音乐剧《Hairspray》讲述了1962年美国巴尔的摩的故事。主角Tracy Turnblad是一个乐观、热爱跳舞的高中生，她梦想在当地一档很火的电视节目“The Corny Collins Show”上跳舞。尽管面临种种阻力，包括种族隔离和电视节目的白人主导，Tracy凭借自己的热情和勇气，不仅成为了节目的明星，还带领朋友们挑战种族歧视，推动电视节目的种族融合。她的故事鼓舞人心，展现了一个普通女孩如何通过坚持和努力改变周围世界的力量...

今天的节目，不光是讨论音乐剧，更是介绍了里头很“上头”的几首曲目给大家，精彩不容错过噢~~

Hi, everyone. And welcome back to The Sound of Musicals. 欢迎回来【曲外之音】. Now this is the second episode of the musical called Hairspray《发胶》. Hi, Oliver.

Hello.

So, in the previous episode, we talked about the long storyline. Long, but it is actually quite easy to understand. Right?

Yeah. It took a while to describe properly, but it is very straightforward. There's no sort of secret things in there. It's very much what you see is what you get.

Yeah. There are not a lot of plot twists, like you said, very straightforward.

Yeah. And it brings very openly some of the things that we're going to talk about today.

Exactly. So let's look at the themes. And before we move on to the music, the themes we talked about civil rights movement, about this whole racial segregation, 上一节说的这个当时60年代，这个剧本身，它的设定是60年代，美国的种族隔离什么的, so obviously one of the themes is racial prejudice and civil rights.

Yes, so as you mentioned, at the time this musical is set, it was in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement, where the African American society, the African American community were trying to get equal rights and the racial segregation and the discrimination. It was legal which is terrible to think of today, but it was a legal thing. It was horrible.

Exactly. Yeah, it's like back then they even had, for example, what they call blacks only, let's say everything, like rooms or toilets, and whites only. So that was a horrible thing to think about, especially it's so recent. It's not like we're not talking about hundreds of years ago. It was literally in the 60s.

Yes, it's strange to think how close it was, 60 years ago and there were specific seats on buses where only white people could sit and black people could sit. It was... “the past is another country” is a famous saying, but that is, it's an unsettling bit of history.

Exactly. So obviously they were fighting for more racial equality to end racial prejudice. But I think Tracy as the leader of this whole activist group, shall we call it the whole rally? I think she is fighting not just for African American rights, because I mean, she is not black, because she herself is also facing prejudice and discrimination because of her size.

Yes, so it's kind of a modern day thing which is the idea of fat shaming. I don't, I'm not sure in the 50s or 60s that would have been a large or well known issue, but today it certainly is with plus size models and people of larger sizes, becoming more and more in the public eye, on movies, and in shows and things like that.

Exactly.

There is progress being made and Hairspray talks about it and helps to bring that into the light.

Yeah, it's just people are more vocal about it, more open about it. So, Oliver, you've heard of this whole idea called body positivity, right?

I have, yes, yeah. Where you take your body as it is, and that's who you are, and that's fantastic.

To be honest, sometimes there's a debate or there's a controversy around this whole body positivity. Some people are questioning if it has been taken too far. For example, if you're obviously unhealthy obese and you're still saying this is body positivity, is it necessarily a nice message to send to the public?

That's a difficult question.

I'm putting you on the spot.

Yeah, very much, so I feel that whilst it is a positive and a good thing to be happy with your body and how you look.

There should be the realization that just because you're happy with how your body is, that doesn't mean it's necessarily the healthiest thing.

As you said, there are, I mean I'm going to say there are some obese people as a clinical term. There are some obese people who do not seek medical help. They do not try to improve themselves, because they may feel of their body is fantastic, and they have nothing to be ashamed of.

That's good. If they're not ashamed of their bodies that is absolutely fine. I am very, very happy for them because it's a difficult thing to do sometimes. But...

It's a touchy subject. I can see how careful you are.

I'm trying really hard to be careful, because I know it is a touchy subjects, and I know people sensitive and upset about these things.

But I do think that it shouldn't... body positivity shouldn't stay in the way of...

Health, general health.

Yeah, medical health, and like just as you say, personal health. I would say that there are limits to that there should be limits to body positivity when it starts to really, really affect your life.

I mean...

Yeah, exactly.

It's fine being positive, but if you're damaging your health by this, it's not the way to go in my opinion.

Yeah, and it's like for me, it really, it's okay whatever you want to do to your own body, because that is your own right. You're within your own right to do so. But to promote a message, for example, if you're an influencer and you're promoting a message, you gotta be a bit careful, because you might be influencing other people. So that is where I draw the line.

Yeah, definitely so. If you're telling other people that they don't need to seek medical help or they don't need to lose weight, because that's other people trying to shame them. And if that message is harming the lives and the health of other people then yeah, that is definitely a line that should not be crossed.

Back to Hairspray, the show in itself is actually very healthy in a way the messages it sends, it’s really don't be ashamed of yourself just because you're different, just because you don't fit into the societal norms, especially the societal norms of femininity, you know, for example, what a woman should be like. I think this is Tracy, the main girl's message. She's so positive. This is why when we move on to the music, I'm sure you would feel the same since we were talking about this before the recording. It's just her positivity is almost contagious.

It is, when she's, as I think it's maybe your favorite song we'll talk about later is the opening song, there is infectious positivity from that song. It's very, very good.

Exactly.

So apart from like talking about fat shaming, racism, discrimination, it also talks about freedom of expression and the focus on individuality.

It does, yeah, in the modern world we have today. There is so much more opportunities for freedom of expression than in almost any point in history, it used to be that men had to look a certain way, dress a certain way, do certain things. And there were a different set of rules for women. But nowadays it's much more accepted that if this is what you want, go for it, freedom of expression has come a long way, which I think is a very good thing, allows people to live the lives they want to live and live it happily.

