Simply put, a musical which uses pre-existing popular songs. These songs will often originate from the works of a singular band/singer/composer, but having a variety of artists mix-and-matched together to provide the score isn't uncommon; hence jukebox musical. When it comes to narrative strength, it tends to vary due to many examples being written around the songs, as opposed to traditional musicals that have their songs explicitly created as part of the story. Sometimes the plot will actually be the story of the band/musician whose music is being used. Regardless, it's generally good fun to listen to all of the hits.
A subcategory of the Jukebox Musical are Jukebox Soundtracks: works that aren't categorized as musicals, but have a soundtrack composed of preexisting material. In addition, both Jukebox Musical and Jukebox Soundtrack works may only have the majority of their soundtrack consist of such material; a decent amount of original music may be composed for the score, especially in examples that are more narrative-driven or have the story written first and the music chosen to compliment it.
The greatest strength and greatest weakness of the Jukebox Musical is that members of the audience may have heard these songs before, especially if they are popular ones. As a strength, that means that they can easily work as emotional shorthand if they're already associated with a certain mood in pop culture, bolstering the narrative of the work. As a weakness, audience members could have strong memories related to these songs that can cause Mood Dissonance. For example, the cool rock song you chose to emphasize the hero's He's Back! moment could end up reminding one audience member of their first college breakup, another of a deceased family member, or another of some old phone ad, diminishing the intended emotional impact of the scene. In the worst case scenario — and why they are frequently met with criticism as a concept — the songs are inserted with no context at all or with completely misunderstood or inappropriate applications, but this can be an advantage in more comedic productions.
Contrast Rock Opera, which are concept albums wherein all the songs are meant from the get-go to form a singular narrative. See also Real Song Theme Tune (the work has an original soundtrack, but the main theme is a preexisting song); Song Fic (when a Fan Fiction incorporates song lyrics throughout); and All Musicals Are Adaptations (for works based on other pre-existing properties and usually use their signature songs). May be prone to making examples of The Cover Changes the Meaning. Biopics about famous musicians inherently can't avoid this.
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Traditional Examples
Multiple Dedicated Musicals
- ABBA:
- Mamma Mia! is one of the most popular examples, and tells the story of a woman looking for her real father before her wedding, with the music of ABBA. It was also adapted into a live-action film.
- Said film got a sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, which acts as both sequel (showing the protagonist Sophie dealing with doubts about her career an her own impending motherhood) and prequel (showing her mother Donna in her adolescence meeting each of her three potential fathers). It only has three songs reprised from the first film, with all other musical numbers using ABBA songs that were unused in the play and first film.
- Predating both was "Abbacadbra", a children's musical produced for French television in 1983, and later adapted to both stage versions and international airings. Not the straightest example since Don Black put new lyrics to the songs to make a panto-type show with revisionist vignettes of stories like "Cinderella" and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. They were made up largely from ABBA's less well-known songs like I'm a Marionette, and the stories and songs could differ between productions.
- The soundtrack for Muriel's Wedding is almost entirely composed of ABBA songs, fitting with Muriel's obsession with the band.
- The Beatles have had a few of these:
- Across the Universe (2007): A movie musical set before and during the Vietnam War using Beatles music to tell the story.
- In the late 1970s, there was Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), which used music from the album of the same name.
- The 1974 off-Broadway stage musical Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band on the Road, directed by Jesus Christ Superstar's Tom O'Horgan and featuring the movie adaptation's titular star Ted Neeley as Billy Shears, which would later (ever so loosely) inspire the aforementioned film.
- Yellow Submarine, an animated Jukebox Musical.
- The late 70s Broadway musical Beatlemania, which was adapted into a film of the same name, was a musical revue telling something close to a biographical history of the band using their music.
- Celia Cruz had two posthumous stage musicals dedicated to and using her works, ¡Azúcar! in 2005 and Celia! in 2008.
