What’s the 411?




High School Musical”




Rosie Sokolov


High School Musical – it’s supposed to be an uplifting story about love, high school, and drama. The catchy tunes, inspiring plot, and gorgeous actors have persuaded kids of all ages to flock to stores, buying all of the useless junk they can get, as long as it bears the letters “HSM.” They now fervently believe that high school is the best thing that will ever happen to them. These kids have been hoodwinked; High School Musical is about as fake as it gets.


When I walk home from school, I see the high school kids. I know what they look like; I’ve heard how they talk and what they say. I have a sister in tenth grade. Next year I will be in high school; I know what high school kids are like. Troy and Gabriella, the stars of High School Musical don’t qualify.

Gabriella comes to school everyday with professional hair, makeup, and clothes. Even though she is supposed to be a nerd, competing with the mathletes, she wears the perfect style of jean, her hair looks like it jumped off of a commercial, and of course her skin is as clear as, well, a celebrities’. Her voice, when she talks or sings, is different from any I’ve ever heard – in a nails-on-chalkboard kind of way. It’s hard to listen to her without cringing.

We come to Troy, the not-so-classic jock. Does he ever say anything that would come out of a real high school guy’s mouth? No. Does he ever cheer for his favorite basketball team? No, because of course Disney can’t ever show a real opinion. Does he ever appear on set without having half an hour of hair-time? My guess is no.


We have the characters in place, so here’s a basic rundown of the plot; Troy and Gabriella are both accepted by a stereotypical group, Troy by the jocks and Gabriella by the nerds. These two cliques are pretty much polar opposites in high school, but the two teenagers manage to get around their disapproving peers to be together. This Disney version obviously has an artificially sweetened ending, but this movie seems to be derived from Romeo and Juliet. In essence, High School Musical is just a cheap knockoff of Shakespeare.


Now, I want you to think about a girl from your school, somebody with a really beautiful voice. Does she sound like Gabriella? Probably not, because I’m guessing she isn’t a pop singer. One of the pivotal points in High School Musical is that people should be able to do whatever they want to do. When Troy and Gabriella, who have never sung before, score the lead roles in a high school musical, Disney is trying to portray their point. However, that is completely out of the blue.
I do think that people who have never taken voice lessons can still be wonderful singers, but in a high school the lead roles almost always go to someone who at least has taken an interest in singing before. If they have never done a show at any school, it’s incredibly unlikely that they would even be in the musical.

Believe me, after two years of listening to people rave about High School Musical, I understand why they obsess so maniacally over it. (On the day after it came out, I heard the songs so many times that they were burned into my brain as I fell asleep.) It makes them feel as if they can do anything they want to do, and it that makes people feel good about themselves. I’ve had people tell me that after they watch the movie, they come back to the real world feeling uplifted and refreshed. Disney movies shouldn’t do that to you – if they do, something is seriously wrong.
If High School Musical had an ounce of reality, maybe it would be a sweet message. Too bad, because the plot is contrived, and the fact that it would never happen makes its message bitter. Nobody’s life is that perfect, no matter which way one looks at it.


However, we don’t have to be smothered under the overbearing wave of High School Musical groupies. Boycott their products – you don’t need their t-shirts, their chap-stick and the toothbrushes which sing “We’re All in This Together.” Don’t dress up as them for Halloween; do anything possible to stem the flow of High School Musical fanatics. But by far, the best that we can do is to band together, to spread the word, to jolt people out of their stupor, and just try to keep our sanity, because eventually this plague of High School Musical will be over. Just hold on.