Composer, lyricist, and playwright, Lin-Manuel Miranda, opened his fourth musical to run on Broadway, Hamilton, this past August. Since then, Hamilton has gotten outstanding reviews and has won many awards. Many have regarded Lin Miranda’s works as “game changing.” After being released on iTunes, the soundtrack for Hamilton, a whopping 50 songs, quickly climbed to the top of the charts.

    The cast for Hamilton is very diverse, something that is surprising not only for a Broadway musical, but also for one based on the life of a founding father. Hamilton’s soundtrack, like the cast, is no very traditional, featuring hip-hop, rap, and R&B songs depicting the life of founding father Alexander Hamilton. Miranda has described Hamilton as “new America telling the story of old America.”

    The soundtrack for Hamilton tells the story of his life from when he immigrated to America from the Caribbean to the duel between him and Aaron Burr, which led to his death. This soundtrack features songs sung the actors playing King George, Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Schuyler sisters. King George’s songs (“You’ll Be Back”, “What Comes Next?” and “I know Him”) are solo pop-ballads, which reflect on Britain’s monarchy. However, songs sung by Hamilton, Burr, and other American characters (“The Room Where It Happened”, “Yorktown”, “Helpless”, “The Story of Tonight”, etc.) tend to be layered with various harmonies, symbolizing America’s democracy.

    While writing the songs of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda was inspired by many hip-hop and rap artists. In an interview with Vulture, Miranda explains, “Biggie and Big Pun were the best storytellers of the ’90s. I would get wrapped up in the narrative of what they were talking about. But the fun of the show is assigning references to characters to illuminate a moment.” Lin Miranda does exactly this in “My Shot,” depicting Hamilton’s dedication to get on top. Another inspiration for Hamilton was Destiny’s Child. The Schuyler sisters were based off of this R&B trio. Throughout the musical, the sister trio sings harmonies similar to those of Destiny’s Child.

    In Hamilton, there are powerful core songs essential to the plot of the story. These songs include “My Shot,” “Wait For It,” “The World Was Big Enough,” and finally “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story.” “My Shot” not only describes his overall character, but also explains Alexander Hamilton’s dedication and zealous attitude towards life and his non-stop work ethic. “Wait For It” describes Aaron Burr, who is the polar opposite of Hamilton. Rather than working until he gets what he wants like Hamilton does, Burr instead simply waits for everything to fall into place and work out on it’s own. These two songs reappear later in the soundtrack to symbolize these two contradictory ideas. “The World Was Big Enough” depicts the infamous duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton. The tragedy of this fatal duel is that the first time Burr acts spontaneously and Hamilton is careless will forever be how history remembers them. In “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,” Eliza Schuyler, Hamilton’s wife, tells of how she continues his work in hopes of creating a legacy for him. This song is a perfect end to such a powerful musical.