USA, the UK, France and Germany. Offering a multifocal and multidisciplinary study between related areas such as music studies, film studies and Spanish cultural studies, this book is divided into four sections, covering the early years of Spanish cinema; the 1940s and 1950s in Spanish cinema—the first decades of the Franco dictatorship; the importance of Fraga Iribarne’s slogan, “Spain is different,” to promote Spain’s new openness to the world in the 1960s and 1970s; and Spanish cinema since the arrival of democracy in 1978, including discussion of contemporary Spanish cinema. The growing interest in Spanish cinema calls for the publication of studies about the role of music in its political and socio-cultural framework. This is therefore a valuable text for music and film scholars and professionals, university undergraduates and music conservatory students.