The movie Singin' in the Rain was one of old Hollywood's rare successful looks at its own history, artistically as well as commercially, and the Arthur Freed/Nacio Herb Brown score was every bit as impressive as a look back on the history of the musical. Drawing on Freed and Brown's output from the 1920s and 1930s, the music provides a vivid portrait of what popular songs were like during the period in which sound came to motion pictures. Beyond the title track and numbers like "Wedding of the Painted Doll," there are burlesques of styles that were in vogue at the time, although the soundtrack's really popular numbers are done in a straight popular vein, including one of Gene Kelly's most effective singing performances, "All I Do Is Dream of You."