About a week or so ago, my friends and I went to see the new "Hairspray" movie, which was probably one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in a long time. And one of the things that stood out the most to me was it's lighthearted approach to segregation and weight issues in the 1960s.
If you listen to the lyrics of the fast paced, get-up-and-dance songs in the movie, you can see how the movie (and the Broadway play) give tough issues a more playful spin.
I can't see / why people look at me / and only see the color of my face / And then there's those / who try to help, God knows / but always have to put me in my place / But I won't ask you to be colorblind / 'cause if you pick our fruit, you're sure to find /
The blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice / I can say it ain't so, but darling what's the use / The darker the chocolate, the richer the taste / And that's where it's at so baby run and tell that...
-Seaweed Stubbs, "Run and Tell That" from "Hairspray"
The lyrics and video above are from the song "Run and Tell That," which is sung by the one of the main black characters in the movie. The song is very upbeat and fun to listen to, but it's also discussing the fact that people "look at [him] and only see the color of [his] face." Instead of dancing every day on Baltimore's "Corny Collins Show," Seaweed only gets to dance once a month on "Negro Day."
Or take some of the lyrics to Tracy Turnblatt's "I Can Hear the Bells":
Everybody warns that he won't like what he'll see / but I know that he'll look inside of me...
She doesn't seem to think that her weight will be an issue when it comes to true love. Her possible love interest, Link Larkin, will see the good inside her and it won't matter what she looks like on the outside.
Lucky for the characters and the audience, these problems are easily solved by the time the movie ends. *Spoiler alert* -- Tracy gets the guy and the Corny Collins Show is integrated.
And now these songs keep getting stuck in my head...
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