High School Musical
Mar. 13th, 2006 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yendiSo, Elayna's latest obsession? High School Musical.
For those of you childless and over thirteen, High School Musical is a Disney Channel original movie that debuted in January. It's about, go figure, a high school musical. And it's The Hot Thing today. The soundtrack is currently #2 on the charts. It was at #1 last week, the first time a TV soundtrack had topped the charts since Miami Vice twenty years ago. It's the first time ever that a TV movie soundtrack has topped the charts. There were weeks in January in which four songs from the soundtrack cracked the Billboard Top Ten.
There's likely no one you've heard of in this. The closest thing to a "star" is Zac Effron, who is on Summerland but isn't Jesse McCartney. The next biggest star is Ashley Tisdale, off The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (which is also on The Disney Channel, and something that's likely below your radar if you're not the parent of a tween). The rest of the cast is even more obscure, although director Kenny Ortega did give us Newsies (the movie that taught us that Patrick Bateman/Bruce Wayne could sing and dance).
She's listened to the soundtrack about 600 times. She now knows every word to "Stick to the Status Quo" by heart.
It's tempting to be horrified at this. It's certainly not a particularly good musical, per se. But it's not terrible, either. The songs are certainly better than most of what passes for teen pop today, and the message of the show (follow your dream, not the expectations everyone sets for you) isn't a bad one.
Hell, we live in a world in which three of the most successful musicals of the '80 ("my" era, although I disown all three shows in favor of the better ones that didn't win the Tony awards or the box office) are Cats, Les Miserables, and Phantom of the Opera. If pap like this is what the adults are listening to, who are we to bitch about the musicals targeted at the kids?
That said, "Stick to the Status Quo" has got to earworm its way out of my head.
For those of you childless and over thirteen, High School Musical is a Disney Channel original movie that debuted in January. It's about, go figure, a high school musical. And it's The Hot Thing today. The soundtrack is currently #2 on the charts. It was at #1 last week, the first time a TV soundtrack had topped the charts since Miami Vice twenty years ago. It's the first time ever that a TV movie soundtrack has topped the charts. There were weeks in January in which four songs from the soundtrack cracked the Billboard Top Ten.
There's likely no one you've heard of in this. The closest thing to a "star" is Zac Effron, who is on Summerland but isn't Jesse McCartney. The next biggest star is Ashley Tisdale, off The Suite Life of Zack and Cody (which is also on The Disney Channel, and something that's likely below your radar if you're not the parent of a tween). The rest of the cast is even more obscure, although director Kenny Ortega did give us Newsies (the movie that taught us that Patrick Bateman/Bruce Wayne could sing and dance).
She's listened to the soundtrack about 600 times. She now knows every word to "Stick to the Status Quo" by heart.
It's tempting to be horrified at this. It's certainly not a particularly good musical, per se. But it's not terrible, either. The songs are certainly better than most of what passes for teen pop today, and the message of the show (follow your dream, not the expectations everyone sets for you) isn't a bad one.
Hell, we live in a world in which three of the most successful musicals of the '80 ("my" era, although I disown all three shows in favor of the better ones that didn't win the Tony awards or the box office) are Cats, Les Miserables, and Phantom of the Opera. If pap like this is what the adults are listening to, who are we to bitch about the musicals targeted at the kids?
That said, "Stick to the Status Quo" has got to earworm its way out of my head.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 02:55 pm (UTC)Color me out of touch. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 03:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 04:05 pm (UTC)I spent a few months actively steering her toward things more worthy of her time, til she forgot all about it. Never saw it.
Active parenting! Time-consuming, but *worth it*...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 05:47 pm (UTC)I suspect that the movie's not as bad as the books, in that case, but I'm still hoping she avoids the movie. We can only do so much.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 03:31 pm (UTC)Or, if you prefer:
Mahna Mahna.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 06:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 06:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 04:47 pm (UTC)(I admit to thinking The Suite Life is a cute show, tho.)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 06:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-13 10:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-14 04:43 pm (UTC)As for Les Miz, the eight-minute summary/montage in Forbidden Broadway covers everything wonderfully. And it's less boring.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-14 12:14 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-14 04:39 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-14 12:22 am (UTC)High School Musical is just the icing on that 22nd century man.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-03-14 04:38 pm (UTC)