- Songwriter Irving Berlin made a whole series of these: for each of the movies Alexander's Ragtime Band (which was to have been a Biopic until Berlin said no), Blue Skies, Easter Parade and There's No Business Like Show Business, he provided a score containing a mixture of his old hits and a few newly written songs. Alexander's Ragtime Band and There's No Business Like Show Business had only a couple of new songs each; Blue Skies and Easter Parade had roughly as many new Irving Berlin songs as old ones. (White Christmas, however, had mostly new songs, as did its predecessor Holiday Inn.)
- Take That have had two:
- Never Forget was about their 90's heyday.
- Greatest Days (and it's film adaptation) uses their songs to tell the story of a group of five teenagers who reunite after one wins a radio competition.
Fan Works
- Freewill in 2112, a fan-made musical based on the music of the Canadian prog rock band Rush— ironically set in the Oppressive States of America.
- A common trope that occurs in Glee fan works that endeavor to replicate the show's on style.
- Glee Reprise
- Glee: The New York Story
- Glee The Virtual Season Four took advantage of the fact that it didn't have to get rights for various songs by incorporating songs from Disney films, and the Pokémon theme.
- Twice Gleeful
Film - Animated
- The Book of Life uses a mixture of different songs, all played with acoustic guitar and mariachi music. They include stuff from Mumford & Sons, Radiohead, and a few original songs.
- Gnomeo & Juliet: The whole movie is set to the music of Elton John.
- Sing, a 2016 animated film from Illumination Entertainment, manages to sneak at least small snippets of at least 80 different songs from the 1940s to the 2010s, with the main cast getting full performances of their own variety of numbers. The sequel, Sing 2, follows the same pattern and features another 41 songs.
- Both animated films by Nina Paley, Sita Sings the Blues and Seder-Masochism, use pre-existing recordings of songs as musical numbers, re-contextualized to tell the plot of the Ramayana and the Book of Exodus, respectively.
- The 2014 animated film Strange Magic is filled to the brim with covers of pop songs from pretty much every decade.
- Trolls: There are a few original numbers, but most of the songs are reworked pop songs to fit the film's cast and plot.
- Trolls Holiday: This special features much less pre-existing songs (original ones being the majority instead), but still has some like Madonna's "Holiday".
- Trolls World Tour: Again, this time including reworked songs of different genres too.
Film - Live Action
- At Long Last Love from 1975, starring Burt Reynolds and Cybill Shepherd singing Cole Porter. It was notorious for director Peter Bogdanovich's insistence that the actors sing live with no Non Singing Voices (Reynolds and Shepherd are not renowned for their singing abilities). The reviews were so terrible that Bogdanovich wrote an open letter, printed in newspapers throughout the country, apologizing for the quality of the film. However, a Re-Cut released in 2013 which matched Bogdanovich's original vision was released to better acclaim.
- The Blues Brothers has the titular band cover various blues and Motown hits as they work towards getting their concert together, with a few exceptions like the theme from Rawhide.
- The sequel Blues Brothers 2000 follows suit but expands the genres a little more, featuring "Ghost Riders in the Sky" (bluegrass) and "Funk Nassau" (Caribbean).
- 8 Women: Eight women try to solve the mystery of their patriarch's murder, each singing one character-relevant song along the way. They're all old French hits; the newest song in this 2002-made film was made in the 1980's.
- Forbidden Zone, partially. About half the musical numbers are parlor and novelty songs from the 40s and earlier, and the others are originals heavily inspired by them.
- Get On Up tells the story of James Brown, featuring his hits.
- The Mambo Kings features newly-recorded performances of vintage Cuban songs from the '50s.
- Moulin Rouge!. Twentieth century hits in the 19th century! The only "original" song is "Come What May", which was actually written for (but not used in) Baz Lurhmann's previous film Romeo + Juliet.
- The astonishing satirical film (based on a stage production by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop) Oh! What a Lovely War is based around songs sung by soldiers during World War I.
- Singin' in the Rain, whose old songs were all written by producer Arthur Freed, some of which he collaborated with Nacio Herb Brown.
- Its Spiritual Successor The Band Wagon used songs by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz, several of which had originally appeared in a Broadway revue of the same name. (Other than these songs, Fred Astaire was the only thing in common between the two.)
