West Side Story: How Music Creates Tension
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 มิ.ย. 2024
- How the music of West Side Story builds social tension.
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West Side Story is a love story centered around a conflict between the Sharks, and the second generation American Jets. Leonard Bernstein's music, with Stephen Sondheim's lyrics, builds a musical full of famous songs, including Maria, America, I Feel Pretty, Tonight, and Somewhere. However, at a deeper level, the music is structured to emphasise division and hierarchy.
This video looks at how this is reflected in the music. It focuses particularly on The Dance at the Gym Sequence, the Mambo, America, the characters Anita and Maria, the Taunting Scene, and the Finale.
Sources:
Raymond Knapp (2005). West Side Story' in The American Formation of National Identity.
CD Picks:
- Original Cast Recording
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- Symphonic Dances
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- Best Orchestral Performance
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I don't usually comment but I have to say this is exactly the type of content I've been looking for. Keep up the great work! You deserve more subscribers!
Wow, thanks! What kind of things might you like to see in future? I have a bunch of videos in the pipeline, but interested to know what kind of thing you were looking for and how this video hits the bill, so I can maybe do more like it in future. Thanks - it's tricky to build subscribers starting out, but hopefully it will grow as I release more things - out of interest, where did you come across this video?
I found your star wars videos recommended to me after I watched a few film score analysis videos. In this video and others, I really appreciate the balance between music theory discussion as well as "bigger picture" story elements and how the music fits into the story. I'm currently in college studying film scoring, so any kind of discussion like this is absolutely perfect for me. Don't be afraid to get more technical with your analysis!
Well, glad you enjoy it. I ideally wanted these to be accessible to anyone with a rudimentary understanding of music - so am carefully towing the line between deeper analysis and an engaging video! Stay tuned for more
I agree!
Thank you for your thoughtful analysis. I do find it interesting that Jazz was used to characterize the White folks, even those Jazz was created by Black/African American folks.
Yeah, exactly! Might have been because jazz was very fashionable in Europe in those times.
Maybe because they don't have good "white american" music?
I think it's largely because Jazz is one of the few music genres which originated in America.
@@silgzz8848nope, that’s not it.
Two thoughts: Bernstein and Robbins wanted this musical to be of a high level artistically, and the 1950's style "cool Jazz" was considered more elite artistically than Rock and Roll. Also popular music is not instrumental, it would have sung lyrics, and that would not have worked in the score. Also, there was a slight Beatnik/Hip quality to the Jets, and Beatniks were into cool Jazz.
Most of the Latin/Hispanic influences in Bernstein's score (America, Dance at the Gym) are mainly based on Mexican folk music. Bernstein had traveled widely in Mexico, was greatly influenced by Aaron Copland's "El Salon Mexico" and other Mexican music. Further, "America" is based on a Mexican form called the "huapango." The foremost composer of the huapango was José Pablo Moncayo. When Bernstein was studying at Tanglewood under Aaron Copland and Serge Koussevitzky in 1944, Moncayo and Blas Galindo had Rockefeller scholarships there, and they talked quite a bit about the various forms of Mexican folk music. Copland had finished El Salón México, and he adapted it for the movie "Fiesta" in 1947; Bernstein then arranged it for solo piano and also two-piano four hands.
thank you for sharing
Lots of Cuban influence in the music as well, but I imagine that mambo and other Latin rhythms and music forms has cross-influences with Mexico.
This is insanely good. I was in the pit orchestra for my high school production of West side, and so much of the stuff I have missed because I simply don't know enough about music. This video made me realize just how smart Bernstein was. I'm sure I could listen to you analyze this for hours. This is truly fascinating.
Thank you for this intelligent analysis. I was clueless. He was a genius. Now I have an even greater appreciation for his brilliance.
5:01-I heard this song growing up long before I ever saw the musical. As a child, many adults sang that to me when they met me.
I love this analysis of Bernstein's score. I never actually realized the underscoring was so intricate and laced with melodic manipulation. I'd love to see more analysis of musical theatre scores.
