Barry Keith Grant and the Musical Genre

By Laura McAdams

Barry Keith Grant is one of the most respected scholars in film genre studies, known for his influential work on science fiction, horror, documentary, and especially the musical. His writings have helped define genre as a dynamic, culturally situated system of conventions rather than a static classification. In the context of the musical, Grant explores how song and performance function not just as decoration but as narrative devices that express emotion, identity, and ideology.

Grant argues that the musical is a hybrid form—drawing from theater, opera, and popular music—and that its relationship to realism is deliberately ambiguous. While musicals often appear escapist, they also reflect deep social values, conflicts, and desires. Musical numbers create moments where characters can express what cannot be spoken, suspending diegetic time in favor of emotional truth.

He also emphasizes the tension between spectacle and narrative in the genre: how the flow of story is routinely interrupted by performative display. For Grant, this is not a flaw but a defining feature of the musical—a genre where visual and sonic pleasure often overrides linear causality.

In his analysis of both classical and contemporary musicals, Grant highlights issues of gender, race, national identity, and performance. He treats the musical as a site of cultural negotiation where norms are both reinforced and challenged. From Hollywood’s Golden Age to postmodern reinterpretations, the musical for Grant is a lens through which we can view shifting cultural fantasies and anxieties.

His work invites genre scholars to approach musicals not just as entertainment but as layered cultural texts where music, movement, and meaning converge.

Source: Barry Keith Grant, Film Genre: From Iconography to Ideology; essays on the musical and genre theory.

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