Master's Thesis from the year 2014 in the subject American Studies -
Miscellaneous, grade: 1,0, University of Göttingen (Philosophische
Fakultät), language: English, abstract: At the beginning of the year
2010, movie critic Bob Mondello triumphantly declared "It's going to be
another musical decade," noting the way the previous ten years have
prompted a movie musical "resurgence" paving the road for a bright
music-filled future. When looking at the history of musicals over the
course of time, this does not always seem to be the case. In spite of
the fact that the film musical was an audience favorite during its
"Golden Age" era (1927 until the mid-1950s) and celebrating great
successes such as 42nd Street (1933) or Singin' in the Rain (1952), it
seems to have deteriorated in quality and reputation. Since recent movie
musicals apparently have hit a different, more successful, nerve with
audiences, the question is why the genre now sees an uplift in box
office numbers. Which elements of recent movie musicals keep audiences
glued to the screen? How do they work in tapping into audiences'
emotions, prompting them to participate? This thesis will be influenced
by the methodology of reception study scholar Janet Staiger. Staiger's
1992 Interpreting Film: Studies in the Historical Reception of American
Cinema and Perverse Spectators (2000) reconsider the way audiences make
sense of films. With her historical materialist approach taking into
account all "traces" of audiences interacting with filmic material, she
sets out to find an understanding of why certain films prove to be
successful with audiences at certain times (Kemper). She investigates
the "modes of address and exhibition," "establishes the identities and
interpretative strategies and tactics brought by spectators to the
cinema" and acknowledges cultural groups such as fans who "produce their
own conventionalized modes of reception" (23; emphasis in original). It
is the purpose of this thesis, then, to take
