Musicals and music concerts have grown steadily as a representing genre of performing arts. Since 2006, musicals have grown at an annual average rate of 16%, and concerts have grown at an average rate of 24%. However, music concerts` audience base is ...
Musicals and music concerts have grown steadily as a representing genre of performing arts. Since 2006, musicals have grown at an annual average rate of 16%, and concerts have grown at an average rate of 24%. However, music concerts` audience base is not as broad as the musical. The main audiences of domestic musicals are still concentrated in the 20s and 30s, but in the United States and Great Britain, where the musical history is older than Korea, the proportion of over 40 audiences is also high. Although the domestic musical market has yet to reach maturity, it can be expected that if the musical market enters the maturation period of the US and the UK, the audience base will be broader than the present. On the other hand, in the case of music concerts, it is very rare to visit concert regularly, and the percentage of 10s and 20s is close to 80%. Under these circumstances, I think it is necessary to broaden the audience base through the changes of music concerts.
In this study, I tried to find the difference between the stage aesthetics difference of musicals and music concerts. The stage aesthetics of the musical is more spectacular than the that of the popular music concert. These differences stimulate audiences, and may even lead to differences in the audience base. Therefore, I compared the musical <Aida>, <Black Mary Poopins> and popular music concert SHINee, EXO concert stage to investigate what factors lead to differences in stage aesthetics. This study will reveal characteristics of musical and music concert stages and contribute to the development of popular music concert genres. The differences I found through this study between musicals and popular music concerts analyzed through the musicals Aida, Black Mary Poppins and SHINee and EXO concert are as follows.
The difference of stage is as follows. The stage of a music concert is structured so that the audience can see the singer best. The musical stage is structured so that the audience can see all parts of the stage.
Secondly, lighting of music concerts is more colorful than that of musicals. This is because unlike a concert where audience has to enjoy the stage itself, the musical must be able to see the situation on the stage well.
Third, the musical is structured so that the audience can listen to the actors' dialogue best. The audience must be able to listen to the lyrics to understand the song and follow the story.
Fourth, the VCR of the concert is made around the singer. Most of the images used in the concert are for singers to explain the concept of the concert or to evoke the atmosphere of audience. Musical images, on the other hand, are used to overcome the limitations of the stage. In particular, in the case of small-scale creative musicals such as the musical <Black Mary Poppins>, they can not invest a lot of money in the stage production, so they want to overcome the problem of the budget with the VCR.
Lastly, storytelling is the biggest difference between musicals and music concerts. Musicals are made based on storytelling. The musical number is written and composed based on this story, so it can be thought that the story is the most valuable factor of musicals. Other aesthetic elements in this study are also made to complement the story. On the contrary, there is no storytelling in music concerts. Although there is a concept of performance, there is no storytelling that supports the whole performance.
According to this research, stage aesthetic differences between musicals and music concerts are due to the presence of storytelling. Musicals with storytelling can provide a variety of sights to the audience. Therefore, music concert stage aesthetics is expected to be advanced to the next level if storytelling is introduced.
Currently, there is no concert with a full-fledged story. I hope that this study will contribute to the development of an interesting popular music concert with a story.
The most disappointing part of this research was that it was not easy to find out the difference between musicals and popular music concerts solely on the performances that I choose. Also, there are many stage aesthetic elements such as actors, costumes, etc. Hence, I hope that there will be many researches that will contribute to the development of music concerts by other researchers by exploring the different aesthetic elements of the theater and revealing the aesthetic differences of musicals and concerts.