History Is Happening
Society is a crazy place where questionable trends somehow spread. Now most of the time, I never understand why these things happen because I do not keep up on the latest must have clothing item or beloved hit song that is played a thousand times in three hours. Although I do pay some attention to modern music, the songs are mostly ones I would not pick out as a jam. Instead I stick to my theatre related show tunes CDs and avoid the radio. I am a HUGE theatre geek who has been acting for like 10 years (no you have never heard of me) and has be listening to show tunes since a child. So in 2015 the theatre community exploded and everyone was talking about their uncontrollable obsessions with some musical called Hamilton by Lin-Manual Miranda.
Naturally I had to look into it. The basic idea is that it is a rap musical with a multitude of songs and colored cast that tells the true story of Alexander Hamilton and how, with the help of others, shaped the country. I did not have high hopes, but I was still curious so I listened to a few songs. Rap was not my first choice, but I have to keep updated in the theatre community. I can admit that it was good, not my favorite, but still enjoyed it (and even to this day it is still not in my top favorite musical list), however when crazy fans would ask if I heard Hamilton, I would reply with "of course! Ugh so good!" and it was because I respected what it did. However this love spread out of the theatre community and to normal non-theatre people. Show tunes do not usually leave the bubble, but this one did and I wanted figure out why, but the actors involved had small followings for their talent or were not well known. Hamilton started winning every award from multiple Tony awards and ever a Grammy. Everyone heard of Hamilton.
Much like the young Hamilton obsessed with writing and researched, I started to look into the firsts that this musical did. The combination of rap, history, and colored cast was, was different and there were different styles of music other than rap throughout with detailed lyrics that described the human condition during happiness and during times of struggle. However I work a lot so I would listen look into it on my free time and it was never enough to fully understand it. Either way it grew and grew, and currently in April 2017 it is still incredibly difficult (or the run sold out in hours) to get these expensive tickets to see the Broadway cast, Chicago cast, National tour cast and even soon the London cast. It really is everywhere.
But I was given the opportunity to create an online project on anything I was interested in so my investigation skills kicked in and this was my chance to write and analyze the lyrics of the show. After all this is what is most accessible to the general public. My goal was to understand why the musical became so popular and how the words of this show promote the themes of legacy and what it takes for people to move past their helpless situation until they are satisfied with what people will remember them.
For this project I used the website Genuis.com to get the lyrics because they were verified by Lin-Manual Miranda, who wrote the music and lyrics and stared as Alexander Hamilton. Now this website does have commentary about the lyrics, but I tried to stay to my own personal discoveries. I made two copies of the lyrics to the show, one with the character's names next what they sing and then a version without the names with just the words, then ran them thru a system called Voyant to see how many total words were in the song, how many words were in the song if each repeated word was counted once, and what the most used words were. Each page also consists a summary of what is going on in the song, that I understood from just looking at the story the lyrics tell, who sings the song, and my analysis. If all these characters are hard to keep track of who is in what song, there is also a Coggle mind map that I created with each character who is considered, a main or supporting, (there are some featured ensemble member solos, but I did not put them on the mind map because it would just be the one song), a little about them and the song they sing with a link back to the analysis page.
A huge part of this story is using one's time to create a legacy they are proud of that will hold up in the ever changing time. The most common words in all of the lyrics are "I'm" and "know", so there is a focus on knowledge of the individual. This comes with discovery and creation and that is what I hope to do with this project. If all else fails, it is a slice of the possible commentary on a show that has cemented its position in popular musicals, but also has made its spot trying to help mend the current turmoil of the world. Shows like this rarely do this to a whole culture. So off I go on my journey to find out why.
Genius lyrics page: https://genius.com/albums/Lin-manuel-miranda/Hamilton-original-broadway-cast-recording
Coggle Hamilton character mind map: https://coggle.it/diagram/WNMHd-Ej5QAB6iqC