Musicarello

: musicarelli) is a film subgenre which emerged in Italy and which is characterised by the presence in main roles of young singers, already famous among their peers, and their new record album.

[5] The musicarelli were inspired by two American musicals, in particular Jailhouse Rock (1957) by Richard Thorpe and earlier Love Me Tender (1956) by Robert D. Webb, both starring Elvis Presley.

[1] Unlike most film musicals, this subgenre has an evident age-based focus while musical films until that time had been produced in a way generally undifferentiated for tastes and ages, musicarello is explicitly targeted to a youthful audience and usually has in its plot a vague polemic against conformism and bourgeois attitudes,[4][12] even if it does not fail to reflect the desire and need for emancipation of young Italians, highlighting some generational frictions.

[4] The key figures in this genre were directors Piero Vivarelli and Ettore Maria Fizzarotti, and actor-singers Gianni Morandi, Little Tony, Rita Pavone and Caterina Caselli.

[5] With the arrival of the 1968 student protests the genre started to decline, because the generational revolt became explicitly political and at the same time there was no longer a music equally directed to the whole youth audience.