Show tunes

I was in a discussion recently about what makes a song a show tune. I want to open the subject up for discussion.

Songs from "Fiddler on the Roof", "Oklahoma", or "Sweeney Todd" are totally show tunes. They're shows with a copious amount of singing and dancing, but not so much that they become operas.

"Doctor Faust", "The Rape of Lucretia", or "Madam Butterfly" are all singing all the time. So they're opera.

But what of that episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" where there was all the singing and dancing? The episode called "Buffy: The Musical"? Not familiar with it? Watch this.


Honestly, there's a good case for calling it a show tune. It was written to sound like a show tune. The only reasons to say it isn't is because it's a TV show instead of a stage show and was kind of written as a joke episode.

Now, what about "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut"?


It's a musical. My only hesitation is because it's also a cartoon and a comedy. Can "Uncle Fucker" really be in the same category as "Sunset Boulevard"?



It's easy to put all of these in the same category if you want to. Let us move then into shakier territory. Theme songs.
"Charmed" and "Smallville" and loads of others have theme songs that are shortened versions of much longer songs. "Cheers" has a theme song that has an extended version. But they're theme songs. Someone sings them for the show. But they're not performed as part of the show. They don't have the same feel as songs from musicals tend to have.



What about movie soundtracks? Is the theme to "Star Wars" a show tune? How about recurring music during the movie? Like the "Imperial March"? Maybe the "Cantina Theme" qualifies better than the other two. Or do show tunes need lyrics to qualify?



How about the "Klingon Battle Theme" from pretty much every Star Trek anything.
This is the full song, but there's that chorus that gets inserted into every song when Klingons are around.


Let's take this a different direction. What about existing songs that get used in movies?
"My Sharona" gets used in movies all the time. So does "My Generation". If I buy their CD and one of their songs gets used in a movie does it become a show tune? If it does, what happens when the song is used in a commercial? Is the answer different if I bought the movie's CD instead of the band's CD?


Now the real toughie. "Mamma Mia". The discography of Abba made into a musical performed on stage and on screen. Do the songs used in "Mamma Mia" qualify as show tunes?


I look forward to your answers.