jennythereader | Perfect Examples

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So what songs do you guys point to and say "This song is a perfect example of what I mean when I say (whatever musical genre)?"

My examples are:
"Turn, Turn, Turn" by The Byrds; Folk-Rock
"Pastures of Plenty" and "This Land is Your Land" by Woody Guthrie; Folk
"They Can't Take That Away From Me" by Ella Fitzgerald; Jazz
"Sing, Sing, Sing" by Benny Goodman; Jazz
"Purple Haze" by Jimi Hendrix; Psychedelic Rock
"Twist and Shout" by The Beatles; Rock

There are others of course, but these are the ones that are at the top of my head at the moment.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

purpura.livejournal.com

Old School Broadway Musical - Oklahoma
Modern Broadway Musical - Into the Woods

From:

nounsandverbs

Like I told you in person (but posting here to spark a lively discussion) -- I excluded Sondheim and Rogers & Hammerstein because I think they are so much in a class by themselves that they are, in effect, their own genres. I could pick a "Perfect Sondheim Musical" or a "Perfect R&H Musical", but I wouldn't pick either one as an example of "perfect musical."

From:

purpura.livejournal.com

And I still support them as perfect. When they become the standard with which all others adhere to then how can the originators of the standard be anything but the "perfect" example?

And Ragtime had some issues that other modern musicals didn't have. Their better musical was Once on This Island.

From:

jennythe-reader.livejournal.com

See, I'm going to split the difference between you and

purpura

Since R&H basically invented the modern Broadway musical (i.e. a linear story with songs helping to advance the plot/character development), you can't remove them from the genre when choosing a perfect example.

Sondheim, on the other hand, I think is different enough from the rest of Broadway that he almost does deserve to be considered a separate genre.

From:

nounsandverbs

Very well, then. I guess I do agree with "Oklahoma" as a best R&H musical, with honorable mention to "South Pacific" and "The King and I."

Sondheim -- as brilliant as he is, and as much as I love him -- hasn't turned out to be as universally influential as R&H were. Many composers will wince if you compare their work to Sondheim's.

Still, I gotta go with "Sweeney Todd" as his best. And I have an unnatural fondness for "Sunday in the Park With George," despite its flaws.