Can musicals be an art form?

Musicals are often thought not to be art, rather they are seen as a mildly interesting form of entertainment. Indeed musicals are often slated as being  corny, non-sensical (due to the breaking into song) and overall bad. As such it is often seen wrong to state that musicals could be considered as a proper art form and in any way comparable to great works of literature or theatre in general.

But musicals should be considered as an art form that is comparable to that of plays or classic literature. That is not to say that all musicals are on level with the works of Tennessee Williams but it is also not to say that no musical can be of a similar artistic standard of such plays by virtue of being a musical alone. Indeed, musicals should not be judged as an inherently bad form of art as all works of literature should not be considered as an inherently bad art form just because a lot of books are shallow or uninteresting. It seems that people take musicals to be a genre of plays or movies rather than its own independent art form.  Therefore, people tend to over generalise and judge musicals as a whole as they take it to be a single genre rather than a category on its own. One would say they dislike musicals similar to how one may state that that dislike Romance novels, yet the same people would not state that they dislike fiction in general. Therefore one may state that they hate musicals and that musicals cannot be counted as proper art having only seen a handful of musicals made pre-1980 or having only seen Jukebox musicals or movie musicals. That is many will judge musicals entirely on a certain genre of musicals like one could discredit all books having simply hated reading romance and horror novels. Yet musicals come in all different forms and varieties. Whilst some musicals are quickly made relying solely on the popularity of the already existing music used in the show or the already popular movie from which is based, other musicals are formed far more gradually and with greater care, imagination and love, which ultimately leads to musicals which can be considered a proper art from comparable to great art pieces.

Indeed, musicals can be crafted in such a way to tell stories which are often thought to be unattractive or sometimes too dark for TV or movies and mainstream audiences. There are many musicals which produce more poignant and accurate stories surrounding mental health issues than most movies or other pieces of art and literature.  Musicals also have deep themes which are barely discussed or drawn upon in any other forms of art such as in Spring Awakening which focuses upon the severe negative impact that oppressive forms of religion and lack of sex education can have on teenagers. Next To Normal expands upon the daily struggle of a mother living with Bipolar, Come From Away shows the brilliance of humanity surrounding the aftermath of 9/11 and Bare: A Pop Opera centres the homophobia and struggles a teenager may face in a catholic school. The latter 3 musicals mentioned are all formed from  original stories which were written specifically for musical form. Many of these stories if written as straight literature would be praised and could even go on to become a literary classic. So why should the fact that these stories are told through song and are produced in musical form make them any less artful. 

And indeed some music produced in the musical format should be appreciated and be seen as far more than cheesy or corny but should be seen as comparable to some works of Opera or Classical Music (which is often considered as an art form). Some musical music is written over a decade with beautiful orchestration which incorporates multiple instruments beautifully with certain key changes and musical themes which transport you back to other stages of the production.  Lyrics are often witty and not simply rhyming for rhyming sake, they have intricate references to its source material and repeated motifs to signify the characters development. Musicals such as The HunchBack Of Notre Dame also incorporate church choirs to make the music ever more awe inspiring and chilling. Indeed just because a character is expressing themselves through song does not inherently signal cheesy storytelling as instead it can provide an expression of emotion that could not be found simply in words alone. 

Indeed I think musicals are often treated unfairly by the general public, often seen as women's entertainment and therefore not truly art and generalised by a couple of average yet extremely famous musical movies. If people were to stop making generalisations about musicals and rather take it as it own category of media not simply a genre, allowing themselves to experience many different types of musicals, many would come to see how beautiful musicals can be and see it as an art form.