'Historical Texts'.

Grease (1978): Set in the 1950s
Directed by Randal Kleiser
Written as a stage musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey
Starring John Travolta (Danny Zucko) and Olivia Newton-John (Sandy Olsen)

"Grease takes its name from the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers". (Source: http://www.frontrowking.com/Grease/minneapolis_mn_grease_tickets_pantages_theatre.html) Youth culture: Any range of youth subcultures from the 1950s through to the present day including acpects of dress, behaviour, music preferance etc.e.g Teddyboys(1950s) (Source: Media Studies Essential World Dictionary)
Link to study?: youth culture has a key role in teen musicals. This is evident in Grease espicialy with J.Travolta and his gang as the 'T Birds' and the girls' gang called the 'Pink Ladies'). Iconic of the time? Importance of youth culture in musicals? possibly as a way of identification.

Plot/Themes/Ideologies: "The musical focuses on the romance between high schoolers Danny and Sandy and tackles such social issues as teenage pregnancy and gang violence; its themes include love, friendship, teenage rebellion, sexual exploration during adolescence and, to some extent, class consciousness/class conflict". "The Pink Ladies... take "good girl" Sandy under their wing" "Sandy's good girl ways don't fit in with the attitude of Danny and his too-cool-for-school friends".
(Source:http://www.frontrowking.com/Grease/minneapolis_mn_grease_tickets_pantages_theatre.html)

Character roles:
Changes in character - Danny from the 'Nice boy' at the beach, to the 'too-cool-for- school' 'T-Bird'. (Teen problems, peer pressure, identity, draws parallels with HSM)
Parallels with 'HSM':

Representation:

Songs: "Hopelessly Devoted to You"
"Sandy"
"Summer Nights"
"Greased Lightning"
"We Go Together"

Parallels:
(Plot): Sandy and Danny meet over the summer
Zac and Gabriella meet over the winter break

Sandy and Danny never expect to meet again
Zac and Gabriella never expect to meet again

Sandy moves unexpectedly to the same town as Danny
Gabriella moves unexpectedly to the same town as Zac

Sandy sings a hopeless love song (Hopelessly Devoted to You)
Gabriella sings a hopeless love song (that fairy tale one)

Everything becomes clear in a love song near the end of the song.

Everyone joins in a final song of friendship right near the end.

The guy is popular, the girl is a hopeless, goody-goody wreck.

The guy and girl go off and on, though always longing for eachother.

Bleu is the right-hand-man, and remarkably similar to Kenickie.

Differences:

-Grease tackles far more social issues that HSM :

"Rizzo & Kenickie have unprotected sex in the backseat of a car, later Rizzo misses her period & thinks she's pregnant. The T-Birds are essentially a gang, who harrass & terrorize other students. They all smoke. They drag race. They steal parts for the car. The overall moral of the story is that in order to get your man, you really should do a complete 180 and become and change" - Why? possibly due to different target audiences? HSM is aimed at a much younger audience.(source:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077631/board/nest/79694652)

Sexual induindo:

"Summer Nights": "Well she got friendly down in the sand!"
"Well she was good, you know what I mean..."
"We made out under the docks..." (his gesture.)

The commercial about 'deep penetrating' pimple cream during the pan across the cars full of horned-out teenagers ( ? - check)

hot dog jumping into the bun during the drive in scene as Danny is sitting on the swing?
(? - check)

"Meditate in my direction... FEEL your way!"

Awards:

Voted the best musical ever on Channel 4's 100 greatest musicals.
The movie received five Golden Globe Award nominations in 1979.The movie's soundtrack was a number one album in many different countries. The song "You're The One That I Want" was released as a single prior to the film's release and became an immediate chart-topper, despite not being in the stage show or having been seen in the film at that time. The single was number one in the UK for nine weeks in the summer of 1978 ('YTOTIW'). In the United Kingdom, the two Travolta/Newton-John duets, "You're The One That I Want" and "Summer Nights", were both number one hits and appear 6th and 21st respectively in the official all-time UK best-selling singles list issued in 2002. The song "Hopelessly Devoted to You" was nominated for an Academy Award (1979) for Best Music - Original Song. The movie's title song was also a number one smash hit single for Frankie Valli. (Links to distribution and economic profits)

Extra:

"Danny's blue Windbreaker at the beginning of the film was intended as a nod to Rebel Without a Cause (1955). "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grease_(film) - intertextual refferencing to appeal to the TA.
JT- already had a reputation for the film 'Saturday Night Fever' and the television sitcom 'Welcome Back Kotter'
Grease spawned a sequel, Grease 2 (1982) (with the only cast members from the original movie being Blanche, Coach Calhoun, Eugene, Frenchy, Leo (the Scorpion's gang leader), and Principal Miss McGee) that was much less successful. Patricia Birch, the original movie's choreographer, directed the ill-fated sequel. It would be the only movie that she would direct. After the success of the original, Paramount intended to turn Grease into a multi-picture franchise with at least three sequels planned and a TV series in the pipeline. When Grease 2 flopped at the box office, all the plans were scrapped. (Contrasting to all the sequels for HSM)