Thanks - West Side Story is great - and the rabbit hole goes deeper than this video has time to show, too. Well, I'm not that familiar with many musical theatre things, but I'll keep an ear out.
Whoa! Thank you for breaking this down musically. I grew up during that era, in Manhattan and yes, there were gangs that despised Puerto Ricans who migrated to Manhattan. I lived on the Lower East Side, where Italian gangs literally ruled the neighborhood. Stay on your side of the street, don't cross over. West Side Story's the anthem of Manhattan, and Bernstein captured it beautifully. Bravo!
Wouldn’t say perfectly, the music, language, clothes, ect., did not represent PR at all. I wish he took more inspiration from Puerto Rican music. It’s definitely not whatever he did, i’ll tell ya that.
I'm super late to the party, but Sideways sent me and I am so glad he did. I'll be watching all your other videos now!
This is fantastic! I'm giving a presentation on the dances in West Side Story and of course the music and dance are inseparable. Your analysis is concise and right on point. Thank you!
Since this year, "WSS" has been a sanctuary to me. Thank you for this video. Your work celebrates both music and social identity. Saludos de Colombia.
I love this so much because West Side Story is a Perfect Musical as I call it!! I would love to see you do analysis of Stephen Sondheim musicals like: Anyone Can Whistle, Follies, The Frogs, Assassins, Company, Sweeny Todd, A Little Night Music, Passion, Pacific Overtures, Sunday In The Park With George, Into The Woods, Merrily We Roll Along etc.
Brilliant. Your analysis simultaneously adds to the understanding of the relation between musical structure and expression and to the pleasure one extracts from hearing it.
I had to analyse this for my graduation for my A-level in music in Germany 3 years ago in 2018 - it's all about the tritone! Thank you for making this, it brought back some fond memories!
Thank you for explaining the music score of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story masterpiece. Yes, please offer more reviews of music in movies, theatre and the Arts.
I lived in the Bronx for 7 years and walked through Latino neighborhoods on Sundays. From every building and park bench could be heard the beautiful and raw energy of Latin music. Years later I heard the Philadelphia Orchestra play Symphonic Dances from the movie score. I was amazed to hear how well Bernstein interpreted the depth of feeling of the Latin culture. He was a musical genius!
Father Dan
I really appreciated the work you put into this video. West Side Story always remains above my other favorite shows for exactly the reasons you listed. Great work!
Consider me subbed!
Thank you so much - means a lot. Simply being told that somebody somewhere finds a video valuable gives me the motivation to continue making more, so thank you!
Your work is truly uplifting! Thanks a lot, and please keep doing it...
Thank you - means a lot to read this. Please do Subscribe (it's free!) to help me out and keep updated for when the next ones come out!
great deconstruction! can't wait to see more!
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it
ONE OF MY FAVOURITE MUSICALS!! Thanks for doing this, definitely going in my rewatch and also god bless God for guiding my thumbs to this video amirite
Between you who I just found and Sideways there's so many good music channels coming up, I am content
Also I'm terribly sorry but I can't subscribe at this moment, it's number one on my list after I prune my subscriptions ol
Prune away. And then Subscribe!
I feel like the mix of latin styles for the Puerto Ricans is weirdly, very fitting. As someone who is (part) Puerto Rican in the US, it can be hard sometimes to be seen as either "American" American OR Latin American. We are often defined by others by our relationships to both US American culture and other Hispanic and Latino cultures, and not so much by the culture of our own (especially back in the 60s). Using a mash of more popular latin styles to me conveys a sense of eagerly trying to find a place in US society by comparing ourselves to others like us (Mexicans and Cubans) in a desperate bid to be somewhat more recognizable to society and therefore maybe more acceptable.
Thankfully these days we have many Puerto Rican artists sharing our authentic styles we have made ourselves, but in a musical about conflict and belonging, I think it is very fitting that it seems the Puerto Ricans are using well known styles to try to fit in more, and the main times they don't are when they are amongst themselves (in "America") and therefore feel less need to have to fit themselves in.
