Caitlin McDonnell August 30,2015

Anything Goes

Anything Goes, a musical written by composed by Cole Porter, in the 1930s can be

described as an American musical. Although Cole Porter composed many catchy songs for this

musical, the one that I have always enjoyed the most was the title song, Anything Goes. The

show has been revived many times but one that has not changed is the theme and essence of each

song in the show.

The music uses a lot of horns and brass, which I think certainly explains the music of that

time period with a sort of jazzy feeling and is written in 4/4 meter. The tempo of the song is

moderately fast and the dynamics change all throughout the song, depending the lyrics that are

being sung. Anything Goes, is the type of song that I bop my head to which is why I find this

song one of the most enjoyable songs. However, looking deeper into the song, I became more

interested with the lyrics rather than just the tempo and instruments that are used for this song.

Anything Goes begins by talking about how much the times have changed. This captures

the essence of the American musical. The show takes place during the 1930s, after the Great

Depression. Prior to this time period, women did not show much skin and now, women are

wearing pants and showing their ankles in beautiful dresses. The song goes on to talk about how

much literature has changed. One lyric that I found most surprising int he first par of the song is

When every night the set thats smart is intruding in nudist parties in Studios, Anything goes. I

was not familiar with the concept of nudist parties. However, as I went about my research, I

noticed they were also known as naturists and mostly dealt with becoming one with nature. The

also talks about different celebrities of that era, mostly idolizing the womanizer of that time

period as well as big shot businessmen and theatre producers such as Rockefeller and Goldwyn.
Caitlin McDonnell August 30,2015

The fact the this song brings up so many important subjects from that time period is what makes

it most appealing to me.