The Music That Makes Me Dance

I was harsh on the music of Legally Blonde: The Musical, and I just wanted to add a few words about that.

It’s true that the style of music in that show was not to my current musical tastes, but that was not why I was so critical of it.

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Jonas BrothersJonas Brothers

Jonas Brothers

For example, the most recent Graham Norton Show featured a performance by the Jonas Brothers, and although their music is not something I would normally listen to, it did sound like music, and when the performance had completed, I could have hummed the main tune of the song if I wanted to.

Similarly, one of the guests was Gloria Estafan, a singer whose work I was not familiar with, so after watching the show, I decided to listen to a few of her songs on Apple Music. Once again her style of music is not to my liking. Oh, I like the Latin rhythms, which really are gonna get you, but she uses way too much reverb in her recordings, which in general are just overproduced as far as I’m concerned.

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Gloria EstafanGloria Estafan

Gloria Estafan

But still, each song sounded like music and I recognized and often liked the melodies and harmonies that she composed. Several of the tunes lingered in my mind.

Unlike the music from Legally Blonde, whose songs had a beat that the dancers could dance to, but none of the melodies, no matter how often they were repeated and reprised, lingered in my mind. I truly doubt that anyone in the audience who was hearing those songs for the first time went out of the theatre humming any of the tunes.

Which is a real shame, because as I said, I thought the book of that show was quite good. If it only had a few good songs to go with it, I think it could have a long life. As it is, I doubt it’s going to be revived much.

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