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Other terms for industrial musicals include the corporate musical or industrial show, but the latter can also refer to trade show s, which are publicity events organized by one or more businesses to promote their products to potential buyers.
Industrial musicals are not resticted to corporations or to businesses involved in industry. They should not be confused with industrial music, or with musicals produced by companies to be seen by the general public, for example, Disney's stage production of The Lion King.
Industrial musicals originated from company song s and anthemFor the novel by Ayn Rand, see Anthem (novel). An anthem is a choral composition to an English religious text sung in church services. The term has evolved to mean a song of celebration, usually acting as a symbol for a certain group of people, as in thes for promoting enthusiasmEnthusiasm (from Gr. enthousiasmos possession by a god)) originally means inspiration by a divine afflatus or by the presence of a god. Today it simply means intense enjoyment, interest or approval. Originally an enthusiast is a person possessed by a god. among workers. The songs were brought in by the management, as opposed to worker-created work songA work song is a typically acoustic rhythmic song sung by persons who are working in likely mundane conditions. The work song is probably intended to reduce feelings of boredom and to increase feelings of euphoria. Rhythms of work songs also serve to syncs. Early examples of company songs can be seen in the 19311931 is the common year starting on Thursday. see link for calendar) Events January January 4 Female aviator Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa January 6 Thomas Edison submits his last patent application. January 22 Sir Isaac Isaacs sworn in as the songbook published by IBMThis article is about the International Business Machines Corporation; see IBM (disambiguation) for other uses of this abbreviation. International Business Machines Corporation IBM or colloquially, Big Blue (incorporated June 15, 1911, in operation since (see External links, below).
At some point, a collection of company songs was extended into a full musical theater format, and the industrial musical was born. Many industrial musicals were made in North America during the economic boomIn economics, the term boom and bust refers to the movement of an economy through economic cycles due to changes in aggregate demand. During booms, there is a high level of aggregate demand, inflation increases, unemployment falls, and growth in national that followed World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough, and this practice continued into the 1980sMillennia: 1st millennium 2nd millennium 3rd millennium Centuries: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s Years: 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 Events and trends.
The earliest known industrial musicals were produced by retail and automotive companies such as Ford, General Motors, and the Marshall Field's chain of department stores. By the end of the 1950s and throughout the 1960s, other types of businesses also began to put on shows.
Companies could spend a lot of money to produce shows, hiring talented Broadway composers and lyricists. The pay was very good, the task was challenging, and from the theatre's point of view, the production costs were much higher than a regular Broadway musical. Shows could have as many 30 people in the cast and a 60-piece orchestra. Composer Hank Beebe estimates that the 1957 Chevrolet musical was budgeted at over 3 million dollars (U.S.), because it cost six times the amount it took to bring My Fair Lady to the stage that same year.
The song performances were rarely heard outside of the companies they were written for, but sometimes the employees would be given a souvenir record album. Some shows lasted for a limited number of nights, while others traveled from city to city for regional sales meetings.
By the 1980s, industrial musicals were made less and less often. Jonathan Ward, a writer and DJ who collects industrial musical albums, theorizes that the reason for the decline was partially due to rising production costs for stage shows, and the availability of
low-cost video and multimedia technology.
Ward thinks another reason for the decline was a change in work attitudes. In the 1950s and 1960s, an employee might have expected to spend the majority of their working career with one company. By the 1980s, employees and the management may have been less inclined to think this way. The feelings of company loyalty and community promoted in the song lyrics would have been met with more cynicism.
Despite the trends that affected industrial musicals, businesses continue to make company songs. For example, KPMG produced a corporate anthem in 2001 called Our vision of global strategy.