Exactly. Actually this is how I feel about when I was living in London. For example, I think London is, I'm sure there are other places like that, that gives you a feeling that it's okay just to be you, just to be let your own individuality show. It doesn't matter what you do, how you look and you can just be you.

Yeah, I was quite lucky where I grew up, my hometown, it's a very small village, but they had the most accepting culture of any place nearby. If you wanted to dress a certain way or do a certain thing, nobody would stop you. There were whole parades through the street, just different times of the year for people just to express themselves. It was fantastic. And so I grew up in that atmosphere. And freedom of expression has always been very much a kind of in your face, sort of thing for my life. And it was wonderful.

Yeah. I guess that's why you always sound very inclusive, very open-minded.

In my opinion, if you want to live your life your way, go for it, don't let anybody else stop you.

Yeah, as long as you're not hurting other people, why not?

Exactly, exactly, yes.

Okay. That's enough about the theme. Let's move on to music since I recommended this to you. Oliver tell us which one is your favorite number.

When I was listening through them, my favorite number was You Can't Stop The Beat. I had a great time listening to that one.

Yeah, what do you like about it?

Just it's so again, it's so upbeat. It's so kind of happy, but also the lyrics, they say kind of a little secret message. If you kind of listen to them carefully, it's really good, it's really fun.

So let's look at some of the lyrics, so for example, on the surface, it just feels like they're talking about the music beat, like the music and dance. You can't stop the beat, because we're dancing, we're singing, but you know you can try to stop my dancing feet. But I just cannot stand still, cause the world keeps spinning round and round.

And my heart's keeping time to the speed of the sound, but if you delve deeper, they are literally sending a message, saying that the world is progressing, the world is getting more woke and enlightened and inclusive. And there's nothing you can do about it. If you decide to be close-minded, you know you still cannot stop the trend.

Exactly, yeah, it comes across as being about just music, but you can't stop an avalanche as it races down the hill. You can't stop the seasons. You know you never will, like it's all about once this movement has started, once these changes have begun, there is no stopping them. It is gonna happen. So get with it or get out of the way, type of thing.

Exactly. And it's also a very catchy tune. Let's listen to that a bit.

It's one of those songs even the first time you hear it, you just can't help humming.

It was stuck in my head for a little bit after I heard it. It really is.

Good, good. So the one that I really like you mentioned when we're talking about the theme, it's called good morning, Baltimore.

Haha, brilliant. It is a great opening number to a show. It just gives you so much positivity straight away.

Yeah. This is in the very beginning of the show. It showcases our main character, Tracy. She's going to school, she's a teenage girl, she's going to school, and she's just so cheerful and upbeat, confident, and she has this larger than life personality. She sounds like a diva. She is a diva, in the nicest possible sense.

In the best way, this number walking down the streets going to school as a diva is brilliant.

Yeah, and I don't know if you noticed the lyrics, it's really positivity to the point of just it makes you laugh, because she has so much love for this world for this town that she's in for her life, her passion for music and dance. She says things like “my ma tells me no, but my feet tell me go”.

And then she says I can't... don't make me, one more moment for my life to start. And then she says, for example, she talks about the city, she's in. She says the rats on the street, all dance around my feet. They seem to say, “Tracy, it's up to you.”

It's just such positivity in quite a, I mean, if you think about it, that's not a nice sight to see if you're walking down the road, but then suddenly they’re... they're dancing and they're saying go for it.

I will definitely freak out if I see rats on the street dance around my feet. I would just scream.

How most people would, yeah.

Yeah. I know she also says “Good morning, Baltimore. There's the flasher who lives next door.” If you guys don't know what flasher is, flasher is someone who would show the public their naked body. So that's a flasher(暴露狂). It's actually against the law.

Obviously definitely. Yes.

There's the bum on his bathroom stool. A bum is like a homeless person and say they wish me luck on my way to school. So even seeing the rats, seeing the flasher and the bum, she still feels it doesn't stop her positivity.

It doesn't, it doesn't, which is, it is good.

But it's also again it's pointing out like the city where she's in, not everything is good or great. There's rats on the streets. There are people doing illegal things and there's homeless people like it's another little message that they slide in with the lyrics there.

Okay, let's listen to this bit.

Yeah, I think we don't really have that much time to listen to the other music scores. But there's some wonderful pieces like Mama, I'm a big girl now.

That is a good one that I do like that one a lot. Yeah. It's a very rebellious teenager song.

So before we wrap up this episode, Oliver, I mean you sound so calm and nice. Very gently right now, I mean, I'm just wondering can't really picture you as a rebellious teenager. Were you rebellious when you were a teenager?

I was terrible, I was awful, my poor parents, I tell you.

Really?

They put up with a lot. When I was a teenager, I was, I went out, I didn't do anything bad. I was just out with my friends playing computer games, but it was late.

Ahh.

And so often I wasn't particularly nice to my parents. So I'm very lucky that they kind of just accepted it and continued to help me and things. And as you say, I've changed a lot now. But my teenage years were a little bit rocky, to say the least.

Well. And trust me, I was much much worse. I was into goth, so...

Woo, I didn't go there. That was not my...

Yeah, really dark stuff. OKay. And on that note, we're gonna wrap up here. And if you are interested, try to listen to some of these music scores in this musical called Hairspray. I mean they didn't win all of those awards for nothing. It is they have very catchy tunes. I'm sure some of you will like them.

Okay, and thank you, Oliver for coming to the show and I can't wait for our next recording where we get into another musical.

Thank you. It'll be very good. I'm looking forward to it.

Okay. We'll see you next time.

Goodbye.