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Broadway Musicals and Some Famous Musical Composers
Crest
Jazz eclipsed Broadway musical theatre in overall popularity in the 1930s, but Broadway kept right on churning out shows (and filmed musicals), supplying the jazz world with a steady stream of wonderful songs that have become jazz standards.
Richard Rodgers, one of the greatest songwriters ever, composed all of his songs, except "Blue Moon," for musicals. The GSSL lists more than 50 of his tunes.
Mainstream Genre
Some great writers of songs for Broadway musicals and films include: Jerome Kern, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Harry Warren, Kurt Weill, Irving Berlin, Vincent Youmans, Vernon Duke, Harold Arlen, Richard Rodgers, Sammy Fain, Sammy Cahn, Jule Styne, Frank Loesser, Jimmy van Heusen, and Stephen Sondheim.
Broadway-style musical theatre is still with us, and probably will be for the foreseeable future. However, with the emergence of so many other great musical genres in the second half of the 20th Century, the profile of the Broadway musical has diminished markedly within mainstream popular culture.