Hooray for Hercules!
The Music
The music in Hercules is a well-balanced mix of the styles and types of songs found in musicals (ie. ballads, action songs, character songs, comedy songs, ensemble songs, etc.) and 90’s pop/soul trends. The last of these song types is best portrayed by the Muses and Meg, whose songs are similar to Whitney Houston’s and Mariah Carey’s songs from the 90s--both singers are known for their soulful vocal strength accompanied by pop catchiness. When looking at the songs sung by the Muses, Christian references of gospel music are apparent and keep the film’s score hip and fun, providing a break from its many slow ballads. Songs like “A Star Is Born,” “Zero to Hero,” and “The Gospel Truth” are the most resemblant of gospel music through their characteristic traits of strong vocals, group harmonies, and an upbeat rhythm easy to clap along to. The voice actresses behind the Muses are experienced Broadway and or R&B singers, which explains their successful execution of a R&B-gospel-musical style-blended track list. By incorporating the familiarity with and popularity of current musical styles at the time, Hercules was able to further lure viewers in and connect them to the ancient world.
Meg’s featured solo, “I Won’t Say I’m In Love,” is perhaps the best example of this stylistic blend. The song contains classic belting as seen in musical numbers about romance, a wide-range register with both the low and high ends being reached and concluded through the use of pop-style vibrato, and soulful vocal backup by the Muses similar to R&B songs. In the line “Get off my case” Meg’s inflection turns into a growl of sorts, which is very similar to Houston, Carey, and even Christina Aguilera, another popular singer of the same style at the time. Delving into deeper stereotypes, many may assume that only black men and women perform R&B music, since most musical artists in the genre during the 90s happened to be black. Meg singing a very R&B-influenced musical number as a white character alongside a black chorus exemplifies the appreciation of what is typically deemed as being part of black culture in a way that doesn’t appropriate or belittle it. The rest of Hercules’ score aligns more with traditional musical-style songs and slow power ballads, as seen with “I Can Go the Distance.”
The only Black characters in Hercules happen to be the Muses. Some may argue that this stereotypes African characters as only serving as entertainers to white characters and their white-centered narratives. The Muses do play a role in continuing this stereotype, however, for once they are positively portrayed and given some character depth as opposed to the jazz drummers and jungle dancers wearing leopard print while performing in Cleopatra (1963). The characters who play the Muses are given speaking parts and express themselves through their personality in their performances. The Muses provide comedic relief through their songs, but they are not the butt of the joke; they use clever word play, poke fun at Hercules, and make references to modern pop culture instead of using their racial identities to be funny, as seen with the African stereotyping of black-faced Maciste in Cabiria (1914) to provide a humorous outlet for white audiences. Hercules utilizes previously established stereotypes in earlier toga movies to subvert the racist tropes and norms and uplift Black characters and their roles in films.
Conclusion
With Hercules being an animated children's movie, there were many limitations Disney had to take into account and counteract in order to pull off telling a modified version of the Greek myth about Heracles. The storyline itself does not follow the original mythology, but the story it does tell was well-executed not despite of, but because of its many stereotypes and tropes. Such generalizations about Greek culture won over viewers for being visually iconic and enjoyable, as seen with the costuming, and helped reinforce Hercules’ Greek roots and inspirations with the setting and its natural landscaping, art, and architecture. Moreover, social stereotypes about Africans and their roles in ancient society, as well as their roles in toga movies depicting ancient society, helped improve upon and put a positive spin on the previously degrading trope of African performers. Hercules, therefore, is a great film and a good example of effectively utilizing stereotypes to enrich the overall presentation of this classic, beloved Greek and Disney story.