Please keep producing content. I’m in love with this channel and it’s explorations! Thank you!
The music from West Side Story shaped me very much as a kid. I could listen to it all day every day. I enjoyed this video a lot, you gave me some new insight that I would've never noticed without you :)
Great, great channel and content! Found it through video posted to Broadway subreddit. Looking forward to future videos!
Thanks - glad you liked it! I'm trying to work out how to blend fun stuff like musicals and movie music with some more classical greats (e.g. Mozart's Requiem) too. A bit of a balancing act! Hope you enjoy my future stuff :)
Brilliant!! Thank you so much!!
wow you gave me another layer of appreciation for my favorite musical. thank you
Excellent explanation of the music! Thank you so much for this 😀
An incredible video. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Please do more of this!
Wonderful! Thank you very much!
This is so brilliant!!
Thank you :)
Thank you for your analysis. Please post and teach us more about classical music.
Jazz (identified as "American music") has strong African (blues) and Jewish (Klezmer) elements and prominent African-American and Jewish Creators and Musicians (Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman etc.). That's why the Nazis forbid it. Thanks for your analysis!
I'm arranging Something's Coming that also has the resolving tritone as incipit of the song, exactly like Maria. I thought that was clever and now that you remembered me about the the gang motive this also makes sense.
Thank you teacher
Great analysis!
so good!!!
Natalie Wood is a stage name for Nataliya Nikolaevna Zakharenko because the studio decided her real name was too Russian (though, her maiden name sure looks more Ukrainian to me). Her parents fled the revolution. She was born in the US, but she was very much Russian-American and we all know how American media feels about Russians.
I basically agree with the analysis on how music was used to express and play upon the ethnic tensions. I do think that the music itself doesn’t signal the subaltern status of the Sharks (at least not in my ears), though undoubtedly it does signal the “other”. The subaltern status is clearly indicated in the dialogue (and more in the cops words). Sure, the Jets “other” the Sharks, but even in their dialogues and interactions the main concern is to not lose their turf against *any* other.
One other detail... Puerto Ricans are not a race. The problem in the portrayal is not so much that Maria is pale, but that the production insisted in browning all other puertorican characters with makeup.
Thank you for this analysis of Bernstein’s work in West Side Story looking at the racial lenses that can be sometimes glossed over, when talking about it. We are about to cover West Side Story for our podcast Talking Musical History and definitely this came in handy for research. Keep doing more of those.
Great video !
Thanks - This is one of the ones I'm most proud of but of course it won't get as many views as Star Wars and such, at least for the time being.
Beymer is 82, Tamblyn is 85, Chakiris is 86, and Moreno is 88.
Revisiting in May 2021.
bravo!
Thank you!
Great analysis, thanks! The jets get the bluesiest numbers to sing as Bernstein switches to the blues scale on "Cool" and "The Jets Song" The tritone when employed as part of the blues scale functions differently than when it is employed in the Lydian mode. In the lydian mode (Maria, Something's Coming), it is joyous, and expresses anticipation and passion. In the blues scale its a classic blues interval which is considered "cool" and very American. So clearly the jets are depicted as more "American" than the sharks by virtue of the songs they sing. Its funny, but for some reason when I see the jets, I flash to the movie "The Great Escape" which also deals with Americans sharing the stage with people from other countries. But in "The Great Escape" the music representing them is patriotic (fife and drum), not bluesy. Of course that would have been wrong for WWS though as it has an urban theme and takes place wholey in America.
I had the pleasure of playing the French Horn in a summer production of West Side Story. Bernstein actually scored it for a reduced orchestra as well as a full one. The reduced orchestra did not contain a horn part! I was mortified when I found this out, so I dug up the full score that included horn, begged the conductor to let me play, and stole back all the horn parts that had been delegated to other instruments! We worked together with the bassoonist, cellist, violist etc because their sheet music contained the most borrowed horn lines. The most notable one was in the prologue, the climactic "tritone whistle" (hate motif) which horn players often flub because it glissandos to a triple forte B natural, a very difficult note to play on the horn!
