"I need a pop song..."

I will often get students coming to me saying that they need "a pop song" for their portfolio. An increasing number of musicals are being written with music based in the contemporary commercial music styles.

However, I usually find that in the student's minds, 'pop' means only one thing - Britney or Kylie.
In the context of Musical Theatre training, pop has a much bigger meaning. You wouldn't take the same song to Mamma Mia and to Rent, because the writing, the drama and the musical style is so different. It is normal for an actor to have resonances with certain styles, and it is this that can instruct the choice of song in this category.

If you are a comfortable improvisor with dramatic flair, look to the gospel and R&B canon. If you have a more lyric voice (and a sweeter disposition) look further back to the 40s and 50s and the Easy Listening canon. If you are good with storytelling, there are hundreds of commercial recordings of story or situation songs.

Listen out for singers whose performances or sound you admire, and check out their back catalogue - you may be surprised at what they have recorded. There are thousands of examples of potential audition songs to chose from - although some of them may need a little lateral thinking - Cilla Black and Cliff Richard (both recording artists spanning many years) have recorded some great story songs, but their singing styles are not necessarily considered acceptable today. But take away the performance and revisit the songs, and you have some good potential audition material.

We are now seeing a number of pop legends have musicals created around their back catalogue - Billy Joel is only the most recent example. The "pop" musical is here to stay, so it's important for performers to discover which categories of contemporary commercial music are going to work for them.

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