- Rock Around the Clock, a pioneering rock and roll musical from early 1956, features acts like Bill Haley & His Comets and The Platters lip-synching to previously released recordings, with the exception of a live-to-camera performance of the Comets instrumental "Rudy's Rock" and a couple of minor numbers. Its sequel, Dont Knock The Rock was even more so, with virtually all musical numbers featuring lip-synching.
- Rocketman is a biopic (albeit exaggerated for theatrical effect) of Elton John, featuring his own music.
- Stormy Weather showcases not only black performers of the 30s and 40s, but also their music.
- Walking on Sunshine features notable 80s pop hits from various artists.
Live-Action TV
- The BBC's live televised musicals (The Manchester Passion (2006), The Liverpool Nativity (2007), Frankenstein's Wedding...Live In Leeds (2011), and Bollywood Carmen (2013)) all utilized contemporary British pop songs.
- Blackpool is an interesting example in that the songs are actually being played as the soundtrack and the characters just sing and dance along. It actually works pretty well.
- The entire premise of Glee is members of a high school glee club performing pop, rock, and Broadway songs from a variety of eras. The show became so well known for it's covers just by the end of the first season that, in the following season, an episode about the club trying to write original songs was titled "Original Song". A handful of original numbers occurred throughout the series, but existing songs continued to be the meat of the series.
- Mentiras The Series utilizes a mix of 80's mexican pop hits by various artists.
- Fox's The Passion live musical from 2016 sets the death and resurrection of Jesus to contemporary pop songs. Word of God (no pun intended) states that this was done to make the story more accessible to audiences who otherwise would not be that interested in religion.
- The plot of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist begins when protagonist Zoey develops the ability to hear the Internal Monologue of anyone around her experiencing intense emotions in the form of a relevant song.
Theatre
- Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations is a biographical musical showing the formation and careers of the titular group.
- All Out of Love: The Musical takes the hits of Air Supply and weaves them into an overarching narrative that happens in New York City in The '80s. It debuted in the Philippines due to the fact that the band maintains their popularity in Southeast Asia to this day.
- All Shook Up, using Elvis Presley's music. Lampshaded when the lead character causes an old, broken jukebox to come back to life in one scene.
- Always...Patsy Cline, using the music of Patsy Cline.
- American Idiot is based on the Green Day album of the same name, which isn't much of a stretch since it was a Rock Opera to begin with. However it also incorporates songs and plot elements from the album 21st Century Breakdown, which makes it more this and less a straight adaptation.
- An American in Paris, with the music of George Gershwin.
- & Juliet is a musical sequel to Romeo and Juliet, in which Shakespeare's wife pressures him to consider what would happen if Juliet hadn't died at the end of the original play. All while set to songs composed by Max Martin.
- Ang Huling El Bimbo, based off the songs of Filipino band Eraserheads.
- Baby It's You is a tribute to girl groups of the 60s, with a focus on The Shirelles.
- Back to the Eighties is a time period-based variation where it uses songs that are not all from the same band, but were all written in the same decade (the 80s, naturally).
- Bat Out of Hell (2017) uses Meat Loaf songs to tell a story of The Power of Rock helping the survivors in a post-apocalyptic setting get by.
- Beautiful: Carole King Musical tells the story of Carole King's early life and career using her music.
- Probably the earliest example is the 1728 "ballad opera" The Beggar's Opera, which took the tunes of popular ballads and added new lyrics by poet John Gay.
- The Black Crook is cited as the first theatrical musical and dates back to 1866. Only a few of the songs were written for the play, the rest being pre-existing songs reincorporated into it.
- The Boy From Oz uses the music of Peter Allen to tell his early life, rise to fame, and eventual passing.
- Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, about the birth of rock. No prizes for guessing the surname of the title character and who's music is being used.
- Cirque du Soleil crossbreeds this genre with circus entertainment in four shows designed as tributes to the artists in question, using their original recordings in new ways:
- LOVE (The Beatles)
- Viva Elvis (Elvis Presley)
- Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour
- Michael Jackson: ONE
- Crazy for You and My One and Only, music of George and Ira Gershwin. These are actually In Name Only adaptations of the old shows Girl Crazy and Funny Face.
