EVERY GENRE PROJECT - April 12 - Cabaret
Genre of the Day - Cabaret
Album of the Day - Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill by Various Artists (1985)
April 12, 2024
Are cabarets really around anymore? I don’t really think so. The grosser, voyeuristic function the cabaret once filled with the vague guise of ‘adult entertainment’ has long since been filled by raunchier, more explicit venues like strip clubs. So, cabaret acts today are homages to a long-ago era, when what was considered crude was a little more innocent and the act of showmanship was integral to such shows. The theatrical nature of cabaret has long been idolized, though, and our love for it is still in the culture, whether it’s the eponymous musical, Moulin Rouge, or high-grossing films about it like Burlesque. As important as the performance nature is, though, the musical nature of cabarets carries equal weight.
Cabaret being listed as a music genre is one of those situations in which the term genre loses some meaning. There isn’t really a true musical definition, because cabaret music ranges depending on where the cabaret is. It can really be anything as long as it’s in a cabaret: renowned classical musician Erik Satie performed in cabarets at one point. Cabarets arose in France in the late 1800s with cafés chantants—singing cafés—and the concept gradually expanded to a full entertainment hub with increasingly grand performances where celebrities, artists, and gold diggers of the time would congregate socially while enjoying a show. This combination of intimacy with the avant-garde audience led to the shows gradually pushing the envelope of late 1800s social norms.
In Germany, cabaret took on a particular flair for political satire in the economically beleaguered, post-imperial Weimer Germany of the 1920s. Berlin was flourishing intellectually, so cabarets became the perfect place for people to dislodge these grievances through the medium of performances. Cabarets were obviously banned by the Nazi Party once they arose into power. However, this drove one of the best-known composers associated with cabaret to the states. Over his career, Kurt Weill’s collaborations with songwriter Bertolt Brecht and his wife Lotte Lenya, he became an icon of showtunes often associated with the cabaret tradition. The couple was immortalized in the musical Cabaret: it may not be directly about Weill, but Weill and Lenya’s time in Berlin served as inspiration for the musical.
Lenya’s fight to preserve her composer husbands’ legacy following his untimely death at 50 helped further his legacy, and clearly the efforts stuck for decades. This compilation serves as a menagerie of ‘80s avant-rock, from Sting to Todd Rundgren, Elliott Smith, and Dagmar Krause. Most of the songs feature the traditional instrumentation of Weill’s works, with the kitschy accordion and sultry piano synonymous with much of European cabaret music intact. There’s also out-of-the-blue, completely weird moments of Weill’s eccentricity such as the cacophony of noises on “Klops Lied.” There’s more of-the-moment, avant-garde takes like Todd Rundgren’s foray into ‘80s drum machinery, processed vocals, and hammy saxophone that begs the question: what if Wham!-era George Michael went full cabaret? This album feels incredibly well-curated to the source material: it feels atmospheric enough that it transports you all the way to a Weill show. Now we just need someone to cobble together a second tribute album to Weill, this time with Arca and Björk at the helm.