This course will give a summary of the genre of American-made musicsls made about American life. The course will also give a synopsis of how Hamilton changes the pattern of how American musicsls fit mythos about the "American Dream" and its surrounding limitations. This class will be lecture style but also include clips from musicals and songs. This class will also detail race relations, sexuality, and other topics that have changed socially over time and subsequently changed musicsls as a genre. Especially important is the idea that American musicals usually put forth the ideas of life being simple and provincial without much struggle for the protagonists while also eliminating the need to discuss racial tension in the eras they present. Hamilton, subsequently had turned those assumptions on its head and redefined the genre, not only in its casting of people of color, but also in its refusal to lean away from issues. Musicals studied will be Oklahoma, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and Hamilton.