- Daddy Cool, featuring songs by Frank Farian-produced acts such as Boney M., La Bouche, Milli Vanilli, and No Mercy.
- The Stockholm City Theatre in did the Three Musketeers as a rock opera (De Tre Musketorerna) using both classic rock songs and more modern pop hits to illustrate the difference between the rock'n'roll lifestyle of the musketeers and the effeminate French court. A trailer can be seen here
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- Disco Inferno is based around disco hits from The '70s by various artists.
- Emma: A Pop Musical is a Setting Update of Jane Austen's Emma utilizing pop hits ranging from The '60s to The New '10s.
- Escape to Margaritaville, featuring Jimmy Buffett. Almost every single element of the plot is taken from his lyrics.
- Fosse (1997) was a revue showcasing various Bob Fosse dance numbers.
- Good Vibrations follows three high school boys who go on a road trip to California by convincing an unpopular valedictorian girl to come with them so they can use her car, and is set to the music of The Beach Boys.
- Hamlet Hail to the Thief by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Factory International, as the title suggests, combines the plot of Hamlet with songs from the Radiohead album Hail to the Thief.
- Hank Williams: Lost Highway, a musical biography of . . . well, guess.
- Happy New Year is stage musical adaptation of the play Holiday, with songs from Cole Porter's catalogue. He initially used his lesser-known songs that fit the plot better, but the writer Burt Shevelove changed them to the better-known hits and then added a narrator to explain plot details that were missing because of the chage.
- Head over Heels is based on the music of The Go-Go's, set in Elizabethan times.
- Hot Feet, a modern retelling of The Red Shoes using the music of Earth, Wind & Fire.
- Hoy No Me Puedo Levantar ("I Just Can’t Get Up Today") uses songs composed by Ignacio Cano, specially those from his period with the Spanish band Mecano.
- I Am from Austria features the music of Rainhard Fendrich.
- Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris is a revue of Brel's songs, albeit translated into English.
- Jagged Little Pill, a stage musical using songs from the album of the same name by Canadian musician Alanis Morissette, along with other songs throughout her career.
- The 1989 revue Jerome Robbins' Broadway featured songs by different composers with the same director/choreographer. Jason Alexander hosted the show, as well as playing Tevye and Pseudolus, in a Tony Award-winning role.
- Jersey Boys features the Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and tells their story.
- Last Goodbye, an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet based on the songs of Jeff Buckley.
- "The Last Ship", a musical created by Sting, is an interesting example of this. While it is mostly comprised of original songs, it also notably features a few from his previous albums, such as "Island of Souls" and "Ghost Story," the latter of which in the context of the musical has been changed from broken romance song to a lament sung by a son about his father. Some view the musical as an extension of his Concept Album "The Soul Cages", given its similar thematic elements.
- Lennon: an auto-biographical musical made by and using the works of John Lennon. It notably avoids anything from the wider Beatles catalogue.
- The Look of Love, based on the songs of Burt Bacharach and Hal David. Originally a TV special for The BBC, a Screen-to-Stage Adaptation had a successful run off-Broadway.
- Mas de cien mentiras (More than a hundred lies) is a Spanish musical with songs from Joaquin Sabina. Not to be confused with...
- Mentiras, el Musical, or "Lies, the musical", a Mexican musical based on 80s Mexican songs from various artists and produced a few years before Mas de cien mentiras above.
- MJ, a biographical musical about Michael Jackson, takes place during the preparation for his Dangerous tour in 1992 and features mostly music of his that had been released up to that point, along with a few that would be released in the following years.
- Motown the Musical.
- Movin Out', which uses the songs of Billy Joel sung by one man at the piano, as the characters dance.
- Once Upon a One More Time, which the music of Britney Spears in the context of a Fractured Fairy Tale.
- With Pokémon Live!, the soundtrack was made of songs from the Image Song album Pokémon 2.B.A. Master, as well as a few songs from the later album Totally Pokémon and some exclusive musical numbers not heard anywhere else.
