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industrial musical

Industrial Musical

United States · 1950s
HappySentimentalDancingEpicChill
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Description

Industrial musical is a form of corporate-sponsored musical theatre created for internal audiences—sales conferences, dealer meetings, or employee conventions—rather than the general public.

Typically staged with Broadway-caliber writers, performers, and pit bands, these productions blended show-tune craft with brand messaging. Songs and sketches celebrated new product lines, corporate values, and sales targets, turning technical features and business strategy into catchy choruses and comedic patter.

The genre peaked in postwar America, when large companies could fund lavish, one-off productions to motivate salesforces and unveil products. Although rarely commercially released, archival recordings and the documentary “Bathtubs Over Broadway” later revealed their sophisticated songwriting, virtuosic performers, and charmingly earnest corporate optimism.

History
Origins (1950s)

Industrial musicals emerged in the United States during the booming postwar economy. Corporations sought high-impact ways to motivate sales teams and dealers, turning to the Broadway ecosystem—composers, lyricists, choreographers, and seasoned performers—to craft bespoke musical revues that translated product specs and corporate goals into entertaining, memorable theatre.

Heyday (1960s–1970s)

The genre flourished as Fortune 500 companies staged fully orchestrated productions with original scores, elaborate sets, and professional casts. Numbers pastiched contemporary Broadway, jazz, big band, and easy-listening styles. Songs introduced product features, aligned teams around annual themes, and fostered team spirit. Most shows were performed only once or a few times at closed corporate events, with limited souvenir LPs pressed for attendees.

Decline (1980s–1990s)

Shifts in corporate culture, budget tightening, and the rise of video-based communications reduced demand for large-scale live spectacles. While some companies continued to commission custom pieces, the golden era of the fully staged industrial musical waned.

Rediscovery (2000s–present)

Collectors and historians began uncovering scarce LPs and scripts, culminating in wider recognition through the 2018 documentary “Bathtubs Over Broadway.” Reappraisal highlighted the surprising craft and charm of the songwriting and the involvement of prominent Broadway talent, positioning industrial musicals as a fascinating, uniquely American intersection of commerce and show business.