Puerto Rican’s are citizens not immigrants
That's the only point or correction I wanted to make. Everything else here is extremely well done and deconstructed. Very much appreciated.
Yes, Puerto Ricans are American citizens. But for the purpose of the plot in _West Side Story_ , the New York City white gangs regarded the transplants from Puerto Rico as foreigners or immigrants.
Yes, the narrator would have done better to call the Jets “white people” or “anglos”.
@@ta617 All his history of who created it is dead wrong.
@@billswanson1375 It is? I'll have to see it again, it's been awhile since I've seen this last.
Hello, Thank you for this very informative video. I was just wondering if you could clarify what you said at 6:40. Musical something
Please make a video on Melodies!! Chords and melody combination.... How to put emotions into melody...
Side question. Around 8:00, you have a quote from Angela Davis. Is that the famous radical? I remember her coming to my college a short time after the book cited was published.
... excellent analysis of one of the most enduring musical illustrations of the basis of racial animosity in American history ... which is always borne out of fear of the unknown ... as the old folk song "Where have all the Flowers Gone?" says ... "when will they ever learn?" ...
3:50 The Cha-cha melody is also a variation of the "Maria"-Motif
While the music analysis may be good (or even better) the historical stuff has huge major errors. At the beginning, he tells you Bernstein originally called it "East Side Story." But it wasn't Bernstein's story; it was Jerome Robbins, who originated the idea, and worked on it jointly with Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book (meaning script), and Bernstein. It was Laurents' title of the first draft, not Bernstein's, and exactly who changed it to "West" isn't clear, but it came about in a conversation between Laurents and Bernstein, who changed the original focus from an Irish-Catholic versus Jewish conflict, to Puerto Ricans versus the white (not especially Catholic, and definitely not specifically Irish) Jets (the Jets were Jewish; the Sharks were originally the "Emeralds"). I suspect it was Laurents who changed East to West, because Bernstein's idea was to set it in Los Angeles, not New York and then neither East or West would have made any sense. Also, even "East Side Story" wasn't the original title, it was "Gangway," although I speculate it was only a rough working title, and not especially serious. Next, in the notes, the name of Knapp's book is wrong. It isn't "Race and Ethnicity: West Side Story' in The American Formation of National Identity." Maybe there's some version with that title, but you can find the book on Amazon and elsewhere without the term "Race and Ethnicity" in the title. But look, listen to that intro stuff. You'd think the whole think was all Bernstein's creation. I don't mean to denigrate Bernstein's music, because I think it may be the finest single work in Broadway history. But the "history" given here is really crappy scholarship.
Could anyone tell me what the narrator says at 3:35, communicating their xxx? Their what?
Identity and angst.
please make one about Disney!!!
I'd really love to - that's a great idea - but full disclosure, I'm not familiar with any of the classic Disney Movies. Can you give me a guide? Haha
Also, actually that "mambo" isnt just a mambo... there's quite a bit of changes made to the Mambo because the song actually don't stay on the beat fully...
Non American: exists
Americans: you're no human! We're going to bully you!
I would love to watch the film with a full length commentary track on the music with the kind of analysis presented here. Does that exist?
If someone were to pay me to do that I could do it haha
Someone named Sideways covers the same territory, but deeper and better, at th-cam.com/video/aQlgiO29QT4/w-d-xo.html Both are working from original sources, including Bernstein himself, which Sideways cites. The only citation here gets the title wrong (probably copy/pasted from an earlier source that got it wrong). Most of the insights are from Bernstein himself, and from academics such as Thomas Posen and helen Smith.
Pasodoble is not mexican, is spanish...
I find it so strange and tragic that this popped up in my recommendations right in the aftermath of George Floyd's killing. Talk about racial tension...
Pasodoble is Spanish and not Mexican!
