An industrial musical was a unique theatrical production created internally by businesses for their employees or shareholders, primarily to boost morale, educate, and motivate staff to improve sales and loyalty. Evolving from early 20th-century company anthems (like IBM's "Songs of the IBM"), these full-scale corporate shows gained significant popularity in North America during the post-World War II economic boom and continued into the 1980s.

Major companies such as Ford and General Motors spared no expense, often hiring Broadway talent, with budgets sometimes far exceeding public productions; for example, composer Hank Beebe estimated the 1957 Chevrolet musical cost over $3 million, six times the amount of "My Fair Lady" that same year. These elaborate performances, featuring large casts and orchestras, were strictly internal and never intended for the public, with their existence now primarily known through rare souvenir albums, such as one for John Kander's 1966 General Electric show "Go Fly a Kite." The practice largely faded by the 1980s, a decline attributed by collector Jonathan Ward to escalating production costs, the rise of video technology, and changing employee attitudes towards long-term company loyalty.