- Our House: Uses the songs of Madness to tell the story of a young man growing up in London (which is what most Madness songs are about anyway). Featured Suggs as the main character's father for a while.
- Return to the Forbidden Planet (a musical version of the film Forbidden Planet) filled with rock'n'roll songs from the 50s and 60s and dialogue mostly inspired by William Shakespeare passages. A less-successful sequel, From a Jack to a King, reset Macbeth to the pre-Beatles UK rock 'n' roll scene.
- Ring of Fire: Music of Johnny Cash.
- Rock of Ages is comprised solely of 80s hair band songs by the likes of Poison, Quiet Riot, Bon Jovi, etc. Notably, the song "Rock of Ages" by Def Leppard is not in the musical because Universal Music Group refuse to grant license. Some performances will have a cast member appear before the show proper to call them out about this, however the original recording is often played after curtain call.
- Smokey Joe's Cafe: Music of Leiber and Stoller.
- The Swedish musical Sol, vind och vatten ("Sun, wind and water") uses songs by Ted Gärdestad.
- Sophisticated Ladies uses many of the jazz songs that were composed by Duke Ellington or his orchestra's associate composers.
- Stephen Sondheim has a few of these, largely built around Cut Songs from his other shows:
- Side by Side by Sondheim
- You're Gonna Love Tomorrow (originally billed as A Stephen Sondheim Evening)
- Putting It Together (some lyrics were rewritten by Sondheim especially for this one)
- Sunny Afternoon tells the story of, and features the music of, The Kinks.
- Sunshine on Leith uses songs by The Proclaimers to tell the story of three interconnected love stories in Edinburgh.
- Titanique is a comedic retelling of Titanic featuring the music of CĂ©line Dion, who also appears in the show as the narrator.
- Tomfoolery, a revue of the works of Tom Lehrer.
- Tsukiuta Stage, a series of stage plays about two month personification idol units, Six Gravity and Procellarum, has done this a few times:
- Act 4: Lunatic Party incorporated one of each pair's duet songs into the story of the play, some performed as performances, some not, with "Sing Together Forever" used as the climax of the story. However, in the Halloween party scene, each year quartet performs an original song.
- Act 9: Shiawase Awase features two songs originally sung by Gravi and Procella's managers, and one that was originally a solo sung by You Haduki (one member of Procellarum), but is sung by all four middle members here.
- Act 11: Tsukihana Kagura has one of the original characters singing the Junior quartet's song from Act 6: Kurenai Enishi and several other songs from that play and Act 2: Yumemigusa were featured.
- Viva Forever is a musical about a girl named Viva who abandons her bandmates to pursue a solo career and global fame, and is based around the songs of the Spice Girls.
- We Will Rock You, a post-apocalyptic exercise in The Power of Rock using Queen songs.
- Miyuki Nakajima's Yakai concerts, which developed gradually more complex plots and stage design over time, and eventually became a subversion as she began writing songs specifically for the concerts.
Western Animation
- The animated special Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer is this, using songs by Elmo And Patsy.
- The Loud House Mega Music Countdown is, as its title suggests, a Clip Show that exclusively features pre-existing songs from The Loud House, which are compiled into a playlist by regular series voice actor Carlos PenaVega.
- Subverted in the The Powerpuff Girls (1998) episode "Meet the Beat-Alls", which features a story where everyone speaks The Beatles lyrics.
Soundtrack Examples
Anime and Manga
- The anime series FLCL, with music by The Pillows.
- Penguindrum uses covers of ARB songs.
- The surreal OVA Radio City Fantasy is set to 17 songs from the same J-POP artists and the plot is minimal.
- Interstella 5555 is an interesting variation. The movie was made as a "visual realization" of Daft Punk's Discovery album, and each song loosely corresponds to what's happening in the story at the time. However, the characters never speak and few sound effects are used.
Comic Books
- The graphic novel Comic Book Tattoo is a collection of short stories based on songs by Tori Amos. As one can imagine, some of the stories are...stranger than others.
