Have a question about how the TVTropes wiki works? No one knows this community better than the people in it, so ask away! Ask the Tropers is the page you come to when you have a question burning in your brain and the support pages didn't help.
It's not for everything, though. For a list of all the resources for your questions, click here. You can also go to this Directory thread
for ongoing cleanup projects.
I think it's less about the number of songs and more about how they're used. A film could be about a band and include performances of that band's songs, but if those performances are diegetic (they're being performed in-universe, and everyone can see and hear them) and don't fulfill the same narrative and character function as in a musical, that film is not a musical.
Edited by HighCrate
I'm not sure on diegetic being a determining factor. Sing is entirely diegetic, but I'd classify that as a musical, whereas Mr. Holland's Opus is only mostly diegetic, but I wouldn't classify it as a musical.
Edited by crazysamaritan Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
I don't think it should be the only determining factor, but it's something to pay attention to, since elaborate non-diegetic song-and-dance numbers in which the characters perform directly for the camera are one of the hallmarks of the genre.
Edited by HighCrate
How many songs are needed for a film to count as an Animated Musical?