All singing, all dancing is an

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language ...

meaning "full of vitality", or, more recently, "full-featured". It originated with advertisements for the 1929 musical film ''

The Broadway Melody ''The Broadway Melody'', also known as ''The Broadway Melody of 1929'', is a 1929 American pre-Code musical film and the first sound film to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was one of the first musicals to feature a Technicolor seq ...

'', which proclaimed the film to be "All talking all singing all dancing". Recently, the idiom has come to be used to describe high tech gadgetry such as

smartphone A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whi ...

s, indicating that the product is very advanced, or has an abundance of features. For example, from a 1995 article in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'': The phrase also appears in the 1996 novel ''Fight Club'', and the 1999

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

based on it, in which the character

Tyler Durden The Narrator is a fictional character and the primary antagonist appearing as the central figure of the 1996 Chuck Palahniuk novel ''Fight Club'', its 1999 film adaptation of the same name, and the comic books '' Fight Club 2'' and '' Fight C ...

excoriates his disciples: "You're the all singing, all dancing crap of the world." A 1998 episode of ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, ...

'' was titled " All Singing, All Dancing".

References

{{Vocab-stub English-language idioms

See also

References