- Similarly, Put The Book Back On The Shelf is a graphic anthology inspired by the work of Belle and Sebastian (Band).
Film - Live Action
- A bizarre example is the obscure seventies film All This and World War II, which combined stock footage from World War II with new versions of Beatles songs. Noteworthy only for Elton John's hit rendition of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".
- The soundtrack to the 1989 Batman movie was entirely produced and recorded by Prince.
- While several other artists' songs were licensed for the film itself, the soundtrack album to Yes-Man is almost entirely Eels songs - the exceptions are four songs by the Fake Band Munchhausen By Proxy.
- Flash Gordon (1980), much like Highlander below, has a soundtrack composed of Queen songs.
- The Graduate uses music by Simon & Garfunkel.
- Harold and Maude uses only songs by Cat Stevens. He also wrote two new ones for the movie.
- The original Highlander has a soundtrack written almost entirely by Queen, and nearly all original.
- In regards to its subject, I'm Not There has a plethora of cover versions of Bob Dylan songs by the likes of Eddie Vedder, Stephen Malkmus, Sonic Youth, Richie Havens, Yo La Tengo and many others. A supergroup, The Million Dollar Bashers, was even formed by some of them for the occasion.
- i am sam uses all Beatles songs, but since they couldn't get the rights to the original recordings, the producers commissioned new covers by contemporary artists.
- Though also featuring contributions from composer Jon Brion and seventies band Supertramp, and a Harry Nilsson cover, most of the music in Magnolia was written and performed by Aimee Mann, and the movie itself was largely inspired by her songs. It's a bit of an odd example - some of the songs were written for the movie, others written before for her album Bachelor No. 2 (which was only released after the movie soundtrack), and at one point in the movie, every character starts singing along the song "Wise Up" in unison, as if really were a full musical.
- Maximum Overdrive had only songs by AC/DC: The soundtrack album (released as Who Made Who) is probably a little more well-known than the movie is, since it's still the closest the band has to a Greatest Hits Album.
- McCabe & Mrs. Miller uses only songs by Leonard Cohen.
- Last Christmas is inspired by the George Michael song of the same name, and it's soundtrack is composed of songs he performed solo or with Wham!.
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? has a soundtrack composed of folk songs typical to 1930s Appalachia.
- Purple Rain, with music by Prince.
- Experimental 1964 short film Scorpio Rising is a very peculiar example in which pop and Motown songs of the 1950s and early 1960s were used to accompany a film about a biker gang full of homoeroticism and bizarre imagery of skulls and Nazis.
- The entire soundtrack of She's The One was done by Tom Petty.
- White City, with music by Pete Townshend, was released as a companion film to the LP of the same name.
Live-Action TV
- Some Cold Case episodes heavily feature songs from a specific source.
- "The House": Johnny Cash
- "Kensington": John Mellencamp
- "Creatures of the Night": The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- "Blood on the Tracks": Bob Dylan
- The Freaks and Geeks episode "Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers" mainly uses music by The Who.
- An interesting example is the TV series based around British pop band S Club 7. Each of the show's four seasons was accompanied by a new album, with each episode featuring (usually) a single song from said album, in the vein of The Monkees.
Video Games
- Disco Elysium's entire soundtrack was composed by Sea Power, made up of a combination of instrumental versions of songs from their previous albums and new compositions. The theme used in Martinaise is "Red Rock Riviera"; "The Smallest Church in Saint-Saëns", the song you can sing at karaoke, is an only slightly rewritten "The Smallest Church in Sussex"; "Whirling-in-Rags" is an instrumental version of "Fire Escape in the Sea", and a version of "Want To Be Free" is used as the "Sad FM" track you can play on your final trip to the island. In addition, song titles and lyrics find their way into the text of the game, such as Revachol's official motto being "A Light Above Descending."
Western Animation
- KaBlam! uses instrumental versions of songs by The Toasters as background music (For the Henry and June shorts).
- Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts incorporates the music of various rock, pop, and rap artists, with some musicians having several of their songs used, such as Atomic Drum Asssembly getting at least one song per season.
