"I don't think today's younger audience... would even know what 1920s musicals were like"
About this Quote
There’s a sly pivot in Julie Andrews’ remark: it’s framed as a gentle observation about “today’s younger audience,” but it’s really a statement about how quickly cultural literacy expires. Andrews isn’t scolding; she’s clocking the speed of forgetting. The ellipsis does a lot of work, suggesting she’s choosing restraint over rant - the seasoned performer’s instinct to keep the tone light even when the point is sharp.
The “1920s musicals” reference lands with extra charge because Andrews stands for a later, more codified era of musical spectacle: the wholesome precision of mid-century Hollywood and Broadway, where craft and tradition were marketed as timeless. By invoking an even earlier moment, she reminds us that the musical wasn’t always the polished, Technicolor institution many people imagine. The 1920s were a hinge period: stage-to-screen, silent-to-sound, revue culture, vaudeville energy, social codes shifting under bright footlights. To not “even know” that world isn’t just missing trivia; it’s losing the sense that entertainment forms mutate, and that what seems classic now once looked chaotic, risky, even disreputable.
Underneath is a performer’s anxiety about audience training. Musicals depend on shared shorthand - how to read heightened emotion, stylized movement, sudden song. If younger viewers haven’t been exposed to earlier grammar, the genre can feel like a weird exception rather than a living lineage. Andrews is defending continuity without pretending it happens automatically.
The “1920s musicals” reference lands with extra charge because Andrews stands for a later, more codified era of musical spectacle: the wholesome precision of mid-century Hollywood and Broadway, where craft and tradition were marketed as timeless. By invoking an even earlier moment, she reminds us that the musical wasn’t always the polished, Technicolor institution many people imagine. The 1920s were a hinge period: stage-to-screen, silent-to-sound, revue culture, vaudeville energy, social codes shifting under bright footlights. To not “even know” that world isn’t just missing trivia; it’s losing the sense that entertainment forms mutate, and that what seems classic now once looked chaotic, risky, even disreputable.
Underneath is a performer’s anxiety about audience training. Musicals depend on shared shorthand - how to read heightened emotion, stylized movement, sudden song. If younger viewers haven’t been exposed to earlier grammar, the genre can feel like a weird exception rather than a living lineage. Andrews is defending continuity without pretending it happens automatically.
Quote Details
| Topic | Nostalgia |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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