It has been said that the tritone imitates the call of the (Jewish) shofar...tekiah
3:19 look at the right u'll see a lonely dude
I really enjoyed the analysis, but the thought that Natalie Wood was in the movie as a palliative to White audiences is way off the mark. Marriage between these two ethnicities has never even been considered mixed. Both are Caucasian, and intermarriage is frequent and unremarkable. Natalie Wood is in the movie for box office reasons. West Side Story may be considered a sure fire hit now, but it certainly wasn't at the time. It had a decent, but hardly sensational run on Broadway, and a score that many considered way too sophisticated for American tastes. The rest of the cast are unknowns, and - with the exception of Riia Moreno - stayed unknown. Natalie Wood, then considered a fine actress and one of the most beautiful women in the world, is in the cast to get people into the theater.
This was standard for Hollywood in the past. I was going to try to make a comparison here to Yul Brynner being cast as the King of Siam, when a little googling revealed that Brynner actually did have a little mongel blood (he was Russian). Oh well, but it wouldn't have been enough to satisfy todays picky audiences. OK, so why did Broadway star Kelli O'Hara, who is one of Oklahoma's most famous expats, never get cast to star in "Oklahoma"?
I feel like Rita Moreno's own complaint about the use of brownface by pointing out that Puerto Ricans can themselves be white almost negates the problem people have with Natalie being cast as Maria. Puerto Rican is an ethnicity, not a race. Heck, Rita herself is basically a white Puerto Rican. I don't endorse the use of brownface, but honestly Natalie looked ethnic enough on her own that she could have passed for Hispanic without it. People are way too hard on her.
I wouldn't use the word "racial" as Puerto Rican is not a race but more an ethnicity. I spent five days there traveling all over the place and I didn't see a single black person (of course that was before the influx of refugees from Haiti).
Besides that I do love your expert analyses of music.
Now for my analysis, besides the things I pointed out in my other comment on how INACURATELY it portrays Puerto Ricans and their culture. He missed a great opportunity to actually educate about racism. First being how we are owned by the United States which makes them migrant (not immigrants) following how people who Migrate or immigrate to their land aren't bad. Instead it kept portraying the ones from outside the states as bad, when in reality it pushes forward the association of seeing them as heroes and us as bad... to the point of the other guy Killing her Brother and that is seen as the heroic act that got the girl... it's just bad. And it's going to be remaked again and will come out in 2020.
I hope with dear life that they fix it and actually search for the culture they want to portray, instead of doing whatever they want. It's disrespectful and let me add, not not everyone is brown, that brown face that was done to every single one of that white cast was disrespectful (we come in different shapes, hair and color). We tend to be much friendlier and touchy than they portrayed. We dance Bachata, Merengue, Salsa, Bolero, Reggaeton; and culturally Bomba and Plena, THAT'S IT. And many many MANY, and I can't stress this enough, don't have a strong accent.
Late to this comment, but thank you! I don’t understand how the musical could be about Puerto Ricans yet barely any of our culture is portrayed in it. The music isn’t Puerto Rican at all. Mambo? Clapping? Flamingo dancing? Not even the instruments are Puerto Rican. I know a man on youtube re-did the entire album in Puerto Rican style, you should definitely search him up. Even the small language dialect like why say “Olé” instead of “Wepa”, or “nina/nino” instead of “nena/nene”. I also don’t think I heard them say Boricua once... It’s disrespectful to our culture when they can’t even try to get it right. Pushes a stereotype on all Latin people; I wonder if they realized we’re not all Mexican...
I share your frustration with how Puerto Ricans (and Latin Americans) are portrayed. Rita Moreno, the only puertorican in the film, complained about how they obliterated the rainbow of skin tones (some of that also on the Italian characters), and made the puertorican have strong accents (that sounded more Mexican than from anywhere else).
For what it’s worth, the fact that Maria can still be with Tony after he kills her brother, actually follows the original inspiration for the musical (Romeo and Juliet), more than a comment on Puerto Ricans. The fact that Tony dies not because of poor communication, as in Shakespeare’s play, but directly in the between the groups, underlies the commitment of the authors to speak agains hate. (And the rape scene warns about taking sides with the Jets, even if their individual characters are more developed).
On the musical side, I understand that the second time the project was picked up, they were thinking of Mexican-Chicano gangs in L.A., and not boricuas in NY. That *might* explain some of the musical choices made by Bernstein.
