Musicals in Fanfic and Canon

[ysabetwordsmith]

I came across the fanfic "A Very Sherlock Musical," which is actually a great deal deeper than it seems. Begin with the premise: So, you know how musicals are set in a world where people just burst into song every five minutes, and everyone around them automatically knows to join in with the tune and choreography? This fic is set in that world. You now know enough to write brilliant fanfic of your own in whatever canon you wish, using the same premise. Add the plot: John finds it extremely frustrating that Sherlock won't sing their theme song with him.

Here we have a motif straight out of crackfic, the musical episode. Yet the author uses this setting to explore some very serious issues -- it's actually a story about attachment problems told through the metaphor of musical interaction or rejection. Touch on another Sherlock motif, and what you have is fantastic analog of asexuality: a situation in which Sherlock doesn't want to do the thing that everyone else is doing, and people think less of him for not liking it and not understanding why it's So Very Important to them. There's quite a lot of astute exploration into how social ties form between couples or work groups, and how that gets expressed.

This story reminds me strongly of "Once More, with Feeling." That famous episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer showed the problems that can come from stripping away filters and forcing people to sing about their feelings. In that show, they're not used to it, because it's not natural; it's demonic influence. Compare that with the above story set in a world where musical interactions are the norm.

Another variation is Happy Feet, in which all penguins are expected to sing, and the one who can't gets rejected.

There is a lot of potential to explore more challenges caused by living in a musical world. Most musicals never examine the fact that they are musicals. They just do their thing, a quirky little commentary on everyday life. But when they become genre-savvy, a whole new realm of possibilities opens up. How does the musicality work? What can go wrong with it? How do people cope with disabilities -- being deaf, blind, mobility-impaired, etc. in a world where singing and dancing are fundamental aspects of every human interaction?

I'm not all that fond of musicals, but I'm fascinated by the "musical world" as an AU setting template.

Comments

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Did you know that rap and related genres have their roots in African poetry, which is declaimed rather than sung or spoken? It's why rap has that particular sound in between the two. You can listen to African poetry slams today, and compare that with tribal examples from history, and hear the commonalities. It's also why you hear so much call-and-response in both African-American poetry and churches -- it's out of Africa. :D

Re: Well ...

[thnidu]

Oh my. Thank you for this elucidation. — Do you have a source to cite?

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I've read about this for decades. Here are some references I turned up online:

https://penandthepad.com/characteristics-african-american-literature-8595869.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_in_Africa

https://news.uark.edu/articles/23774/king-fahd-center-hosts-lebanese-oral-poetry-duel

http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum211/CoursePack/praisesongs.htm

http://articles.latimes.com/1987-12-01/news/vw-25908_1_south-africans

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/vachel-lindsay

http://colemizestudios.com/how-did-rap-start/

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[technoshaman]

Ooooh.... turns out this call-and-response thing in sea shanties *came from* the African style... and it was picked up mostly by *American merchies*, not British men'o'war. (British fighting ships were by rule no-talking zones during an evolution, so that orders could be heard... instead of a shanty, the bosun would play his pipe, or a fife or fiddle would be used to keep the beat, but no singing.) *reads further* Aha. While the sailors were free men, the *stevedores* often were not... and there's where the songs jumped the gap. The capstan shanty, in particular, was derived from the stevedores using huge jackscrew capstans to stuff the cotton their brothers and sisters had harvested into the holds.

The age of steam killed the shantyman's job (and much of the music onboard ship), but the old tars weren't going down lightly, and set about preserving their music; to this day, the old shanties can be heard along many a waterfront (including Seattle's Center for Wooden Boats, a supremely appropriate venue).

Re: Well ...

[technoshaman]

(Of course, the fact that the shantyman's job *onboard ship* has been dead and gone a century or more doesn't mean that his job in the pub or on the concert hall stage is done, no, not atall... I've had the pleasure of hearing a few live. Hank Cramer and the "Crew of the Constellation" (among whose number was Heather Alexander, who was known to sing a shanty or two of her own), Séan McCann late of Great Big Sea... and then there was a certain Ontario chap who got tired of singing chanteys because he could sing along but never got to sing lead .... so he wrote one of his own, about a leaky, near-derelict Canadian privateer named the Antelope, so he could sing lead...

No, of *course* I didn't forget. How *could* I?

o/~ So here I sit in twenty-eighteen
    How I wish there was more fanfic now
It's been five years since the lyrics post
I've gotta stop laughing, or give up the ghost!
God help us all! I was told
We'd peruse for free, refining gold,
We'd sire no puns, spread no jeers.
Now I'm a broken fan laughing into my beer
The last of Barrette's Private Ears.

(No, of course, it's not that bad, I can breathe, really... but it *is* just that good... and of *course* I had to tweak it. Because *filk*. ;)

Re: Well ...

[thnidu]

Hee hee hee! Sir, I am honored. At first I was wondering. Then at line 6 I was startled, then almost overcome with egoboo. Thank you, sir!

Re: Well ...

[technoshaman]

*laughter* As I learnt myself in this very corner of cyberspace, be careful what you tell even an apprentice bard, you're liable to hear it again... RIGHT, Ysabet?! ;)

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Yea, verily.

We had occasion to write down a defining word about ourselves tonight. Mine was Bard. :D

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[technoshaman]

As well it should be!

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Honestly, worksongs will crop up anywhere you have people doing a lot of work. I've heard it happen. The challenge is that now, people don't know all the same songs, unless they work together regularly or they share a common background.

Some cultures have kept it up more than others, though. Agricultural workers in the South, if black, often know and use some of the cotton calls or other field songs. Shanteys on the docks. *laugh* And you put Native Americans together anywhere, they will sing, and they'll find something to bang for a drum. I saw one video from a lacrosse locker room where someone started chanting, they all joined in, someone else grabbed a bucket to turn over and a minute later a bunch of them were drumming on it. <3 community.

Re: Well ...

[technoshaman]

Yeah, and put two filkers together *anywhere* and you're liable to get a musical... I remember one dark and stormy night(tm) me and bethinexile were waiting for New Years' Eve fireworks, and found ourselves singing the aforementioned Mr. Rogers' "Giant"... because it kinda seemed appropriate for the nasty weather...

♫ Cold wind on the harbour and rain on the road
Wet promise of winter brings recourse to coal
There's fire in the blood and a fog on Bras d'Or
The giant will rise with the moon ♪

G-d I miss Stan. One of these years, I hope, Nathan or Garnet will grace whatever great hall we have at the time... stupid pant loo fire...