How to make a track in this genre
Musical Language and Form
•   Use Broadway-style song forms (verse–chorus, AABA) with clear hooks and singable melodies. Pastiches of swing, big band, easy listening, and light jazz fit well. •   Structure the show as a revue: an overture, upbeat opening number, comedic specialty songs, a ballad or two, and a rousing finale that reiterates the corporate theme.
Lyrics and Messaging
•   Translate product features and business goals into witty, concrete lyrics. Turn specs into metaphors, slogans into refrains, and sales targets into memorable tag lines. •   Keep tone optimistic and motivational. Celebrate teams, customers, and innovation. Avoid insider jargon unless it can be humorously clarified in the song itself.
Instrumentation and Arranging
•   Pit orchestra or small big-band combo: rhythm section (piano, bass, drums, guitar), brass (trumpets, trombones), woodwinds/saxes, with optional strings for lush ballads. •   Write bright, punchy brass voicings for up-tempos and warm reed pads for mid-tempos. Use modulation and key lifts to heighten finales.
Choreography and Staging
•   Incorporate energetic ensemble choreography, simple prop work (product mock-ups, signage), and quick-change costumes keyed to brand colors. •   Use brief scripted patter to set up numbers and deliver key messaging before the musical payoff.
Production Process
•   Begin with a creative brief (brand values, product features, event theme). Develop a show outline mapping each message to a song moment. •   Workshop with performers to balance clarity, humor, and musicality. Close with a unifying anthem that leaves the audience energized and aligned.
Main artists
Influenced by
Musical
Musical (musical theatre) is a narrative stage form that integrates songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance to tell a story. Its core aim is dramatic storytelling in which music advances plot, deepens character, and shapes emotional arcs, often through recurring motives and reprises. Developed primarily on Broadway (New York) and later the West End (London), the genre blends operetta’s melodic lyricism, vaudeville’s variety entertainment, revue’s song-driven showcase, and Tin Pan Alley’s popular songcraft. Musicals range from intimate chamber pieces to large-scale "megamusicals," and from traditional book musicals to rock, hip‑hop, and concept-driven works. The musical’s songbook has fed the Great American Songbook and popular music at large, while the stage craft has influenced film, television, and concert performance.
Revue
A revue is a plot-light, multi-act stage entertainment that strings together songs, dances, comedy sketches, and specialty acts around a loose theme or topical satire. Unlike a book musical, a revue prioritizes spectacle and variety over narrative, showcasing chorus lines, star turns, witty patter songs, and lavish costumes and sets. Its musical numbers often reflect popular styles of their day (e.g., Tin Pan Alley, jazz age foxtrots) and can be easily excerpted as standalone songs.
Vaudeville
Vaudeville is a late‑19th to early‑20th‑century American variety stage tradition whose musical side blends comic songs, patter numbers, novelty tunes, sentimental ballads, ragtime interludes, and ensemble finales. It emphasized catchy melodies, memorable refrains, and clear diction so songs could land immediately with live audiences. Typical accompaniment was piano (often with a small pit ensemble of strings, reeds, and light percussion). Song forms favored verse–chorus and 32‑bar AABA structures, with simple diatonic harmony embellished by secondary dominants and ragtime‑style syncopation. Lyrics leaned into topical humor, character monologues, dialect turns (now recognized as historically problematic), and direct audience address. Unlike bawdier burlesque, vaudeville marketed itself as “family entertainment,” integrating music with comedy, dance, specialty acts, and novelty performance. Its stages and circuits incubated the American popular song, connected sheet‑music publishers with performers, and supplied early film and radio with talent and repertoire.
Big Band
Big band is a large-ensemble style of jazz and popular dance music built around brass, reed, and rhythm sections playing arranged parts. Typical instrumentation includes five saxophones (often doubling clarinet/flute), four trombones, four trumpets, and a rhythm section of piano, guitar, upright bass, and drum set. The music emphasizes swing rhythms, call-and-response between sections, riff-based writing, and dramatic shout choruses, while leaving space for improvised solos. Born in American ballrooms and theaters, big band became the sound of the Swing Era, providing both music for dancing and a platform for sophisticated arranging and orchestration that shaped much of 20th‑century jazz and popular music.
Swing
Swing is a jazz style centered on a buoyant, danceable groove created by a walking bass, four-to-the-bar rhythm guitar, a backbeat emphasis on 2 and 4, and a lilted “swung” eighth-note feel. Typically performed by big bands (saxes, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section) as well as small combos, it balances written arrangements with improvised solos. Hallmarks include call-and-response between horn sections, riff-based melodies, shout choruses that build intensity near the end of an arrangement, and rich sectional voicings grounded in blues language and ii–V–I harmonic motion. Tempos range from medium to brisk, serving social dances like the Lindy Hop and Jitterbug. Swing’s expressive phrasing, dance-floor focus, and sophisticated arranging made it the dominant popular music of the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Easy Listening
Easy listening is a lush, melodic, and unobtrusive style of popular orchestral music designed to be pleasant in the foreground and effortless in the background. It favors smooth textures, lyrical melodies, and gentle rhythms over virtuosic display or dense complexity. Typical arrangements feature string sections, woodwinds, soft brass, vibraphone, harp, piano, subtle Latin or light swing percussion, and sometimes wordless choirs. Repertoire often consists of standards, film and television themes, and instrumental covers of contemporary hits, presented with polished studio production and wide stereo imaging. The mood ranges from romantic and sentimental to breezy and exotic, prioritizing warmth, clarity, and relaxed pacing. Improvisation, if present, is restrained, with harmony that leans on jazzy extensions while staying consonant and approachable.
Pop
Pop is a broad, hook-driven style of popular music designed for wide appeal. It emphasizes memorable melodies, concise song structures, polished vocals, and production intended for radio, charts, and mass media. While pop continually absorbs elements from other styles, its core remains singable choruses, accessible harmonies, and rhythmic clarity. Typical forms include verse–pre-chorus–chorus, frequent use of bridges and middle-eights, and ear-catching intros and outros. Pop is not defined by a single instrumentation. It flexibly incorporates acoustic and electric instruments, drum machines, synthesizers, and increasingly digital production techniques, always in service of the song and the hook.
Jazz
Jazz is an improvisation-centered music tradition that emerged from African American communities in the early 20th century. It blends blues feeling, ragtime syncopation, European harmonic practice, and brass band instrumentation into a flexible, conversational art. Defining features include swing rhythm (a triplet-based pulse), call-and-response phrasing, blue notes, and extended harmonies built on 7ths, 9ths, 11ths, and 13ths. Jazz is as much a way of making music—spontaneous interaction, variation, and personal sound—as it is a set of forms and tunes. Across its history, jazz has continually hybridized, from New Orleans ensembles and big-band swing to bebop, cool and hard bop, modal and free jazz, fusion, and contemporary cross-genre experiments. Its influence permeates global popular and art music.
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