There is also a very deliberate use of the color palette in attires and scenography - and an explicit and prominent use of theatrical aesthetics, to further mark the difference between the gangs, although that in itself is not too different from the choices made by other moviemakers.
It is a formidable musical, groundbreaking in many ways (and it deserved every award it got). But it is a cultural product of the late 50’s, and nowadays the production choices should reflect a more respectful approach towards the diversity when talking about non WASP groups.
@@gabitamiravideos I agree and I hope that this is just repercussions of it being produced in the 50's and that they are supposed to make better choices in the present. Still it doesn't excuse the disrespect and the racism. I've already seen the cast and I hope they don't start again using brown skin. I'm not sure if this point should be made out, but just to make sure there is no confusion, every Latin American country has a different culture: Brazil, Mexico, Cuba, Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay, Puerto Rico and so on, all have their own typical music, food, dances, traditions etc.
They have mixed all of the latino cultures into whatever they wanted. Added whatever music, dances, words; just did whatever they pleased and it seemed okay because this was deliberately planned for a white audience to enjoy, and that was made clear even in the offensive lyrics in the song “America,” which cast Puerto Rico in a negative light. "Puerto Rico, you ugly island, island of tropic diseases / Always the hurricanes blowing, Always the population growing / And the money owing, And the babies crying / And the bullets flying.” thinking how an american wrote this out of their own perjudice because they clearly didn't do a background check makes me sick... and makes me laugh when Puerto Ricans love their island so much many always carry a flag to the point it's a bit overbearing.
Also making the boricuas gang an outcast from the beggining and being made to be however they wanted because who cares about their culture? This is just for americans entertaining purposes. Instead they projected stereotypical dances, accents, appearances, personalities, music of how Americans portray all of us latinos.
They did such a bad research and knew so little of history, that they didn't even get one thing right or related to Puerto Rico. Such is the level that in the musical an ICE officer arrives to force “all the Latinos” into a van for deportation, stating that they didnt even know Puerto Ricans are born with an american citizenship because we are a US colony.
Even as the comment above said, something as simple as, the word usage.
If they were thinking about Mexicans-Chicanos in LA then they should've made this about them, but the music still doesn't represent Mexicans because Flamenco is from Spain.
There are definately other ways to differentiate the gangs, and what they used is definately not it.
Furthermore I can't depict this story as award deserving because of how racist it actually is. No matter how good people from the other side of the coin see it, since it doesn't really affect them, this remains a racist and short-sighted depiction of Latinos and Puerto Ricans, then and now, and there is absolutely no reason to make a remake of this in the 21th century when there is even a protest going on on #BlackLivesMatter for the same theme of racism, black face, bad depictions, Go Back to Africa/ in this case Go Back to Mexico (since we Latinos are percieved all as the same by many americans)/ speak english we're in America.
This musical doesn't help anyone, it just accentuates the problem. Romeo and Juliet already exists, and Shakespear did a fine job at it.
@@angerodz6782 I hear you anger. I come from Venezuela, and if they had made those choices to speak about supposed Venezuelan, I’d probably feel the same.
It is mind blowing -in the worst way - that the ICE officers don’t know the legal status of boricuas.
Puertoricans are known for the love they have for their island. Even though the theme America has (to me) the burden of not being in a Puerto Rican rhythm, the lyrics remind me of the tensions present in many immigrants experience: on the one hand there is infatuation for the promises in the new land (and, as a way of coping, a disparaging of the defects real or imagined of the homeland); on the other, the bitter realization that the promises can be very nice, but their fulfillment can be quite difficult if you are discriminated against or have severe economical disadvantages.
(Sadly though legally boricuas are American, culturally the step of moving to NY is greater than a WASP moving from Oregon to NY.).
There will always be remakes of the classics (and not so classics). I don’t know anything about the current WSS remake, except that the auditions were being made more than a year ago. I have no idea wether the gangs are supposed to be from a Latin American country, black, Russian, or Martian. (I would not mind at all if they don’t go overly realistic on other issues, like illegal economic activities of the gangs or the cops).
