S/O Can we talk about how bad Lin-Manuel Miranda's music is?
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Anonymous
Great, now that's in my head for the rest of the day. |
Anonymous
I agree, OP. I loved Hamilton and it is genius. But then you listen to anything he’s done and it all sounds similar and not that creative. Very one note. But still impressed with Hamilton. |
Anonymous
It is a great soundtrack. But as someone who has very mixed feelings about LMM, I would note that Miranda didn't create that soundtrack on his own. At all. He worked with Mark Mancina, who is a master composer, and a Tokelauan songwriter named Opetaia Foa'i, who also performs on the soundtrack and whose music heavily influenced the tone and feel of the entire soundtrack. The score was composed by Mancina and all the songs that are heavily influenced and woven-in with the score are almost certainly Mancina-heavy, even where Miranda and Foa'i wrote or co-wrote lyrics. "We Know the Way" was the first song written for the movie and was primarily written by Foa'i with contributions from Miranda (I think Foa'i may have started working on this song before Miranda was even involved with the film, I am not sure). Foa'i obviously wrote all the lyrics not in English, and collaborated with Miranda on most of the most powerful songs on the soundtrack. Miranda wrote, on his own, the songs anyone could guess he wrote. Obviously "You're Welcome" and "Shiny", both written in LMM's very recognizable style, especially "You're Welcome." He also wrote "I am Moana" and "How Far I'll Go" though both of these lean heavily on elements of Mancina's score and have a little less of that LMM imprint. Also notable, "Shiny" was written explicitly for Jemaine Clement and is heavily based on a David Bowie tribute he did with Flight of the Conchords. LMM obviously wrote the song and you can tell, but the degree to which Clement's delivery and style is intrinsic to the song itself (as well as heavy Bowie influences) is a huge part of what elevates the song for me. I consider "Shiny" much more successful than "You're Welcome", as a piece of musical theater, and I think it's the collaborative elements that make this true. I have heard the soundtrack to Moana approximately 8 million times, so I feel I have some authority here. No question LMM is talented but the criticism of him is also valid. He has some personal tics and habits that he often leans too heavily on in his writing, and the results are often catchy but trite (and sometimes incredibly annoying) music. I think his young celebrity has sometimes allowed him more leeway to create on his own, to his own detriment, because he is an artist who benefits enormously from collaboration with other artists. His strike of genius with Hamilton was, itself, a form of collaboration, taking his strengths as a writer and marrying them to someone else's work in order to create something fresh and interesting. But when left entirely to his own devices, I think his output can be very pedestrian, as much of his work for Disney outside Moana has shown (have you seen/heard Vivo? It is actively quite bad). I often think the way his star rose so rapidly with Hamilton has been to the detriment of his artistic development. |
Anonymous
What’s the best song from Hamilton? Are they on the radio like other songs from Broadway plays? |
Anonymous
Nah, Hamilton was a hit because of the political angle and the exclusivity, little else. Five better things on/ off Broadway every year. |
Anonymous
| To be sure, most artists sound like caricatures of themselves after a while. Have you ever listened to the Eagles? Great band, but really most songs sound the same. |
Anonymous
+1 The Kennedy Center actors playing Hamilton were much stronger singers than him. You're not alone, OP. |
Anonymous
It's like Bill Nye the Science Guy chants for the NPR crowd |
Anonymous
| Yes, it's terrible. The only thing worse is when he performs. |
Anonymous
What radio do you listen to? I'm asking seriously. Show tunes aren't played much that I can hear. |
Anonymous
Exactly. |
Anonymous
| Just because YOU don't like it doesn't mean it's bad. It just means you don't like it. That's fine. |
Anonymous
Before you roll your eyes at those things, you should know that all of that was taken from mythology in the Pacific islands. So you’re not just disparaging some Disney creation. You’re disparaging the traditions of people who live on Hawaii, Samoa, etc. |
Anonymous
+1000 NP |
Anonymous
DP, but no they are not. They are criticizing (not "disparaging") the depiction of those myths as filtered through Disney's machine. Lots of people dislike the Disney versions of the Little Mermaid or Cinderella. No one claims that criticizing those movies is the same as "disparaging" Hans Christian Anderson or the storytelling tradition they come from. Come on. |