Musical comedy is a form of drama that tells a story through a combination of spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. Musical comedies are commonly called musicals. The term musical theater is also used, because many shows have little comedy and some have little or no dance. Over the years, musicals typically have been light in tone and have contained much humor. However, since the late 1900's, many musicals have been serious. Musical comedy developed in the United States during the late 1800's and became a unique American contribution to world theater. For most of its history, musical comedy has produced many of the best-known songs in popular music