For what it’s worth, I don’t think the authors were particularly interested in describing the culture of the Sharks, because if any moral or ethical message is to be derived from the play/movie, it is about the consequences of hate. The Sharks represent any hispanic immigrant group (as infuriating as the generalization might be), but they are not depicted as hating. The Jets, on the other hand, are depicted from the beginning to the end as being aggressive and even hating, and the cops as being unfair, taking sides and discriminating against the Sharks.
You might see racism in the project, something only to entertain the white audiences. I agree they probably they didn’t think of how this portrayal might feel insulting to the Hispanic communities. Ironically, the message it delivered to the white audiences was anti hate and anti discrimination, even with all its flaws.
@@gabitamiravideos I'm not angry, even if its perceived that way. And though I'm hearing another perspective of the story thanks to you, it can't surpass what I've stated. You stated "you didn't know whether the Sharks were supposed to be... and that the sharks represent any Hispanic immigrant group". The Sharks clearly stated to be Boricuas, the Sharks aren't suppose to represent "all Hispanic immigrant group" because as stated, Ricans aren't immigrants but rather american citizens. I'd most likely say it represents a minority group, but the circumstances that black people as a minority live aren't the same as muslims as a minority live, nor the same as Mexicans, nor jewish, nor Puerto Ricans.
To give a clearer representation of what I'm trying to say here. If this movie was made , for example, about Blacks and Whites. And the cast were all white people painted black, eating chicken and having an absent father because that's the stereotype, using words that aren't even used by the african american citizens, speaking in a very racist accent and acting very tough and aggressive because that's the stereotype, talking about how they come from the hood and are like such and such because that's the stereotype, rapping because that's the stereotype, dancing to african music (because the creators wild guessed that because the word african is in African American they must dance african music), talking bad about their hometown as in- literally throwing hate speaches in a whole song like they did in the song America, and so on, would you tell me the movie isnt racist? Even if others dont cosider it racist and see it as something that "actually opens their eyes of the consequences of hate" it doesn't change the fact that there are other ways to spread that message. The only way it would be okay for this story to continue on plain 21st century is if they become faithful to the culture they are trying to depict and eliminate any hateful stereotypes.
So I agree with The New York Times when they say that "The latest Broadway revival can’t fix the painful way it depicts Puerto Ricans" and "Let West Side Story and it's stereotypes die". www.nytimes.com/2020/02/24/opinion/west-side-story-broadway.amp.html
Lo chistoso es que hasta el dia de hoy la gente blanca, como el weon que analiza el video, siguen creyendo que está bien representar a los puertorriqueños como "inmigrantes" (siendo que son estadounidenses) que suenan a cuba y mexico...
2021 - asking for black coffee creates racial tensions
Puerto Ricans are Americans.
Vaxxed and unvaxxed.
Immigrants, what? Migrant Puerto Ricans; migrants because we are a TERRITORY of the United States, or rather a colony. Honestly, please fix this. Besides that, the movie is also rather racist, beginning with that brown face. None of these are danced in Puerto Rico at all. We don't even listen to any of the music shown and you won't hear them anywhere if you come to the island. So it doesn't mark our identity at ALL. The music is also a mess.
And they didn't dance bomba, they danced some sort of bad version of flamenco which comes from Spain not Puerto Rico...
I think this hits a very essential point though! The difference between what Bernstein, in the 50s, is trying to achieve, and the difference between the reality of it. When Bernstein wants to depict Puerto Rico, he uses generic Latin American styles, which is entirely problematic in the sense of Spivak's 'subaltern' arguments. I should really have said more on this, because it's an extremely acute point, and there are so many wonderful essays online pointing out the deeper rooted issues with West Side Story and its impact on the perception of Puerto Rican people!
