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Analysis Of Miranda's Hamilton: An American Musical

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Lin Manuel Miranda’s renowned Hamilton: An American Musical, has become extremely well known for its soundtrack, being nominated alongside modern hip-hop legends, and eventually claiming victory in the 2015 billboard nominations for best hip-hop album, and being openly accessible to people through many music platforms. Miranda’s use of hip-hop in the telling of a what would otherwise arguably be a dry topic of the American underdog, Alexander Hamilton by connecting a white-washed old story to a diverse young audience. Hip-hop has evolved into a universal language of revolution and power to many generations and the use of this language allowed Miranda to revolutionize modern musical theater. Hip-hop in the musical Hamilton has so many significant …show more content…

Marvin McAllister in Toward a more perfect Hamilton went on to say that, “Hamilton as a cultural movement and protest speaks loudly to younger generations who see ethnicity in fluid terms, on collective and individual levels.” Brian Eugenio Herrera, in Miranda’s Manifesto summarizes these unique casting calls and use of hip hop, “Miranda bridges gap, radically inventive way. Does not import hip hop on Broadway, innovates inventive hybrid musical and theatrical sensibility that remains fundamentally rooted in both.” A few of the most notable casting calls related to several main characters were Aaron Burr, “Javert meets Mos Def.”, George Washington, “John Legend meets Mufasa”, Hercules Mulligan, “Busta Rhymes meets Donald O’Connor, Peggy Schuyler “Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child”, and very importantly Hamilton, “Eminem meets Sweeney Todd” and Eliza, “Alicia keys meets Elphaba.”. Through the use of this unique and distinct casting call it was clear from day one that many classic old school rap artists had already contributed lots of inspiration to the show and the characters that were to preform them. The use of purposefully and direct comparison and contrast between classical musical theater characters …show more content…

Through the inferred meaning and evolution of hip hop from a class in America that was often deemed lower and inspired revolution and power, this language of power and revolution was strongly related to several grandfathers of Rap and Hip-hop that inspired Miranda throughout the process that helped form dynamics and subtle backstories of characters, so much that he went on to extend these inspirations to the casting call and role summaries exposed to the public. The history-making soundtrack will become an anthem and inspiration for future generations of revolutionaries. The language of Rap was extraordinarily used by Miranda and effectively connected people who wouldn’t usually connect to the story of the founding fathers of what became a suppressive system that nurtured the birth of the revolutionary language that spoke out against it. Hamilton: An American Musical embodies America in the historical aspect of the founding fathers and the modern America that resulted from their actions in an elegant

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