@@InsidetheScore Thank you for your kind words!!❤
I think that was Bernsteins point, in that he was trying to symbolize New York City as a representation of broader United States and also the Puerto Ricans were also in the film a representation of immigrants and overall brown/black, or even just the less dominant white folks in the United States, this is kind of implied in that Bernstein, who was Jewish originally wanted to make it about Jewish, immigrants but decided to make them Latins in the eastern burroughs.
And using white actors to play non whites was ridiculously across the board prominent back them. Not all too better now sadly. I'm not sure how much power Bernstein himself would of had in changing that.
On somewhat of a side note, the president of the mafia ran Screen Actors Guild at that time was Ronald Reagan, later Governor of California and then President of the United States. Hell, the 50s were the decade when the Irish in the US were finally started to be accepted as just "white" and not lower on the social hierarchy, that was a big issue in the Kennedy election, that he was Irish and a Catholic, maybe that combination was also a factor in not making it about Jews and Catholics in NYC, many Latinos are Catholic also. America man, all sorts of confusing.
They should make one feminists vs mgtow lol
Listen.........
First of all to get our terms right! it is not a racial tension!
It is a cultural tension!
You seem to confuse racial with cultural and religious differences.
Anti-semitism, to be is about a religious and cultural hate.
Remember, to be correct Judaism is a both a religious belief system coupled with cultural differences and has nothing to with race!
In this world, there are three distinct racial groups.
The three racial groups are Caucasion, Mongoloid and Negroid.
Being Puerto Rican is a cultural difference as is being Spanish, Italian or French and all to belong to the Caucasion racial group.
Being Chinese, Japanese or South East Asian cultural groups all belong to the Mongoloid group.
For the most part, all those of belonging to African Cultures are considered to belong to the Negroid racial group.
Being Jewish is a religious difference and can be considered cultural as well
as opposed to being Roman Catholic or anyone belonging to any Protestant religious belief system.
Being Jewish is about differences in religious faith and not to be confused with race
One must be correct in knowing the differences between religious beliefs, cultural differences and racial differences and not add to the confusion!
You're right about jews but in our present day the idea of races and those three are obsolete.
sorry, but full of errors...spanish guitar, pasodoble, etc...but good channel though
Well Puerto Rican’s Aren’t Immigrants Buddy There USA Citizens
Hence the great lyric "Nobody knows in America, Puerto Rico's in America". Nevertheless as a social class they're immigrants, and have literally immigrated to the mainland!
Wrong again! They/We are migrants!!!
Pro Wrestling 97
1-They're*
2-Puerto Ricans (no apostrophe)*
3-Just because you're a citizen doesn't mean you're not an immigrant. Immigrant just means you originally came from another country, therefore they are immigrants.
@@saltysnowflake5832 no, Puerto Rico isnt another country. Thats why we aren't immigrants but migrants. A person moving from Nebraska to California wouldnt be called an immigrant even though the cultures are different. Its a small but important distinction because people seeking to immigrate have no constitutional right to do so, you can deny someone's ability to immigrate, and as such immigrants are often looked at as outsiders despite people two states over having more differences between you then some immigrants do. But migrating is a right, you cannot deny a Puerto Rican access into the country because Puerto Ricans are Americans.
KoV Talos yea they were viewed as immigrants even though they technically are not. The story addresses this irony. It also shows that its not that they are immigrants thats really the issue, its that they are not what is considered white, I .E why the racial tension is the key motif in all aspects of the film.
This was the kind of racism experienced almost 90 years ago. The racial climate was totally different than in the 60's to present day. No one should expect they would have behaved differently that long ago. Judging by some of the comments here, people of one hundred years ago are being compared to todays standards. Americans have come a very long way. The US is a relatively young country and evolved significantly faster than other countries much older. The extreme racial stoking and revival we are seeing today has got to stop. The divide was nearly extinguished until Obama's second term when he and his admin set the US back fifty years.
Actually its not a conflict between Americans and Puerto Ricans, its actually about the citizens of a colony of the US (so actually Americans) and white-european migrants who think they're more American than the Puerto Ricans... get your history straight bruv. Seriously... its quite an insulting reading to continue calling them subaltern while they're actually the nationals and the racially-white migrants are the migrants.